Know who you are and brand accordingly

“The Newborn”

Like most newborns, companies that are starting out struggle just to accomplish the basics to survive. Eating, sleeping and soiling themselves are the primary activities. Sort of like sales, operations and marketing… probably in that same order. Talking brand at this stage is like parents trying to project what little Junior will be when he grows up. This is basically a timewaster. Junior just needs to be kept alive by any means necessary and dressed and cleaned up as much as possible to maintain social graces. The brand will be defined by the management personalities, customers, products and delivery of products or services. Anyone who’s worked at startup knows this is true. Marketing should support sales and make sure Junior looks clean, presentable and doesn’t smell bad.

“The Adolescent/Teenager”

Full of a combination of awkwardness, newfound confidence, and raw emotion, the adolescent or teenage brand is beginning to find itself. Passion, a feeling of invincibility, the underdog mentality, all combine with a naiveté and optimism that make brand building and definition appear possible but often fall into the "educated guess" category. Which college should you go to? What are you going to be when you grow up? These sorts of questions lead to the sort of answers a parent (in our analogy the broader business community) would be proud of: “A category leader, the Kleenex of …, the biggest company in the world, we’re going pubic, selling to the highest bidder…” All the red flags of what lead to branding hyperbole. The smart marketer at this company will not worry too much about what the result will be and instead, focus on the small steps that will get the brand where it needs to go. To get into college you need to get the grades (sales), take the tests and fill out the forms (PR, validation), get in with the right crowd (partners, suppliers etc), work toward your dream (focus on product marketing and customer needs) and don’t get distracted by partying (meaningless activities.) Repeatability, profitability, and service — all the basic attributes that a grownup company can offer. The brand needs to shed its ‘youthful exuberance’ and prepare for the complexities of adult life.

“The Adult”

You finally have everything together and you’re officially on your own. This is when the most crucial decisions of your brand life come into focus and where failure, uncertainty and mistakes make what was once clear, crowded and nebulous. Multiple products are one stumbling block: do we promote the company brand? The flagship product brand? The family of products? Selling to multiple audiences is another decision, in addition to the challenges of delivering and producing so many products. Who should we partner with? What market are we in? I thought we were going to be ‘X’ but now we’re turning into ‘Y.’ Marriages, mortgages, kids, career… how do we handle it all? For the marketer it’s time to delegate then quickly divide and conquer. You need allies and experts. Management is now much more than doing. This is where the real parenting of brand building comes in: focus on brand hierarchies and budgets, staff, process, product marketing, research… in short, embrace and thrive in the chaos. As long as it’s clear to the audience (brand grows up to be a good kid), use whatever means necessary to make it work.

“The Mid-Lifer”

Welcome to the Land of Unfulfilled Dreams and Last Hopes. A strange air of unpredictability can enter at this stage of brand building as this is the last time changes can be made. The mistakes of the past come back to haunt us. An upstart brand shows the world what a dinosaur we’ve become. Skeletons in the closet suddenly are thrust out and the world can quickly change around us. Mid-Life brand decisions can really make or break us. Usually this is the time either to be content and administer the brand through its natural decline or change wildly, buy the convertible Porsche, get a hair transplant and travel the world. Just remember that death may come much quicker than expected with inaction and once the joyride is over, real life consequences can leave you alone and a failure.

“The Old Fart”

Crotchety. Resistant to change. Conservative. This brand is what it is - for better or worse. It will never change so if you crave action as a marketer, this retirement community is not the place to go, unless you like shuffleboard. The television if full of ads for these brands doing the same ad they did twenty years ago, just as corny and obviously out of touch. Sure there’ll be a few fits and struggles against the inevitable but the Golden Years are officially here. The rare brand decides it’s time to make a come back, make some real, truthful personal changes and show a side we’ve never seen. The rest believe the "changing in the world" is the problem and are content to complain or rely on nostalgia. Brand builders, you are there only as a caretaker and custodian. Keep the place clean and neat, change the bedpans and schedule some fun activities.

We’ve arrived full circle. (Please no Lion King references.) There are a lot of different factors when you bring in the ‘B’ word but above all, Brand is Being the Best of Who You Are. Anyone who tells you different is just trying to sell you something.