One of my earliest experiences of strategic thinking was when I was learning to play chess and coping with the somewhat counter intuitive idea of offering up a piece in order to win an advantage and force a checkmate. Sacrifice is one of the most important stratagems of chess and so it is with branding.
The best brands are as much defined by what they are not, as by what they are. Guinness may have a challenging taste which is why it does not mean the same as Budweiser. There is a greedy and myopic kind of brand management that sees a competitive image weakness as an opportunity to be ‘fixed,’ perhaps by some me- too line extension. The risk of course is of blurring brand meaning and weakening brand differentiation. A brand is not the same as a bland, as all Stratgegic Sockists know.
So go on, what are you are going to give up to win?
For me it’s the sacred cows that typically need to get sacrificed in order for an organisation to move on.
Or more accurately it’s the “excess baggage” that comes with those sacred cows that people need to dump.
The analogy of the excess baggage almost needs no explanation, but it does demand some reflection. Typically these are the spare clothes, the extra book, the paperwork that you might just need and the assorted accessories that accompany us in our luggage as we board planes round the world. How often do you get to the end of the journey to empty out your case and see the things that you might as well have left behind in the first place?
Instead we lug that with us, overloading our hand baggage to meet the weight limits; dislocate shoulders carrying the hand baggage round the airport packed with the densest objects that you can possibly fit in to that tiny space. Sweat it out in case the check-in staff demand that you also weigh your hand baggage and then nearly take the heads off fellow passengers as you try to coax the bag into the overhead locker!
The analogy sadly is true of brand-focused organisations as it is with travelling with the family on summer vacation!
Sacrifice the excess baggage and move forward with agility!!
Regards
Hamish.
The First thing companies Sacrifice in hard times is Differentiation! We don´t want to stand out or offened anybody. Lets be as evrybody ells!
Some might say that companies sacrifice risk taking, but what they really sacrifice is Branding!
Sacrificing excess baggage (or people) is just cost catting! Start building Brands – differenttiate. Sacrifice mee too thinking!