Branding, in and of itself, is a violent activity
The word “branding” gets thrown around a lot in marketing circles. “How can we get people to interact with our brand?”
I thought it was worth reminding everyone that a brand is really a red-hot logo on a stick that is seared into livestock’s hide to keep people from stealing them. It hurts. A lot.
No one in their right mind would want to interact with a brand, unless it was a mark they really wanted to wear. Forever.
Most of the branding we engage in involves products and services people don’t really care enough to burn into their back.
So ask yourself, would my customer give themselves a permanent 3rd degree burn with your product logo? If not, maybe you should spend more money on quality, customer services and other stuff. Just a thought on a Saturday afternoon. I’ll change my tune by morning.
3 Comments
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Dude read my mind (or maybe the blog). Read down to “A Brand Used to Be a Symbol Burned Onto a Cow’s Butt”
Hi Mark,
Yes, the sad fact about marketing is most people who call themselves marketers don’t understand marketing at all and they hide that lack of understanding through the use of words like “brand”, “branding” and other jargon.
To make matters worse. Upper management often does not understand marketing either. So marketing is separated from product development and delivery. In these situations, marketing is delegated to advertising and the foofey decisions like figuring out what colors to offer.
You are right that consumers want most brands to be unobtrusive. Realistically the consumer only wants to think of those brands at the time of a purchase decision. The rest of the time, they do not want to think of the brand at all.
But that sort of honest realistic thinking is not good for a marketer’s career. So until someone higher up figures all this out, the marketer’s best option is to do the silly stuff we all dislike.
Speaking of silly stuff – associating the branding of cattle with product branding is also pretty darned silly. But then again, it got me to read your post! It almost feels like deceptive marketing.
Chuck
Chuck
A fan as always, Mark. Well said. CM, too!