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Posted on Monday, January 16th, 2012 by Michel Hogan

The Brand (Hippocratic) Oath

(First posted at smartcompany.com November 2010 – as relevant today as it was then)

There are many reasons why organisations engage brand practitioners. Some do so in the legitimate desire to make and keep authentic promises; some as a band-aid for avoiding underlying weaknesses of the business; and some for no other reason than they think they “should.”

As a brand advocate, at one time or another I have been bought into organisations for all of the above reasons and more often than not I find that brand has become a “dirty” word. With organisations traumatised by unmet expectations and high price tags for little return, I have at times been asked to call my work something else so as not to earn people’s ire.

Which brings me to the point of my blog today. I am making a plea to brand practitioners far and wide, that we adopt a little of the founding principles of medical practitioners and first do no harm.

To accompany my request here is my Brand (Hippocratic) Oath.

“I will first do no harm.

I will remember that at the heart of every brand are people and so I must honour the history and legacy of their work and the brand they have built. If no legacy exists I will respect the purpose and values of the business and it’s people as being central to the brand.

I acknowledge that the organisation as owners of the brand, have much to teach me. I will first observe and learn, then apply only required measures and avoid projecting my services where they will not achieve the desired outcomes.

I will not be ashamed to say “you don’t need me”, nor will I fail to call on colleagues and associates when their skills are more appropriate for the work to be done.

I will be conscious of the fact that I am not just working on a brand but with a whole organisation and that every decision has the potential to impact all areas of the business in good and bad ways.

I will do what I can to help the organisation make promises they can keep and not be a participant in the overstatement of expectations that contributes to the erosion of trust in brands.

And if I stay true to this oath, may I enjoy the thanks of my clients for acting with their best interests at the fore. And further get the opportunity to continue to do this work I love, in the belief that brand has a deep influence and value for all organisations.”

It’s not perfect, but it’s a start!

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Posted on Monday, October 3rd, 2011 by Michel Hogan

Why Brand is not Marketing

There are thousands of articles and blog posts and books and speeches that don’t agree with me, who put brand firmly under the wide umbrella of marketing. They can’t all be wrong can they?In a word, yes. There is certainly a relationship but it is seen the wrong way around. Marketing is a subset of brand.

And for the record, so is HR, finance, technology, operations – pretty much everything you do in your organisation contributes to the promises you keep and to the resulting brand you have. Like strategy, brand sits horizontally across the business not vertically within it.

It is true to say that the relationship between brand and marketing is complex. It is also misunderstood on several levels.

The first misunderstanding is that brand is just about the customer and so must be part of marketing. Thankfully that one has been on the wane for awhile now and most organisations see that at a minimum, without people inside “living” the brand there is little chance customers will get behind it.

The second misunderstanding is that brand is only about image. I’ve talked about brand markers before, but there is a huge industry out there committed to protecting that particular status quo, so that one is proving much harder to shift.

The third misunderstanding is where I see the greatest damage being wrought – that by changing the image you change the brand. This is most often referred to as “rebranding” and my personal opinion is that the term is amongst the most dangerous and costly in business today (and if any agency suggests you need to do this run for the nearest exit).

You can’t change a brand by changing the image, you can only change the image. If the actions, decisions and promises kept stay the same, then the brand hasn’t changed.

Marketing and all the supporting functions have a hugely important role to play for a business. Part of the role is to help to build the brand via awareness and delivery to customers. But marketing is not, should not and cannot be the sole arbiter of the brand.

To truly unlock the value of brand it should be thought of as something that informs every aspect of the business. Brand is not a subset, so don’t let anyone try to tell you it is and don’t treat it like one.

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Posted on Sunday, July 3rd, 2011 by Michel Hogan

Simplicity, Clarity and Brand

Simplifying something isn’t all that hard. Getting clarity can take work. Doing both requires time and effort, which few brands can be bothered with, especially in those seemingly insignificant places where we think people won’t see, or if they do, won’t care?

A classic example that I’ve run into a few times in recent months is the Terms and Conditions Agreement.

It’s next to impossible to buy any product or service these days without having to agree to the requisite five page (if you are lucky) document. And of course, if you are like 99% of people you don’t read them. They are all the same legal mumbo jumbo so why subject yourself to the frustration? It’s not like you have a choice anyway. Just agree and move on.

But it doesn’t have to be that way and really it shouldn’t.

