One voice, one sound, one outmoded idea
17th May 2007 by Angelo Fernando
Back in the eighties, a person I knew suggested that everyone’s business card should not look the same. “Why should everyone in the organization look so homogeneous?” he would debate, baiting me since I worked at an ad agency. This was a time when ’synergy’ had the buzzword status we now give words like ‘engagement.’ My friend didn’t get taken seriously by many agency people (including me) but his question always came back to haunt me.
We still create campaigns making sure they reflect the brand vis-a-vis typography, pantones, photostyling, white space etc. We still live by these ideas, because, as brand people would say, we have to be consistent ..er, ’synergistic.’
But do we?
A lot has changed since Rosser Reeves’ USP, and David Ogilvy laid down the rules. With such radical ideas as Brand Jamming, and Synergy has been sent to the back of the class, with the multitude of media, executions and fragmented audiences. I’m not trying to make an argument for complete branding anarchy, but consider some of the realities:
1. The Agency of Record model is on its last legs, as organizations turn to a multitude of agencies and specialists who take care of separate parcels of work. These include direct mail, event marketing, SEO and microsites, packaging, PR etc. There is no one agency that handles the whole enchilada.
2. Logos come in a variety of formats and –horrors– even colors! Take a look at Yahoo’s purple logo. Or isn’t it a red logo?
3. Companies are enlisting customers to come up with communication and creativity, departing from the old rigor of staying ‘one brand.’ Consumer generated content is not a ‘plague on the house of advertising‘ as many have come to realize. Rather, its a way to let consumers define what their brand means to them, and not let brand managers decide that. From custom-built sneakers to packaged goods, personalization means losing control of some key elements of a brand. Likewise, company blogs have more collective brand power than a lot of advertising. As one observer puts it, “if unbundled media is where we’re headed, then unbundled advertising must necessarily follow.”
Should brands loosen up? Are we hanging on to a concept that does not relate to those we are communicating with?