Stop blanding, start branding: How we need to get back to work

We start this post with an interesting fact from my childhood about sheep. It was a relevant fact when my folks bought sheep in 1983 as it is today in 2019. Sheep tend to shit as they walk. Because they lead a life of constant walking and grazing this doesn’t usually present an issue, but put them in a small pen on a hobby farm and you quickly discover the problem. What works when you are free to roam sheep sure doesn’t work when your sheep sleep where they eat. I share this story because it’s a nice way to frame the dilemma we face as marketers. Over the years we’ve built ourselves a gilded sheep pen and, since then, have been quite busy shitting all over our woolly jumpers.

I think our collective delusion started somewhere around 2008. The economy as we knew it was exposed for what it was, being in its end state, and we were left with the slight panic anyone feels from uncertainty. So what do we do? We build ourselves a small, reassuring pen called “Design Thinking”, and leave everything else - brand strategy, products and services - outside our pasture.

Of course much like any market correction this is overstated but boy did we all buy the logic.

Design that’s not design

As a result us marketers have done the design process a huge disservice. We have sought to use service design, experience design, user design, co-design to solve all that ails us rather than understand design’s true power. From David Kelly’s profound insight came the Deep Dive methodology (or what any consultant calls something with design at the end of it) that gave us a window into a world where the connected consumer is the guide and where we must follow them, our master, if we are to be “customer-centric”.

My experience is better than yours?

Ease of use, simplicity and seamlessness are standards that any organisation must deliver if it is going to thrive in the digital economy. Switching costs approach zero so anyone who didn’t sleep through Economics 101 will tell you power goes to the market. Much like Henry scaled Ford off the back of the Model T not because it looked great (it does) but because it ran like a dream. He soon had to change tack however when businesses from Dodge to Buick got in on the trick and replacement (competition) became the problem. Henry did not win the second battle once the first mover advantage left by staying black and bland. He won by building not just cars, he sold the freedom of the open road that beckoned in the cars he built. Cleverly tying to the American Dream built Ford, not the factories of Dearborn, Michigan. I love the Ford F-150 not just because it works but because it stands for being Independent, Tough and Reliable. Traits that resonate with me and those who have made it the biggest selling vehicle in the world.

Meaningfully different, memorably distinctive

As a discipline we face a similar moment to Henry. We have to stop blanding things (staying in our safe pen) and get back to branding them (get out in the pasture). The process advantage of first mover is starting to fade. I have an app, you have an app. That’s great but it’s only the start. Our day job is to create and communicate something meaningfully different and memorably distinctive. And this is the year we have to get back to work.

What do we need to do to re-acquaint ourselves with the field?

Task 1: Build new categories. A/ We have to build a new category that has value or B/ Discover that we can stretch ourselves way over there in an existing category. Think Ford Full Size Pick Up (A) or Ford Commercial (B)

Task 2: Create or reinforce an image. Salient and owned by you, brand image is the outcome of lots of endeavor but rests on two things: assets and mental availability. Think the Ford blue logo (asset) and what any common-sense Canadian will tell you when you say Ford, “Built Tough” (availability). This is a brand image that has allowed Ford to survive things like the Taurus and the Ka.

Task 3: Communicate memorably. Find your place in the culture of the times. You must have a consistent theme but what Ford toughness is today (capable but genderless) is different than yesteryear (rugged and masculine).

Be better to each other.