Like Minds 2010 - brand lesson #2

The second brand lesson that struck me at Like Minds came during one of the panel sessions, and was a question that came from the floor. It was along the lines of - When an individual who has been the social media voice/face of a brand leaves, what's the impact on the brand?

It raises a really fundamental issue about people to people communication and the roll of a brand in that process. Or to look at it another way, the roll of people in the brand communication process. And this applies offline, as well as online.

The roll of your brand is pretty simple. It's loyalty. As a business, you want your customers (or audience) to be loyal to your brand, not to individuals within the company. This is really important for staff, but it's important for business owners too.

The simple reason is staff aren't permanent. I've written about loyalty to brand v loyalty to staff in a previous post. To resolve this issue there are two things to remember. Make sure your staff understand their role (they are there to communicate the brand, not be the brand). And make sure that your brand has more personality than they do.

For the business owner it's the same issue, but for a different reason. You want customers to be loyal to your brand, not you. Because you might not always want to be the owner. You might want to sell it at some point. And when you do, you want the business (brand) to retain its customers (and its value), which will get you a much better price.

So the answer to that question - What's the impact on the brand?
It should have no impact, because the brand hasn't changed. The brand is bigger than any individual within the business - even the owner. So it should survive any change of personnel, however significant. A business that is built on individuals is fragile. A business that is built on a brand is built to last.

How do you do that? That's probably a topic for another post, but if you'd like to know more, email jonathan@alderandalder.co.uk or call us on 01392 248107. You might be interested in our Brand to Deliver workshop, for ambitious businesses that want to make the most of their opportunities.

To find out more about what was said at Like Minds, and everything that's been said about it since, there's a great resource here.