2000

Brand magnetics

By Peter Fisk

Journal of Brand Management (UK),  01 March 2000

Harnessing your brand as the magnetic force by which your business can survive, adapt and win in a fast changing world.

This paper clarifies why an organisation's values should be core and how to live them through branding. In particular, your company's values will be under performing unless they 1) magnetise employees' emotions, 2) are few and focused enough to be lived and breathed every working day, 3) serve to integrate your employees' beliefs, learning and actions around what your external stakeholders value from you. Ultimately, the hallmark of a successful brand is trust, and the integrity of its values are what makes relationships with human beings whose loyalty your company needs. This core process is also the way a company identifies what changes it should lead in developing both itself and those who place their trust in it.

Scott Bedbury, the man who brought us Nike’s "Just do it" and Starbuck’s "Frappuccino", recently argued that Disney is a far stronger brand than Nike because the running shoe company lacks the emotion which the business with the big ears brings out in all of us. Nike has tried hard, encouraged by the passion of its founder Phil Knight, yet it has struggled to remain relevant amidst a world of rapidly changing fashions. However Disney have evolved from a content to connection business, whilst their brand has remained committed to, and the essence of family fun and entertainment. Starbuck’s, meanwhile, have grown at phenomenal pace, stretching their brand and extending their reach with a clear sense of purpose and values.

"Brand Magnetics" is the search for an integrating, energising and sustaining force that creates a common purpose within the business, and a strong affinity with customers, employees and shareholders. Brand Magnetics is much more than the conventional pursuit of a strong corporate identity, it is about creating a brand with the properties of an organisational magnet, where the whole business’ operations and behaviours are driven by this values-based magnetism.

A magnetic brand, positioned at the heart of the business attracting all stakeholders, rather than in the marketing department focused on customers, will be the basis for consistent goals, mutual trust, strong relationships, deeper differentiation, cohesive working, continuous learning and value creation. Such a brand will be founded on an integrated value system, which will provide the collective strength and enduring purpose to support the business’s strategic direction, survival and renewal – a sustaining anchor in an increasing complex, dynamic and uncertain world.

I recently asked a senior manager in one of Europe’s largest communication companies to describe her business’s values. She looked at me thoughtfully, then began reciting a series of adjectives. "Safe, trustworthy, caring, financially strong …" then slowed down. She knew there were seven, but couldn’t remember the others. I then asked whether this was what the company’s brand stood for. "No, marketing have a separate set of five brand values." She did not know them, nor feel they were relevant to her job.

After further research, I discovered that this business had lists of 5 brand values, 7 organisational values, 4 leadership principles, 5 business goals, and pages upon pages of different business performance metrics – a spaghetti of values not unusual in many businesses. Nobody can possibly know and work towards all of these aspirations, some were even contradictory, and it is unclear whether customers, employees, or shareholders share any of these values themselves. Additionally, businesses are unbelievably similar in their values – surely not the best foundation for a company’s strong differentiation and competitive advantage.

Values are all too often a business handicap rather than help. This is a significant problem when business complexity grows by the day, and markets change over night. Businesses are under strain from the speed of market evolution and sector convergence, the challenge of new competitors, high expectations of customers and investors, fragmenting segments, changing rules, declining margins, and promiscuity. The strain is increased by their parallel desire to stretch into new markets, improve productivity, harness new technologies, raise service levels, embrace e-business, form new alliances, work smarter, faster, and drive profitable growth.

Organisations have not evolved and are not prepared to think or act in new ways that respond to these stretches and strains. They may well attempt to change the physical dimensions of their business – new structures, reengineered process, implementing new systems, developing new skills – however they are restrained in other areas. Cultural inertia, lack of vision, different agendas, functionalism, uninspiring leadership, limited differentiation, little innovation, low customer loyalty, demotivated employees, little incentive, and lack of shareholder confidence. These are all the symptoms of an organisational value system that does not work.

A multitude of value sets co-exists across the organisation, often with different ownership and purpose. They are typically not co-ordinated, and frequently dismissed as nice to have, but of little business value. Some are recognised, others are not even considered; some exist by design, others by default; some are complimentary, others conflict. Typical value sets include

• Organisation values : the beliefs and expected behaviours within the business
• Employee values : what motivates them, personally and in their work
• Brand values : the promises and desired customer perceptions of the business
• Customer values : what motivates them, personally and in their purchases
• Business values : the directions and intended behaviours of business leaders
• Shareholder values : what motivates them, personally and in their investments

Developing an integrated value system, based on one set of well-chosen values, shared by all the communities of the business internally and externally, is the basis for a healthy, sustainable business. Such a business will bring people together to thrive in a fast changing business, which wins in a fast changing world.

