The 3 rules of Brand Management

This month our Newsletter has been inspired by an interesting article we read by Mark Ritson: ‘The Three Rules of Brand Management’. Compelled by how close our thinking is to Mark’s, we wanted to share with you the three golden rules of Brand Management which Mark proclaims in his article, and also show you how Brand Vista helps clients put it into practice.

Never Talk About Logos:

What Marks says…
First, never ever talk about logos. The minute you raise fonts, colours or the dreaded need for “consistency of look and feel” in front of senior non-marketing executives you make yourself look like a total tit. The reason most CEOs think marketing is fluffy is because it usually is. Therefore, use the one time they actually listen to you discuss brand strategy as an opportunity to actually demonstrate that branding is about making money for the company and not about colours and fonts.

What Brand Vista does…

We firmly believe that a brand is much more than a logo - it’s a tool to drive the success of your business. Your brand is far more than the preserve of the marketing department; each and every interaction that your customers have with your business is your brand in action. That’s why it’s essential that you have a simple, differentiating brand vision that can guide the customer experience you deliver. We work with clients to define their ‘brand’ in these terms, and then work with them to align the entire organisation so that it’s geared to deliver its vision. Logos come last.

You Are Not A Brand Manager If You Haven't Got Brand Tracking

What Mark says……

If you can’t show me a representative survey of your target market conducted in the last 12 months in which you measured brand awareness and brand associations against your segments and key competitors, you aren’t really doing brand management… Tracking sorts the girls from the women and the boys from the men every time. Yes, there are a multitude of reasons why you don’t have brand tracking data - but all of them are bogus. One of the first things a good brand manager does when they take a new role is to make sure that they somehow get the money to obtain the data annually. Without it you have no idea whether your brand strategy is working or your communications spend is justified. No brand tracking, no clue.

What Brand Vista does…

Great brand tracking should act like a map - it should tell you how your business is perceived in the minds of your customers and the market, and show you where you are on your journey to achieve your vision. Without this, how can you make decisions that impact on your customers?

But too many brand trackers are overly complicated and have no element of diagnosis - that’s why we created the Brand Alignment Monitor (BAM) which doesn’t just tell you where you sit in the market, it pinpoints the area of your business that is holding you back on your journey towards your vision. If traditional brand trackers are a map, the BAM is a sat nav!


Less Is More When It Comes To Positioning

Mark says…

Your positioning is sh**t if you can’t write it down accurately right now without any reference to your laptop or colleague…a complex brand positioning built in the image of a three-dimensional rhombus might have looked good when you were developing it, but its complexity means it has zero chance of actually being applied to the business or engaged with by employees. Less is more when it comes to positioning.

What Brand Vista does…

We’ve seen them all - onions, pyramids, triangles - and none of them makes any sense. We agree with Mark here - your brand needs to be built in incredibly simple terms so that the entire organisation knows their role in delivering it.
We build brands using a brilliantly simply approach - defining your position, values and personality - and sum it all up in a two word brand essence.

A brand that’s built brilliantly simply has a chance of being embedded and delivered throughout the organisation. Take Alton Towers for example: 98% of staff (many of whom are temporary summer workers) understand their role in delivering the Alton Towers brand. They know their onions!

If you fancy reading Mark's whole article below is a link to the piece.