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Are you lying to yourself And your customers?

Is your brand the truth or a lie.

Even in the largest international companies (publically listed and private) you will see a consumer brand strategy that will often be different to the CEO’s corporate philosophy. Pick up an annual report and see if the brand message is prominent and imbued through-out or just a paragraph. On the simplest level it means there are two competing brand messages. One of them has to be wrong! The problem is usually communication. The CEO should be leveraging the Marketing resource for financial and shareholder messages, and similarly, the Marketing department should not develop a consumer facing brand without CEO (company and finance) imput. Brands are essentially the truth. A brand image is the combination of attitude, history, products, people, contact, look and feel. We use brands everyday to help us short cut the processing time. Many business leaders feel that brands are only consumer facing, or an advertising ploy.

Brands simply left to the marketing department to create usually result in weak, facile clichés or expressions. They may look great on paper, sound amazing on a TV ad, but if the employees, executive and board members don’t really buy into it you’ve essentially created a lie. No one is fooled, least of all your customers who easily detect the inconsistency. The most amazing aspect of great brands is that “The truth is often simpler, easier and a lot more powerful.

If you want to create a great brand then begin searching for the truth. That search must start at the top. It will be the CEO”s Attitude, history, people policy and engagement that point the way. Marketing’s role is not to create a lie, but rather search for the truth. And once found, shine a bright light on it (for all to see) and work to make it relevant through out the entire business.

Great brands are simply great truths. If you’re a business leader or CEO and you don’t really know what your company brand truth is, or you created it out of nothing, chance are your lying to yourself and your customers, even shareholders. The solution is simple: In the words of the Oracle from the first Matrix movie; when she is speaking to NEO about whether or not he is “the one”. His answer is written on the wall…. “know thy self”

Regardless of whether you have a business-2-consumer or business-2-business distribution model, VMD has the experience and discipline to identify the hidden differentiators (customer value) within your business and help you find the truth. Contact us now to discuss how we could help you shine a powerful light on that truth and create a great brand that you can leverage across your business.

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