Chief Marketer spotlights a brand crisis point that all companies (small and large) should be poised to recognize: Brand interruptus - When Good Brands Go Bad. It's a classic problem that can happen to any company, at any stage of a brand life cycle.
Let's say an emerging business did a good job of determining a brand strategy, brand values, brand position, brand driver, brand personality and theme. The team then successfully conceptualized and implemented the full range of brand execution - identity, design standards, storefront design, website development, advertising, materials, packaging, trade show booth design, sales presentations, direct marketing, search engine marketing, blogging, online & offline marketing, etc.
But time lapses, market dynamics shift, perhaps sales drift or team members leave, causing marketing and sales programs to focus more on short-term objectives - ignoring the brand for the time being. What happens then is that there are business inconsistencies to the company's brand strategy. A classic example is when you see different logos on signage and menus for a restaurant or restaurant chain. A company like Starbucks, however, always is consistent with their brand image and would never find brand inconsistency acceptable.
The result of brand inconsistency is a faltering, ambiguous brand that loses its resonance and is not one that is easily identifiable by market constituencies.
Being a brand champion, whatever your organizational title or size of company, means committing fully to having an alive, market sensitive brand that is consistent at its core. Many organizational or strategic business issues can cause brand "drifting" such as revenue dropping, new market exploration, new areas of product development, mergers & acquisitions activities and new management/ownership. But the brand always needs to be considered when any strategic business shift occurs - it can't be left out to "ride out" business changes.
To not see the importance of the brand is to lose sight of the fact that a company's "brand" is the underlying essence of what audiences see and experience. If a brand keeps changing, or is not firmly defined, a company's audiences are at sea. A business may suffer in a serious and perhaps irredeemable way.
Shivonne Byrne, Innuity CMO
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