Warren Buffett loves cheeseburgers and cokes.

He also loves brands.

Buffett is a brand investor, with an investment strategy that reads like a branding primer, in this from the Washington Post:

From his growing list of acquisitions, Warren E. Buffett seems to be investing like the world’s richest 10-year-old boy, if that boy lived in 1955 America.

He is Coca-Cola’s largest shareholder. He owns Dairy Queen. Last year, Buffett got a train set, buying into Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. And in late April, he bought a piece of the world’s largest candy store, sinking $6.5 billion into the Mars-Wrigley chocolate-and-bubble gum merger…

In the eyes of many, the Oracle of Omaha…looks like a brand investor.

Brand investors buy companies with well-known or well-regarded names — Apple, Tiffany, Disney and McDonald’s, to name a few…

Brand name companies…can often charge more for their products than their less-established competitors and weather tough times more smoothly because of their loyal customer bases. They also have the ability to leverage their name recognition to increase business — whether it’s expanding operations by attracting more Marriott hotel franchisees, launching a new flavor of Crest toothpaste or extending the Clorox brand from bleach to moist towelettes…

“Brands…[provide their owners] pricing power that allows the business to maintain margins throughout varying economic periods. Secondly, you get repeat business. And those two things lead to consistent earnings.”

Branded products companies have a higher propensity to pass along price increases when they have increasing costs themselves…

“The consumer is buying more than just the raw material… They’re buying something else, whether it’s a trusted relationship, or confidence in the product, an acknowledgment of a higher quality.”

In recent weeks these pages have explored the links between brands and authenticity, otherwise known as trust.

Rather than a slogan or logo, the process behind effective branding is about creating and reinforcing confidence - trust - in the benefits offered by an organization, product or place.

Brand investors agree.

[More posts about Brand Equity | More posts about Brand Investment | More posts about Brand Extension | More posts about Brand Management | More posts about Brand Strategy | More posts about Warren Buffett | More blogs about Brand Investment]

Are the concepts of brand and trust contradictory? Charles Green of Trusted Advisor Associates ponders this and related questions:

What’s the difference between trust and branding? Or are they the same? Is Brand Trust an intuitively meaningful term? Or an oxymoron?

While the folks at Brandtrust may recoil from a characterization of the phrase brand trust as an oxymoron, these are valid questions, particularly as we see a direct link between great branding and truth telling.

Green suggests that branding be considered “in terms of [his] Trust Equation: a mix of credibility, reliability, intimacy, and low self-orientation.”

So, the real question becomes: do we or do we not trust the people behind the brand? Do we believe in the integrity of the organization putting out the product or service? Do those people in that company really believe what they say? Do they mean for their product to serve us? Or could they just as well be in currency trading or reinsurance as well as whatever they’re doing, because they’re just in it for the money?

That makes sense to me. In the traditional, personal sense of trust, I trust a brand because of what I believe about the people branding it…

Then Green offers this, the money quote:

Branding may be the social version of the individual connection we call trust. It’s accessibly meaningful in narrow senses like reliability. And, it can have that personal meaning when it comes to the authenticity and trustworthiness of those behind the curtain—the ones charged with delivering the brand.

We could not agree more.

Rather than an oxymoron, branding at its best is all about developing trust.

The outcome of effective branding confers upon a product or place a very human ability to rely upon — to trust — a haloed reputation in selecting among competing choices.

Green’s idea that branding is the social version of personal connection commonly referred to as trust is extendable.

One example. Recently we were asked to explain the differences between the branding of a product, and of branding a place, in this instance a city.

Our answer — there is no difference as both engage in efforts to attract and influence people — may have surprised our questioner, as authorities and consultants with assumed expertise often claim a difference, on occasion confusing advertising with branding.

However, places are like companies — those with effective branding find it easier to sell their products, services and experiences, and easier to attract people and investment.

As with a product, a place can offer personal meaning when it comes to the authenticity of those behind the curtain—those charged with delivering on the experience of a place.