Common purpose: alignment of vision, goals and priorities; integrating the business operationally and emotionally; bringing focus and sense of being.
Energetic commitment: personal relevance that is motivating and energising; strong affinity that drives retention, loyalty and mutual relationships.
Distinctive value: competitive differentiation which is rooted deep inside the business; unlocking and delivering superior value for all stakeholders.

Perhaps the question for many will be why the brand should assume this perceived high position as the organisations’ core set of values. This obviously requires an acceptance of the brand as more than a name and identity, more than a product or service, more than a marketing concept and device. Far more important is to recognise the brand as your promise – not just to customers, but also to employees and shareholders - of the type of company you are and aspire to be, the values you uphold, and a signal of what each can expect. Your brand puts your business in focus, as opposed to being seen differently from each perspective. It is your brand which people trust, and it is your brand which people grow loyal to.

Your brand must therefore take the integrating role as your organisational value system, embracing all its facets and in-tune with all stakeholders. Accepting this concept of the brand as the central purpose, instead of a market-facing promise and image, has significant implications for the traditional approach to branding, as well as for the business more generally:

1. Brand leadership. Your brand must be defined, delivered and owned by the entire business and its supporters, with the CEO as the brand guardian.
2. Brand renewal. The market-orientated brand values of today are unlikely to be appropriate as the core integrating set, and would need to therefore change.
3. Brand challenge. Researching, defining and implementing a new value system – and eliminating the old ones - is a significant and strategic task.
4. Brand value. Unlocking the value of these new values by learning to live them in everything you do, which is undoubtedly the hardest, but most rewarding part.

Harnessing Brand Magnetics to create an organisational value system is not a paper exercise, nor a series of creative workshops. It may require fundamental change, from an organisation which survives despite is dysfunction, to one which thrives on its distinctive purpose and being. The transformation typically involves four stages.

1. Exploring the organisation’s value force field.

What are the behaviours of business leaders? Are they inspirational to employees? Do customers and shareholders have the same aspirations for the business? What are the existing brand values, and are they actually perceived as intended?

• The starting point is to discover the many different values that exist within or around the business, and the forces they have internally within the business and on each set of stakeholders. These values will embrace conventions and expectations, fears and aspirations, as well as beliefs and myths.
• Those recognised but undefined value sets, for example the leadership principles or what shareholders value most, should be researched. Stated brand and organisational values should be tested against perceptions, whilst the personal values of customers and employees, should also be mapped and segmented.
• Each value set should be evaluated for relevance, coherence and depth. Relevance can be tested by seeking commonality with other sets, whilst depth is a stretch of the values into essentials (the safety of Volvo), differentiators (the simplicity of First Direct), and energisers (the smell of Starbuck’s coffee).

Back at Nike, the unconditional pursuit of excellence runs throughout the business as its core philosophy and purpose. This is visible daily in the passion and pioneering style of Phil Knight, but this commitment to excellence is also written clearly inside every pair of shoes, and the annual report to shareholders also retains the distinctive attitude. However the heart of Nike lies in "the spirit of Pru" – the memory of one of America’s most talented long distance runners, who broke records and challenged conventions, and tragically lost his life whilst in his 1960’s athletic prime. Everybody at Nike knows "Pru", and continues his quest for unconditional excellence. Just do it!

2. Designing the brand as an organisational magnet

What makes your business special? What sustains your business over time? Which values support and compliment each other? Which values reciprocate? Are there areas of potential conflict due to the non-alignment of values?

• Each of the existing value sets is related to find common and different values. Common values may exist but with slightly different articulations, depths or nuances. Differences may exist in the importance of values, whilst values might be more or less homogeneous within their domain and across audiences.
• The new set of values will emerge from a combination and selection of existing and desired values – ensuring that there is connection to heritage as well as aspiration, that the values are relevant and desired by all stakeholders, as well as having depth.
• Definition of these new core values – the magnetic brand values – must not be compromise on the lowest common denominators, but emerge as the result of a well-designed set of distinctive and inspiring, practical and cohesive signposts (not a long adjective list), shared by everyone across the business.

