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PR Has to Be More Involved in Company Branding

Written by: Andy Marken

Article Overview: “It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.”…Claude M. Bristol, author of The Magic of Believing “I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.” -- Muhammad Ali

PR Has to Be More Involved in Company Branding

A cover feature article in BusinessWeek, a major article in Darwin and overview pieces in both Fortune and Forbes earlier this year once again raised the level of interest in branding for companies, products and even individuals to a feverish pitch. The common thread in all of these articles was sublimely simple…develop a great name and advertise it aggressively and consistently in good times and bad.

What’s missing? Public relations. And we say that not because of some professional self-interest but rather of what public relations can and should do for a brand…internally and externally.

Not that one should be used at the exclusion of the other but public relations is about communications – two-way communications. Advertising is about encapsulating and sending out a message.

Depending on which expert you listen to branding – even as the Internet and Web level the playing field – is either everything or totally overrated.

Brand image simply does not come from marketing and a brilliant – even memorably – ad campaign. Brand image comes from living, breathing people.

When we read the BusinessWeek article we quickly scanned their listing of the 100 top brands to see how one of our global clients fared. We were disappointed to see how low in the listing the company was listed but we were completely surprised by the authors’ notes and comments. It was totally counter to what we knew management believed to be “the true brand position.”

But That’s Not Us
We sent the article – noting the company’s positioning – to one of the client’s senior executives. His email back noted that it wasn’t a good impression or placement of the company’s brand and that was why the organization was preparing to launch a new branding ad campaign in the U.S.

We responded by noting:
 it wasn’t a local issue, it was a global issue
 you don’t brand by advertising the problem away, you start internally and work your way out
 management had to understand that the company was not the center of the universe but the customer is the center of the universe. It isn’t about what management thinks but what the customer thinks that counts

From the inside it comes from what employees and partners think of the firm, its products/services, the customer value(s) they deliver and how they project themselves and the company on a day-to-day basis. From the outside it comes from what the customer – business or individual – thinks of the company, its people, its products/services and the value they receive.

Personal Experiences
Consider our personal examples (you’re free to select your own as well):
 Hertz, number 71 on the BusinessWeek hit parade -- Because of admitted “computer foul-up” we were refused a confirmed rental several years ago after having been a customer for more than 15 years. We cut up the card in front of the agent, handed him the pieces, rented from Avis and have never looked back.
 Shell, number 77 on the BusinessWeek list – Because of an accounting problem that took six weeks to solve, we again cut up the card we had held since 1972 and haven’t used it since. If we purchase gas at Shell we use our American Express card knowing that using this card costs them more than using Shell’s card. It gives us a degree of satisfaction every time we fill up at a Shell station.
 Sony, number 20 on the list – Over the past five years we’ve owned three Vaio notebook computers. When we’ve had a problem or an issue and have called technical support they have delivered a solution immediately. On top of that we believe they are well designed and reasonably priced. We’d even be willing to pay a little more because we know they stand behind the product…no questions asked.
 Samsung, number 42 on the BusinessWeek top brands report – We’ve gone through three of their cell phones over the past few years always upgrading to one that looks better, has more features and works reliably (as well as our service provider allows). Now we’re looking to buy an all-around PDA – email, phone and more. Even though the price tag is a little stiff ($500) we’re ready to move up when they’re available in a month.
 Starbucks, number 88 on the list – When we are on a trip we make it a point to look for Starbucks because we know we’ll get a great cup of coffee and pleasant service. At home we don’t visit the stores but we now buy and use it at our home and in our office…it’s just consistently good coffee and subconsciously we probably recall people cared about their quality of service.
 FedEx, number 86 on the list – We’ve had a few packages lost or late (usually at critical times) but the people worked hard to correct the problem and kept us informed on what was going on. They seemed to really care my one package was delivered to me no matter what had to be done.
 Frontier Airlines, not on the list but interestingly no airline was on the list – A client recently booked us on Frontier for a cross-country trip. Departing San Francisco the plane never got off the ground, they never volunteered to inform all the passengers what was going on and what they were doing to solve the problem. They had to finally move me to a Continental flight, swearing my baggage would be transferred – it wasn’t. On the way back there was a short layover in Denver and they changed gates on us three times before finally getting us out only an hour late. We arrived in New York City minus our baggage but with a lost baggage claim number. When we called Continental the next morning the lady on the other end of the line checked baggage at JFK, Newark and LaGuardia and informed us the bags still hadn’t been found. She said she was supposed to wait 48-hours before authorizing us to purchase necessities but she would bend the rules and authorize $100 immediately. We never filed a claim but we did appreciate the extra efforts even when it probably wasn’t Continental’s fault. Frontier we’ll avoid like the plague. Continental in a heartbeat.

Every firm on the list spends millions for good – possibly great – advertising that projects the companies and their products/services brand image.

