managing the brand Archives -

Let It Snow! Big Brands Risk Failure When They Rely on Third Party Partners

Just in time for Christmas, Walmart Canada provides a great example of how aggressive sales expansion can tarnish a company’s brand.

There is a natural conflict that exists between sales growth and brand protection. As sales expand—whether geographically or in terms of volume of goods or number of customers, etc.—it is harder and harder for companies to maintain tight control over the products and services carrying its name and impacting its brand. Continue reading “Let It Snow! Big Brands Risk Failure When They Rely on Third Party Partners”

Brand Building for a New Business

It can take years to develop a firmly established brand. And for good reason. A brand is more than a logo or an advertisement or even an entire ad campaign. A brand is how the market sees your business based on the totality of the information available to them: your marketing efforts, media coverage of your organization – including social media, stories from friends and family – and their own personal experiences.

For new startups, the brand is essentially non-existent. The market may be familiar with the entrepreneurs behind the company, which can add some element of a brand, but for the startup itself, the brand is a blank slate. That’s both a curse and a blessing. The curse is that nobody knows anything about your company: your story, your values, your mission, etc. The flip side to this – the blessing – is that you have the opportunity to attempt to build a brand as you see fit. Continue reading “Brand Building for a New Business”

Caution: Don’t Let External Audiences Kidnap Your Brand!

A fundamental principle in the world of marketing is that an organization does not control its brand. This may seem counterintuitive at first, but the truth is that the market, your current and potential customers, and consumers define your brand. You can try to influence your brand through your marketing communication efforts but, ultimately, no business can fully control the perceptions of the masses.

This is a lesson that athletic shoe company New Balance recently learned — and is still learning — the hard way. Continue reading “Caution: Don’t Let External Audiences Kidnap Your Brand!”