In 2000, Saturday Night Live ran a TV ad for a fictional company called Westlink. Filled with beautifully vague images--a hang glider soars past a mountain top, Japanese children carry parasols, an elderly man walks with a pick-axe swung over his shoulder--it ended with an authoritative announcer stating, "Westlink: Even we don't know what we do."I think of this ad when I see some of the bloated branding processes that flood the marketplace today. I'm sure that many of these processes (which are supposed to bring clarity to confused brands) are wonderful and worthwhile. But the last two that companies have shared with me seem built to achieve one of three objectives: to confuse, to introduce unnecessary complexity, or to fatten the agency's profit margins.
One was a finished brand consulting report filled with page after page of the company's supposed Core This and Core That. ("Core Values: Integrity, Innovation, Service"; "Core Personality Traits: Passion, Commitment, Fun!")
My Core Reaction: Puke. By the time I was finished, I was not only unable to determine what made the company unique; I couldn't even discern its industry. The second was a bloated but extremely well-designed proposal for a long and intensive branding process. The price tag: $75,000.
These kinds of reports make me want to swing a dead cat. Not because I don't think branding processes are worthwhile (everybody could use one). And not because they're packaged (I have my own, called Brand Intervention). It's because they're ultimately little more than a clever way of monetizing corporate navel-gazing. Who doesn't want to believe that their company, organization, product or department isn't centered on Integrity, Innovation, Commitment, Service and Passion? Is it worth $75,000 to pay an agency to say that, just to make you feel good (and to sound just like everybody else)?
I work from a simple premise: Marketing isn't about saying what you want to say; it's about saying what people want to hear. Sound crass? Sorry, but it's the reality. Sound manipulative? It is if you can't back it up. But the truth is, if you're not offering people what they want in the first place, and then telling them about it in ways they can understand and get behind, then you're in the wrong business or targeting the wrong customer. In other words, you've got bigger problems than branding.
Like good writing, good marketing isn't about more; it's about less... about stripping things away, making them simpler. Good designers, writers, photographers, videographers and motion graphics experts all know that one marketing cliche will always ring true: less is more.
Which reminds me, it's time to end this post.
4 comments:
Amen Mister! Too much over-engineering going on in the marketing world up to now. Perhaps the current state of the US and world economies will get everyone back to the basics. Not to mentioning looking each other in the eye instead of at their own navels.
It will certainly cause big agencies to charge less than $75,000 for a pair of rose-colored glasses.
Coming from the consumer side, I say thank you. When in buying mode, I will determine the brands worth, not the company. Tell me why you are different and I'll take it from there...
BTW, doesn't all this branding overwork diminish once the steely filter of social media is applied? Don't overused concepts such as passion (ugh) and integrity (AIG) simply get sieved by the bloggers and influencers out there?
Nice piece Marc.
Marc - GReat stuff!~ I've been involved with a health system branding effort - all they wanted to do was talk about how much integrity, enthusiasm, expertise and strength the org. had, rather than what a patient wants and needs to hear - they'll be taken care of by people who know what they're doing,and who care about each and every patient. Period. Why do orgs. pay so much money to stroke their own already overblown egos?! Thanks for your good thoughts! Patti
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