Brand Reality vs. Brand Illusion
Should brands be strategically managed? Or should brands simply be an organic reflection of a company’s performance?
Or do both come into play?
An intriguing video “IBM on Brand” is making its way around the Internet. It’s a commendable 2:15 minutes of your time. Produced by long-time IBM brand agency VSA Partners, the short piece is narrated by Jon Iwata, IBM senior vice president of marketing and communications.
Of course, no one comes off second best in their own promotional video, but a number of salient points are made. All are worthy of consideration.
Iwata makes a superb point about how a brand – which in many respects is beyond the full control of any company, organization or brand agency – is simply the reflection of a company’s character, of perceptions derived from its performance. This is more true than many would like to believe. It’s the essence of brand reality vs. brand illusion.
However, a challenge arises when corporate managers start drinking the brand koolaid to excess. In IBM’s case, Iwata rightly notes that IBM enjoys a global reputation. But he also makes a curious point: apparently there is not a lot in IBM’s archives that show much in the way of “management or stewardship of the IBM brand.”
Of course, Apple would have relished that statement when the Jobs-led company sent a digital broadside into the then-dominant IBM PC brand with the famous 1984 commercial, which launched the now-ubiquitous Apple Mac. Once the dominant “Big Iron” global player with the IBM 360, IBM’s brand as a tech innovator has been tarnished, even eclipsed on a number of occasions. It relinquished a global reputation and raised industry eyebrows with the sale of its flagship high-performing PC line to China-based Lenovo, which absorbed and extended a successful run (and is still going). IBM, of course, used the opportunity to ironically further its exit from hardware and transition to software and consulting (an amazing feat, considering that IBM originally was an acronym for International Business Machines)
While not specifically mentioning the above, Iwata does counter with a strong point. From a performance perspective and management commitment – “what makes us, ‘us’” – a company needs to know the difference between what needs to change and what must never change. Definitely a truism.
He coolly extends that statement with a comment that if a company stays true to its mission, the “brand takes care of itself.”
While philosophically sound in a static world, this statement may have some difficulty standing up to the harsh reality that competitive and hostile companies, organizations and entities are constantly trying to re-position successful brands, drain off their vitality and/or replace them. Truly a relentless loyalty to sound corporate mission is the best defense, but it’s not the only defense.
As the saying goes, “If you don’t manage your reputation, someone else will.” You can be a high-performing entity with the right message and mission, but a compelling and unchallenged Wikipedia entry can destroy corporate credibility – right in the middle of an otherwise successful campaign. Rouge former executives and employees can whittle away reputation and brand strength by working through media, proxies and culpable deniability. A possible result? A company or organization can believe – can convince itself – that its brand is strong, that deliberate strategic risk-taking to protect and extend its brand are unnecessary, even dangerous. That leaves an organization potentially vulnerable. Word of mouth, rightly or wrongly based, generally holds extraordinarily strong credibility (earned or not) and can flash through a market building up or tearing down (E.g., ask the 13,000 IBM employees laid off this spring what they think of the company now).
To be sure, organic brand development – reflecting the open and proven performance of a company – is the strongest and most lasting. Organic, however (with all due respect to a legendary IBM brand), is not impervious. Actively defending that brand is a requirement for success.
Don’t allow illusions to darken reality.
–Michael Snyder, Managing Principal, The MEK Group