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.

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At Harvard Business Online, a discussion of the shrinking advantage offered by traditional advertising models:

Quick – what’s the top brand in the world? Coca-Cola? Nope. IBM? Nope. One of GE’s stable of brands? Wrong again.

All these players are near the top. But the most powerful brand in the world today is…Google.

Now, that might seem superficially logical. But from a strategic point of view, it’s nothing short of astonishing. Why? Because every other player in the top ten has spent decades – if not literally centuries, as for P&G and Coke – investing billions in advertising to build a brand.

But where these players invest on the order of 5-10% of revenues on advertising, Google’s advertising expenditure is almost exactly zero.

Stop and think about that for a second: the top brand in the world belongs to a player that…uhhh…doesn’t advertise.

The author confuses advertising with branding, when they are in fact two different disciplines. That said, we like his column, as it leads with a demonstration of the differences and surfaces a number of real world questions. And, we agree with the author’s definition of brand.

As quoted previously on this page:

Advertising…is the tax you pay for an ineffective brand.

Let’s talk if you want to further understand the differences, and how you can materially decrease and even eliminate that 5-10% expense line.

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We are fans of Trust Matters, the respected blog hosted by Charles Green of Trusted Advisor fame.

A Trust Matters commentary, Great Selling By Truth Telling: A Best Buy Tale, should be required reading for those who think branding is simply “advanced” advertising, a stereotype captured in this quote:

[S]ome people feel this is a sucker’s game. It’s sales right? The point isn’t to tell the truth, it’s to not get caught not telling the truth? To look like you’re telling the truth, not to actually tell it.

Market research reveals some 75 percent of Americans disbelieve and distrust advertising.

As Charles Green frames it:

Telling the truth is not stupid, wussy, or bad business. Far from it. It’s very good business.

We agree. Telling the truth — authenticity — is one requirement of effective branding.

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In August 2007, William B. Hanbury, chief executive of Destination DC, Washington DC’s convention and tourism organization, announced development of a brand campaign for the city featuring a “slogan, which…will be “as powerful as Vegas. That’s the goal.”

As reported at the time:

That’s a tall order. Las Vegas’ five-year-old “What happens here, stays here” slogan is considered the gold standard in destination marketing.

Mr. Hanbury says his organization’s new brand campaign for Washington DC meets those standards.

Earlier this week, Mr. Hanbury and others introduced the Create Your Own Power Trip brand campaign “to break down perceptions of the District as impenetrable and unapproachable and cast it as a city with cultural flair.” Each Create Your Own Power Trip television spot and print ad may be previewed at this link.

Mr. Hanbury offered this in the Washington Post:

“In research, people told us that although D.C. has all kinds of powerful things like the Supreme Court, Congress, embassies and black-tie galas, they didn’t know how to access them. We’re going to focus on helping people personalize the power that is Washington.”

Destination DC’s CEO is hopeful the new campaign is designed to create a foundation for years of future advertising:

“This has legs. What we’ve done here with the re-branding effort isn’t a one-trick pony. This is an effort that will allow us to sustain and grow the brand over a long period of time.”

Which prompts the following questions:

Does the new Washington DC “brand” have legs?

Or is it a one-trick pony?

Will Create Your Own Power Trip become as successful as What Happens Here, Stays Here for Las Vegas?

Is it effective branding, or public relations?

Is it branding, or a campaign?

Here’s one opinion.

Tell us yours.

.
You can find more of the backstory to Destination DC’s Create Your Own Power Trip campaign here.

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“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” or so said 19th century English writer Charles Caleb Colton.

The latest example:

Shhhh. Longtime futurist and author Faith Popcorn warns that optimism is passé and brands that trumpet their benefits are hopelessly out of tune with consumers who are sick and tired of marketing’s noise. …Popcorn explains why she advises marketers…to build their strategies around whispers and honesty rather than hype and shouts.

We like what Faith has to say because, well, we first said it some years ago:

Advertising is a shout. Branding is a whisper.

She offers more in this Q&A with AdWeek:

Adweek: Please explain what you mean by branding in whispers?
Popcorn: It is not boasting how great your products are, but showing how your brand can help people.

Hmmm. Faith again demonstrates her ability to look into the future by restating and offering as new this authority published in 2004:

Branding is demonstrating, advertising is explaining. What you fail to demonstrate, you are left to explain.

More imitation may be read at this link.

I guess we are, ah, flattered.

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Our coffee landed on a variety of surrounding flat surfaces this morning upon seeing this report:

“Over the years, ad makers have tried various methods to learn about consumers, from focus groups to online polls. But many on Madison Avenue are skeptical of these methods, believing consumers don’t always share their true feelings in those types of traditional settings. So a growing number of ad agencies are expected to try a different approach: having researchers spend long periods of time with consumers to find out more about how they live.

