Brand. Pillar. Platform. Bacon.
Which of these isn’t like the other? Better yet: why?
Until the USA Today debacle (?) unfolded, the first three terms weren’t used in every day conversations (at least, not among the people I hang out with). Bacon, on the other hand…well, we can always talk about bacon, but I digress.
Today The Bee outlines responses to the article, including an “official” response from Jeff Eben, who runs the organization that commissioned the somewhat-recently-released Brand Platform. As I read it (disclosure: I’m quoted in the article), I was reminded of a conversation I once had with a potential client.
I sat in the conference room with the company’s CEO, and started our discussion with an outline of the strengths and weaknesses in his company’s then-current online communications. I asked what the company’s customers needed from its website site, and after throwing out a few ideas, the CEO starting to describe what he envisioned for the layout of information.
Him: “I know I want our mission statement on the homepage.”
Me: “I sense the priority in that—why?”
Him: “It tells people who we are, what we believe in.
I take it you don’t agree with putting it on the homepage?” 1
I explained that not only did I not want to put the mission statement on the homepage, I didn’t think it should be on the website, at all—or in any other marketing materials, for that matter. A mission statement is a guiding missive for an organization, and it’s intended for an internal audience; customers and potential customers could care less if it’s printed in front of them. They’ll see who a company is (read, what it stands for) and what that company does by the results of its services.
I’ll stop there with the story. Despite showing signs of being “more mature” than I really am, I have friends who have been professional marketers longer than I’ve been alive, and they’ve argued against my advice in this scenario. I chalk that up to a generational difference in marketing approach and purpose.
Back to today’s article from The Bee. Authors Donald Munro and Mike Osegueda point out that the slogan at the center of recent debates—Be world-class. Be Fresno.—is a “guiding insight” intended for internal audiences (as instructed in the Platform). And yet: “Eben, who was interviewed for the USA Today article, saw it differently. ‘It is a thought that we want our local people to believe about ourselves,’ he said.”
By now it’s probably clear that I disagree with his line of thought.
It’s one thing to aspire to be “world-class” (though I’m not sure I know what that means). But it’s another to assert that publicly, and if the last week offers any indication, the only value in doing so lies in the punch lines of others’ jokes.
All that to say that we need to drop the “branding” speak. I understand the Six Pillars of the Brand Platform—I embrace them—but at this stage they’re still not digestible to the average consumer (nor should they be directed at them), and I think think they’ll only get lost in the fog of misunderstood taglines and disjointed “response” efforts.
1 The quotes may not be exact, but you can imagine the tone.
