The Deadliest Branding Mistakes To Avoid (Part I)
By Jacky Tai, Principal Consultant, StrategiCom
2 May 2008

Oscar Wilde, the famous Irish poet, once wrote, “Experience is the name that everyone gives to their mistakes.”  You can’t escape from making mistakes.  It is inevitable.  But mistakes can teach you a lot about life and about branding.  Some of the best lessons that I have learned in my career came from making mistakes over and over again until I finally learned from them.  Whenever people tell me that I am good at this branding stuff, my first reaction is to tell them, “Ah hah!  That’s because I have run into brick walls so many times until I eventually figured out that the smart thing to do is to go around that wall, not at it.”  My only regret in having made all those mistakes is that I didn’t learn from them sooner.
 
I said in the previous paragraph that your mistakes can teach you a lot about branding but I discovered something even better: learning from other people’s mistakes!  That’s right.  Even the big global brands make mistakes and some of them never seem to learn.  Some may learn after they got burned but after a few years, corporate amnesia will set in and they will go back to making the same mistakes again.  However, big corporations can often get away with mistakes.  You can’t.  That is not to say that you should not take risks but you should try to minimise your chances of stepping on a landmine by learning about the 14 deadliest branding mistakes that a brand can make.  This 2-part series will outline these mistakes for you so that you will hopefully avoid them like the plague.
 
Mistake No. 1: Don’t Know What Branding Is
Perhaps there is so much that has been written about branding that people are confused as to what branding really is.  A lot the definitions that you find these days sound very impressive but they miss the point.  What is branding really all about?  In one word: differentiation.  How so?  
 
To understand branding, you have to know its history.  Branding is not a 21st century concept.  Neither is it a 20th century concept.  It is not even 19th century.  Branding is 4,000 years old.  Yes, sir.  It was invented as a way to differentiate cows belonging to different cattle owners 4,000 years ago by heating a branding iron carrying the owner’s logo or initials in fire until it is red-hot; and then using it to burn a unique mark into the rump of the cows.  Many people still mistake branding as a logo design these days.  While it did originate with a logo, that logo is there for a purpose – differentiation.  Before you can build a brand, you need to first know what branding is.  The form of branding might have changed over 4,000 years but its function remains the same.  
 
Mistake No. 2 – Middle Of The Road Approach
Many brands make the mistake of being stuck in the middle of the road.  I have come across so many Singapore brands that have told me that they are ‘differentiated’ by being, and I quote, “80% as good as the leading brand but only 30% more expensive than the entry level brands”.  Life is hard enough without having to think in fractions!  When you take the middle of the road approach, you are a neither-here-nor-there kind of brand.  You get poked from the bottom by the entry level brands; and you get stepped on from the top by the premium brands.  The middle is no place to be because the 2 segments that are growing rapidly in every category in any market are the high end and the low end.  So, if you are stuck in the middle, you are not going anywhere.  To build a strong brand, you have to take a stand.  You are either This; or you are That.  You can’t be both.

Why scream at your children when they play in the middle of the road?  Because that’s where accidents happen.  So, why put your brand there in the first place?
 
Mistake No. 3 – Forgot What Made Them Famous
If you study brands carefully, you will notice that one of the first things that they do when they become successful is that they tend to forget what made them famous.  Xerox at one point in time forgot that what made them famous was the photocopier.  They started line-extending the brand into other products such as computers, scanners, fax machines, printers etc, and that damaged the brand tremendously.  Kodak forgot that what made them famous is film and not cameras but they stuck the Kodak brand onto cameras anyway.  Where are the Xerox computers today?  Dead.  And, would you buy a Kodak digital camera over an Olympus or Nikon or Canon, if the one from Kodak is priced the same?  Neither would I.  
 
You must understand that what makes your brand famous will also tend to keep your brand stuck to that product or category.  If that category dies, the brand dies.  Polaroid is tied to instant photography and when that category died, Polaroid went along with it to the grave.  If what made you famous is no longer relevant and you have to move into a new category, launch a new brand.  Never lose sight of the thing that made you famous in the first place because that should always be the focus of all your innovation and marketing efforts.
 