What’s wrong with writing a Terms and Conditions Agreement that is easy to understand and actually supports your brand? That makes promises you can and want to keep.

I was working to clarify and simplify a Terms and Conditions Agreement for a client and discovered a clause that when put in plain English could easily have said, “If we don’t send you the right products or miss a part of your order and you don’t tell us about it within seven days then it’s your bad luck…”!

Now I am sure there was a very good reason for the lawyer who drew up the agreement to insert that clause, But for my client who has relationships and friendly, helpful service as pillars of their brand, it couldn’t have been more out of sync.

Terms and Conditions are a series of promises. Making sure those promises are ones you can and want to keep and stating them in language that can be understood by anyone who reads them is as much a brand activity as the design of the product and the ad used to sell it in the first place.

What a lost opportunity… yet hardly anyone seems to think so.

There is one group who is serious about making the forgotten documents of brands clear and simple, revolutionising processes along the way. US brand group Siegel and Gale have a “simplification” area that has been tackling these kinds of issues for decades.

Watch the TED talk by founder Alan Siegel talks about simplifying legal jargon and why it matters here.

I am not for one minute suggesting that we all ditch lawyers and get copywriters to draw up Terms and Conditions Agreements. However, getting a plain English translation of these kinds of documents (with appropriate legal oversight) would go a long way to getting people to read them. They might even become an important point of brand communication. Hey, a girl can dream right?

What documents do you have that are making promises you either don’t know about or don’t fully understand?

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Posted on Tuesday, June 21st, 2011 by Michel Hogan

Brand is the backstage, not just the show

When I wrote about the renaming of Virgin Australia a few weeks ago, I was using it as an example of what I think is a term people use far too loosely – “rebranding”. And while Virgin Australia took exception to my characterisation, the points they made just served to further illustrate what I was talking about.

First let me say again for the fans in the stands and anyone who hasn’t read my blog before – I don’t believe there is such a thing as “rebranding”. Short of shutting down the company and starting again, the brand you’ve had will always be part of the brand you’ve got, no matter what you do.

Virgin Australia’s concern was that I didn’t have all the facts about the extent of the operational changes that were coming along with the new name. Changes that include: new planes, an increased focus on business including new business lounges and new frequent flyer program.

Okay fair enough, I didn’t mention those things. But my point remains the same, if WHO you are isn’t changing, and as commented they remain about “keeping the air fair” then you are just evolving the practices, operations and window dressing of the brand, not in fact “rebranding” anything.

A bit like Darwin’s law of evolution, a brand is a living thing and is constantly evolving in ways big and small. So the idea of “rebranding” becomes somewhat moot. I would much rather people just say, “Our brand is evolving in response to the needs of our environment and so we now have a new name and some new operational initiatives to better meet those needs”. It should be that simple.

The trouble with that is it doesn’t grab headlines. It’s too “business as usual” to get the attention that a “rebranding” does. Because of course “re” anything is accompanied by the requisite show. Name in lights, drama, cheering audiences.

Except that isn’t where brand lives and breathes. If anything, brand is the backstage not just the show. It’s the thousands of little things that everyone does to make sure the show happens, day in and day out. And that’s why I have such a problem with the whole “rebranding” idea, because it ignores the real work of the brand where promises are made and kept (or not kept).

So, with all that said, as a final point I would like to offer congratulations to Virgin Australia for doing what too many fail to do – defending their brand. They didn’t agree with me and I’m happy they took the time to tell me why and make sure I had their story. Brand defense doesn’t happen enough!

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Posted on Tuesday, April 12th, 2011 by Michel Hogan

What if we gave Brand a divorce?

Often, I get asked what I do. And when I say work with brands, people always seem to make the leap to, “Oh so you’re in marketing.” So I’ve been thinking that it might be time to create some space between the two things. It’s time to give brand a divorce from marketing.I’ve been circling around the idea for awhile now. A great article I read recently asked the question, “What’s your heresy?” and even though it wasn’t technically related to the day-to-day of what I do, it got me thinking – what would my heresy be? And here it is…

What if brand was divorced from marketing?

How would it change the way we think about brand and the impact it has for businesses? Here are just a few things I think would change.

I think a divorce would help brand to be seen in its rightful place as a horizontal influence across the business impacting and informing all aspects.

It would move it away from being only how the company presents itself to the customer.