As Green suggests, it’s all about trust.

[More posts about Brand Reputation | More posts about Brand Trust | More posts about Branding Definition | More posts about Brand Strategy | More posts about Branding vs Advertising | More blogs about Brand Reputation]

Brands and branding are big business.

A handful have clearly understood this truth all along.

Now another respected voice is saying the same thing, in this from Brands in the Boardroom: Key branding issues for senior executives, a publication of Intellectual Asset Management Magazine:

The world’s most famous brands have values that can be measured in tens of billions of dollars –real sums that can be realised through securitisation and other methods of monetisation. You need only look at the interest generated today by techniques for calculating brand value to see that brands are now recognised as corporate assets to be audited and managed along similar lines as a company’s more traditional, tangible revenue generators. Employers, investors and other stakeholders expect those running companies to understand the major principles that drive and sustain brand value: after all, we are talking about what can often be the single most important asset a corporation owns.

We agree.

There is more, of course:

Without question, a brand’s ability to communicate an instant message to target audiences is where much of its power and value lie. A strong brand instils trust in consumers, making them feel confident that the choice they are making offers them high levels of consistency and quality. And a strong brand needs to have an identity and a personality that can be protected in all markets where its owners operate or may wish to do so in the future.

Could not have said it better ourselves.

[More posts about Branding Definition | More posts about Brand Equity | More posts about Brand Management | More posts about Brand Strategy | More posts about Brand Asset | More posts about Brand Personality | More blogs about Brand Asset]

Beware the committee approach in creating a breakthrough brand.

For our latest Law of Branding, we turn to this from Karen Post:

A by-product of brands “for the people” is the committee that compromises and kills potential brand home runs. That is why you never see statues of committees in parks; you see brave leaders.

Adam Hanft, author of Dictionary of the Future, notes, “There is no question that multiple levels of government, etc. militate against a successful branding campaign. When the strategy and advertising become dumbed down so that it satisfies bureaucrats and ends up as self-serving pabulum, it’s destined to die.”

The way around this is for leadership to take control and say, “Listen, while some issues demand creating a consensus, this is one area where a consensus will fail.” What might be helpful is to show resistors the kind of advertising that works in today’s culture and how a city that wants to brand itself as cool must rise to that level.

The same is true, of course, for committees in any organization. Including a Fortune 500.

Successful branding begs for insightful leadership.

It also often requires expert support skilled in the brand development process, and in process discipline.

Otherwise, any branding effort devolves to this, or this, or this.

[More posts about Laws Of Branding | More posts about Destination Branding | More posts about Place Branding | More posts about Brand Strategy | More posts about Own The Conversation® Strategy | More posts about Government Strategy | More blogs about Laws of Branding]

Lalit Khaitan is Chairman of Radico Khaitan Limited. The New Delhi based company manufactures and distributes a portfolio of liquor brands throughout India and internationally.

Mr. Khaitan, focused on building his brands globally, has this to say about branding:

Branding isn’t about re-energizing a company with a new logo and slogan. It means communicating a corporate culture from the inside out. The integration of branding into a corporate facility design sends a clear, concise message about the company’s values, business, and employees.

Radico Khaitan’s Chairman offers another example of a leading business executive with a concise understanding of the power of branding.

Read more in this report from the Hindustan Times.

[More posts about Brand Management | More posts about Architecture As Branding | More posts about Global Branding | More posts about Beverage Branding | More posts about Liquor Branding | More posts about Consumer Goods Branding | More posts about Radico Khaitan | More posts about India Brands | More blogs about Brand Management]

Former Unilever CEO, now Chairman of Reuters, Niall FitzGerald, says the poorest consumers are the most brand loyal. In a speech delivered during the Business in Africa symposium at CASS Business School in London, he offered these comments:

Unilever has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Africa. Why? For the same reason it is investing in Europe, Asia, Latin America and North America: to do business, grow and make money.

