Thomas Friedman’s thoughtful and spot on op/ed in the New York Times Op-Ed Columnist: More Poetry, Please hits the nail on the head. But I’ll keep my political views to a dull roar for now and shift to the brand message lessons within the article, something I’m more comfortable speaking about. Mr. Friedman speaks about the need to weave all of the Obama administration’s programs and initiatives together into a single voice or narrative. For example, the link between health care reform and economic vitality for the U.S. are inextricably linked, but rarely is this communicated when his surrogates are talking about healthcare. This message linkage across initiatives forms the activation of the administration’s brand. It’s a great example and way to understand the distinction between brand strategy and brand execution (or activation).
Brand strategy is the hard work of defining a brand’s distinction in the marketplace. In the case of brand Obama, there was a clear focus on “Change” – change from the policies of the past, change in who is driving policy, change from a new generation of voters, etc. But rolling out that brand through our complicated political process is a much more difficult challenge. This is also a challenge for CEOs at companies of all sizes. They first have to find their brand distinction and bring that brand to life through internal and external brand activation. A single voice for the brand should manifest itself through advertising, human resource communications, websites, public relations, corporate social responsibility initiatives, etc. The idea of the narrative in governing is the same thing and Mr. Friedman totally gets this as reflected in his piece. Read the rest →
I’ve been recommending Chris Anderson’s book Free: The Future of a Radical Price, to friends and colleagues since I read it. Whether or not you agree or disagree with his conclusions, the book is filled with interesting historical and anecdotal accounts of online business model evolutions and the economic, technical and sociological changes that have precipitated an unarguable shift in how we conduct business. Anderson, the editor of Wired Magazine, an active blogger, and the author of the highly regarded The Long Tail, is an entertaining and engaging writer.
Copy lines like, “Sometimes even our mannequins have a hard time deciding what to wear” are fun, imaginative and spot on for the woman that shops H+M. Brilliant.
