Categories

Archive

The Marketing Eye Blog << Blog Home

Beyond No Logo

Posted Sunday, September 13th, 2009 by Neil Edwards

This post is co-authored with Jo Allen, Creative Director with The Marketing Eye.

Several years have passed since ‘No Logo’, Naomi Klein’s seminal backlash against multinational corporations. In her book, Klein uncovered a betrayal of the central promises of many of the world’s most revered brands: Bill Gates became a global whipping boy, Nike's swoosh was equated with sweatshop labour and McDonald's arches turned into a synonym for childhood obesity. Little wonder that these brands found themselves on the wrong end of a can of spray paint.

Since ‘No Logo’ we have seen some seismic shifts. The world’s most valuable brand, Coca Cola, recently acquired a stake in Innocent Drinks, in part, because of the positive light Innocent would reflect back onto the corporate brand. We have also seen Coca Cola focus on healthier drinks with the launch of Diet Coke Plus and Coke Zero.

We see a similar situation at McDonald’s, which has been addressing the healthy eating issues that have dogged it in the past. Starbucks too is looking at how it can realign its proposition with the needs of a more informed and discerning audience.

Business direction is now being moulded by brand strategies dictated by customer values not business values. The information age means there is no place to hide any actions, policies or values that run contrary to the core values of the consumer. Audiences are sophisticated and informed. They choose the brands they want a relationship with, not the other way round.

The important lesson in these case studies is that branding doesn’t have to mean greed and excess, nor, incidentally, does it have to have to be the exclusive domain of large corporations: it is only when we realise this that we can understand how important and positive it can be for a business.

Think of any well-known modern day brand and you will find an organisation behind it that has:

· A clear customer promise

· A well defined set of values

· An ‘all for one’ philosophy among the people who work there

· A strong employee proposition designed to attract and retain the best employees

· Consistent and well targeted communications that inspire

There is nothing morally wrong in any of this, on the contrary. If the honesty exists; if the values of the business are properly aligned to those of the consumer and lived and breathed at every level within the organisation, then we create powerful businesses that can be a force for good.

An unfortunate consequence of the global downturn is that businesses particularly smaller businesses - have become more inward looking. With the focus being on short-term cost-cutting and survival, ‘the brand’ as a concept is seen by many as too intangible and too esoteric to justify time and investment. How unfortunate and what a missed opportunity.

The truth is that building a brand doesn’t necessarily require significant investment: it needs vision, commitment and structure. A brand strategy, fully embraced from the start and consistently nurtured throughout its life, can be the difference between average performance and stellar success.

To achieve all this isn’t easy, but the prize for those that go for it is a significant one.

Posted Sunday, September 13th, 2009 by Neil Edwards

Other Articles In This Category

  • Putting the star and bucks back in Starbucks - Starbucks trial brand strategy

    Coffee is a regular topic of conversation in The Marketing Eye office. Normally it’s an argument about whose turn it is to make the next one, but now, for a short... read more
    2nd of August 2009 by Neil Edwards

  • Banking on a brand

    Santander has announced that it is to rebrand all of its UK operations.Bradford & Bingley, Abbey and Alliance & Leicester are to disappear from our High... read more
    4th of June 2009 by Neil Edwards

  • An innocent (and logical) decision

    Last week we learned that Innocent Drinks has agreed to sell a 20% stake in the business to Coca-Cola for £30m.The news has parallels with the sale of Ben... read more
    18th of April 2009 by Neil Edwards

  • Making brand values valuable

    Brand values originated as a concept somewhere in the 1990’s when the understanding of branding evolved from being simply an exercise in corporate identity to it... read more
    14th of March 2009 by Neil Edwards

  • Brands without chains

    Jo and I had lunch today with Erika Uffindell, brand guru and founder of leading brand agency, Uffindellwest.While we were speaking, I couldn't help wonder if it is... read more
    6th of March 2009 by Neil Edwards

  • Irrational marketing for rational customers won't work

    Seth Godin is a well respected blogger and talks good sense on a variety of marketing related issues. In his post on The rational marketer (and the irrational... read more
    19th of February 2009 by Neil Edwards

  • Woolworths re-launch

    We wake up this morning, not only to snow, but to news that Woolworths is to be re-launched as an online business.As we predicted in our post in December, somebody... read more
    2nd of February 2009 by Neil Edwards

  • That was the wonder of Woolworths

    The administrator’s announcement of the closure of all 807 Woolworths’ stores shows that no value could be realised from the business as a going concern. The... read more
    23rd of December 2008 by Neil Edwards

  • Brand value

    I was at a talk yesterday, given by Paul Fifield, visiting professor in Marketing Strategy at Southampton University. Paul’s style is witty and down to earth, which... read more
    13th of November 2008 by Neil Edwards

 

 

On this site

Help And Faqs

Communications

Design And Imaging

Events

Online Marketing

Strategy And Planning

Contact Us