Web Changed Everything
Examining branding activities, let’s take a page from the click-dot-bomb book and consider Pets.com. Great ads. Even we wanted a sock puppy but the infrastructure wasn’t in place to support the warmth of the ads. It might have been more effective if the branding had begun on the inside and focused on the staff (and systems) that addressed, developed and maintained a one-to-one relationship with the customer.

While firms have cooled toward the Web slightly since the implosion of the dot.com industry, almost every firm worth its legal filings realizes how the Internet and Web can benefit the company and its long-term success. What most company presidents can’t or don’t understand is how quickly that brand image can be torn down when dissatisfied customers take to the Web. Smart firms realize the importance of being responsive to complaints and criticism in real-time to make certain the brand that is projected is consistent.

Or consider priceline.com that felt brand didn’t matter…it was all about price. In fact, Jay Walker, the company’s founder, questioned the value of brands compared to price in the Web-enabled world. Surprise! Brand mattered. When we fly we go to United.com, AA.com or Orvitz.com. For a recent trip we chose a higher priced American flight rather a low-fare flight that had three stops and a plane change. The savings simply cost too much and we had a definite brand preference for American.

Intel learned a valuable lesson regarding their branding and the Web several years ago when a customer found an obscure equation would raise havoc with the performance of their CPU chip. They dismissed the problem as being inconsequential and something very few computer users would ever encounter. The voice in the wilderness grew to become a howling mob heard round the globe. Their noise attracted the news media and suddenly “Intel Inside” was losing its cache. The logic of engineering minds couldn’t understand the furor until then-CEO Andy Grove and his PR team stepped in to “do the right thing” and restore confidence in the company’s brand.

Since its founding in 1969, Mitsubishi Chemical’s Verbatim Corporation has branded itself as an innovator in the storage products industry that consistently produced superior quality backed by a no-nonsense, no-questions-asked money back warranty. In today’s price-ravaged CD market you can go into a store and buy a no-name spindle (stack of 25-50) CD-R discs for as little as 30-50 cents apiece. Or you can buy Verbatim branded media for prices ranging from 50-75 cents and even a dollar per jewel-cased disc. Computer manufacturers prefer to bundle samples of the Verbatim media with their systems because it is consistent with their image. Serious business users prefer the firm’s media 6-1 according to a recent storage industry survey. In other words there is added value in the Verbatim brand and when a problem arises it is solved…no questions asked.

Firms that sell only on price have nothing going for them but price…and someone always has a better price.

Branding is Overrated
While he built his reputation on branding for such firms as Intel and Apple, Regis McKenna, chairman of The McKenna Group, today feels branding is overrated. Using factoids as he enjoys doing, Regis notes that the average U.S. company loses half of its customers every five years, half of their employees every four years and half their investors every year. His conclusion is that as a result, much of the money, time and effort spent on branding is therefore wasted.

Unfortunately in some ways he’s right because too many CEOs and heads of marketing think of branding as an activity and a program directed at the consumer. But the Internet has changed the way companies must view branding. It allows people to interact and exchange information. To address the new total marketplace many firms have found a solution they have adopted called CRM (customer relations management) software.

But the sterile, automated misses the mark. It isn’t customer relations management, its personal relations management. This says “I know you better than anyone else and I’ll deliver the product or service you want or need.”

That’s the way Lou Gerstner changed IBM from a frozen-in-time Big Iron company to a solutions-driven service and software firm. While he may be struggling to find the next wave, that’s the way Michael Dell built his PC firm from a dorm room to the number one computer producer in the world. Each did it by building brand equity in their organization and their people to meet customer expectations…one customer at a time.

Branding Is PR, PR Is Branding
If you’re still not convinced you should dirty your hands by helping your company or client focus on branding in an interconnected world we suggest you read two books – Emotional Branding: How Successful Brands Gain the Irrational Edge by Daryl Travis and Richard Branson and Brand Manners: How to Create the Self Confident Organization to Live the Brand by Harnish Pringle and William Gordon.

Both books, each taking a different approach, may help PR people convince themselves that branding really isn’t a marketing or advertising issue. It’s a senior management and communications issue.

Branding is organic. It takes into consideration the fact that opportunities and our environment constantly change and that we really do have smarter workers and customers. If this is the case then public relations should play a key role in helping the organization bond employees, business alliances and customers. It should be used to help firms create communities where dialogue and relationships where individual experiences produce results.

Branding is all about how a firm’s employees, business partners and customers feel about the company, the relationship and the products. Contrary to McKenna’s opinion that brand is overrated, we believe it is more important than ever as people become more disassociated and new products, ideas and services are thrown into the marketplace every day.

Branding is what makes some people in this mixed up world feel so strongly about a cause that they are willing to die for the cause. We don’t expect you to build this level of commitment for your company, its products and services but you wouldn’t expect advertising to deliver this level of commitment would you? No…it’s public relations and communications.

It’s time that you took your job seriously and focused on helping your company create value, build its assets and constantly create and recreate your organization’s brand. Marketing and advertising can’t do your job. It’s up to public relations to help people feel a connection/bond with your company and its products.

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