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Who is damaging your brand? Here is a back issue of Marketing Booster, the email newsletter that Richard Groom writes and sends free every fortnight to subscribers. You can subscribe here or read over 60 back issues using the back issues index page. I've been thinking a lot about branding lately. In particular, the fact that branding is mostly about trust and credibility, rather than a logo or a colour scheme. What's becoming clear to me is that it's very unlikely that anyone outside of an organisation will damage its brand: it's the people inside who will probably do it. Let me give you three examples and then a suggestion about how you can identify the main risks of 'brand damage' in your organisation. Example one: Aldi When the low-cost supermarket Aldi announced a couple of years ago that they were selling a personal computer with great specifications but a low price, they generated a lot of interest and positive press coverage. Unfortunately, stocks were very limited so lots of customers who turned up on the day the offer was launched were left disappointed. Stories appeared in the home computer press and elsewhere, attacking Aldi for what some people felt was a cynical marketing ploy. In their defence, Aldi apologised and pledged to introduce similar offers to make amends. But maybe all the good public relations generated from the original offer was wiped out by an inability to meet customer demand. Who damaged Aldi's brand? Aldi did, by not anticipating demand and arranging suitable stock levels. Example two: National Westminster Bank NatWest make a big point of saying that they are different from the other banks. One way they claim to be different is that their customers can call their local branch: they don't have to call a call centre. But when I needed to talk to my local branch recently I couldn't find the phone number anywhere. The phone book listed - you've guessed it - the same number for every branch in the area. And among all the paperwork in my NatWest file I couldn't see any mention of my branch's number. As far as I'm concerned, NatWest are no different than any other bank. Who damaged the NatWest brand? NatWest did, by not giving every customer the number of their local branch. Example three: Bruce Springsteen This one is really going to hurt me to report because I am a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. But this is the one that really got me thinking about brand damage. Bruce was on tour recently in support of a campaign to get Americans to vote. He also publicly declared his support for John Kerry. Regardless of your politics, you have to admit that this built on Bruce's 'brand' as a supporter of ordinary people. The day after the election, I received an email from Bruce's mailing list. I expected this to be Bruce's personal response to Bush's victory. Instead, it was an advertisement for his latest DVD. Nothing about the election was mentioned at all. So after all the credibility as an ethical performer he built up by putting his political views out in public, in my view at least he then looked like any other rock star, interested in record sales before anything else. Who damaged Bruce Springsteen's brand? Bruce Springsteen did, by not even waiting a couple of weeks before advertising the DVD. So by not making sure it had high stock levels (Aldi) and by not making sure its branch staff make a point of giving out their local phone number (NatWest) and by not waiting a couple of weeks before trying to sell some DVDs (Springsteen) these organisations have all, in my opinion, damaged their brands unnecessarily. So how can you minimise brand damage in your organisation? One way is to do these four things: 1. Carry out an audit of every single claim you make about your product or service. Believe me, many of you will find claims in your printed materials and web site that you didn't even know were there. You'll probably find out of date content too. 2. Check that you really can live up to these claims. If you can't, then remove the claims and publish something more realistic. 3. Create a list of what's needed to make sure you can live up to the claims. For example, do all customer facing staff know about the claims? And are they equipped with the resources to deliver? 4. Make sure resources are allocated accordingly so that you reduce the risk of brand damage. This is just one suggestion. I'm sure that if you agree with me about the risk of brand damage then you can quite easily come up with more ways to assess and reduce the risk. Copyright 2004 Richard Groom |