A New Brand World: 8 Principles for Achieving Brand Leadership in the 21st Century

Citation

Tackett, A. (2003), "A New Brand World: 8 Principles for Achieving Brand Leadership in the 21st Century", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 266-268. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760310472281

This book is an easy, interesting read, written with honesty, humility and insight. It would not only be an excellent addition to any marketing class, but also an inspirational, if not useful, handbook for the chief executive at both small and large companies.

I must admit, a first glance at the title led me to believe this was another “me too” book on branding, that is, a sub‐par book written by someone trying to capitalize on the recent cacophony of interest in branding. However, Scott Bedbury, the former marketing impresario at both Nike and Starbucks, lives up to his reputation as a branding expert while entertaining the reader with an in‐the‐trenches view of effective advertising and brand‐building.

Bedbury’s approach is principled, but not regimented. Although many of the concepts are not entirely new, such as “know thy brand” and “everything matters,” they are written from a fresh perspective and presented in a useful context.

Bedbury makes his case in eight chapters, quoting Twain, Artistotle, Plato and even the movie, The Graduate, and using a variety of companies to reinforce his points. Not surprisingly (but thankfully), Bedbury’s experiences at Nike and Starbucks provide the meat, while a host of other companies including Disney, Apple, Montblanc and Snackwells provide the potatoes.

Scott Bedbury begins the book by stating that “brand building’s big cultural moment has arrived right around now for three basic reasons” (p. xiv):

1. 1.

   (1) There are countless brands trying to win our love and trust. He believes that people are mired in a deluge of “ … products, services, companies, and brands, all aiming to set themselves apart from the pack … ” and only by integrating your brand into everything you do can you build quality and trust over time, thereby making your brand distinct and meaningful.

2. 2.

   (2) A company’s most valuable assets – and its best source of competitive advantage – are its non‐tangible assets: “innovative product design, engineering, marketing and brand positioning”[1].

3. 3.

   (3) There is a growing pressure for companies to behave as responsible citizens due to increased media scrutiny and transparency.

His solution? Eight principles, primarily cultivated from his experience at Nike and Starbucks, to help companies achieve brand leadership. The assumption is that brand leadership leads to sustained sales leadership.

The eight principles are:

1. 1.

   (1) “Relying on brand awareness has become marketing fool’s gold” (p. 1).

2. 2.

   (2) “You have to know it before you can grow it” (p. 23).

3. 3.

   (3) The “ … Spandex Rule of branding … . Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should” (p. 61).

4. 4.

   (4) “Transcend a product‐only relationship with your customers” (p. 87).

5. 5.

   (5) “Everything matters” (p. 107).

6. 6.

   (6) “All brands need good parents” (p. 137).

7. 7.

   (7) “Big doesn’t have to be bad” (p. 163).

8. 8.

   (8) “Relevance, simplicity, and humanity – not technology – will distinguish brands in the future” (p. 183).

In his first principle, Bedbury espouses that brand strength, measured by brand relevance and resonance, is more important than brand awareness. He argues that increasing the awareness of a flawed brand will only accelerate its demise. To help explain brand relevance and resonance, Bedbury relies upon Abraham Maslow’s “Hierarchy of needs”[2].

Conceptually, the second principle, “You have to know it before you can grow it,” is fairly straightforward, so Bedbury focuses on what he did to “know” Nike and Starbucks. This principle is similar to the concepts of “brand essence”, “core values”, and “brand DNA” that both agency executives and academicians often use. Bedbury also discusses his approach to marketing research and briefly describes the “Brand Strength Monitor” he helped create at Nike. I think market researchers will find this chapter particularly interesting.

The third principle, “The Spandex rule of branding,” addresses brand extensions. In total, Bedbury offers six methods of “brandwidth”[3] to help determine when and how to extend your brand. Consistent with its title, many parts of this chapter are imbued with Bedbury’s humor. For example, when commenting on the decision to extend the People magazine brand to “teen people”, Bedbury predicts that the magazine will resist further extending the brand to “really old people”.

The key philosophy of principle four, “know the brand”, seems to closely resemble that of Wieden + Kennedy’s approach to advertising: forge emotional ties with the consumer. Bedbury focuses on Harley Davidson and revisits Maslow to illustrate this principle.

Principle five, “Everything matters”, can be summed up in two statements that Bedbury makes on page 109:

1. 1.

   (1) “Brands, like coffee beans, are highly sensitive sponges that absorb whatever is around them. And they don’t discriminate between the good, the bad, and the ugly”.

2. 2.

   (2) “Brand environmentalism means accepting the responsibility to protect your brand and presenting it in the best possible light whenever and wherever it may be found”.

In my experience, principle five always sounds good on paper; however, in practice, this concept is elusive, ambiguous and difficult because it is so incredibly difficult to implement. It is rare when one individual or department is responsible for ensuring that the numerous part of a large company – operations, accounting, facilities and information technology, to name a few – have the same perceptions of the company’s brand(s) – and are able to project a consistent “brand essence”.

At large companies, these differences can even be found within the marketing department. For example, direct response marketers and brand marketers are often at odds with each other when it comes down to determining the “look and feel” of a particular commercial, ad, direct mail campaign etc.

Principle six, “All brands need good parents”, is about brand leadership within an organization and dovetails nicely with principle five. In this chapter, Bedbury asserts that one of the greatest brand challenges is organizational bureaucracy, which he analogously calls a “hairball”. Bedbury discusses the role of the CEO and the chief branding officer while offering some practical advice, such as “mak(ing) someone accountable for brand synergy.”

Principle seven, “Big doesn’t have to be bad”, is targeted at marketing professionals at large companies. For many brand stewards at large companies, the size of their company alone works against them. Scott Bedbury acknowledges this challenge and suggests ways to use this size as an advantage.

Principle eight, “Relevance, simplicity, and humanity – not technology – will distinguish brands in the future”, focuses on the future and is probably the most lofty of all of the principles proposed. Bedbury suggests seven core values, centered on simplicity, humanity and relevancy, that companies will need to use to distinguish their brands in the future.

It seems appropriate to end where Bedbury began (p. xvi):

At both companies, I often found myself more perplexed than amused by the high‐flown theories, guidelines, case studies, and even “immutable laws of branding” espoused by lifetime academics and career management consultants. They were usually more wrong than right, but the point here is not to criticize. It can be hard enough to know a company – especially one as private as Nike – from the inside, let alone from the outside … .

Which is why I can’t provide a slick elevator pitch for explaining how great brands take off. Building a brand is the most challenging, complicated, and painstaking process that a company can embark on. It’s more intuitive than analytical, and most of the time it can’t be seen. But it can always be felt.

If you are looking for a quicker read than the excellent textbooks written by Philip Kotler, Kevin Lane Keller, and David Aaker, yet one that is still useful and without a dearth of insight, I recommend Scott Bedbury’s first foray as an author. I hope it is not his last.

Notes

1. 1.

   1. A good book on this topic is Intellectual Capital by Thomas A. Stewart; also see David Aaker’s classic Managing Brand Equity.

2. 2.

   2. Maslow became a leader of the humanistic school of psychology that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s. His Hierarchy arranged human needs in a “ladder” or “pyramid” with basic needs like food, water and shelter at the bottom and the highest need – self‐actualization – at the top. For more information, see Motivation and Personality by Abraham Maslow and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs by George Norwood.

3. 3.

   3. Bedbury used the term creating “brandwidth” to refer to expanding and growing a brand. This should not be confused with usage by Sergio Zyman, the former chief marketing officer at Coac‐Cola; Zyman uses brandwidth to refer to brand‐building online.