I love this quote from my late friend Colin Morley, who was killed in the 7-7 bombings, in this second part of my tribute to him. Colin was discussing how brands summed up a company’s proposition: ‘That shared picture creates a network of like minded individuals, united by something mystical that they find hard to put into words, however good the words are in the brand manifesto.’
   Colin was always ahead of his time. It dawned on me later that he meant that a brand was formed not because of a head office rule, but because everyone has a certain picture of it. They, in turn, are combined into a larger picture. For each company, branding success comes when the head office picture and the overall picture are the same—and in most cases, they are not.
   No one can plan a brand to create a mystical unity. That has to come only from the people that the brand touches. So when Colin says that the brand manifesto may have great words, they cannot form that mystique.
   Instead, there is a bit of luck and preempting involved. Today, I believe social responsibility is a way to stir the soul. But it could be something else again in six months. It has to be so compelling, so universal, so truthful and so human that we unite. Once upon a time, the nation or the monarch did that, as part of a nation brand. Now, we look for the next big thing, be it an organization or a Web 2·0 community—the latter being the most human structures we have been able to re-create online.

Del.icio.us tags: brand branding mystique social responsibility CSR nation brand Colin Morley Posted by Jack Yan, 13:51  permalink

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