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4th Geneva Communications Forum «Taking Brand Initiative: Aligning Strategy, Culture, and Identity»Lac Leman Communications Forum - 2009
Date and time: Monday, September 14, 2009, 18:00 hrs
"Taking Brand Initiative: Aligning Strategy, Culture and Identity" Over 250 communications professionals from Geneva, as well as from Zurich, Basel and Ticino, gathered at The Merck Serono campus for this event. Co-organized by the Executive MScom Program and for the first time, the .HarbourClub., the event in just a few years has become the highlight of the international communications calendar in the region. A warm welcome on behalf of the host organization was given by Stefanie Lauber Head of Communications, who stressed the value of the world class campus facilities and the relevance of the evening’s subject for the company as it consolidates its own new (merged) brand and works in all transparency to "make a difference in peoples' lives". Professor Piero Martinoli spoke briefly on behalf of the Università della Svizzera italiana explaining how it placed communications at the forefront of the transfer of knowledge from academia to the wider world. The MScom degree being the only one of its kind in Switzerland. Thomas Truttmann Chairman of the .HarbourClub. and Marketing & Communications Director for McDonald’s introduced the speakers whose academic partnership now spans almost twenty years and has produced some of the most innovative and insightful research into the many dimensions of branding. Mary Jo Hatch, Professor Emerita, University of Virginia and Majken Schultz, Professor, Copenhagen Business School based their presentation on their recently published book "Taking Brand Initiative. How companies can align Strategy, Culture and Identity through Corporate Branding". Taking the floor first, Mary Jo reminded us that both she and Majken originally approached branding from their academic specialty as organizational theorists. Corporate branding has gone through three waves as they see it. The first wave which reflected a marketing mindset, the second wave with a corporate mindset and the third wave which displays the holistic enterprise mindset. This extends to the concept of stakeholder engagement and defines everything which those both inside and outside of the organization are doing. It sounds easy, but Mary Jo reminded the audience that if most of us could juggle two balls with a bit of practice, it would take a lot more for us to be able to keep three balls going, even for a few seconds! An apt illustration of the difficulty organizations face as they go about implementing an enterprise branding exercise. Aligning vision, culture and images needs to happen in several directions: within the company, towards and also from the outside. Organizations have to answer some basic questions about their identity which the psychologist G.H.Mead, calls the conversation between the “I” (who I am) and the “me” (what others think about me). Whatever we may think, we do not own our identities. There is an ongoing conversation between what others see us as and what we know ourselves to be. Alignment rests primarily on getting the identity of the organization behind the brand. The organizational "me" is formulated by the many forms and information we get from the external environment. There is a conversation involving the three dimensions – vision, culture & images - and all stakeholders, out of which the identity of the organizations is formed. This is best illustrated in the following diagram.  Managing the dialogue between the internal and the external does not necessarily come as a natural process. It is already difficult enough when marketing talks to customers, HR talks to employees and public relations talks to the media, but the three hardly ever talk to each other! Managing a brand is to manage all the stakeholders and also to see oneself in the entire cultural context. Examples of good and at first not so good brand management were given by both speakers for companies such as Intel (the Intel inside campaign), McDonald’s (overcoming the supersize me issue), Unilever (coherence between multiple brands and businesses) and Lego (getting back to basics and core values). These examples and others are discussed in greater detail in the speakers’ book (Taking Brand Initiative) the Foreword of which is written by none other than Wally Olins, founder of Wollf Olins and some would say of branding itself. Majken developed the example of Lego to make the point that it is easy to get lost when one tries to follow the market or chase technological advances which are not aligned with the core values of the company. Lego, a family business sustained growth over three generations, but gradually lost its way because it neglected its conversation with stakeholders and stretched the brand into peripheral areas in a chase for market share in different technologies. Lego has now retreated from the turn-over battle and returned to its origins whilst at the same time managing to keep products which are technically up to date. In order to do this it had to dig into its past and formulate a clear idea of where it had come from and where it wanted to go. Lego is a good example of a company which has managed to balance the three parts of the branding equation, as illustrated below.  Majken also mentioned the difficulties of cultural transition which companies with a strong culture can face in foreign lands. The example of EuroDisney which for some time struggled to maintain its US culture and at the same time make the necessary adaptations for Europe is a good case in point. The responsibilities for maintaining coherence or alignment of the brand is shared (in a traditional corporate structure) between four functions:
This internal conversation is maybe the most difficult of all because of the tensions which it creates. Many would rather just get on with pushing the interests of their sector and avoid having to negotiate a common platform. That’s only human nature. Mary Jo and Majken brought clarity to the branding debate and elevated it beyond the familiar logo and other battles which all too often detract attention from the real target. To be sure there is no quick fix for a brand in trouble and in many cases only a sustained effort over time can bring all the stakeholders into a common understanding and acceptance of what the brand should be. The great advantage of having a familiar subject for communicators presented by academics is the benefit one derives from their ability to synthesize the essentials and give the audience a clear understanding of the various components of the subject. The participants in this Forum and certainly went away the wiser for that. In question time the following were touched upon: In the aromas and fragrances industry, should Givaudan and Firmenich adopt an "Intel inside "approach? This is not necessarily a missed opportunity if one defines the key stakeholders as being within the B2B environment. Each case needs to be studied according to its specificities. UNHCR was advised to concentrate on the conversation with stakeholders and the branding process before getting into the debate about tools and logos etc. What about CSR? Where does it fit in? CSR must be part of the brand; it is not a differentiating move and must operate in partnership with the other internal and external stakeholders. Properly implemented CSR is an enormously motivating factor for employees and there can be valuable incentivizing complementarities between branding and CSR. What about the Swiss brand? The tax haven and banking scandal has spilled over and tainted the image of the country because of the link between banking and the image of the country. Maybe it is time for Swiss companies to follow the very successful example of Spain where companies clubbed together to wipe out the outdated image of the Franco era and project a modern up to date image beyond flamenco, bull fights and beaches. More recently Denmark had a national image problem with the cartoons which were seen as deeply insulting by many people (and some governments) of Islamic faith. Danish companies had to distance themselves from this and demonstrate that they were good corporate citizens in the countries where they operated. Likewise Switzerland is not just composed of greedy bankers, but the label sticks. There is work to do here, all would agree! In conclusion: Successful branding, said Majken and Mary Jo, is a significant challenge, almost no one gets it right first time and many rebranding exercises have been built on the ruins of previous failures. Organizers
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