A Lasting Image or a Fleeting Brand?
by Tracy Wymer, Managing Director, SPACE

The business waters are always flooded with buzzwords. The one saturating the last few years is branding, a concept more applicable to cattle than corporations. The seminal projection of an organization's essence is image. A corporate image is lasting, evolving and reflective of an inherent core that manifests itself through broad communication avenues. A lasting image is organic; it grows, while an applied brand appears contrived.

Olivetti for years projected an image that reflected a culture, a gestalt of management, manufacturing, marketing, and family. "To speak…of an Olivetti style is not to refer to a particular manner of expression, to a specific school or movement, but to the company's ability to be vitally in tune with the cultural thrust of its times." Olivetti was able to foster a timely message maintaining the ability to adapt. Their fall from prominence came at the hands of mergers and acquisitions that diluted their message. As Philip Dusenberry said, "Consumers don't abandon brands. Brands abandon consumers."

A strong image is manufactured into the products, built into the environment and lived throughout the organization. Every piece of paper, promotion, sales receipt, lobby, restroom, product, cafeteria, web site or packaging should embody the soul of the organization. An image grows organically as the organization matures and evolves and as the nature of the business evolves. It is a difficult thing to dictate, easy to recognize, and requires attention to foster. It is a conscious act that is the product of visionary leadership.

An image is usually reserved for tangible, visible items, but it also is reflected in the manner an organization carries itself, it's dealings with employees, the service to the community, the care for the environment. Stringent rules limit exploration, but a framework of character must be provided that promotes growth. Foremost for business organizations, a strong image promotes customer loyalty, encourages retention in the right employees, and stimulates innovation.

Today we have branding strategies to reinforce the brand. Too often that strategy is needed because the sole is missing, and the rules for branding outweigh the foundation. The defined core becomes strategic when it enables an organization to attract the right personnel, the right customer, the right client. A well-projected image attracts the appropriate workforce lessening the need for aggressive recruiting.

"We were harvesting our brands, not investing in them." - Philip-Van Huesen CEO, Bruce Klatsky observed relative to his company. Maximizing the yield without re-investing is a subtraction process thereby diminishing an image. Building an image requires some guidelines, the structure should not be stifling, and it should allow for growth and evolution.

Reinforcing a strong image is a plan for the long term, looking towards the future and not panicking over the present. Allow your integrity drive you to success, understand who you are, project that by your actions, and live the image you have defined. Creating a lasting message for your organization that transcends your business cycles, something that endures beyond the here and now, is an investment in your own image, and an investment in your organization's future.

*Article Copyright of Tracy Wymer