folks, just read the posting about AIGA redefining what a 'designer' is. [which pretty much looks like it was lifted right from their site, which is another story.] but as the former prez of two chapters, and a former national board member, i'm pleased to see some design space here on the 'hole site. and having just come back from the biannual aiga conference, i'm still on overload.

and then i see mr. iva's spot-on comment about 'most designers saying they are into branding' these days. which chaps my ass as much as it does his, no doubt. to take one sentence from the article below, "much of this talk about branding is a crock--we've watered the term down and misused it to the point where it now hardly means anything".

i hope that the article's author, David Baker, of Recourses (recourses.com) won't mind my spreading his word. David is brilliant and his group does great work. read the article. check out his site. fight the good fight. --------------------------

Branding Is Not a Differentiator by David Baker

Look at web sites for your competitors and you'll have to search everywhere before you find one that doesn't trumpet branding as something they specialize in. Branding as a concept has been around for decades, but branding as a word has become ubiquitous in the last decade and it is no longer a differentiator. Even if you are in the minority and really practice branding authentically, the overuse of the term can rob your positioning of the substance you need to "make yourself real" (if I can borrow from the Velveteen Rabbit).

So branding as a concept is more valid than it ever has been, and clients need it more than they ever have, but the word itself is nearly meaningless as a differentiator, for these reasons.

First, everybody does it. Instead of telling your prospects how you're different from those who don't practice branding, it merely defines the category: you are a branding firm and now I know what sort of work you do, not how it's different from all the other firms in the same branding space.

Second, the word is defined so broadly that it always seems to require an asterisk after it. On one end of the spectrum it can be used as another word for identity work. At the other end, it can be used in its purest sense to refer to the sum total of what customers think a product, service, or company stands for. Further, public relations uses the word very differently from design or advertising.

Third, branding describes an activity that's not significantly different than what you were doing before you called it branding. Are you doing primary research now before formulating a plan for your clients? (Not secondary research, but primary research?) Have you applied branding repeatedly to similar situations to the point where you've been able to notice and then articulate very specific principles that help you find the truth quicker the next time you do it? (Are those written down in a document that you could email to me right now?) Have you developed a real process that's not descriptive but truly prescriptive for your client work? (Do your new employees spend their first full day going over the process so that it really informs the work they are about to do with their new employer, and is that process significantly different than how they did it from the employer they just left?)

Where Branding Went Wrong

This is all historical now, of course, but let me make one other point before explaining how sustainability is the new branding. The point I'd make is that your own positioning got watered down with the advent of mass-produced color printers and PowerPoint presentations about twenty years ago. When those tools became available, firms like yours began to change their positioning based on what they were pitching, shaping the promises based on what the prospect wanted to hear. In the process, nearly every firm became unpositioned with a position du jour in the quest to smother opportunity with interest. It was the big unbranding movement, and we're still paying for it. You quit being yourself and became something different with each pitch. Your POV looked at things from the client's perspective and not your own expert one.

As a culture, we came to understand branding as putting a tattoo applique on at tonight's party so that we could "be somebody" tonight without having to embarrass ourselves by wearing it at work the next day, settling back into our normal persona. That is not branding, folks.

Branding is what you do when you look out across your field and can't tell the cows apart--when there's a danger of mixing your cows up with the neighbor farmer's cows. You reluctantly heat up the poker, wrestle the cow to the ground against their will, and burn a big chunk of the cow's ass, permanently. Branding is the smell of burning flesh and hair, and it's not something they sell at Neiman Marcus. It's the smell of (nearly) permanent, considered choices that are based on truth and reality.

Real branding doesn't happen without pain, anguish, and a (largely) permanent decision. That's my perspective, and it's why I think much of this talk about branding is a crock--we've watered the term down and misused it to the point where it now hardly means anything. That's unfortunate, too, as there are some firms out there doing really, really good work in branding. And even beyond that, your clients deserve better work from you. The world doesn't need drive-up branding, and by providing it without taking the process seriously, we have undermined the very foundation of our expertise.

How Sustainability is Following the Same Tortured Path

Now fast forward ten years and here we are with sustainability as the new hot term. Are we defining the term largely in environmental terms, or does it have a broader, deeper meaning that might very well reverse some of the marginalization that marketing firms have been suffering? If handled correctly, could we have an opportunity here to be more relevant and make a greater difference in the business lives of our clients? How could an emphasis on sustainability be (ironically) unsustainable? How could we be more honest with prospects...and ourselves?

This is such an interesting time in the intersection of marketing and culture that I hope you'll stay tuned for next month's installment.

------------ Next Two Events San Diego, Nov 1-4 Mind Your Own Business Conference. Sponsored by HOW magazine and ReCourses, Inc., the Mind Your Own Business Conference is the only business retreat tailored exclusively for principals of design and creative-service firms. In just 3-1/2 days spent away from the office, you'll get the expert advice you need to increase efficiency and profitability for years to come. At MYOB, you'll meet a dream-team panel of business consultants and strategy experts, and participate in exclusive presentations and workshops designed to help you take charge of your firm's future.

---------------- Nashville, Feb 6-8 5th Annual New Business Summit: Using Your Positioning for More Reward, Impact, Control, and Fun. This is our largest yearly seminar and will be held in Nashville, TN at the Nashville Convention Center (with an opening night reception at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts). With a strict limit of attendees, be sure to save the dates and register early if you are interested in coming (it sells out quickly). This three-day event, held with Blair Enns of Win Without Pitching, covers positioning, marketing, selling, and building a thought leadership presence in your field that can be turned into reward, impact, control, and fun. This year brings significant changes to the format and content. If you want changes in your client base, download the eight-page PDF brochure and consider joining us. The brochure has information on the agenda each day, hotels, and registration.