The poorest consumers are the most brand-loyal consumers. They cannot afford to make a mistake with meagre incomes. There is no second choice. If your brand earns trust, it will be rewarded with fierce loyalty. You enter a real contract with your consumer. Deliver for them and they will stick with you.

Tell us what you think.

You can read more about Mr. FitzGerald’s comments and their context in this report from The Times.

[More posts about Brand Management | More posts about Brand Opportunity | More posts about Brand Strategy | More posts about Africa Consumer Brands | More posts about Africa Brand Image | More blogs about Brand Strategy]

A blog can be a powerful brand builder.

We brand by blog, as do others.

This story from USA Today discusses another example of an organization relying upon a brand by blog strategy, based upon this business plan:

[S]tart an online news site, fueled by blog reports from her celebrity and influential friends. And have them all work for free, in exchange for using her bully pulpit.

The blog that has become a brand? This one.

[More posts about Online Branding | More posts about Online Brand Strategy | More posts about Blog Strategy | More posts about Brand Management | More posts about Brand Opportunities | More blogs about Online Brand Strategy]

Scottish Enterprise, Scotland’s economic development agency, offers this:

“In the highly competitive world of food retailing, strong branding is one of the most powerful and valuable tools a business can have to both win new customers but also secure the loyalty of existing ones.”

True.

A brand is the most valuable asset of any organization, in part as the only corporate asset that can appreciate is your brand.

True in food retailing, or any business category.

[More posts about Brand Management | More posts about Food Product Branding | More posts about Retail Branding | More posts about Brand Equity | More posts about Brand Strategy | More blogs about Brand Equity]

“Great branding takes balls.” So says Karen Post.

It takes guts, a fearlessness, if an organization seeks to engineer a market breakthrough and develop an unforgettable reputation.

The following is what all too often happens, in this from Fast Company:

The tragic news is that a lot of companies get the process. Their leaders read books, attend seminars, and admire other great brands. They know to be a really cool, memorable brand, you’ve got to stand for something and be distinct. But when it comes down to their brand, the real distinction phobia sets in, causing brand nothing.

Do they dread peer resistance, experience a guilt trip over industry betrayal, or just convince themselves that the risk outweighs the reward? Possibly a mix of all — in any case, they are brand-debilitating malfunctions.

The reality is many brand decision makers talk the talk, but choose not to walk the walk. And that outcome is indeed tragic for those dependent upon the decision makers. Employees, board members, stakeholders, consumers, all suffer the opportunity cost.

For any organization seeking to find their brand and to grow their reputation, identifying the good thinkers to guide the search and remove fear from the journey is where success begins.

Great branding takes guts.

So there it is. The essence of branding.

What will you do about it?

[More posts about Branding Resources | More posts about Brand Management | More posts about Brand Strategy | More posts about Branding vs Advertising | More posts about Branding vs PR | More posts about How To Select A Branding Firm | More blogs about Brand Strategy]

The folks over at BNET, one of the CNET networks, do a post mortum of the failed GAP attempt to attract baby boomer women in this commentary.

The GAP failure of its Fourth & Towne concept is not discouraging to Ann Taylor, as they will soon attempt to achieve what F.A.T. could not.

As shared in this from the Globe & Mail, the secret is this simple, and this hard:

Companies show they care about female customers by discovering the single, subconscious emotional truth that is relevant to their brand and fits in the context of her world.

As the BNET piece suggests, to attract baby boomers, “focus on their lives, not their ages.”

Let’s watch to see if Ann gets it right.

[More posts about Brand Management | More posts about Apparel Branding | More posts about Retail Branding | More posts about Brand Differentiation | More posts about Brand Strategy | More posts about Brand Naming | More posts about Gap Inc. | More posts about Forth & Towne | More posts about Ann Taylor | More blogs about Apparel & Retail Branding]

Welcome to the fifth edition of the Carnival of Trust.

Published on the first Monday of every month, the Carnival of Trust is the brainchild of Charles Green, co-author of The Trusted Advisor, often referred to by professional service providers as the seminal work on the topic of building valued relationships with clients. By demonstrating trust at every opportunity, consultants may gain the confidence of their client, unlocking a priceless dialogue of mutual benefit.

