Defending your brand...against the devil?

Procter & Gamble has won a lawsuit to the order of $19M USD against 4 people who were spreading rumors that the brand supported satanic worship. These folks intended to damage P&G's brand because they worked for a rival company.

We've all heard the urban myth about the P&G logo, but it is comforting to know that in this day and age of people saying just about whatever they want about brands--especially online--that some brand stewards will defend their brand equity and fight to protect their brands against slander.

Way to go P&G!

New branding forum

There's a new forum with discussion threads dedicated to brands and branding topics over at www.BrandTrellis.com/forum.

Message boards currently include the topics:
Branding Blogs & Websites
Branding Basics
Jobs & Employment
Advertising & Media
Logo & Identity Topics
Entrepreneurial/Small Business Branding
and
Brand Rants & Raves

Hopefully the forum will catch on and be a great meeting place for brand marketers and those with an interest in business branding.

Consumer-generated ads

Is it just me or are there others of you out there who believe that consumer-generated ads are a result of marketing and brand managers who either have no clue how to manage their brands or are just plain lazy?

The Brand Pathway

Denise Lee Yohn has developed a very useful model for understanding your brand and then translating it into customer experiences. Her model is called The Brand Pathway.

On the continuum from Company Mission to Customer Experience, her steps are to answer the following questions about your brand:

1) What is our mission?
2) What business are we in?
3) What is our core belief?
4) What are our essential equities?
5) What are our differentiating attributes?
6) What is our persoanlity and style?
7) What is the customer experience?

Denise's pathway is certainly a solid model to help you understand the bare bones basics about what branding is all about. Start with a deep understanding of who and what you are, make specific promises of value, and then translate it all into exceptional customer experiences. This is truly a refreshing, back-to-basics take on banding.