Mistake No. 4 – Driven By Opportunity, Not Vision
The difference between a brand and a business is that a business is driven by opportunities whereas a brand is driven by vision.  A business will jump into whatever makes them money now.  If selling iPod skins make money today, that’s what a business will do – find a way to sell as many iPod skins as possible.  If selling car stereos makes money tomorrow, it will jump into selling car stereos.  A business wants to own 5% of 10 markets because it thinks that by doing so it is diversifying its risk and would remain small enough that the big boys won’t bother them.  What it is forgetting is that by doing that, they are actually taking on 10 different sets of competitors.  Every problem they face will be multiplied by 10 as they are in 10 different categories.  
 
A brand wants to own 50% of one market.  A brand is driven by a strong vision.  It is willing to give up 9 out of 10 categories in order to be dominant in one.  Of course you cannot ignore market opportunities. But you need to have a vision first and look for opportunities that fulfill that vision.  
 
Mistake No. 5 – Right Execution, Wrong Strategy
Many companies that I have come across don’t spend enough time developing their strategy.  They rush into doing things.  They might execute things very well but a flawed strategy, no matter how well executed, will still not lead you to success.  In the book, Trout On Strategy, renowned positioning guru, Jack Trout, wrote that the difference between successful companies and the also-rans is just the right strategy.  And yet, many companies don’t spend enough time thinking about strategy.  The guru of execution, Ram Charan, often quotes Toyota as a company that executes very well.  You won’t find any arguments from me here.  However, Toyota is successful because it is executing the right strategy well and that is what its Kanban just-in-time manufacturing system is all about – the right strategy.  
 
Let me give you a very good example.  Let’s assume that you are in a ship and you notice that the ship is filling up with water.  What do you do?  You could pump the water out of the ship and you can have the most efficient pumping system in the world to do the job but would your ship be seaworthy?  No.  Because your strategy is heavily flawed.  If your strategy is to find the leak and plug it while pumping the water out, then you have a better chance.  Even if your execution is slightly flawed – for example, you don’t pump very well – you will still have a better chance of surviving.  Both strategy and execution are equally important, but strategy must come first.  Don’t make the mistake of getting the sequence wrong.
 
Mistake No. 6 – Branding Is The Job Of Marketing
Most companies that I have met in the past seemed to think that branding is the job of the marketing department.  Several companies (including one listed company) that I have met even told me they are putting their group accountant in charge of branding.  Well, I love accountants.  After all, I am married to a CPA.  But what I can’t quite fathom is why put the accountant in charge of branding.  One company told me it’s because branding involves a lot of money so the accountant should be in charge.  I know your head hurts thinking about it – been there, done that!  Branding is not the job of the accountant.  Branding is not even the job of marketing.  These are just supporting actors.  
 
Branding is the job the CEO.  The CEO has to play the part of the Brand Champion.  If you look at successful brands that went from being tiny start-ups to big global brands (Microsoft, Sony, Google, Apple, Disney, Ferrari, Starbucks, Virgin, The Body Shop, etc) you will find that they usually have a strong Brand Champion as the leader.  The CEO must be the one driving the brand because only he/she is given that mandate.  The head of the marketing department doesn’t have that kind of authority.  The head of marketing is not the head of the company.  This is a job that needs to be done by the CEO. And the job is one that he/she cannot delegate.
 
Mistake No. 7 – No Brand Ambassadors
The Brand Champion cannot do it alone.  He/She will need to build up an army of Brand Ambassadors to promote the brand.  The CEO needs to inspire the rest of the company to become advocates of the brand – to talk the talk, and to walk the walk.  I have very often found that in local companies, the senior management doesn’t communicate enough to the rest of the company.  Everything about strategy and direction is confined to the top few people.  Granted that the development of a strategy cannot involve too many people or it will become diluted. But once that strategy is developed, it needs to be communicated by the CEO to the rest of the company to generate support and buy-in.  When Lotus bet the farm on its Notes groupware in the face of its Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet programme being slowly strangled to death by Microsoft’s Excel, the CEO had to sell that new brand vision to the rest of the company over and over and over again to create buy-in and build an army of Brand Ambassadors.  It was a dirty job but again, that is what CEOs are paid to do!
 
In Part II of this series, we will look at the remaining 7 mistakes.  In the meantime, try to avoid making any of the first 7 mistakes.