Published April 2005

Grow your brand
by delivering real value

Brand management isn’t just for big corporations whose product names are household words. It is important for any business of any size.

Fortunately, brand management is more about thinking than it is about spending big bucks. Smaller firms don’t usually have the opportunity to spend their way into a brand management success or disaster, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t learn something from the companies that do. The great thing about big-budget brand management decisions is that we just have to read the news to see how they work out.

General Motors, for example, seems to be driving over a cliff with its management of the Saab brand. Over the years, Saab drivers have been famously loyal to the car, which, despite its individualistic — some might say quirky — designs, had earned a reputation for solid engineering.

GM has fully controlled Saab since 2000 and is currently running television advertisements that try to tap into the Swedish car’s individualistic appeal. The ads show people surrounded by an oppressive, boring “sameness” — dozens of identical black cases on an airline luggage carousel, for example — and exhorts them to assert their individuality — by buying a Saab, naturally.

The television spots are good, and make good sense in terms of reinforcing the brand’s image and the automobile’s traditional appeal to buyers who want something different. The problem is that other strategic decisions made by GM are undermining the foundations of the Saab brand loyalty.

One of the newest Saab models, for example, the SUV model designated the 9-7x, bears a remarkable resemblance to the Chevy Trailblazer, and it will actually come off the same assembly line in Ohio. The Saab versions will have their ignition switches repositioned from the steering column to the console between the front seats — one of those traditional quirks beloved by Saab drivers — and receive some suspension tweaking and interior decor enhancements, but otherwise, it’s pretty much the same vehicle you would find on your Chevy dealer’s lot.

Well, it’s the same except for the sticker. Saab buyers will be expected to pony up over $10,000 more for the vehicle than Chevy buyers. Apparently, that is the current market price of individuality these days, at least according to GM’s calculations.

GM is further undermining the Saab brand by distancing it from its Swedish roots. The company’s most recent strategic decision, for example, will result in Saab’s midsize sedans being produced in Germany.

GM’s management of the Saab brand strongly suggests that it is being milked for its current cash-flow value and has no permanent place in the parent company’s overall strategy.

A huge corporation like GM can probably survive the blowback from this kind of brand management. But it is hard to believe that the overall brand value of GM will not be weakened by substituting feathery concepts such as advertising-based “individuality” for actual value delivered to the customer.

What can smaller companies learn from this? For companies of any size, brand management comes down to communicating values and expectations accurately to actual and potential customers. If we don’t do that, a bigger marketing budget simply makes a bigger mess.

There is an easy way to remember all you need to know about brand management: “consistent WYSIWYG.” One of the most important things a smaller business can do is to ensure that the company name is short, easy to remember and conveys something about who you are, where you are and what you do. This is WYSIWYG, or What You See Is What You Get. This concept was always important, but the influence of e-commerce, Web sites and search engines makes it doubly so.

A business should use color to reinforce the customer’s awareness and memory of the firm and its name. The choice of color and color combinations should be consistent with your product or service positioning in the market and also consistent throughout the business. This consistency — the invoices and stationery have the same color trim as the building, the product packaging, the Web site and the clerk’s T-shirt — sends a more powerful, and memorable, message than we sometimes realize.

Pricing, too, should be consistent with the brand identity. If you are selling a luxury good or white-glove service, for example, be careful about offering discounts or cut-rate prices — but consistently deliver peerless customer service.

Most important, though, is to remember that your brand is simply a way to show yourself, your firm, and your products and services to the world. From GM to the neighborhood dry cleaners, if you deliver real value to your customers, the value of the brand will grow. If you don’t, it won’t. It’s as easy, and as difficult, as that.

James McCusker, a Bothell economist, educator and small-business consultant, writes “Your Business” in The Herald each Sunday. He can be reached by sending e-mail to otisrep@aol.com.

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