By Peter Getman
Principal Brand Director
A company can have great products and strong sales and still have an empty brand with little meaning. These companies will have a weak future full of competitive pressures.
Hard to believe, I know.
Think Atari. Think Motorola.
Atari faced it and got crushed. Motorola is next. Mitsubishi is 10 years out if they don’t craft a viable brand strategy.
In my humble opinion, all of these brands lack in the following meaning:
- Why does the brand exist in the first place?
- What energies inspired this brand’s history?
- Where do they communicate the future value of this existence?
- What is its big idea surrounding the future vision?
- Who are they talking to? Exactly?
- In a sentence, in a word, what does the brand mean to the World?
- Where are their brand advocates? Why are they silent?
- Why should I pay a premium because it carries their brand name?
When I think of these brands, I think “average” or “in the middle” or mediocre. I think “so what?” And as a result I pay as little as I can to average brands.
In sum, if your company is crushing it today primarily because of a great product, position that success to be sustainable over time. These are the things we love to do.