WHAT IF BRAND BUILDING WAS CONCEIVED TODAY

Would the model be different?

January 22, 2015

The realities of today would dictate a different approach to brand building. There has been a marked shift in opinion – brand building is no longer regarded as a function categorised under marketing or communication. Instead, it is increasingly seen as a primary activity involving and defining the entire organisation, right from ideation to the design of business models and the implementation of strategies.

Although critics will argue that brands, as driving forces for consumption, can hardly claim complete selfless motivation, we believe a business imperative exists for the pursuit of brand building principles that serve society. The starting point is to implement a cohesive and sustainable brand-business design for the benefit of all stakeholders.

At first glance, this approach may appear contradictory to prevailing consumer opinion. A widespread HAVAS research project (2013) reported the views of consumers in 23 markets on some 700 brands – “we would not care if 72 percent of brands disappear over night.” Couple these views with the World Economic Forum’s reflection (2013) on the expectations of millennials (they represent a quarter of our world’s population, 18 to 32 year olds) and a compelling requirement arises to build brands that matter. The Forum report, ‘Engaging Tomorrow’s Consumer’, outlines a generation with strongly held values, a sense of duty to change the world and the view that brands need to add value to society. A pertinent example may be found in the launch and growth of the FearLess Revolution, a project of the Living Green Foundation that explores new, more meaningful relationships between people, brands and cultures. We note a dramatic shift is underway in the way business is seen to be done – a movement towards greater transparency, more collaboration, more democracy, and ultimately delivering more value.

Millennials are using these social networks to share their expectations and experiences of businesses and brands. This development is giving rise to new management models to facilitate collaborative product development, content creation and consumption. One example is Airbnb, an internationally active Internet enterprise that connects travellers willing to share their homes or apartments, thus saving personal expenses and as a consequence reducing traveller carbon footprints by a significant 60 percent. In another

current example, the established UK brand Tesco has stated explicitly on their corporate website that the world is advancing from a culture of ‘more is better’ to ‘making what matters better’.

This review is an attempt to identify principled brand building indicators in clear and unambiguous terms. The accompanying model demonstrates how these indicators relate to each other within a defined framework for building brands that matter. Our intent is to support the purpose of brand building towards growing strong economies and societies.

A meaningful brand is unique and adds value

This indicator is central to strategic brand building and a cornerstone of building meaningful brands. A brand with purpose is one that matters – it is one of a kind in yielding and sustaining a distinctive benefit. The purposeful enterprise understands why it conducts its business. Neumeier (2005) applies three specific questions for the development of a statement of purpose: who are you, what do you do and why does it matter? The reason for existence of an organisation emerges when it exposes why it does what it does and believes what it believes in. Business is undertaken with a statement of purpose at the centre. Models, processes and systems, whether operational or cultural, are employed to deliver the brand’s unique reason for being.

Warby Parker in the US is a truly innovative company, building ‘the first great made-on-the-internet brand’. This eyewear brand has a vertically integrated, buy-one-give-one business model that circumvents traditional channels; it designs eyewear in-house; and interacts directly with customers to provide higher quality, better looking prescription eyewear at a fraction of high street prices. Its mantra is “We believe that buying glasses should be easy and fun. It should leave you happy and good-looking, with money in your pocket.” It also shares a conviction that everyone has the right to see and has teamed up with the non-profit organisation VisionSpring to train testers in developing countries to conduct basic eye exams and sell affordable glasses within their own communities.

A meaningful brand is an internally committed and principled brand

A brand that proclaims its purpose as an enhanced customer experience, yet neglects its relationships with its own people is not a brand with sustainable purpose. In fact, such a brand undermines its own economic values by neglecting key areas of contact with relevant external stakeholder groups. The remarkable growth and market recognition of the young South African bank Capitec within the competitive banking sector offers good reason to heed this caution. Capitec has adopted a promise of complete transparency and simplicity in the customer banking experience – customers should understand what they get and what they pay for. The same principles underpin Capitec’s internal brand orientation, including the design of internal human resource and information systems that are designed to be easy to access, interpret and use. Because Capitec employees experience the brand purpose in daily terms, they are able to deliver its unique meaning authentically in interaction with external stakeholders.

