Mike Trotzke

Bloomington, Indiana will be hosting the inaugural year of The Combine from September 9th through 12th. You might expect that the first year for this type of event would struggle to draw much in the…

betsytrotzke:

Listened to NPR’s Morning Edition this morning. There was an an interesting interview with Financial Times columnist Lucy Kellaway who recently wrote about the world’s collective hatred for BP. She illustrated that our collective hatred for corporations and their leaders is a relatively recent phenomenon that can be attributed to four factors:

• Emotional hangover from the credit crunch;
• The exorbitant salary of executive leaders;
• “The internet and social media (“with its power to turn personal emotion into a global epidemic overnight”); and
• The personification of business brands

The first three factors seemed pretty obvious. In fact, I wondered why NPR considered this worthy of an interview with Kellaway at all. Not exactly profound information being shared here. But, the last factor intrigued me.

In the past decade, companies have put a great deal of effort into creating brand images that are closely tied to personal values. I personally loathe branding exercises that start with, “If Volvo were a person, what would he be like?” And when we talk about aspirational brand development, we walk a fine line.

As Kellaway puts it, “the more successful they are in creating such a personality, the more there is to love - and hate.” It’s about time that we considered the consequences of brand development that is more tied to who we want to be, then who we actually are.

We fail as marketers if that is our focus. Branding begins with who we are and how others feel about us — today. We can influence perception with carefully crafted messaging, marketing and brand development. And, companies can and should make organizational, philosophical and tangible changes to they way they do business. In no other way is your brand more affected.

But, in a world of instant communication, it’s now more clear than ever that brands reflect who we are, not who we want to become at some undetermined point in the future. If that’s your focus, then you’ve already failed.

Listen to the NPR Interview with Lucy Kellaway. Read her Financial Times column (“BP has become the company we all love to hate”).