Living the brand

Brands increasingly define the business, and in doing so what the overall business does for people. They connect the business to its context, to its customers and all other stakeholders.
Strong brands connect companies with people, both emotionally and practically, and most importantly by ensuring the promises become realities over time. Brands define the purpose of business: they are the glue, the face, the relationship, and the reputation of business.
Disney's former CEO, Michael Eisner suggests that "a brand is a living entity - and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures" Whilst brands used to be the domain of individual products, corporate brands are today the more significant form of branding, more valuable and important entities for customers and businesses. This is partly due to the rise of service-based business, the increasing awareness and transparency of companies behind the products and services we buy, and the need for higher-order differentiation across the portfolio as well as for individual products.
Even the majority of consumer products now contain the strong endorsement of parent brands - whereas in the past, many consumers may never have heard of P&G and Unilever despite using their products daily, today the corporate brand marques appear prominently on the packaging of everything from washing powder to ice creams. Organisationally, this means brands take on a broader, higher, non-functional role, rather than being a functional responsibility of the marketing department.
The brand defines the organisation, and all the many stakeholders who work with it. It should reflect the needs and motivations of employees and shareholders, as well as customers. It overlaps and complements the business strategy and cultural values, and the business should ensure consistency and alignment between these. It is delivered through HR and investor relations as well as marketing. Whilst some companies, particularly when there is a strong corporate affairs department, get confused between brand and reputation, they are one and the same. The corporate reputation is the corporate brand
The brand is increasingly the most important business asset, often accounting for anything from 5 to 50% of the overall market value of a company, and in some businesses (be they luxury goods, or not-for-profit, even more). It also becomes a far more complex and essential management challenge. BP for example considered how to harness the power of its brand across all its business units and all its stakeholders, it recognised that there was only one person who could lead this task. CEO, John Browne, recognised that this was his challenges, and his opportunity to create a focused, cohesive and energised business, where his leadership could directly connect to the desired culture internally, and the image and reputation externally.
Corporate brands align the inside and outside, employee and customer, culture and reputation, behaviours and differentiation, promises and reality.
Branded businesses are therefore about people. Their brand gives them a purpose that also becomes the organising idea, the reason for coming to work each day, and a common mission that brings people together. Logos and identities, straplines and colours become mere shorthand for a much bigger and more powerful force.
Brands are brought to life through people. Brands shouldn't be passive labels and images, they should be living experiences, where the values and beliefs are demonstrated in relevant and practical ways for customers, and equally for every other stakeholder group.
This is not simply about focusing on the customer audience, and then requiring employees to deliver it, it is about making the brand real in relevant ways for employees - and shareholders, suppliers, governments, etc - too.
For customers a brand is made relevant through customer propositions, unique to each different customer segment and situation, which are then delivered through customer experiences that ensure that the promises of the brand and proposition become reality.
Similarly for employees, the business should develop employee propositions for each segment (some will be motivated by career progression, others more by job satisfaction, other purely by money. Appropriate employee experiences should then be developed o match the promise and expectation of each audience.
Once staff are treated in an on-brand way, they are far more likely to respond to want to, be able to, and be motivated to put in that extra effort to "live the brand" and deliver a personal and engaging experience for every customer.