No internal brand community can simply be instructed to believe in the brand. The brand purpose forms such an intrinsic part of the business that there must be compelling reason to believe that the brand actually matters. In this regard, the primary and most truthful reflection of the meaning of a brand will be exemplified by the conduct of leadership and management. It must therefore be obvious and evident that

the decisions and actions of leaders and managers are guided by the brand’s unique reason for being. As Daniel Pink (2011) and Simon Sinek (2009) respectively reason, a track record of cohesive, principled brand behaviour across points of contact becomes an attainable goal when employees act for the good of the whole, not because they have to, but because they want to. An internally committed and principled brand is inherently more able to design and uphold cohesive and truthful experiences that can grow into deep and abiding relationships.

A meaningful brand has mindful leadership

In South Africa, we refer to Ubuntu leadership which promises an alternative to individualist leadership methods and upholds a collective stakeholder purpose through mutuality and co-leadership. This is illustrated by The Elders, a visionary leadership collective founded in 2007 by Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel, Peter Gabriel and Richard

Branson. The Elders apply their collective influence to promote independence, free dialogue and ethical leadership.

Contemporary brand leaders navigate purposeful and participative brand and business ecosystems, mindful of all stakeholder groups. They need to be, as Mike Freedman puts it, brave souls and levers of change. They build purpose- and person-centred organisational cultures composed of stable, adaptive, confident teams, where everyone feels that he or she belongs, participates and can initiate change. The South African agency group Joe Public demonstrates this bravery with their Growthⁿ brand purpose that envisions the “growth of our clients, our people and ultimately our country.”

“21st century brands are being forced by increasing consumer activism to become more honest, more authentic and more relevant. The concept of a brand as a vessel of hot air, empty slogans and pompous promises has burst. We have entered the age of genuine brand organisations whose mission is to create genuine value for people. If this continues to gain traction, it will change the world!” – Gordon Cook

A meaningful brand is reciprocal

Meaningful brands are alive and operate as resilient root systems, like rhizomes found in nature – they are ‘responsible entrepreneurs’ (Sanford) with vibrant and adaptive brand

systems responsive to environmental, human and business wellbeing. They are reciprocal at their core, in their give-and-take and conviction that the abuse of any resource beyond its ability to recover is not sustainable. Virtuous business models such as Benefit Corporations or B-Corps contain articles of incorporation that ensure the aims and activities of employees, communities and shareholders are collectively engaged in serving the company’s purpose and the environment. Kenyan-based Juhudi Kilimo, Africa’s first recognised B-Corp, strives to elevate the quality of life for rural smallholder farmers and enterprises by providing unique micro-asset financing for the purchase of wealth-generating agricultural assets, offering debt assistance and uplifting these communities in the process.

Meaningful brands therefore understand that profit is a consequence, not a reason for business. As Freedman (2015) reasons, profit is a significant yardstick by which to measure the social contribution achievements of a brand. Meaningful brands strive to create real value delivered from source to disposal and beyond, what sustainability thought-leader Carol Sanford (2015) positions as ‘earth to earth’.

A meaningful brand invests in community conversations

Meaningful brands instigate and respond to conversation. In 1999 a collaborative of corporate activists produced the Cluetrain Manifesto and put forward 95 theses on the web for human connection, stating, “we are not seats or eyeballs or end-users or consumers. We are human beings – and our reach exceeds your (organisation’s) grasp.” Digital technology, whether mobile, a communication platform or a wearable item, has enabled brands and their stakeholders, both internal and external, to connect and shape networks or communities of interest in more ways than before. Satell (2014) refers to ‘small world networks’ and highlights the manner in which pervasive easy-to access groups are cohesively able to shrink distance and scale globally.

Illustration and model design by Shane de Lange (Head of Visual Communication and Multimedia Design at Vega).

Meaningful brands create purposeful spaces in which stakeholders are encouraged to share their experiences and opinions. They invest in metrics, data analytics and segmentation strategies to create authentic conversations that inform the design of better products, services and communication strategies. Radical innovators directly engage their stakeholder networks in brand design thinking and prototyping processes. As Kevin Lane Keller argues, successful brand builders are able to balance the old with the new, during continuity and change. They are able to source meaningful insights and create engaging conversational environments among a multitude of channels and platforms.

Conclusion

The proposed model to meaningful brand building implements a cohesive and sustainable brand-business design for the benefit of all stakeholders. It positions purpose at the centre of all endeavours. All business decisions and actions should deliver the brand’s unique reason for being. This is achievable when a conscious leadership builds participative brand and business ecosystems to produce a committed and principled internal brand culture. The meaningful brand is reciprocal in creating shared value from source to disposal and successfully engages conversation among a multitude of stakeholders, channels and platforms.

“Because in the end, the only way that brands can measure their significance is by valuing their contribution to the lives of others.” – With deference to Jacques Lacan.

References