4 Surefire Ways to Destroy Your Brand
Brands. Some are worth billions of dollars. We revere them. Coca-Cola. Nike. Apple. thoughtLEADERS (hey, a guy can dream, can’t he?). They seem monolithic and untouchable. The dirty little secret is they’re as fragile as a porcelain doll.
A brand is nothing more than a promise. It sets an expectation with a consumer or customer. They know what to expect when they interact with your brand. And I don’t care how big or small your brand is, it promises something to your customers. The operative key to all of this brand building is that point of interaction. That is where your brand is at its most vulnerable.
For example, if you get a can of Coke that’s filthy and the soda in it is flat, the brand is diminished. You tell 10 friends about it and it’s diminished more. You get an iPad that doesn’t work. Same thing. You run into a rude associate at Best Buy and the brand is tarnished. A brand becomes the summation of all those small touch points with your customers. The risk is you’re likely doing some things every day that are putting your own brand at risk.
From where I sit, I’ve seen four major points of failure that destroy brands:
1. Your Team Can’t Deliver the Brand Promise
“We provide the fastest, cleanest, happiest, most pleasant experience on Earth to every customer who walks in our door.” Really? Have you set your staff up for that expectation? Do they have the skills and resources to deliver on it? If not, you’re overpromising and underdelivering. It’s supposed to work the other way.
Be realistic about what you promise customers. Sure, it can be aspirational but don’t reach too far because you’re setting yourself up for failure and a reputation as an organization that can’t deliver. Remember when Staples had a new brand slogan of “Yeah, we’ve got that!”? Then I went in to buy my Hello Kitty Jumbo Notepad Coloring Book Combo Pack and they didn’t have it. Hmmm. Brand failure. Don’t set false expectations with your customers.
2. Your Team Chooses Not to Deliver the Brand Promise
A motivated, engaged, high-performing workforce is something we all dream about. Sometimes our associates absolutely live up to that standard (as I’ve described before in this post called “Perfect 10”). Sometimes they don’t live up to it. They’re rude to a customer. They have the product knowledge but choose not to go out of their way to deliver it because they’re mad at their boss. In that small interaction, your brand is either reinforced or diluted (for another example of this go read about why Kenny kicks Tiffany’s butt every time).
Train and engage your team. Have consequences for instances where they choose not to deliver. Praise them when they do deliver. It’s basic stuff but requires daily vigilance on your part to make it happen.
3. Blame Someone Else When Your Brand Fails
“Oh, it’s not our Dell computers that are bad… it’s Acme Co.’s new mega processor that catches on fire.” Um, I don’t care. If you put your name on something, it’s your brand that’s at risk. Blaming a supplier, partner, etc. only weakens your customers’ belief that you stand behind your products… and everything about them.
Reduce this brand risk by being diligent about the suppliers you choose, the individuals you hire, and the partners you decide to work with. If you’re not comfortable putting your name on all the work they do, you need to look for another partner or supplier. Remember when BP tried to blame the owners of the rig for the spill? Yeah. How’d that work out for them?
4. Change Your Strategy So Frequently No One Knows What You Do
Brands are about predictability. If one day you’re the fastest and the next day you’re the cheapest and the next day you’re the highest quality all you’re promising the market is confusion. When you change products or services (or even the way you position them and deliver them) you dilute your brand message.
Predictability is key. The key to predictability is a solid, consistent long term strategy (and if you’re not sure what that means go read a few of our strategy articles). Pick a path. Stay on it. Communicate it constantly. it takes a while for that message to reach your customers and even longer for them to hear it and see it enough to believe it.
Brands are promises folks. Any time you break that promise, your brand dies a little inside. Eventually your brand becomes so tarnished that it’s not an asset but a liability.
What are you doing today to strengthen your brand?
– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC
Photo: 12.14.2010 <wooden trees> 333/365 by Phil Roeder
Great article Mike, as always. One other principle way I've found that a brand is diminished (and this may go back to several of your points but I think it's worth noting) is trying to be all things to all people. Companies would do well to remember who the core customer of their brand is and cater to them. If you are a discount store and your bread and butter customer is the lower middle class family, don't strike a deal with a supplier to carry the latest and greatest designer jeans. Even if you offer that $120 pair of jeans at half off how willing do you think your core customer is to buy it.
It's interesting. The first two are more about the behaviors of your general staff, and the inability of the management to… well, manage the staff. The last two involve the strategic decisions of management. And, they're both defensive reflexes. Brands that indulge in this behavior are typically not confident, but more moving based on fear.
You do have to be extremely careful when you train an employee to represent your brand. Sure, they need freedom to put their own spin on it, but it has to be consistent with your promise. It's important to ask your employees what the brand truly is before they start interacting with customers.
It's crucial for your employees to be crystal clear about what the company brand is before they interact with customers. Make sure you ask them what the brand is and have them properly trained before you let them loose to engage people.
On the money, Mike. I like to say branding is not a marketing function — it's an organizational function. And it starts at the top.
@Anonymous – you're right – you can't be everything to everyone. Pick your competitive point of differentiation and be great at it. Let others be all those other things. Strong brands have a strong focus and message.
@Kkreft – yep – strategic decisions matter and proactive, thoughtful strategy always trumps reactive strategy.
@Scott – great idea to ask associates what the brand is before they represent it. If they can't articulate it, they can't "be" it.
@Kirk – amen. 'nuff said.
Yes, it was probably true once that branding was a function of marketing but any company which truly values its brand knows that this is actually the other way round now. All touch points must deliver the brand promise:'A brand is like a well-made bell, wherever you strike it, it sounds the same'.