It is a pleasure for Whisper to host this month’s edition of the Carnival of Trust. As readers of these pages know, we speak often of a brand as your promise, and how keeping your promise is everything. Brand and trust go hand-in-hand. Standing upon a well-defined promise and building a reputation worthy of repeated requests for a product or expertise, and the unsolicited recommendation and referral of others, is all about establishing the trust needed to push relationships beyond that of the project to one of iconic devotion.

A promise based on words alone is, of course, not a promise. The promise of a brand, to attract the respect and trust we each seek, must be demonstrated rather than explained, as in this discussion of branding vs. advertising. Or, as American author William Dean Howells expressed it, “An acre of performance is worth a whole world of promise.”

As we will see below in the offerings selected for this month’s Carnival, the concept of trust is also an issue of personal and organizational legacy, often seeking of us an investment without guarantee of return. Nelson Henderson had it right when he said, “the true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” The paradox, of course, is that consistently doing as Henderson suggests in fact creates substantial return, financial and otherwise.

Whether approaching the concept of trust from the viewpoint of brand, as a leadership question, or one of governance and politics, how we demonstrate our trustworthiness, and how we earn investment by those we seek to influence are the topics we seek to illuminate here. Let us turn to the excellent authors in this Carnival of Trust.

Facilitating Trust: What team leaders need to know

In this article, Jay Gordon Cone, of Interaction Associates, talks briefly about why it’s worthwhile to pay attention to trust and then describes a framework for understanding what people want in return for their trust. Here’s the money quote:

Regardless of how we define trust, the one common element that warrants the attention of leaders and organizations is this: whenever we choose to trust, we give something of inestimable value.

Greater Transparency Is the Key to Building Greater Trust

Katie Delahaye Paine, at KD Paine’s Measurement Standard, says trust and transparency go hand in hand, and points to new research by Dr. Brad Rawlins that shows that doing things right isn’t nearly as important as doing the right thing, and that being transparent is a driving factor in the fostering of trust.

The overall results of the study demonstrate that transparency and trust are highly correlated, and, “one could conclude that as organizations become more transparent they will also become more trusted.” Although the study was limited to employees, the results are strong enough to imply that the correlation between trust and transparency will hold for other stakeholder groups as well.

As we often share with our clients, the difference in doing things right vs. doing the right things is, in a nutshell, the difference in tactics vs. strategy. It is also the difference in efficiency vs. effectiveness. Understand this difference, and appreciate that brand strategy IS business strategy, and a topic for another day.

Branding Strategy - Brand Identity

Sam Allcock [an evocative moniker, of which our friends at Snark Hunting, the naming blog, might have something to say] has a serious point to make about brand identity and brand strategy for corporations.

To be successful, Smart Branding has to be seen as an important part of the corporate strategy, something that will deeply influence the entire organization. That’s why Smart Branding initiatives need to be aimed not only to the external costumer but also has to be directed to the inside of the organization, transforming the figure of the CEO into the brand champion who drives the brand and everyone in the organization; Think Howard Schultz, Steve Jobs or Richard Branson.

Or Martha Stewart, as an example of the risks to the trust relationship when the champion is the brand.

We always get a bit torqued when folks lump “sales and marketing” together, as the sales and marketing functions are different disciplines. Certainly one supports and can drive the other, but the skill sets and critical thinking abilities needed for each in most organizations are often not the same. That said, we offer our selections under this umbrella topic, the first two discussing trust in sales, and the third offering a provocative claim.

Trust makes the phone ring

Ben Bradley, the managing director of The Bradley Wiltjer Marketing Group, on his blog about Marketing, Sales, Technology and Everything Else.

A trusted and loyal relationship is the holy grail for every channel marketing manager.

