A potential client on my radar, with a not uncommon scenario in play. Namely, a gaping black hole of a brand cavity.
Essentially there are lots of things internally and externally that look a bit broken. An internal view that ‘brand = logo + digital’, hence no senior marketing resource at management level. Niggling suggestions that external perceptions are starting to catch up with the fragmentation that lurks internally. No real customer or ex-customer insight, which of courses fuels the brand cavity more. A business that is sort of chugging along with the belief that product is a differentiator. The product is actually exceptional, but not IP defendable. Staff churn is not great.
Brand could be the glue that addresses so many of the issues confronting them. It’s the question that rears its head often isn’t it – when is the right time to tell them (and how) that they are lurking in the value-destructive blackness of the no brand cavity? And that there’s a really valuable strategic exercise that needs to be done? The key objective would be to refocus and reposition the business and build a blueprint that over time knits it all together to deliver their business strategy. A mid / long-term pathway to re-building value.
Yes, this value may be rather difficult to prove before we start. Over time, it’s going to show itself in softer measures than the FD may feel warm about at the moment. And it’s going to take you a few years to deliver it properly and cost a bit up front. We may not even talk about logos. (Probably we should).
All the things this business is doing at the moment by way of innovation, marketing and people are hanging off the precise hook of nothingness. There is no strategy. There’s a lot of smart people in there who are sometimes hitting the mark, by instinct rather than plan. Quite a few are leaving. The thing about the brand cavity is people fall in to it too, not just business performance.
Someone once said to me ‘show them the way and if they genuinely want change, they’ll buy it’.
Sort of, but actually not really. I think it’s better to help the business ask the right questions and then facilitate some initial answers that highlight the gaps, as well as the potential impact of not filling the brand cavity.
For what it’s worth, here are my top 10 initial ‘brand cavity alarm bells’. Some statements that suggest brand is not driving decisions, not being seen as the pathway to delivering business and marketing strategy and not being maximised as a hook to engage and retain the best kind of employees and customers:
- Staff don’t stay with us that long any more
- We need to change the company name, to get some fresh perspectives out there
- Our marketing person does our social media and some SEO stuff I think
- We’re the premium player, but we tend to have to price match the competition
- I think there’s a mission statement or something. We don’t use it in pitches and no-one knows what it means
- There’s not much internal communication. We’ve historically been small enough for people to know what’s going on
- There’s a part-time HR resource off-site
- The CEO doesn’t believe in talking shop exercises
- The sales guys tend to do their own thing
- Don’t think we’ve looked recently at what the competitors are saying. As the premium player we don’t worry about it much.
The good news it that the brand cavity is there to be filled. It won’t be easy. But here we are talking, so that’s chapter 1.
