Nine Ways to Fix a Broken Brand

Fifth, create a new subbrand. Nike is a big brand -- but Air Jordan is a tremendously successful subbrand. Toyota is a big brand -- but Lexus is such a successful subbrand that most car buyers don't even think of it as the child of a parent company (which may be the best compliment you can pay any subbrand).

7. My brand is immature.

The Internet bubble was on the verge of bursting when I found myself speaking before a gathering of high-flying Silicon Valley techies. Flush with stock options and thrilled with their startups, they wanted to know how to make their brand-new brands into overnight hits. My advice to them: Think like a parent. Raising a great brand is like raising a great kid. And that means you need to be patient. (It wasn't what they wanted to hear.)

Great brands take steady guidance, a long view, and uncompromising values. Brands, like children, absorb the qualities of those who nurture them. Like children, brands thrive in an inspiring, caring, learning environment where they are respected, protected, and understood. When raising a brand, be consistent and committed. The shuffling of brand responsibilities and the management churn within organizations can easily produce a troubled brand. It takes time for a brand to develop its own values and personality. Good brand stewards, like good parents, build values into their brands that help them grow and endure. Great brands outlive their creators -- just like kids. And if you do your job right, they can make you proud.

8. My brand has been reduced to a commodity.

If you ignore it long enough, you can take a perfectly vital brand and reduce it to a commodity. Think coffee before there was a Starbucks. Sure, there were big coffee sellers back then. But instead of delivering a great coffee experience, those sellers delivered whatever was needed to keep the grocery chains happy. They cut costs wherever they could and stacked their products high at the ends of grocery aisles -- walls of green and red tin that reduced a once-great product to a commodity.

If that's what has happened to your product, then here's what you don't do: Don't throw money at the problem. If the dotcom era taught us anything, it's that brand awareness isn't the same as brand strength. Even the best advertising can't create something that isn't there.

My advice is first to set your sights high. Great brand builders don't just reinvent the product, they see themselves as protagonists for an entire category. That's what Nike did with sneakers, Starbucks did with coffee, and Southwest Airlines did with flying.

Second, elevate your product. If you want to be more than a commodity, offer a unique product that is unique and so much better than the rest of the field that it can't be considered a commodity. Is Krispy Kreme just a doughnut? Third, offer more than the product. Create an experience around it and pay attention to the details. Everything matters.

And fourth, remember that the company is the brand. Customers are looking through the product to your values and how you do business. Today, the difference between similar products may be corporate reputation.

9. My brand isn't cool.

"Cool" and "edge" are dangerous words. Dan Wieden is right when he tells clients who want "edgy" work that having edge means that someone gets cut. Contrary to what some people may think, Nike does not set out to be cool. It knows that cool is defined by its customers -- not by some people in Beaverton, Oregon. Be careful not to worship cool. It's a false god.

Given where the world is going, I recommend that companies be more concerned with their karma than with being cool. As a society, our concerns about the effects that globalization has on cultures and the environment will only intensify, and the bar for corporate behavior will rise. I expect that we'll look to our most trusted brands, big and small, to help reduce the enormous gap that exists between profits and benevolence.

It's a new brand world out there. We are just starting to see the issues and opportunities associated with brand karma. However it evolves, I do know that strong karma will develop after years of doing the right thing: being honest and principled and being respectful of customers, employees, and the environment. Brands like Nike and Starbucks took lightning bolts early on because they were highly visible, global, and influential -- and because they care. These companies aren't perfect, but I'm confident that they will help write a much-needed new chapter on brand management. They will prove that big doesn't have to be bad, that profits are only one measure of success, and that great brands can use their unique superhuman powers for good.

Now that would be cool.

Scott Bedbury (scott@brandstream.com) helped build both Nike and Starbucks into brand leaders before launching Brandstream, his own branding consultancy. His book, A New Brand World: 8 Principles for Achieving Brand Leadership in the 21st Century (Viking, March 2002), written with Stephen Fenichell, will soon be available in bookstores.