Yet, vendors/VAR relationships are wrought with distrust. Inevitably, there is conflict between the direct and the indirect sales force. Trust is difficult to establish, especially when the vendor’s executives don’t completely understand the value VARs or distributors bring to the table.

Personal Brands have a direct effect on corporate image

Personal Branding Gen-Y Expert Dan Schawbel on the Personal Branding Blog makes this point:

The people you deal with through companies can either break or make your perception of the company as a whole. If you are unhappy with a specific service or product that a person is either selling you or supporting you with, then you blame the company.

All of which places a premium on, for example, hiring practices that from the beginning seek personal values with those of the organization, and vice versa. For example, the best of retail companies know this, and focus on trust early in the recruiting and selection process.

Why there’s no such thing as a trusted brand

Stating the obvious, we don’t agree with everything we read about brands and branding—not even with everything included in every post in this Carnival of Trust. But there’s something of value in each of these selections, and we trust our readers to form their own judgments. Though I didn’t agree with the conclusion drawn by this writer, I include his provocative message, and this quote:

Occasional reminders that there’s no such thing as a brand you can trust the same way you’d trust an individual with whom you’ve established a good relationship are important.

We trust you to form your own conclusions, and offer your own opinions.

Proposal: A Politicians’ Reputation Management System

Spencer Critchley is an award-winning producer, writer, and composer with experience in digital media, film, broadcasting, and the music business. He has directed creative groups or led audio production at Beatnik, BeVocal, CCC/Viacom, Silicon Graphics, and Silicon Gaming. Among the projects he has worked on are web content for David Bowie, Moby, Britney Spears, and Yahoo!, the redesign of BeVocal’s voice applications interfaces, the multiple award-winning Choosing Success CDROM for CCC, and the SGI/Time Warner/ATT interactive TV system. He has also served as a freelance writer/broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, National Public Radio, and others, winning awards for investigative journalism. So, when Spencer blogged about automated reputation-management for politicians, here and here, we listened carefully and wanted to share. The idea is to make the concept of honor meaningful again, by creating new social rewards and penalties for behavior that affects the rest of us.

Trust Me, I Speak For Washington …

David Henderson at Clear Voices In A Cluttered World says “Have no fear … America’s global imagine is in the hands of … well, hired guns. No, this isn’t a posting about Blackwater.”

Web trust? Brand rep more important than medium

Gerry McCusker, writing on PR Disasters dot com, a blogsite that tracks the real PR cock-ups—the gaffes and howlers made by spin doctors, PR firms and the client organizations they represent—reports on a recent study in England:

More than three-quarters of newspaper and magazine readers regard web publications as just as trustworthy and reliable as their print counterparts, according to research.

One conclusion we draw after reading this selection—readers and viewers are often ahead of the mainstream press, who by attempts to demonize the credibility of bloggers, implicitly and, we suggest, unknowingly, convey a lack of trust in the ability of their audiences to sift information for themselves. The implications are enormous, and we see them played out in, for example, decreasing print media subscriptions.

The Losing Trust Quiz

And finally, Michael Wade, writing commentary on Leadership, Ethics, Management, and Life at Execupundit.com puts us all to the test with this losing trust quiz. Click here to take the test, and let us know how you did in the comments below.

That’s our edition of Carnival of Trust. We hope you enjoyed reading our selections as much as we in presenting them. And if you enjoy tapping into the good thinking of others as much as we do, perhaps you will take a moment to point your readers to this Carnival of Trust, drawing their attention to one or more of our selections you think are especially interesting, thought provoking, bang-on, or dead wrong. We welcome your comments below, of course. So let us know what you think about trust and branding.

If you’d like to follow this new blog carnival from the beginning, you might check out previous editions of the Carnival of Trust. The first, second, third, and fourth, were hosted sequentially by Charles Green at Trust Matters, the anonymous but trusted Editor of Blawg Review, and David Maister at Passion, People and Principles. And be sure to check out Charlie’s weblog to see who’s hosting next month’s Carnival of Trust. We’re certainly looking forward to it.

