Author: Dennis Van Staalduinen

5 tips for covering your most precious bits

Today Beg to Differ is reflecting on three clients that Brandvelope is currently working with. One is looking for a new name, pharmacy one is developing new “flagship” marketing materials, and a third is defining / refining their corporate Vision / Mission / Values. But all are looking for the same thing: the simple words, symbols, and phrases that will symbolize their power – or as I like to call them, the “crown jewels”.

Branding is all about  your crown jewels

All right, all right, enough smirking dear readers. I’m not talking about “family jewels” – although those are precious in their own way and need to be well protected. I’m talking about the kind of Crown Jewels that they keep in the Tower of London, or as Wikipedia defines them:

Crown jewels are jewels or artifacts of the reigning royal family of their respective country. They belong to monarchs and are passed to the next sovereign to symbolize the right to rule. They may include crowns, scepters, orbs, swords, rings, and other objects.

Isn’t that a great metaphor for your logo, trademarks, and other core identity elements? And shouldn’t we treat those basic-but-critical words, images, and concepts with the same respect that a monarchy will apply to its crown jewels? After all, both kinds are intended to act as enduring symbols of your identity, purpose, and direction.

That is, they are if you treat them right…

How to treat your Crown Jewels

1) They are more than symbols

A crown is never just a crown; it stands for a country, its people, its ruler, and all the powers those things project into the world. Likewise a name is never just a name, and a logo can never just be a logo. These jewels have real power in the real world because they are proxies for you, and all the associations people have with your company and /or products .

2) They deserve care and respect

These jewels are the most precious assets that you have, and like crown jewels, they are the shared responsibility of executives, Board members, and brand managers. So I’m often surprised how badly the crown jewels are treated by the very people who are supposed to be caring for them – paraded around like costume jewelry, stored in shoe boxes, re-designed at will… I could go on.

3) Collect them together

Identify the 5-10 most important assets that define your brand. Then bring them together under the same person or department, and make sure they are managed as a set, not as individual artifacts. That is, you can’t change one without considering its impact on the others – then making those changes if they are worth making.

But note that most marketing assets are not crown jewels: an ad slogan that you only intend to use once or twice is not a crown jewel. But a tag-line that you attach to your logo for years at a time is.

4) Display them for all the people to see

Crown jewels belong to the people, so they lose their power if they are totally hidden away. Show them, celebrate them, build ceremonies around them.

5) Protect them (but keep a human face)

Nobody likes a brand cop. But everybody loves a London tower guard. Find ways to be inclusive and build real brand standards into your corporate culture in a way that doesn’t seem oppressive or heavy handed – so that everyone becomes part of the brand building process. That is, so you don’t have to protect them alone.

Branding blog implies a brand is all about “logos and ads”

Beg to Differ was shocked this morning to visit the usually reliable brandchannel.com and find this article: United Airlines Loses Bag, viagra Finds Branding Opportunity. In it, salve Brandchannel updates the story of Dave Carroll, the Canadian musician behind the brilliant United Breaks Guitars. But it’s what they say about how this might affect the United brand that made us want to call Dave Carroll: United ain’t the only one dropping the luggage here…

Smash their bags, ignore their pleas, then try to “make nice”…

Here’s how Brandchannel – which is a product of Interbrand, the same company that produces the annual Best Global Brands– describes Mr. Carroll’s situation:

When Dave Carroll was refused payment of $1,200 by United for his guitar, which turned up broken after a flight, the Canadian musician write (sic.) a song, with an accompanying video, called “United Breaks Guitars.” To date, nearly 6 million have watched it. The song led to Carroll becoming a speaker (i.e. stunt act) at customer service seminars. It was just such a customer service seminar that Carroll was on his way to when United lost his bag. For three days.

Now granted, as a performer, Mr. Carroll has certainly parlayed this event into both attention for his band the Sons of Maxwell, and into a successful second career speaking to companies about how they can avoid similar problems. But to dismiss him as a “stunt act” is to miss the point. But Brandchannel continues to miss bigger points with this:

But in the end, does this attention damage the United brand? Unlikely. Recent Forrester research shows that 75% of all air passengers “choose the airline they fly most often because of the airports it serves” and that nearly 70% hold convenient schedules to be of the most important criteria. Today, airline brand wars are fought almost solely over price, not branding.

United will take a few lumps; but ultimately, by doing the right thing and making nice with Carroll, the experience could even be a PR boon for the brand.

What’s wrong with that? Where do I start?

I’ve written a lengthy critique in the Comments for the Brand Channel article (it’s the first comment) so I won’t go on at length here. But in brief, four quotes of note:

1. “Airline brand wars are fought almost solely over price” runs utterly counter to the spirit of holistic branding that Interbrand normally champions;
2. “Doing the right thing and making nice with Carroll” misses the point that this “making nice” only happened after a year of NOT making nice, and then they screwed him over again;
3. “The experience could even be a PR boon for the brand” this comes from the “no PR is bad PR” school of logic which runs completely counter to human logic (which is also brand logic); and finally
4. “Several major airline brands have survived decades of service complaints simply because they’re too big or well-positioned (as to routes) to avoid and… because these airlines emphasize strong branding in their ads and logos. (emphasis mine)” This is from the author’s response to my first comment.

Some (rhetorical) questions for Brand managers:

• Is “strong branding in their ads and logos” the reason United has managed to survive decades of service complaints?
• What do you think: do Dave Carroll-style viral critiques ultimately help a brand like United by giving them more exposure?
• For a brand are today’s ticket sales ultimately more important than forging a long term relationship with customers?
• Does this article reinforce the Interbrand brand equity formula of strong brands 1) commanding higher prices, 2) positively influencing customer decisions, and 3) creating repeatable success through customer loyalty?

Beg to Differ says “no” to all of the above. But what do you say?