Insights into Branding

“Surprise” and “delight”: two words that are rarely associated with Microsoft. But that’s just what Microsoft did at the Mobile World Congress this past week in Barcelona. Well, the surprise part, at least.

My son, Andrew, passed a milestone recently. Where once he was almost invisible to adults, he no longer toddles beneath the radar. As milestones go, it may seem minor, but to a seven-year-old it’s a pretty big deal. After all, it’s profound to be suddenly noticed, to find yourself in the ranks of “people who count.”

Business leaders have always raised an eyebrow when it comes to the ROI of enterprise-wide branding programs. These programs are multi-year, multi-million-dollar expenditures that look and feel great, but are not seen as contributing to short-term capture of new revenue, market share or measurable business results.

In light of the current financial climate and ever-shrinking budgets, marketers are forced to find resourceful, albeit innovative ways to continue to develop or refine their brand messages and visual identity. Only those initiatives generating quantifiable business value are being green lit. Marketing campaigns tied to new customer acquisitions, or net new sales are more apt to get high priority in today’s environment versus brand- or image-building campaigns that are designed to give audiences a momentary case of the “warm and fuzzies.”

This has proven challenging for brand managers and marketers who hold fast to the belief that every communication is an opportunity to build — or detract from — your brand. So how are some doing it?

You’re walking down a city street, stomach grumbling, looking for some place to eat. You come upon two restaurants next to each other — one is mostly full, one is mostly empty. Which one seems the safer bet?

Our instincts are to think that the one with more people must have the better food, service, or both. Or maybe it’s just a better place to be seen at. If you chose to eat at the crowded establishment, your very presence there is marketing to the next passer-by an inferred value proposition. This business is, in fact, extracting a service from you.

The same holds true if you walk around with a Starbucks cup, wear an Ed Hardy t-shirt, or are seen walking into a Barnes & Noble. Your interaction with these brands endorses and markets them.

So why aren’t brands paying us for this valuable service? Or put more practically, why aren’t their products and services appropriately “discounted” to factor in the time that we put in to market them?