When it comes to branding, is something better than nothing?
Marketers are always looking outside their walls to see how other marketers are bringing their brands to life. With this comes lots of opinions as to what is right, what is not right, what you would do, what you wouldn’t do, how far you would go…
At times you may find yourself wishing that you didn’t have the brand guidelines or the long approval process. That you could just go with it.
You are the brand manager, marketing manager, marketing director, general manager – shouldn’t you be the one to make the final call? You could well be the closest person to the brand. You are the person in the company that protects every inch of that brand.
Then you find yourself having a conversation with yourself about whether the loss in time due to the lengthy approval process is worth the loss in motivation, brand exposure, speed to market? Who are we protecting the brand from? People in the business or people outside the business. Given the volume of brand and messages in general, are we overthinking the details versus the objective and impact?
H&M and Kenzo, now that’s an interesting collaboration. I wonder if it was in the Kenzo brand guidelines?!!
And then you see examples of a brand execution that feels far from right!! You think – what, why, how did that get out the door? The realisation or reminder that positioning and guidelines play a vital role in building brand surfaces.
The art of marketing…. Finding the best way to simultaneously cut-through, resonate, be efficient, stay on brand, keep to budget and evolve. That’s when it pays to talk with someone who gets it – brand plus execution – and knows how to get it right.
A walk in the park!!!