Management 201: Brand Like the Big Kids Do

Having worked in the heart of the Silicon Valley and San Francisco startup scene, I’ve seen a lot of companies with new ideas, new looks, and new approaches. I have also seen those companies grow over time to become the behemoths we now know as Apple, facebook, Amazon, Google, LinkedIn, and many others.

But when you think of those big kid tech firms, apart from their products or services, what else stands out to you?

It’s their brand.

Brand offers a type of synergy for both company and customer alike. For the company, it’s a unifying factor for employees. (You ever wonder why employees don’t wear your company branded clothing? It might be that your brand image is poor.) For the customer, a strong brand instills confidence and promotes the feeling of longevity. (If you’ve lost deals, ask the prospect for a copy of the competitors presentation and compare it to yours.)

As a corporate creative director (designer) pushing over 20+ years, I’ve observed a constant struggle for non-design leaders (sales, marketing, engineering) to utilize the corporate brand in their groups. This struggle is often because brand really isn’t in their “wheel-house”. So the result is fall-back design (using work from previous companies they worked for), department level re-design (ignoring brand and making something from scratch), or letting non-design teams create an asset without brand input.

The result is often a jumbled, disjointed mess. To gauge where you might land, visit your company website, download a datasheet, get a copy of a customer presentation, and have a look at your product UI or product packaging. 

Put your virtual thumb over the asset logos and what do you see? If your samples all look like they came from different companies, chances are branding isn’t a priority with your company.

So as a leader, a director, a vice-president, a chief officer how can you reign brand in and present a strong brand force? Here’s 7 easy steps.

1. Get past the idea you are creative

Being creative is an attribute everyone wants to have. But putting that creativity to practical use so that it impacts brand (revenue, customer perception, etc) is something entirely more than just being creative. Steve Jobs was an amazing brand manager, but he didn’t create Apple’s brand we know of today. Someone else had to do the work. Rob Janoff of Regis McKenna designed the logo for Apple. Jony Ives is responsible today for everything that is the Apple brand. The take away here is, as a manager, you don’t have to make the brand to manage a successful brand.

2. And let the design team do the work

The biggest lament of designers across the globe is the mutual feeling of being a “tool.” It means that the designer feels like they are being utilized NOT for their skillsets but because they know how to use a computer program.

You ever see a manager sitting right next to the designer and offering minute by minute, step by step input? Are you guilty of this?

There’s a Steve Jobs meme online with a quote “It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” 

A good designer WILL tell you (nicely), “Hey, 15 colors in the logo isn’t such a great idea because…” or “I know you like this font but it makes us look like we’re stuck in 1980.” Don't ignore their feedback.

Designers have an inherent sense about what your customers want to see. So unless you are ready to fire them now or go to art school yourself, step back and let them work… on everything.

3. Don’t get caught in the boredom trap

As much as people hate change, customers hate it more - because it creates confusion. Imagine if you walked into a grocery store and wanted to buy a bottle of Coca-Cola. But unbeknownst to you, Coke changed it’s branding from red to… blue.

Would you have trouble finding it in the store?

And yet I’ve seen managers change brand in cycles as low as 2 years!

And the logic? We need a change, it’s boring. As employees we see our brands day in and day out and yes, we could say it’s boring to look at everyday. 

But to new customers, it’s still new and to existing customers it’s reliable, it’s dependable, it’s constant. And like seeing familiar brands in a grocery store, your brand is just that to your customers.

4. If it’s trendy, don’t do it

For 2019, the next big design trend is adding bubbles. Bubble logos, bubble themed and shaped websites, bubble UI styles. It’s going to be huge. So get your design teams together now and let’s make sure it’s on everything.

I’m kidding. Please don’t do that.

Trends in design are fun, but great brand is timeless. As much as we liked the jelly look of everything in the late 1990s, it’s a dated theme now. If your brand hinges on trends, it will become dated quite quickly. Most ground up branding initiatives already take close to a full year to implement – that’s one year for the logo, the website, all the collateral, all the product packaging, all the sales material. 

A lot can change in a year. Trends will. Being trendy WILL put your brand behind.

5. Keep it simple

When you think of iconic, big company brands are there a myriad of colors? Different font styles? How about 3D? Twirls, odd shapes, glowing things? No, no, and no. Pretty much all of the flagship brands are very simple - simple color palettes, simple shapes, simple layouts, and simple user interfaces. The simplicity is divine. Embrace simplicity.

6. Think synergy

This was a term from back in the 80s... and I loved it. It's the business concept of the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. With branding, this is an unmovable truth. When we look at the major brands we see patterns. It's the same logo on everything from the website to the stress ball giveaways at a show. It's the same colors everywhere from ads online to corporate fleet vehicles. It's the same presence on everything and everywhere. And that my friends creates the energy, the excitement... the brand. And that thought alone needs to permeate all levels of management. Brand-broken companies will struggle because the customers will question who they are buying from and employees will wonder who they are working for. But brand-strong companies... they create loyalty across the board.

That type of synergy only comes from a commitment to brand.

7. Burn into your mind that branding makes money

If you put the best product possible into the ugliest package on the shelf, what are the odds it will be picked up off the shelf and sold? Low, extremely low. Think clearance aisle low. Wine.com published some interesting findings recently... "[In] 82 percent of instances, the survey respondents admitted that they made their selections based on the appearance of the labels." The word "selections" in that quote ultimately means sales. Sales not based on what varietal or region that is the wine pedigree but rather how appealing the label, bottle, and foil cap looked!

Now think, what if one took a REALLY great wine and paired it with a REALLY nice package? Money. Bottom-line.

So why burn so many dollars on marketing, product development and sales if your offering looks like it belongs in the clearance bin?

There you have it. Seven tips for management to brand like the big kids. I hope this article offered some respectful insights into the world of brand and assists you in your career as a leader. If anything your design and brand teams will love you more.