It’s an old joke in the music business. A young musician is in New York for the first time…He is struggling with finding his way around the city and finally in exasperation approaches a traffic cop. He asks, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” Without hesitation the officer shoots back, “Practice”.

In branding the answer is the same; practice makes perfect. Focus on perfecting your brand.

Think of a great brand as a finely sharpened pencil. The tip is perfect and it writes beautifully with flawless precision, every stroke sublimely defined and perfectly legible.

 

With use however, the tip dulls. Without constant attention the brand like a pencil becomes less sharp and its meaning begins to creep.  The message begins to stray, its execution becomes sloppy, the visual component becomes diluted by slight variations and compromises and the brand voice becomes weakened. In most cases this is the result of marketing managers not completely understanding what their brand is, its value to their organization or how it is perceived by the consumer.

How does this happen?

It’s usually a gradual slide, degree by degree: the literal “death by a thousand cuts”. Here are some common symptoms: The visual identity of the company and its placement in different media is contorted and placed in contexts that are unlikely and out of character. The company releases a new product that is incompatible with its product line or it introduces a product or service in a segment that it has no history or expertise in. Perhaps a new market segment looks promising, but to enter it, the company’s positioning needs to be slightly altered and the brand becomes counter-intuitive to the consumer.

Often the process of brand creep begins and ends with one big mistake, a blunder that damages the parent brand and invariably kills the brand extension. Case in point: Hooters Air.

Whatever you think of Hooters, it has a strong brand presence and most people (certainly males between the ages of 7 and 70) know what the brand promises. But in 2003 Chairman Robert Brooks announced that Hooters was going into aviation and that the planes would be flying billboards for the restaurants. Yes, Hooters Air would commence flying routes in 2003. They positioned themselves as a low cost provider and charter carrier competing with among others, Southwest. Oops. It seems the consumer didn’t feel that serving burgers and flying people across the continent at 500MPH made for a cohesive brand profile and were naturally conflicted. In the end, they never made the connection. The rest was inevitable: confusion, hefty financial losses and finally closure in early-2006.

No one has ever explained why Hooters believed the consumer would equate so-so bar food and scantily clad waitresses with air travel. When the consumer scratches their heads and says “huh?” to what your company is doing, the brand boat has sailed.

The important thing to remember is that brand is a state of mind: the customer’s. It’s what they believe it is, not what you believe it is.

- branding is as much about persistence as it is about brilliance.

- maintaining a brand requires as much energy as creating it does.

With constant attention and careful honing, the brand stays crisp, and the consumer knows exactly what that brand stands for. Consumers  buy from brands they know, understand and embrace. If you feel that your brand is being compromised, you probably are right. Don’t wait for the consumer to verify your suspicions by taking their business  elsewhere.

To build a strong brand practice, practice, practice. Who knows Carnegie Hall may be just around the corner.

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Written by Marketing Mensch

This entry was posted on Friday, October 7th, 2011 and is filed under The Soap Box.
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