I have a branding dilemma. There’s a clue in the title of this piece but before I share it with you I want to briefly explore the power and pervasiveness of a brand.
The Reach Of A Brand
Brands become something beyond themselves and the products that they provide. Nowadays if you want to give a carpet the once over you might refer to getting the Dyson out. The brand Dyson encapsulates the values of functionality combined with beauty and quality, and customers have forged an affinity with the product as a brand. The product Dyson has quickly become a noun.
For the years before James Dyson revolutionised that industry, if you wanted to vacuum the living room carpet you would use a Hoover. Not a vacuum cleaner, but a Hoover. History repeats itself. And whenever you found yourself hoovering the floor it was with a product that became a noun that had morphed into a verb. Just like Google now. “Google it.”
All Things Considered
Take the iPod (a product) from Apple (the company). Because of the iPod’s extreme success and subsequent ubiquity all mp3 players are generically termed and grouped as iPods. (And before the Apple aficionados lift their digits to put me right on this I just mean that the product line has become so successful that the iPod as a brand in its own right probably supersedes the brand Apple in that area.) No-one talks about their Apple iPod. There is no need. The product has become the brand, leapfrogging the company name.
Which leads to my dilemma. My brand is ‘Iain Smith Coaching’ – it’s fairly straightforward it includes my name and tells you what I do. The value of the brand increases as clients recommend me and my reputation spreads. So far, so simple. But here’s an interesting thing. In the New Year I’ll be publishing a book on Time Management called ‘The Priority Principle’ which, fingers crossed, will be a success and a platform for various products and services using the same name.
So here’s the dilemma. Do I continue as Iain Smith Coaching and offer the book as a product or do I rebrand using The Priority Principle as the company and the product? I’ll concede that although it is on a slightly lesser scale than Apple and its iPod, my situation is just as relevant in the context of branding.
Forever And Ever, Amen?
What are my clients and customers more likely to foster a long lasting relationship with – the product or the person? Traditionally in my industry of Coaching and Personal Development the sharp suited self help guru (God help him!) is often both the brand and the product. The consumer buys into a personality and goes home with a set of DVDs.
Of course whether I promote The Priority Principle as person or product it won’t dictate my success or otherwise, (I’m relying solely on Saturn’s transit through Libra for that success, as well as inner peace). But the key question here is how closely aligned can you ensure your company is to the product or service it provides? For certain sectors of society Apple is the iPod, Dyson is the vacuum cleaner but let me ask you how many people are still confused by the relationship between Ocado and Waitrose? And don’t even get me started on the gulfs between what Royal Mail and the Post Office are or are not.
Your brand is you, your company and your product and how those facets interact with the customer. It’s worth knowing which is which, and how each is seen.
Cover image source: Zhang Kenny