Branding Shifts Gears
Growing up in Canada, my mother fell in love with a sweet, gooey confection called Lyle’s Golden Syrup. By most accounts, Lyle’s Golden Syrup is one of Britain’s oldest brands. It’s been packaged in the same gold and green tin since 1883, and this year, in honor of it’s 125th birthday, the unmistakable Lyle’s tin will get it’s first makeover.
The Pepsi 25? That’s nothing compared to the Lyle’s 125.
In one form or another, branding has existed since the dawn of commerce. Colonial merchants were, essentially, selling “store brand” goods. The branding of cattle, though primarily about property ownership, was a precursor to trademarks. Shakespeare was a brand. Napoleon was a brand. Jesus Christ was a brand.
The true rise of branding, however, came with the Industrial Revolution, when mass production offered consumers more choices. Manufacturers harnessed the power of the assembly line and new economies of scale to produce, package, and ship products anywhere. Consumers now had choices. To help their products stand out against the local merchant’s, manufacturers became brands.
While Campbell Soup and Coca-Cola were among the first American brands, the Ford brand, I contend, had the biggest impact on marketing. Before we could answer the question “What does this brand stand for?,” we had to be sure a product would be consistent. Without consistency, a brand promise is an empty promise. Ford’s interchangeable parts and assembly line changed the game.
Ford Motor Company Creates Brand Value
Imagine, if you will, a world without consistency. Imagine a Ford Motor Company where each car is built by hand, where the Mustang on Lot A is a little bit like the Mustang on Lot B, but not identical. Would you buy the car on Lot B if you couldn’t be assured of its performance?
Ford realized that a reliable car would sell today, and that a reliable brand would sell the same car over and over again. The assembly line didn’t just reduce production costs; it let a company tie attributes (horsepower, reliability, class) to a brand (a logo, a name, a slogan). For the first time, a brand could reliably stand for something. A brand, then, could have value.
With a brand that held value, Ford was suddenly worth more than the product costs of its factories and auto inventory. The blue oval was worth more than Ford’s entire operation. Henry Ford, the man and innovator, was valuable, but Ford Motor Company was infinitely more important.
The Personal Brand Emerges
For nearly a century, the concept of “brand value” was primarily a commercial question. Companies owned brands; with rare exception, people did not. That commercial monopoly on brands shaped society, from how wealth was distributed to where people lived, from organized labor to civil rights.
As the 20th century drew to a close, we saw the emergence of the personal brand. The phrase “household name” began to apply to people, not just products. Personalities like Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump and Michael Jordan became brands. Their products — a talk show, a real estate portfolio, athletic prowess — were finite; the values of their brands, though, were limitless.
But even at the start of the 21st century, a well-known personal brand was the privilege of the few. If you weren’t lucky enough to catch the attention of the media oligarchs, you could toil in obscurity forever, an undiscovered master of your craft.
Social Media Opens the Door to Personal Branding
Today, social media is shifting control over personal brand value creation. Through blogging, social networking and content sharing platforms, a person can build a personal brand empire faster, more broadly and more directly than ever.
Witness the Robert Scobles, the Jeremiah Owyangs and the Chris Brogans of Web 2.0. Witness, too, their legions of followers, many of whom care not about their “products,” per se, but about their blueprints for success. Scoble may not be the best videographer in the world, nor Owyang the best analyst, nor Brogan the best blogger, but through their mastery of Web 2.0 tools, they’ve built brand reputations that transcend their abilities.
With the social Web tilting the power to build brand value toward individuals, new questions arise:
- Are personal brands and corporate brands competitors or allies?
- What role does “Me, the publisher” play in redefining what a brand is?
- Does brand loyalty transfer when the individual behind a personal brand changes careers?
- Does an audience evolve as a personal brand evolves?
Will Personal Brands Transform Society?
A commercial brand ain’t worth what it once was, it seems. Ask GM. Ask Sears. Heck, ask Ford Motor Company.
Personal brands, on the other hand, seem to be a growth market. So it is that, in an otherwise gloomy economy, Shannon Paul leveraged her online brand into a gig with the Detroit Red Wings, Charlotte Cavaretta cashed in for a job at SHIFT Communications, and Mzinga’s Aaron Strout Powered his way to a new position in Austin, Texas. I believe all of these moves can be attributed, in part, to the personal brands these folks built online.
Joseph Jaffe might be onto something when he says “your blog is your resume.”
Whether the Web 2.0-persona-as-brand phenomenon will stand the test of time, we’ll see. If it does — if personal brands continue to gain value while corporate brands struggle to find themselves — we may see seismic shifts in society.
For starters, attracting and retaining top talent will become more and more difficult. “Competitive salary” goes out the window when I can make more money on my blog than the market rate employers want to offer.
Companies will also have to think differently about their competitor. The business model changes when your biggest challenge isn’t another retailer, but a blogger.
Advertising, marketing, and public relations will change, too. Newspapers layoffs could be the big jobs story of 2008. The path to your target audience may run through a hyper-Twittering media mogul headquartered in his own living room.
In short, the communications game is changing. Brands must adapt, too. Otherwise, we may never see another brand last to its 125th birthday.
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Scott Hepburn is a veteran PR and marketing professional. He blogs here about marketing, PR, advertising, journalism and social media.