With a divorce brand might get to have its own budget, to be used in whatever part of the business needs help to keep its promises.

Designers, marketers and advertisers could get back to designing, marketing and advertising and release brand back to its rightful owners – the company.
In a divorce brand would get custody of the core values and purpose that shape who the company is and what promises it makes.

Brand is far too big to be contained by marketing. It lives at the very heart and soul of the company and like other critical business functions such as strategy, finance and technology, deserves to be seen in its own right.

That’s my heresy.

So if you stopped thinking of brand in tandem with marketing how would it change the way you approached it?

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Posted on Sunday, February 20th, 2011 by Michel Hogan

Breaking up is hard to do

Desperation, marketing stunt or a genuine attempt to do things differently? NAB has announced it is “breaking up” with the other banks who make up the big 4.

However, I don’t think “Is this a cheap marketing stunt” is the right question.

The question we should be asking is – will NAB show genuine signs of independence from the unofficial operating cadre they have exhibited with the other big banks for so long? Because intended or not that is the underlying promise they are making with this campaign.

Will they hold or cut interest rates when others are raising them in lock step?

Will they address the aggressive collection practices of their partners?

Will they move beyond the “less fees, less fees, less fees” mantra that appears to be the cornerstone of current product development efforts?

Actions do speak louder than words (even words on giant banners pulled by airplanes), and all the piano players in China won’t convince me to switch without some hard proof that they are genuine in their intent to keep the promise they are making with this campaign.

I suspect that breaking up will in fact be very hard to do!


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Posted on Tuesday, January 18th, 2011 by Michel Hogan

ASP – The Authentic Selling Proposition

Over the years I’ve worked with many companies who try to find that magic bullet, the unique selling proposition or USP that will differentiate them from their competition and shine a light on them in the marketplace for all to see.It’s a myth.

Very few businesses are truly unique on any meaningful scale. The idea that every business has to be unique in some way or have something unique to sell in order to survive and be successful is just not true. Everyday businesses – small, medium and large – operate head-to-head, delivering pretty much identical products and services (I’m sure you can think or more than a few).

And while it is useful and necessary to clearly articulate the value of what you do, to add to that, the burden that it must also be unique from every other business, is perhaps a tad too much pressure for a humble message to shoulder.

The result is an endless and extremely destructive cycle of manufactured differentiation that has been systematically undermining customer confidence for decades.

USPs that were originally used to capture the benefits of products for advertising purposes, too often today stretch the boundaries credibility. Too many manufacture differentiation and over hype benefits in an endless spiral of competitive one-up-man-ship that just undermines the credibility of the very organisation, product or service they are supposed to be selling.

So I want to float a different approach…

The authentic selling proposition – ASP.

Where USPs try to communicate differentiation, an authentic selling proposition doesn’t play that game, it demonstrates value by making a genuine promise that you know you can keep.

Authentic selling propositions represent the true and deliverable value of your organisation, products and services. They align message propositions with actual development, operational delivery and provable results and understand that getting the customer is only the first step – keeping them is what matters most.

So if you want to build brand strength, customer loyalty and long-term trust and reputation, think about your authentic selling proposition.

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Posted on Monday, November 1st, 2010 by Michel Hogan

Steve Jobs is the “door bitch” from hell

(and that’s a good thing)

We’ve all run up against them. That intractable presence at the door of the club or venue, calming deciding who gets to come in and who doesn’t, creating a mystique and exclusivity that makes even more people clamor to be allowed in.

Every organisation needs a brand “door bitch” and I think without question title of “door bitch from hell” (aka really good at the job) without question goes to Steve Jobs.

You don’t build a brand like Apple has without having a really strong sense of who and what you are building and upsetting a few people along the way.

Like any good “door bitch”, Steve is the master of who and what gets to come and play at Apple. It’s not for everyone. Plenty of people don’t want to be in the line to get the latest iThing. They don’t see the value in great design. They dislike the fact that Apple defends it’s brand names and images against interlopers who would happily ride their coat tails.

In short they don’t think Apple is worth the cover charge for admission and see their products as the equivalent of overpriced cocktails.

That’s fine and that’s exactly the point.

By not being generic, by not trying to please everyone, by making sure that however ubiquitous Apple becomes it retains a certain sense of exclusivity, Steve Jobs is making sure that the brand will continue to have a shelf life well beyond the next copycat club down the block.