Some have already tried this.”

And this is news?

Indeed, some have tried this. And, a small number of specialized firms are expert at it.

However, as more and more business leaders are learning, ad agencies are ill-equipped to tap into the minds of audiences they seek to influence. The old way of opinion polling and focus groups parroted too often today by ad and PR agencies could not be more inadequate for the task than if one selected a toilet roll for use as a table napkin.

Read more about what caused us to go back to the coffee pot in today’s Wall Street Journal.

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Robert Stephens, founder and chief inspector of The Geek Squad, contends “Marketing is a tax you pay for being unremarkable.”

We agree.

We take it a step further — Advertising and other forms of marketing is the tax you pay for an ineffective brand.

For organization leaders who rush to an advertising or PR campaign without an understanding of the value of branding — including the brand name and narrative — the price they pay is steep.

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Courtesy of our friend in South Africa, the following from the book Zag, an accurate demonstration of the differences between marketing, public relations, advertising and branding:

The book includes two additional panels in this series. In one labeled “Telemarketing” the woman answers a phone to hear the man as telemarketer say “I’m a great lover.” The other is labeled “Graphic Design,” in which the image of a heart floats above the man’s head, illustrating that a logo is not a brand.

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A fashion brand springs literally out of nowhere on track to register $100 million in sales this year. And, they did it without advertising. Impossible? Not at all, in the latest example of brand building without advertising in a report from the New York Times:

[L]ife is…good for Bert Jacobs…[and] his brother John…

From a single childlike drawing of a character they named Jake and their uplifting three-word slogan [the original is shown to the right], the brothers have developed a fashion brand sold in 4,500 independent retail outlets in the United States and 27 other countries…

Life is good, which rations its use of capital letters, offers one more example of a small company creating a big brand. Though most consumers associate great brands with marketing giants like Procter & Gamble, General Motors, Apple and Nike, the ability to build a powerful brand is no longer reserved for the big spenders. Small companies with great ideas and well-planned strategies — Kryptonite bicycle locks, Stonyfield Farm yogurt, Zipcar — have spawned prominent brands.

“A big brand comes from big insights about culture and consumers and what it is that they need,” said Susan Fournier, a brand expert and associate professor of marketing at the School of Management at Boston University. “To me, that has nothing to do with big budgets.”

Exactly. Building a brand into a successful business does not require the budget of a Fortune 500. If it did, of course, a Fortune 500 brand such as General Motors—with an annual advertising budget that in years past was $2.5 billion—would be assured lasting success.

The Life is good story is another example of how a cost effective brand strategy trumps an expensive advertising strategy, each and every time.

How did Life is good create an own the conversation strategy? By differentiating their brand through emotion:

“Life is good tapped into an emotional ethos that struck a chord with where the culture was at a certain point in time. That is not done by a marketing budget but by their customers who become evangelists and give the brand visibility and credibility.”

From the beginning, Life is good shunned advertising:

The Jacobs brothers considered a consumer advertising campaign several years ago but decided to wait until growth slowed to start it. Growth has never slowed. Instead of advertising, the company spends its money on charitable fund-raising festivals for children’s causes.

Read more about Jake and his dog Rocket in another brand success story at this link, and this one.

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Yesterday a reader under perhaps the apt moniker, Angermann, posted this comment to our column discussing the differences between branding and advertising:

“Branding is just advertising re-branded. All of the elements and fundamentals are exactly the same…”

While we discuss this topic often on these pages, we want to know what you think.

Whether you agree with Angermann or take a different view, accept this invitation to pull out your keyboard and engage this audience with your valuable comments.

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For an example of a mass market restaurant brand created without television advertising, look no further than Chipotle Mexican Grill. Here’s the story of the strategy behind the growth of the brand:

Look at enough billboards for Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., and you’ll detect an omission: They never show a bare burrito.

Instead, Chipotle displays its signature item enclosed in foil. “You can never make the perfect burrito for someone,” explains William Espey, the company’s creative-services manager. “If you keep it wrapped, it’s their perfect burrito.”

Chipotle Mexican Grill has arguably become the country’s most successful fast-food chain in recent years by rejecting almost every major technique on which the industry was built. Not only does it not show the product, it doesn’t advertise on television. It doesn’t franchise. It has some of the highest ingredient costs in the industry. And its executives aren’t especially concerned that customers wait as long as 10 minutes in lines that routinely stretch out the door.

