Brand Enigma Decoding the Secrets of Your Brand Duncan Bruce and David Harvey A John Wiley and Sons, Ltd., Publication Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 8SQ, England Telephone (+44) 1243 779777 Email (for orders and customer service enquiries): [email protected] Visit our Home Page on www.wiley.com All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP, UK, without the permission in writing of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 8SQ, England, or emailed to [email protected], or faxed to (+44) 1243 770620. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The Publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the Publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Other Wiley Editorial Offi ces John Wiley & Sons Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA Jossey-Bass, 989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1741, USA Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH, Boschstr. 12, D-69469 Weinheim, Germany John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd, 42 McDougall Street, Milton, Queensland 4064, Australia John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte Ltd, 2 Clementi Loop #02-01, Jin Xing Distripark, Singapore 129809 John Wiley & Sons Canada Ltd, 6045 Freemont Blvd. Mississauga, Ontario, L5R 4J3 Canada Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bruce, Duncan, 1951– Brand enigma : decoding the secrets of your brand / Duncan Bruce, David Harvey. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-470-77960-6 (cloth) 1. Branding (Marketing) 2. Business names. 3. Corporate image. 4. Organizational effectiveness. 5. Creative ability in business. I. Harvey, David, 1945– II. Title. HF5415.1255.B78 2008 658.8'27 – dc22 2008038615 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-0-470-77960-6 Typeset in SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall, UK CONTENTS Acknowledgements ix Prelude: playing with brands xi CHAPTER ONE: GETTING THE BEST FROM THIS BOOK 1 Brand redefi ned 6 How dreams and visions produce hard results 9 When dreams lose their magic 12 Discover the genius behind your brand 15 CHAPTER TWO: NIGHTMARES AND DREAMS: THE NEW WORLD OF BRANDS 29 Welcome to the era of warp-speed change 34 Changing everything at Internet speed 37 Globalisation, fair trade and ethical business 39 An unstoppable chain reaction 40 Brands in the dock 41 The democratisation of power and infl uence 43 Brands that run riot 45 The evolving role of brands 50 Putting corporate values on the line 56 iii Contents Seeing is believing: opening the doors of perception 58 Dysfunctional brand management: the search for a cure 62 CHAPTER THREE: ENDURING MYTHS, NEW CHALLENGES AND REALITIES 67 Myth One: Brands are just about differentiation in the marketplace 69 Myth Two: What you see is all you get 69 Myth Three: Brands only concern the marketing department 70 Myth Four: Customers are the only brand consumers that count 71 Myth Five: External research will tell you all you need to know about your brand 72 Myth Six: You can bury the bad news 72 Myth Seven: With the internationalisation of markets, it is easy for brands to act globally 74 Challenge One: Do you confuse new product development and innovation with brand extension? 76 Challenge Two: Do you think that you are the real owner of your brand? 76 Challenge Three: Is your brand development two paces behind the competition? 78 iv Contents Challenge Four: Do you still believe you have a unique selling point? 78 The new rules of brand engagement 80 Rule One: Brands are too important to be left to the brand manager 82 Rule Two: Brands need to be reviewed and renewed 83 Rule Three: The leader is the brand 84 Rule Four: Brand reputation may not be easily quantifi able, but it is a major asset 88 Rule Five: Your brand should be one of the most important drivers of performance at every level of the business 90 Rule Six: Get in touch with the genius of the brand to discover its transformational power 91 Get in touch with the current status of your brand 93 CHAPTER FOUR: HOW THE BRAND DREAM PROCESS TOOK SHAPE 95 Unravelling the brand enigma 99 Principle One: If you stay on the surface you will never understand what lies underneath 100 Principle Two: Location, location, location – never underestimate the magical power of place to energise or demotivate the creative process 103 v Contents Principle Three: Use all your faculties, not just your intellect, to see things in new ways 104 Principle Four: Conventional methods produce conventional results. Trust your intuition to lead you where you need to go 113 Principle Five: If you are not enjoying yourself and thinking intuitively, then you are not going to be creative 116 Principle Six: Once you change the way you feel about the whole brand experience, you can change the way the brand behaves 118 The personal dividend 119 Stories with a point 121 CHAPTER FIVE: FITTING THE PIECES TOGETHER: THE BRAND DREAM MODEL 123 An inclusive process for everyone from CEO to fl oor sweeper 131 Raising the curtain on the brand dream event 133 Rediscovering the legacy and traditions of the brand 134 The play’s the thing 135 Brand behaviour and the personal connection 137 Phase Four: The dream and the guiding principle for brand development 139 A process that embeds the brand in the organisational psyche 143 vi Contents CHAPTER SIX: TAKING THE BRAND DREAM MEDICINE 145 Polishing up a brand’s diamond qualities 150 Building a multicultural consensus around a brand 155 First impressions of the brand dream model 157 Understanding brand chemistry of the brand 161 CHAPTER SEVEN: DECONSTRUCTING BRANDS: A NEW WAY OF SUSSING OUT THE COMPETITION 167 I had a dream . . . 171 Nike: best is never good enough 172 Virgin: the people’s fearless champion 182 Lost and found: how Marks & Spencer rediscovered what made it great 188 Ryanair: come f . . . ly with me 195 What Google did next . . . 202 Tough choices at the BBC 210 Oxfam: BINGO with an awesome prize 217 Try it yourself 225 CHAPTER EIGHT: ENGAGING STAFF IN THE EMPLOYER BRAND 227 The rise of employer branding 230 CHAPTER NINE: WEB THREATS AND OPPORTUNITIES 255 Power to the people 257 vii Contents CHAPTER TEN: AN INSPIRATIONAL APPROACH TO INNOVATION 283 The blocks to effective innovation 287 The innovation tunnel: a trip into the unknown 299 Getting into the spirit of innovation 302 Why consumer boot camps turn up better answers 305 CHAPTER ELEVEN: RENEWING THE DREAM 309 Index 315 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people have contributed, directly and indirectly, to the making of this book. Since the brand dream process contin- ues to be work in progress, there are all those who have joined me at different stages of the journey and played a part in the adventure. Thanks are due to them, along with all those who generously agreed to share their experience of implementing brand dream and innovation programmes in their organisations that are included in the following chap- ters. Not only did they help to validate the brand dream model, but their feedback was invaluable in pointing to ways for refi ning the brand dream process further. From these two groups, I should particularly like to mention Paul Stallard, Darrel Poulos, Giles Lenton, Heather Campbell, Marc Cox, Alan Sekers, Simon Williams, Debbie Taffl er, Quinn Stainfi eld - Bruce, Richard Maryniak, Tom Morley, Sam Bond, Peter Moulin - Feroze, Natalie Bentley, Chris Priest, David Bott and Nick Shepherd. Over the years a lot of other people, including clients, all my colleagues at the Brand Conspiracy and the Youth Con- spiracy, not to mention friends, have helped more than they ix