Where is brand strategy heading?

Brand strategy is moving from 'ego-depletion' to a social process built on connection, meaning and happiness.

The world around us is changing faster and faster. New technology shapes our behaviour. In the 18th century we were still working the land; in the 19th century we moved en masse into factories. During the post-war boom, televisions entered our homes and we watched more and more advertising. That's how large — often international — brands came into being.

By now we've left the factories again and moved into services. The internet entered our lives; we are mobile, connected 24/7, sharing with friends and the world what we do and what we believe in, and we are well on our way to 'the internet of things'.

The world is changing. Where does that leave the brand?

"Goodness is the only investment that never fails." — Henry Thoreau

From Kotler to Sinek

Let's go back briefly to the last decade of the previous century. Branding then was about Kotler's marketing mix: product, place, promotion and price. Brand managers positioned brands, segmented customers and developed products. They made advertising and promotion campaigns with agencies. But above all they spent a lot of time crunching numbers — money, GRPs, distribution, penetration and loyalty ratios.

Capturing mental space in the minds of the target audience was the central idea.

Around the year 2000, the field broadened. The brand was no longer purely an outward instrument for growing market share — it also became important internally. Increasingly, it was seen as a guiding concept for the entire organisation.

Mission, vision and cultural values as part of the brand gained importance. In recent years we've seen Simon Sinek's golden circle thinking become enormously popular in boardrooms. Purpose thinking is being embraced more and more widely.

We have now entered a new phase in which brands are becoming social. Social media, webcare, content marketing and engagement have become the new reality. Traditional and print media are in serious trouble and it's unclear how they will survive.

Brands like Tesla, Netflix, Uber and Meerkat are growing explosively worldwide without using traditional media. Digital technology allows users to share their experiences and activities.

The future of branding

Squinting into the distance — with a little imagination — we can already make out the contours of the next phase in the development of branding. I'm no fortune-teller, of course, and things might still turn out differently. But right now, I don't think they will.

What's striking is that we are still collectively searching for new meaning. The large-scale dismantling of traditional social structures in the second half of the last century has caused the old forms of social cohesion to more or less disappear.

Where do you belong? Who are you? Where do you derive your identity from? It might be the sports club or the circle of friends you belong to. And the brands you use — your clothes, car or bicycle.

But for many people, their daily work and their employer are still a reality in which they spend a great deal of time. What meaningful purpose does work offer, beyond a salary?

90% are not engaged

It is also striking that a great many people are not happy at work. According to Gallup, on average around 10% of Dutch employees are engaged at work, 80% are not engaged, and 10% are actively disengaged.

The Netherlands is, of course, a very happy country — we rank 7th in the World Happiness Report 2015 — but that apparently has little to do with the pleasure and involvement people experience at work.

According to the report, individual happiness is primarily driven by social connection, health, freedom to make one's own choices, gratitude, low corruption and good governance. This strikes me as remarkable, because these topics are also highly relevant in a work context.

Happy companies perform better

When we are asked by clients to develop a brand strategy aimed at improving external image, we consistently see a direct relationship between internal and external sentiment.

If the image is unfavourable and customers are less satisfied, this is often a reflection of negative internal dynamics.

Numerous studies have now explored the relationship between business performance and employee happiness. It comes as no surprise, then, that happy companies perform better — because people do better work, and as a result customers are more satisfied too.

A new outward-facing brand strategy, or even a full rebrand, cannot adequately resolve a depressed internal situation.

The real question is: how can a brand strategy actively contribute to increasing the internal experience of happiness? How do you start steering towards happiness?

The rise of 'positive' in academia

The rise of happiness is not confined to branding. We see this phenomenon emerging across all kinds of fields.

Think of the Institute for Positive Design at TU Delft, which initiates and stimulates the development of knowledge to support designers who want to make people happy.

Or Harvard Medical School, where Positive Psychology has been taught since 1998 — the scientific study of optimal human functioning. It is currently the most popular course in the entire history of Harvard University.

The Harvard Business Review regularly publishes articles on happiness, wellbeing and productivity. The January 2012 issue was devoted entirely to the topic, demonstrating that subjects like 'The Happiness Factor', 'Creating Sustainable Performance', 'Positive Intelligence' and 'The History of Happiness' are important parts of a new economic movement.

Corporate responsibility as the norm

More and more organisations are implementing socially responsible policies — because multiple studies have now shown that responsible business practices lead to better financial performance, both in the short and long term. 'Doing good' for people and the environment leads to 'doing well' financially.

The Benefit Corporation model, which came from America, also appears unstoppable in Europe. Research shows that B Corps perform considerably better. Moreover, B Corps score significantly higher on customer and employee satisfaction surveys.

The successful chocolate brand Tony's Chocolonely became the second B Corp in the Netherlands after Pymwymic. The brand grew by fifty percent for three consecutive years and received the Great Place to Work award this year. And last week, Triodos Bank became the first Dutch bank to earn the B Corp designation.

Happiness in your brand strategy — how do you approach it?

Slightly ahead of all these developments, leadership teams would do well to already start building the bridge between brand and organisational culture.

Without going too deep into the how in this article, here is a starting point — the minimum steps you should follow:

• Involve as many employees and customers as possible. Treat it as a social, co-creative intervention. Behaviour cannot be imposed from above; people need to want it themselves. Positive behaviour must become a habit.
• Ensure a shared and transparent process. Make the entire process transparent, with no secrets in the boardroom. Share the steps and substantive findings on, for example, a social intranet. Enable employees to respond and engage in dialogue.
• Connect through emotions and keep it light. When you touch the brand, you touch the people. The brand belongs to everyone. Leadership means listening to sentiments and ideas, and finding connection together.
• Develop a story that inspires. Create content that truly touches hearts. That goes beyond a tagline or elevator pitch. A compelling story that explains how you are going to make the world better — and why that matters.
• Thoroughly adapt behaviour and brand expression. A story alone is not enough. You will need to be willing to start doing new things. Not just a new advertising campaign, but give your customers and employees new experiences that genuinely matter. Ensure that happy habits start to emerge within the organisation.
• Research and share developments in customer and employee happiness. Ensure the right tracking of results. How do you measure happiness? What are the underlying parameters and what is their individual influence? Which levers can you pull to increase happiness further?

Alexander Koene

BR-ND People

Amsterdam, 6 May 2015