Branding Has Its Place

Unfortunately, its place is in 2010.

I know, I know, branding is still popular. But you know what else is still popular? Skinny jeans. Man buns.

Branding is like the man bun of marketing.

Just face it, nobody gives a crap what you say about your own company. We get it, you think you’re awesome! You’re really unique at what you do, even though 5,000 other companies do it too. By the way, do any of your competitors use as a tag line, “We kind of suck but hope you buy from us”? No? Then your tagline is irrelevant.

My opinion is unpopular for one reason and one reason only: too many people make a living selling branding as a strategy. The truth is, branding should be the by-product of driving copious amounts of conversions and delivering great processes and products for the end user.

Make it easy, deliver quality and do what you say you’re going to do, and your branding campaign will begin immediately on social media, in bars and restaurants and at every business gathering your customers attend. THAT is how you build a brand.

People no longer care what you say about your brand. What matters is what they tell each other about your products. I read that somewhere a long time ago and boy, does it hold true.

Don’t believe me? Ask yourself this: which would you rather have a prospect encounter, your slick logo and tagline or a very happy previous customer? If you answered the latter, go to the front of the class, you get a sticker. With social media as pervasive as it is, and strategies available to make it happen, putting a prospect in front of a satisfied customer or customers has never been easier. So why in the hell would anyone spend tens of thousands of dollars interviewing their own customers and employees to see what they think their brand position should be? It’s completely silly but very popular, just like skinny jeans and manbuns.

Now branding firms are claiming digital is part of branding and digital firms are claiming to be branding agencies. It’s all so confusing! Not really. As I said, drive robust conversions and deliver a good product—your brand will develop without having to capitalize a secondary campaign, much to the dismay of many marketing firms.