Beyond the Collateral Archives: Brand Management
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September 15, 2007
What Brand Management Is and Isn’t
It’s not the advertising. It’s not a positioning statement. It’s not a tag line. Too many financial service firms don’t understand this. When we talk to firms regarding their “brand,” too often they immediately refer to their advertising or their firm’s positioning statement. They think that is where their brand resides, and that brand management is in the hands of the keeper/enforcer of the brand standards manual.
What too many fail to recognize is that a brand resides in the collective perceptions of their clients’ minds. It is the firm’s customers’ and prospects’ collective perceptions — of their products, their literature, their value-added programs, the sales reps who call on them, the phone reps who answers their calls–that all leave a lasting impression. This amalgamation of impressions leaves a strong overall perception of the firm. These perceptions are the firm’s real brand in the customers’ eyes, regardless of how close they match the positioning statement. And, once established, these perceptions are hard to change.
