Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

Paul Isakson has another great post about building lasting brands. Paul’s point is that:

For a brand to stand the tests of time, it has to have roots that help it stay true over time. Why? Because lasting relationships are built on a foundation of trust. If you are constantly changing who you are and/or what you stand for, how can anyone come to trust you?

In relation to this, if you are working on a brand that has lost its way, it’s often very helpful to go back into the history of the company and find what they stood for when they first started. There are likely some great things there that can be polished up and brought to life in an appropriate way for today’s culture.

While the financial services sector may come in for a lot of criticism these days, you have to admit that most organisations applied the same short sighted thinking to their brands. Marketing by quarter was never a good idea. How can a brand build roots when it is constantly changing direction, chasing the latest trend instead of staying true to its values.

Therein lies the problem however as most organisations fundamentally don’t understand brands. Rather than build a product/service around values which customers would associate with it, most companies were happier with a Post-It approach simply labeling buzzwords to their offering with no inherent truth behind the proposition.

America is a good example of Isakson’s assertion that brands need roots. Jamie F Metzl had an interesting editorial in the Observer this weekend. Metzl points out that despite the last eight years, much of the world’s prosperity is a result of America’s post World War II leadership and promotion of free markets, entrepreneurship, and democracy. While George Bush may have tarnished the country’s repuatation, if Obama’s first steps are anything to go by we will see a return to what once made the country great. As Isakson says, “if you are working on a brand that has lost its way, it’s often very helpful to go back into the history of the company and find what they stood for when they first started.” Without those values though, an organisation may find itself lost at sea without a map.