The term ‘Brand Strategy’ is waved around loosely in various contexts. Ask any adman and he will tell you how brand owners manage their brands at the whims and fancies of the top guys. Well does that mean it is fortuitous for a brand if the owner is a smart guy and takes the right decision at the right time? Sometimes he is smart enough to delegate important decision-making to a competent team. So that makes brands or mars them as the case may be. Brands have a life of their own — sometimes intertwined with the life of the brand creator. The fortunes of the owner go up and down with that of the brand and vice versa. Nevertheless brands are often required to be managed by professionals employed for this very reason.
However sometimes the professional is not trained to handle a brand. He or she has never done a management course, never worked in advertising, never handled sales promotions and so on. This has caused situations that are advertising lore. Imagine the technical head of a company, usually an engineer, sitting in on all brand promotion decisions and then going about blundering his way around. Such situations are common across the globe and professional advertising and media buying agencies often end up providing impromptu training and information.
You would think someone somewhere would have woven the study of brands within the purview of an engineering or accountancy degree! No such luck. It is left to us practitioners to educate the newbie. Some of the most frustrating mome-nts of my career have been dealing with the uninitiated. I can hold forth on hot topics like — tag line, base line not to miss the ‘Punch Line’. Then there is the quintessential ‘Big Idea’ the usual parade of jargonised linguistics playing with the likes of ‘Mission Statement’, ‘Brand Personality’, ‘USP’, ‘Brand Character’; The usual tussle between ‘Brand Ambassador’ and ‘Brand Personality’. The boardroom war between ‘Strategic’ and ‘Tactical’… it can go on, to the power of infinity and so it goes.
What transpires is a comedy of errors; the copywriter’s work is discussed threadbare by the accountant, the technical team, the admin, the owner’s wife and teenage son and sometimes by the barber. Do they all represent the consumer? Well maybe. Are they all qualified to comment? You work it out for yourself. The brand’s journey has begun in good hands and everyone means well.
In the meantime this function is handled in great style by techies disguised as product designers, the brand owner’s freshman son as brand strategist, ex-theatre artistes parading as creative geniuses and by trans-continental agencies whose only commitment is to their own bottom-line. The resultant mess is too often rejected by the ever so discerning consumer who recognises it for what it is.
Sometimes this mixture of an effort in a bizarre way churns out a great success story. The punch line written by the amateur enthusiast is a big hit; the freshman’s idea actually makes sense and the techie actually produces great insights.
The point to take home is — brand management is no rocket science but like you wouldn’t put a pharmacist to do a surgeon’s job — it wouldn’t pay to give brand management to the untrained and the uninitiated. Just as you wouldn’t take chances with your life — do not jeopardise the health of your brand!
The author is Founder-Director & Chairperson of the National Institute of Advertising (NIA).
She can be reached at: namrata@niaindia.org