Nonetheless, Chipotle’s shares have more than doubled in the past year, making it the best-performing publicly held U.S. restaurant chain…

The chain still relies heavily on giveaways instead of traditional ads.

Read more about the success of Chipotle at this link in The Wall Street Journal.

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We came across an interesting series of columns appearing in Realty Times, an online news site directed to the real estate industry. Although for real estate professionals, the columns offer a street level tutorial on branding of application to organization leaders in any industry, including these gems:

Marketing is not branding

Marketing is not branding.

These two concepts are easily and often confused, but they are not the same. Sending out direct mail and placing ads in the newspaper…are all examples of marketing. Marketing is about a quick response. You are sending out direct mail or placing a classified ad because you want people to act on your product…

Branding, by contrast, is…designed to pre-sell you to your customers.

Public Relations is not Branding

Organizations often undertake a “branding” process, yet the outcome closely resembles a public relations face-lift. Why does this occur? One possibility might be the framework that guides the process. Another may simply be the viewpoint of the agency, or consultant, employed. In any case, valuable dollars are spent each year on brand strategy endeavors and frequently, the outcome does not yield the tangible results organizations are seeking.

Brand Promise

Branding is about your promise to your customers - what service will you provide that no other…can or will?

When developing your brand, review it by asking yourself, “What does this promise to my customers?” If it promises nothing, it’s time to get back to the drawing board…

Your marketing and advertising dollars should reflect your brand…its promise and your target.

The Best Brand Strategies Last

[T]he best brands stand the test of time. Ideally your brand should remain the same. Think about package brands you know. Coca Cola, Ford Motor Company, McDonalds-their brands, their logos have remained the same. These are brands that are recognizable whether written in English, Chinese, or Hebrew.

If an organization truly seeks to create, develop and extend a brand, work with an accomplished brand consultancy. Otherwise one is left with an advertising, public relations, or logo design strategy, none of which build brand reputation for the long haul.

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We often speak of the distinction between branding and advertising in assisting clients to think clearly about their communication needs.

A senior executive at an advertising agency unintentionally handed us another arrow for our quiver in such discussions.

In response to questions from the New York Times about a campaign Goodby, Silverstein & Partners is conducting for a new client, the firm’s co-founder had this to say in drawing the branding / advertising distinction:

“It’s a matter of getting people to pay attention to something that’s true,” said Jeff Goodby, co-chairman at Goodby, Silverstein, which, he added, laughing, is “not usually your job” in advertising.

As Oscar Wilde once said, “Questions are never indiscreet. Answers sometimes are.”

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Always on the lookout for brands able to grab market share without advertising, we discovered a success story while in Portland, Maine.

We stepped into a local restaurant for lunch one day, and were introduced to a beverage our server referred to as free range root beer, otherwise known as Maine Root. As a root beer junkie, this was a real discovery, which led to our ordering another, and stopping by two days later for another.

The brew we enjoyed has become a success any entrepreneur [or corporate type] would envy. And, its a success achieved without advertising.

How have they done it? The short answer is, literally, organically. But the real engine behind Maine Root success comes in adopting and living a distinct attitude, casting themselves as the “little guy” vs. the Goliath purveyors of “corporate” root beer. As good as the product is, this brand personality is the driver behind Maine Root success, nowhere epitomized more than at this site declaring:

FreeRangeRootBeer.com is a movement. We believe that root beer deserves to be free. Free from chemicals, artificial sweeteners and confined spaces; the very things that strip a root beer from all its inate goodness, and the very things “corporate root beer” is guilty of committing…

The site directs the user to Maine Root.

Maine Root has created a passionate following through this own the conversation® strategy, changing the market beverage conversation to a basis they can win, and building the brand organically through endorsement and word of mouth [click on the Tell A friend link]. Sounds familiar.

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Okay, we admit it. We like pizza. But then, who doesn’t?

On the lookout for a great pizza wherever we go, from New York to Newport Beach, from Indianapolis to Italy, it is rare to find a restaurant that redefines the pizza category through an effective brand name. Such was the case this past week, while in Portland, Maine, where we were introduced to the joys of Flatbread, located on Commercial Street across from the Casco Bay Ferry Terminal. Flatbread not only has a brand name that changes the conversation to a basis they can win, they back it up with a unique product—no sauce pizza, err, flatbread. Founded in 1998, the Flatbread concept has grown to multiple New England locations with a unique brand strategy demonstrated at key consumer touchpoints through the product, the employee and customer experience, all without advertising. This own the conversation® strategy builds the brand organically through endorsement and word of mouth. Sounds familiar.

Stop by any of the Flatbread restaurant locations, and tell us what you think about the brand…and the Flatbread product.

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