Is your brand being manhandled?

• Given the right tools, a brand is like a person with good communication and adaptation skills. A brand is not a veneer you apply to make a business (product, service or idea) appealing to it’s intended audience. Instead, a brand begins to exist when a business has something to offer to the world (values, services or products).
• Brands are made by people with a shared philosophy. A brand’s personality is shaped by the team of people (the brand’s “handlers”) who get to choose its look, behavior, style, etc. As they shepherd the brand’s development, people act as the brand’s heart, head, eyes, hands, ears and voice.
• Brand experiences are consistent whether a customer is on the phone with a service representative or using a website. The brand has the ability to evolve or surprise, but it still feels “right” and familiar to its constituents—very much like a person they have come to know in different situations over time.
• Brands need friends, or a support system and, again it comes back to people. Everyone (and by that, I mean everyone) who plans, writes, designs or thinks about the brand is responsible for making sure its values remain intact and understandable.
• A group of people with a clear understanding of the brand can create great work – easily. Decisions are made and materials come together readily when everyone on the team collaborates to give it form. A communications team collects, prioritizes and edits the essentials of the brand, providing all the “handlers” what they need to connect with people and the world. The systems they create allows the brand to adapt and evolve; applying different ways to basically anything (print, web, environments, programming, etc.).

Source: Brands are People, Too. by Joy Panos Stauber. Be sure to check out the case study on page 5. I think it has great application and insight for multi-site strategies.

Comments

[Michael Gray]

I have come from a background like yours (church communications and marketing), and the application of these brand management/development concepts seems do-able in many churches/businesses. However, my current environment -- teaching third grade in a public school -- provides a much more challening venue for brand develoment.

Have you seen a school that has made significant headway in creating and maintaining a brand? I once taught at one of the state's most academically rigorous schools, and even they didn't have a significant brand (despite the excellent record). To be honest, I don't know that I've ever seen a school that properly applies the techniques you write about so frequently.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on how these techniques can be applied to a government-run organization -- if that's even possible!