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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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.

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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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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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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 previously wrote about how to size up a branding firm. Next question? How best to choose a branding firm.

Organizations are often sold a “branding” service which is nothing more than, for example, advertising, public relations, or some other discipline. The reason is that many identity/design firms, public relations groups, advertising agencies, research houses, architectural firms, human resource specialists, events managment firms, and business consultants offer “branding” services. But they do so from where they sit, so they can sell you their core expertise — their logo design, public relations, advertising, research, architecture, HR, business conference management, and business consulting services. Most of these firms will claim to be brand experts, but the reality is this: branding is a by-product of what they do.

When faced with such options, ask questions such as these:

As suggested previously, how do you define the term brand?
What are the fundamentals of a brand?
Have you ever developed a client “brand” without a new logo?
Without a slogan?
Without advertising?
Without a press kit?
Without also offering new website design?
Without also offering a new HR system?
Without also offering a new organizational planning process?
How do you differentiate your firm from the competition?
How do you apply the fundamentals to branding your firm?

Better yet, reduce the query to this:

Tell us, how did you brand yourself, and how does your own name and branding demonstrate your ability to help us with ours?

If a coherent answer is not offered within a few seconds, you are not dealing with a brand strategist, but rather a firm that uses the label loosely. The reason is the discipline of branding requires skill sets different from those of advertising, PR, or any of the disciplines mentioned above.

So next time, get a true brand strategy consultant to create your brand. Otherwise your branding will look like this, or this, or this.

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In commenting on the many problems facing General Motors, we excerpted a portion of a column authored by Jack Trout in Forbes.

In 1981, Jack Trout and his partner at the time, Al Ries, published what would become the classic book on the topic of brand positioning, Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind. As a retail company CEO earlier in my career, struggling with a real world business problem, Positioning opened the door to an entirely new way of thinking about marketing, and the realization that the three advertising / PR agencies our company was then working with were incapable of the critical thinking necessary for world class brand development. Shortly after reading the book, we fired each of the agencies.

Branding was so different from advertising, and from public relations; the realization was like a bolt out of the blue. This simple realization changed a company’s fortunes, and it changed a career.

The book purchased some years ago is still around. It’s since become a dog eared volume filled with scribbled margin notes, and remains a great read.

Similar to the book, in the Forbes column Mr. Trout offers these contemporary nuggets on positioning and brand extension:

A successful brand has to stand for something. And the more variations to attach to it, the more you risk standing for nothing. This is especially true when what you add actually clashes with your perception. If Altira’s Marlboro stands for cowboys out in Marlboro Country, how can it sell Marlboro Menthol or Marlboro Ultra Light cigarettes? Real cowboys don’t smoke Menthols or Ultra Lights.

Should Wal-Mart Stores try to sell more up-market products to compete with Target? No, that’s not its market.

Should Porsche risk its sports car image by selling SUVs? No, it’s an iconic sports car brand.

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We like this, from Mary Schmidt:

Too often people get snookered into buying a “branding” service that is nothing more than advertising. And, the two things aren’t the same. Advertising can reinforce your brand, but it can’t create it and it most definitely isn’t the brand itself. Examples of hugely successful companies that established a brand without any advertising – Starbucks, Google, Amazon.

Branding is smarter than advertising.

The same may be said about public relations. And we say it all the time.

Many corporate and organizational leaders fall into the trap of relying upon public relations experts for brand strategy. The difference between experts in brand strategy and those practiced in public relations is sizable. Each profession performs far different functions. Some executives recognize the difference.

Branding differentiates one brand from all others. Public relations communicates that difference.

Branding demonstrates the answer to Why Should We Care About You? Public relations assumes a reason exists.

Branding is the mental short cut to identifying the first choice. Public relations is the long road.

Branding is the point scorer. Public relations is the cheerleader.

Here’s an example.

Subroto Bagchi, Chief Operating Officer of MindTree Consulting, has this to say about how an organization should own the task of brand stewardship, as reported in the Hindu Business Line:

“…The [brand] vision has to be communicated internally and externally. Formulation of the vision and driving it strategically…should not be abdicated to the advertising agency or the public relations agency.”