Blogs and brands in the enterprise
The interaction of blogs and brands in the enterprise is a huge issue these days, in large part because it represents a change to the traditional top-down brand model.
Jeff Nolan at Venture Chronicles recounts an interesting discussion on blogs and brands that took place at the recent Enterprise Software Summit. The subject was the feared damage to brands from employee blogs and related non-controlled communications:
The key issue pivoted around a legitimate question thrown out at one point, which is whether or not all this free flowing and unstructured “conversation” by employees, partners, customers, or whoever [was] potentially diminishing to brands. The premise of the question is rooted in the notion that companies actually control the conversation about their products/services/brand in the marketplace, something I reject. What this question also does not acknowledge is that the best spokespeople for your brand are in fact your employees, partners, and customers, and not the “marketing spokesperson” or the CEO.
I would strongly concur with Jeff’s point. In practice, brands are built from the bottom-up, not from some immaculate brand icon in a showcase. That is why a company’s brand programs should be structured around employees, partners and customers. They’re the ones who actually innovate on brand, and who deliver and/or grow brand value.
I would add one thing to Jeff’s comments. In my view, the CEO does play a decisive role in making the brand succeed. Brands lead by example, and the CEO sets the tone of brand leadership for the company. Employees, partners and customers sense this tone in a heartbeat.
NOTE: “Blogs and brands” raises a slew of brand model and brand strategy issues, far too big a topic for this one post. I’ll be coming back to it in the weeks and months ahead.
Meanwhile, here are some off-the-envelope guidelines for companies wrestling with brand programs and blogs:
- If you’re hiding something, don’t blog
- If you can’t trust your employees, don’t blog
- If your brand success depends on keeping partners and customers in the dark, don’t blog
- If your internal processes are so slipshod that blogs might reveal your most valued IP, don’t blog
- If your employees aren’t too bright, and can’t exercise good judgment, don’t blog
- If you insist that all ideas and initiative come from the top, don’t blog
- If your brand can only survive as a make-believe image fed and tended by a few, don’t blog
