Branding, once seen as a small part of marketing and communication, is now quietly becoming the central axis of business management. Why this shift? In this article, we'll take a deep dive into what brand really means and how it's become a core force for long-term growth.
I finally made up my mind to write about it! This sentence has been circling in my mind for several years, and I finally told it with certainty.
[Brand is the central axis of various business management activities of the enterprise], which is the true meaning of the brand that I truly understand.
It's not marketing, it's not PR, it's not a marketing creative symbol slogan advertisement, it's all in the past. The era of branding (or equal to) advertising and creative may be coming to an end.
Someone may be coming out again: haven't you read the book on marketing?! Brand is just a small business sector under the marketing sector, and it can't even be juxtaposed with marketing, how can it suddenly become the center of the entire enterprise management activities?
Come, give me five minutes, and I'm done.
1. "Profit" is only a restriction on business operation, not a starting point
That's right, in the past theory and common sense, the brand is only a technical and creative small section of the work of the enterprise in all aspects, it bears the responsibility of packaging and "bragging", and is the "mouthpiece" of the enterprise.
In the past, we ran a business, and "profit" became the axis of enterprise management. All the operation and management work of the enterprise revolves around "profit", yes, there is no typo here, it is the "profit" of "winning benefits". The management, organization, and operation of most enterprises seem to revolve around "win" and "profit". "Profit" is the biggest top level of a company, especially a Chinese start-up company. In the enterprise, no matter what you say, in short, "the person who can take the order is the greatest", "the person who can win is the greatest", and "the person who can make money is the greatest".
Is that really the case?
Why is it becoming more and more difficult for enterprises to make money? Why is it becoming more and more troublesome to manage management? Why do the post-90s and post-00s generations come out to rectify the workplace at every turn?
Looking through all the management textbooks and all the books of Mr. Drucker, the only answer we can find is that profit is not the starting point and purpose of enterprise and enterprise activities, but a limiting factor of enterprise operation. Profit is not the reason for the enterprise to make corporate decisions, but the index of the acceptance of a qualified enterprise.
In other words, "profit" is only the bottom line of an enterprise, not the starting point and the end point. In other words, an enterprise that set off for "win" and "profit" at the beginning is destined to go short.
Because "profit" is not the real motivation that should drive a person or a business at all. Those who take this as the motivation to run a business often have a rough mentality like "revenge" against the world, and management under this mentality is completely wrong from the beginning.
Let's take a look at the symptoms and manifestations of using "profit" as the main axis and core of enterprise management: in the short term, the iron army gathers, morale is high, in order to win opponents, in order to make money, the efficiency is very high. Simple and efficient, with a simple purpose. But it won't be long before we find that the organization begins to have problems, some people can't wait to leave without making money, and some people feel that they are disheartened when they make money. In some enterprises that are doing well, once they are mixed and listed, the managers have to fight their own battles and start personnel struggles to protect the interests of their gangs. In terms of organizational efficiency, everyone set the goal as "profit", which was very efficient at first, but soon entered a state of overcrowding, unclear direction, and unclear strategy. Some people think about sacrificing their immediate interests for long-term development, while others think that they are fools if they don't make money in front of them. Often the CEO sits in the middle and lacks a basis for judgment, so in the end he can only mediate, and both sides appease the matter.
In Drucker's words: as long as an employee regards profit as the purpose of the enterprise, he will think that there is a basic difference between his own interests and the interests of the enterprise, and firmly believe that he has created profits.
When I say this, I'm certainly not attacking a business for making money. Operating and profit, which is the bottom line of a business enterprise, is a limiting factor. In other words, without good management and profits, the business is doomed. However, is the passing mark equal to a perfect score? Is an excellent high-achieving student a high-achieving student because he is "determined to pass" on the first day of admission?
From the first day of our enterprise, we will "aspire to pass" as the highest principle and starting point of the enterprise. Many of its management and management actions will revolve around "finding a way" to pass. Anyway, it is a passing grade, and there are ways and means. "Plagiarism", "grinding guns in battle", "mixing if you can", in this way, the road taken by this company is basically "slipping down".
No matter how diligent tactically it is, without its highest ambition and the central axis of the highest level, it can only fall into the volume of inefficiency.
The essential difference between "doing business" and "doing business" is actually here.
2. What exactly is the brand I am talking about?
Why can the brand become the central axis of the company's operation? What do I mean by brand?
In the two words brand, there are actually two things. One thing: distillation and extraction of the core of the enterprise. One thing: the application and diffusion of this kernel.
Both things have to be done well to be called a brand. As for whether the brand has been made or not, it can be verified by the seven elements of the brand. The work of the seven elements sounds simple, but it has to be related to all aspects of business operation and management. Therefore, it is almost impossible to rely solely on the power of brand directors in the traditional sense to promote the derivation and construction of the brand.
The real chief brand officer of a company should be the founder or CEO, at least the CEO.
Compared with other management and operation work, the most important thing for a CEO to spend time is to figure out the "core" of the enterprise. Otherwise, if there are "experienced" experts involved in every job, and the experts use the experience and models of past work to push things forward and ask for resources, how can the CEO find his own position?
With the central axis and backbone, the CEO has a clear proposition in every piece of work, and the people engaged in this position will also be clear about what the direction of their work is, what the principle is, and then mainly to give full play to their own skills and expertise. At the same time, managers and CEOs do not have to chase everything to the bones, so that the people who do things are driven crazy by the executives chasing details, and even simply lose the initiative of the supervisor and become passive "workers".
We should continue to think about one thing, how did the O (goal) of OKR come about? Why is this O not the other O? Where does the top of the enterprise want to go? What is the difference between the personality of our company and other peer enterprises? What is our temperament? What will we not do? What will we definitely do? Who in this group will be respected and rewarded by this company? Who must be unsuitable and will be purged from the organization? Do you really believe what the top management of this company says?
The questions I have listed are by no means alarmist, these are the sincere words that every employee silently holds in their hearts, and they are the content that many managers selectively ignore.
If an enterprise is full of slogans and slogans, and managers are full of strategic goals and customer orientation, but it falls on employees, everyone silently prays that the meeting will end soon, thinking that what you say is the ghost of the faith. When it comes to the organization, it is still the employees who can take the order as the uncle, and the other employees who are also creating value revolve around the single employee, and the single employee revolves around the boss's preferences. Then, no matter how many meetings they have and how many times they say it, this company still has no real brand awareness.
Branding, not even a technology, or even a job. It's more of a kind of underlying thinking and an ambition.
3. How has the brand changed from ancient times to the present?
Brands certainly weren't like that on day one. The earliest brand is a foreign product, called Brand in English, and the etymology is the Old Norse word Brandr (burning brand). At that time, the brand was a symbol, a tool for selling goods. All it takes is a flaming brand to put a snap on the cow's butt, and that's proof that it's your cow, and it's used to distinguish you from someone else's. Your stuff can be discovered early and sold for a better price.
But the brand is constantly evolving with the development of the times, and the later brand has become an asset of the enterprise, and the brand is one of the capabilities of the enterprise, and we have a brand, so we are more valuable. We have the power to market our brand.
Later, the brand developed into a feeling, a people-oriented experience economy, at this time, the brand crazy representative "customer", customer needs and customer success were crazy mentioned,
But today, the brand has come to a new and more perfect stage and entered the cycle of value co-construction. At this time, the brand is not the brand's own, but it is built with customers, relationship and values have become the key words of the brand, and growth and trust have become the axis of brand management.
This article was originally published by @李倩说品牌 on Everyone is a Product Manager and is not allowed to be reproduced without permission
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