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Can companies really create a brand image that they aspire to or must image equal reality?
I love the idea of aspirational branding and positioning but can companies really do this without eventually delivering on the promise. How much leeway or time does a company have once they take the position to actually delivery on the aspirational brand promise? Specific anecdotes and examples would be helpful to understand your opinions.
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2 Answers
To answer this question, we need to first look at the definition of "brand." In the words of a professor at Northwestern University, "The brand lives in the minds of the consumers." It's what people think of a brand that makes it what it is; no amount of PR and goodwill marketing can save a brand that people don't like. There's just no way.
Companies can try to enhance how people think of their brands through PR or marketing or service projects or whatever they think will work. Like when Tylenol recalled all of those bottles of pills because they were contaminated, they forked out a lot of cash to pull all their products off the shelves. It helped ease the consumers' minds knowing that a big company would go that far; that was great PR, but they did it because it was the right thing to do, and they reaped the rewards of that good deed.
They affected their brand in consumers' eyes. Aspire all you want. It's good to have dreams and things to shoot for, but if the public thinks you're doing it for a nefarious purpose, you're sunk, even if your intentions were on the up and up.
The only was to stay ahead of the game is to do two things:
1. Put out the best quality product you can manage.
2. Have super customer service to handle the problems that arise!
With these two shields in place to stave off disaster and provide appropriate responses, you can feel free to try influencing the brand image to reach aspirational goals. Every brand needs goals in order to get better. Without things to work toward, they slide back down the hill of success. Make goals and work toward them; your customers will let you know when the image you're trying to push on them doesn't match the brand in their heads.
Hi Howie and Marc
Nice reply Marc, can't argue with much there (particularly your point about the brand being owned in the minds of consumers), altho there's often a lot more to do to stave of disaster than the two key steps you identify I suggest!!
I also think it's important not to underestimate the value of the brand strategy process and the involvement of key stakeholders. It's something not taught at many business schools and so is often overlooked.
If you can develop a brand platform that's aligned with the primary business goals, that's aspirational and that has good stakeholder support (including owners, management, staff, suppliers, customers etc as appropriate for your product/business) then you'll have a tool that can guide all aspects of your business (eg investment priorities, product development and quality, the identification and recruitment of talent, pricing, brand character and positioning, customer service and support, your marketing communications generally).
But delivery is key - you don't have to tell people your entire brand strategy, but you do need to live and breathe it.
You've requested specific examples or anecdotes around leeway and timing, the answer's of course entirely dependent on the company and its own unique circumstances. In the case of a brand like 42 Below it all happened very quickly. Most other brands take a lot longer to gel in the minds of consumers. Think of where Apple was in the early days compared to where it is now.
Sometimes it may take several years and the final positioning achieved may even then not be as originally intended. But that's no reason to not be strategic or aspirational. Personally, I would always want to develop a brand with strategic outcomes in mind rather than leave it entirely to chance.
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