At Benetton, they talk about the "ezzenza" of what the business is all about – the continuing theme which made them great, and will carry them forwards. As they have expanded globally, communicated radically (the naked chairman, the vivid pictures of childbirth) and moved into new markets, the company remains true to its ideology and to its essence. Benetton’s "ezzenza" ensures that they continue to reflect the values of a stylish, cosmopolitan generation of customers who grow with the brand.

3. Establishing the new values as a way of life

The way leaders behave conditions the way that staff feel about the business, and serve their customers; resulting customer perceptions influence the media and they influence the perceptions of shareholders.

• Magnetic forcefields are only powerful when they are carefully aligned. Likewise the new values must be applied in a way which is relevant, understood and valuable to each part of the business. Organisational structures, knowledge and processes must align to enable and support the new ways of working.
• The values come to life through the actions of the business, and the behaviours of its people. The new values will have implications for new product design, distinctive service style, smarter internal work practises, inspiring leadership behaviours, and sustained by performance measures and rewards.
• Reputations are built on consistent experiences, and it will ultimately be the perceived values – as a result of making a complaint, how your manager treats you, attending an AGM – which will be engrained in minds, and condition attitudes. The reputation of the business in the eyes of employees, customers and investors must be carefully nurtured.

As Microsoft has grown from a "garage" of entrepreneurs through to a large and complex corporate giant, it has struggled to retain the energy and spark that originally made it great. It has entered the corporate world which it used to delight in beating. IBM used to look at Gates’ organisation and envy at the speed and agility in which innovation could thrive. One of the Microsoft’s secrets to maintaining the spirit born when Bill and Dave Allen wrote their early programs, is in a cartoon character called "Mickey Soft". Mickey Soft’s personality and behaviours personify the desired spirit of Microsoft. His personality continually defines the culture, acting as a guide and inspiration to everyone. When the strategy is unclear, or a problem needs solving, people ask "what would Mickey Soft do?"

4. Magnetising the business for distinctive value

Brands are ultimately about your business’s relationships with all of its stakeholders, and relationships are based on shared goals and rewards. Rewards may be manifest in more relevant benefits to customers, and ultimately in financial terms:

• The business must engage customers, employees and shareholder in the new values – making them relevant and personal, creating empathy and affinity, encouraging change in attitudes and behaviours, and seeking ongoing commitment and loyalty.
• The values must be actively managed. Although they provide an anchor, they must also anticipate and respond to changing environments. They should be measured, tracking the changing perceptions and ambitions of each constituency, and kept alive by being staying in-tune internally, and with the customer and investor markets.
• Values are ultimately about value. The investment and commitment to the new values must be followed by the creation of superior value – more value for customers, for employees, and for shareholders – by being different, more relevant and beneficial, creating more satisfaction and economic advantage.

IKEA, the rapidly growing Swedish furniture business, succeeds through its mission to "democratise design" - creating armchairs, tables, and accessories which reflect the contemporary design qualities for which you would expect to pay much more. IKEA is a place for everyone – it has no socio-economic boundaries, no niche. It encourages the brightest new designers to produce the best designs, or solve expensive problems, in highly innovative and cost-effective ways. Flat packing, customer assembly and "walking the warehouse" clearly help reduce costs, but IKEA’s idea is to create great value, not just cheap prices. Employees share in this democratising spirit too, in the organisation structure and management, by contributing new designs or business ideas, through their own passion for good design, and by sharing the entire revenue of one day each year.

From a list of wishes … to a way of life

The manager at the communications company came back a day later. She had found a plastic pocket-size card given to her some years ago. At the top it stated boldly "Our Mission and Values for Business Success" and went on to explain the seven principles by which everyone would work together. She had been correct on three of them, however caring was not an organisational value, but it did turn out to be something the intranet site on brand values proclaimed they did for customers.

Values are no more about list of adjectives and pocket-size cards, than brands are about logos and colour schemes. As Scott Bedbury would remind us, every company wants to champion the customer and be financially strong, to be safe and secure, to value teamwork and each other. Such attributes are essentials for every business, however to thrive, there should be something quite special. If values are to magnetise they should be carefully chosen, articulated and aligned. If the brand is to be magnetic, at the heart of the business, then it must become the energetic purpose, and source of distinctive value for everyone in and around the business.

© Peter Fisk, PA Consulting Group 1999
Creating Innovative Business Futures

  |  Previous  |    |  Next  |