Branding defined
12th April 2006 by Anders Gronstedt
From Building Brands comes this parable about the power of branding (I took some liberties with it):
You go to a party and you see an attractive girl across the room. You go up to her and say, “Hi, I’m great in bed, how about it?”
That’s Advertising.You go to a party and you see an attractive girl across the room. You talk to a friend about it. She goes up and says “Hi, my friend over there is great in bed, how about it?”
That’s Media Relations.You go to a party and see an attractive girl across the room. You recognize her. You walk up to her, refresh her memory and get her to laugh and giggle and then suggest, “Hi, I’m great in bed, how about it?”
That’s Public RelationsYou go to a party and you see an attractive girl across the room. You stand straight, you talk soft and smooth, you open the door for the ladies, you smile like a dream, you set an aura around you playing the Mr. Gentleman and then you move up to the girl and say, “Hi, I’m great in bed, how about it?”
That’s Selling.You go to a party, you see an attractive girl across the room. SHE COMES OVER and says, “Hi, I hear you’re great in bed, how about it?”
Now THAT is the power of Branding.
April 25th, 2006 at 1:04 pm
You go to a party, have a few drinks, and then you walk home. You climb to the top of a rooftop and shout at the top of your lungs, “I’m great in bed!”
That’s Spam.
April 27th, 2006 at 6:37 am
[...] T his joke is milleniums old, but worth repeating, as Anders did a couple of weeks ago. [...]
April 27th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
[...] Following on yetserday’s quick analysis of branding getting slammed in the media, I found this little blurb on the IABC website - posted by Anders Gronstedt. It is a reworking of an old joke, but made me chuckle just the same… You go to a party and you see an attractive girl across the room. You go up to her and say, “Hi, I’m great in bed, how about it?” That’s Advertising. [...]
May 26th, 2006 at 6:59 am
A joke it may be but it is a great way of explaining brand marketing. I was tempted to add a line about viral marketing but thought better of it.
June 27th, 2006 at 8:30 am
Cute joke, but it elides the important relationship between advertising and branding. Think about it for a moment. Who defines brands? Who develops brand essence? Not communicators, advertisers. And that’s a shame in so many ways. Communications is too often left in the position of explaining the brand once the agency has left, rather than helping to shape it while the form is still fluid.
June 28th, 2006 at 8:52 am
The point I’d like to add in response to the original joke is that “branding” resides in the mind of the customer (or in the case of the punchline, “the attractive girl.” In my experience, branding is used as a verb rather than a noun and it’s a misuse based on misunderstanding. What companies do is advertise, discount prices and use PR…the branding is not so much the tools you use but the effect that you create within people’s minds when those tools are applied. There are a million ineffective branding campaigns across all marketing disciplines because they fail to achieve “mind share” (another frequently misused term but that’s another story).