In an interview with Forbes today Horace Luke, Chief Innovation Office at HTC said “Everything from a sneaker eyelet to a brochure to a trade exhibition is part of touching the customer with the brand”. Great! A nerd who gets it! But why stop there?
What Horace is telling us is that the strength of a brand is in its consistency. To be credible a brand has to achieve consistency, represent the same values and opinions at every touch point. Organisations can no longer get away with paying lip-service to a brand promise, customers are too savvy, too well-informed and too suspicious and if you slip up at any point in your relationship with them they’ll be on to you like a cheated wife! You simply have to walk the talk, deliver that promise. Its a simple and logical concept that’s not so difficult to make happen. You just have to realise that it isn’t done by legislation. Only by listening and sharing information will you get everyone in your organisation on the same page and from there consistent delivery is an easy road. Horace is clearly a department head who you can rely on to pass the message down the line and my bet is that everyone in his group share his perspective and clarity of purpose.
This is my passion and it’s why I created Brand Discovery, the means by which organisations can represent their brand consistently at every level. But if you are still asking why brand is so important you should take time out to read another of today’s rich veins of wisdom, this time from (That man again! I promise we don’t have any kind of relationship, but he definitely gets it!)
Michael Weaver
June 17, 2010