[More posts about Brand Promise | More posts about Brand Trust | More posts about Brand Strategy | More posts about Blog Strategy | More posts about Online Brand Strategy | More posts about Brand Management | More blogs about Brand Trust]

From the “at this very moment as a viewer you are participating in a demonstration of the power of this idea” file.

A story from the New York Times illustrates how blogging can be a more powerful brand builder than public relations or advertising:

Putting a small business online used to be a relatively simple matter: buy the domain names that matched your company’s identity, set up a Web server and send out a press release and a few e-mail messages. No more…

“We launched our company in May 2006 with a blog, not a Web site,” said Jody DeVere, the president of AskPatty.com, an advice site that helps women find car showrooms and repair shops that are friendly to them. “Our blog has been the driving force of our branding effort and become the way we find our readers and our customers.”

…An active blog helps draw visitors to a corporate Web site and can improve a company’s search rankings… “Blogging isn’t just about promoting you or your business…” Instead…corporate blogs [should] focus on a niche or industry segment and become an authority by publishing advice and commentary on it.

“The old ways of hiring a public relations firm and putting out press releases just don’t cut it anymore,” …said [John Patrick, a former I.B.M. vice president for Internet technology]. “Today’s businesses have to be more hands-on, grass roots, interactive and maintain this flow of continuous communications.”

Examples of companies putting these theories to practice daily, including building their own respective brands through their blogs, include this San Francisco firm, and this international consultancy.

[More posts about Online Branding | More posts about Online Brand Strategy | More posts about Blog Strategy | More posts about Brand Management | More posts about Brand Opportunities | More posts about Web 2.0 | More blogs about Online Brand Strategy]

A professor at Jansons School of Business offers an interesting discussion on the topic of umbrella branding in a report published in the Hindu Business Line. The author offers the most pragmatic of reasons behind an umbrella brand strategy:

With scarce financial resources, firms cannot afford to allocate huge budgets for building and maintaining several brands.

The key, of course, is to do it well. One of the best examples of an effective umbrella strategy is demonstrated by Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, otherwise known as BMW.

But with what seems an infinite budget, even a respected global company can get it wrong, as in this example.

[More posts about Umbrella Branding | More posts about Brand Management | More posts about BMW | More posts about Nokia | More posts about Jansons School of Business | More blogs about Umbrella Branding]

A report in The McKinsey Quarterly, How Companies Are Marketing Online, offers a good synopsis of Web 2.0 tools and how they are being used to create engagement. The report also includes this forecast:

…[B]y 2010 the Web will play a role in the first two stages of the consumer decision-making process—product awareness and information gathering—for a sizable majority of all consumers… The expectation that most consumers will seek out new products online may be a factor in the plans of companies to increase spending significantly on several digital-advertising tools they see as most useful in building brands.

A smaller proportion of customers…will use the Web to execute transactions or access services.

A PDF of the report is available here.

[More posts about Online Branding | More posts about Online Brand Strategy | More posts about McKinsey & Company | More posts about Brand Management | More posts about Brand Opportunities | More posts about Web 2.0 | More blogs about Online Brand Strategy]

Own one word.

So you want to be a recognized, perhaps even global brand? John Quelch, Senior Dean of the Harvard Business School, offered this advice while speaking earlier this month in Singapore:

“If you can own an important word globally, it is the best way to create a global brand.”

Dean Quelch pointed to Google as an example:

Why did Google become the most valuable brand in the world? Quelch asked. Because it had an ambitious mission – to organise the world’s information; search is important; and Google is simply better than its competitors.

…Google owned one word – search. “If you can own an important word globally, it is the best way to create a global brand.”

It seems so simple. In any language, including Malay. Even Leonardo da Vinci would agree.

[More posts about Brand Management | More posts about Brand Simplicity | More posts about Leonardo da Vinci | More posts about Malay Language | More posts about Singapore | More posts about Brand Positioning | More posts about Brand Strategy | More posts about Google Brand | More blogs about Brand Simplicity]