Branding and innovation – the keys to unlocking long term future success

Marketing cowboys?

When I was a boy I wanted to be a cowboy, riding my horse across the Great Plains, driving a large herd of longhorns to the distant rail-head; all that beef on the hoof, all marked with my own brand to show they were mine. Like many a small boy’s fantasy, nothing of that dream ever became reality apart from the fact that I did end up working with brands, although in the marketing rather than the ranching sense.

They may have been developed for use on cattle but really brands are all about being human. They are about ownership, recognition, identity and even personality. They have become the standard way in which 21^st Century mankind recognises the product of human endeavour; a fundamental part of life from Tynemouth to Timbuktu. They identify all sorts of products from those around me right now such as Toshiba and Tetley, to the most far-flung of human objects such as NASA’s Voyager spacecraft. They are so familiar to us that we don’t even think of them as brands, they are just part of our everyday lives.

Hoovers aren’t all Hoovers

For the marketing executive, the ability to get the brand name into our everyday lives is a constant quest. I remember at business school learning that the ultimate in branding was to get the brand name to become the generic object, with Hoover being the example cited at the time.

But Hoover also serves as a great example of how a brand can be impacted by negative publicity. Their free flights promotion from 1992 saw the business overwhelmed by demand for the flights and resulted in a lengthy court case, directors losing their jobs, Hoover in the UK being sold and the brand being seriously damaged.

Having a great brand isn’t a guarantee of lasting success

More recently, there is the example of Eastman Kodak. For a century or more Kodak was the world leader in photographic film but is now struggling to compete in the world of digital photography. This shows that a great brand in a great business without great innovation can eventually lead to great problems. 

And then again, a great company with a great brand can try to innovate unnecessarily. Remember when Coca-Cola tried to introduce New Coke in 1985 in response to the growth of Pepsi.  Innovation, for a while, actually damaged both the brand and the business.

Look to technology giants to show the way forward

The trick is to get the brand right within a business that both protects and nurtures what it has, while having the culture to create and encourage new ideas. Such an approach lies at the heart of technology companies today. Because companies like Microsoft and Apple were set up and operated by young people with little regard for the old school working arrangements, they adopted a culture from the start that actively encouraged the development of the brand in parallel with true innovation. The commercial results have been startling in both cases. 

Today, technology giants like Google are forcing further ahead with its 20% Time rule, compelling their employees to spend one day per week working on new concepts and ideas. These businesses are fully aware that ‘game changing’ ideas often come from outside established businesses where focus on developing and commercialising existing ideas is fundamental to stakeholders. They are determined to buck that trend.

Application to smaller businesses

Finding small businesses that have the focus on brand building and commercialisation as well as having the space to support innovation isn’t easy. But these will be the key businesses of tomorrow. The key is to learn from the technology companies and embed these concepts into the business from the start. If you build in time to innovate from day one then it can become a fundamental part of what you do. It is surely much easier to create such a culture from scratch than to introduce one into an existing business.

But even if your business is up and running, it is never too late to validate whether you have that balance right. Invest a proportion of your time on a regular basis being creative, researching your competition, gaining a better knowledge of your market and its future direction, and generating new ideas to serve it better. But remember, whatever you do should always serve your brand.

I wonder if I was a child of the 21^st Century whether I would still dream of being a cowboy. Given the technological world we all now live in, I might dream of building a successful and innovative business instead. But I am sure it would still bear my brand.