Your brand “door bitch” doesn’t have to be the CEO, it can be anyone in the organisation however a few characteristics do need to be present:

  • Refuse to compromise (on the key attributes of the brand)
  • Be ready and willing to say yes or no when necessary and have the power to make it stick
  • Be hugely enthusiastic
  • Have confidence and not be over reliant on outside opinions

There may be others, but that’s a start. So who’s your brand “door bitch”?

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Posted on Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 by Michel Hogan

Brand is the result

Brand is the result. Not the goal.It’s one of the reasons I maintain that you can’t have a brand out of the gate – start-ups and new businesses have an idea not a brand. You can put things in place that work towards a brand and after a few years of actually doing “things”, brand begins to be a legitimate term for what you have.

But it’s the result of those “things”.

You can have a say in what your brand will be by being deliberate about what those “things” are. I’m not talking about happenstance.

You can build your business processes, engage with your customers and hire a certain type of person to support your intent.

You can be deliberate and make sure that all those “things” you choose to do are aligned with each other and your intent.

And brand will be the result.

Way too much time, money and attention is spent making brand the goal. It’s a kind of brand deficit disorder. The amount of time spent trying to “create” the brand in turn, takes away from the very things that when paid attention to, will build the brand.

I know I preach this like a gospel, but it’s worth repeating. When you focus on the operational things – well designed products and services, consistent delivery, authentic sales and marketing devoid of hyperbole, good customer service and follow up… brand is the result.

Making sure that result is the one you want is where your effort should go.

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Posted on Monday, September 27th, 2010 by Michel Hogan

Brand for Startups

There are a lot of snake oil salesmen out there. People who will happily tell you that they can “create” you a brand that will launch your new business into the marketplace with a sizzle and a bang.

Of course, what they are talking about is a campaign and some basic identity elements – the brand markers that I’ve talked about before. But buyer beware and definitely don’t be fooled. What you are buying is NOT a brand, because the simple fact is you can’t buy one.

You can only build a brand action by action, decision by decision, over time. Read any book by successful entrepreneurs and the story they tell about their brands is remarkably consistent.

What you can do as a start-up is be deliberate about what you are building. Be clear about your intent and put in place the foundation elements that will over time deliver you a brand.

First foundation element. Figure out what your core beliefs are. What is important to you and why? Are you like Apple and put design and user experience above all else? What will you trade on and what is a non-negotiable? Are you like Patagonia and protecting the environment is the most important thing even if it means your products will be a bit more expensive.

Whatever your beliefs are, act against them and embed them in your decision-making processes. Hire people who share the same beliefs, contrary to what many say I don’t believe you can “teach” people to share your beliefs, they either get it or they don’t.

Shared beliefs from the outset lead to strong core values downstream and that is the foundation of the kind of “cult like cultures” that are the hallmark of great brands. That starts on day one.

Second foundation element. Spend time asking yourself what is the motivation behind starting the business – what is your why? Too many times when I ask that question the answer is “to make money” – well that’s a bit of a given. Unless you are starting a social enterprise or non-profit, being profitable is a condition of staying in business. However, it is the result of everything else you do, not the reason why you do it.

To quote start-up guru Guy Kawasaki: “if you make meaning you will probably make money, but if you set out to make money you will probably not make meaning and you will not make money.”

Getting a handle on your “why” is probably the single most important foundation for your brand. Without it you will struggle to position what you are doing in your marketplace. You will find it hard to hire the right people. You will continually be pushed around by from hype to spin and back again. Taking the time to understand your why will be the single most important time you will spend – and no one can do it for you. Don’t outsource it, don’t even be tempted to.

Last foundation element. Answer the questions: What are we doing? Why are we doing it? And how are we doing it? They will help you to understand and position yourself in your marketplace.

What are you jumping into? Know what else is out there, not so you can copy it, nor so you can “differentiate” against it, but so you can be deliberate (there’s that word again) about what you are doing.

Whether you want to disrupt the status quo, slot into a niche no one else has noticed, or just provide a legitimate option to something already out there, you can’t begin to build your brand if you don’t know your environment.

So with apologies to all the snake oil salesmen out there – that’s how start-up businesses get a brand. No magic creative elixir, just understand the foundations of what you believe, why you are starting the business and your positioning in the marketplace you plan to enter. Align everything you are doing to support those things and in a few years you will have something that could begin to be called a brand.

Good luck!

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