Blog

The fundamental reason CMOs and their legions of marketers exist is to create brand loyalty, but this in and of itself is becoming an irrelevant and dated concept.

Increasingly, especially in Canada, it appears marketers are becoming devoid of brand zealots, who define and passionately champion and protect their brands.

This is partly attributed to the repatriation of packaged goods marketing to America. At one time Canadian offices of American multi-nationals recruited and trained brand managers to champion their brands in Canada.

Who remembers the movie Moonstruck staring Cher and Nicholas Gage? It is a Norman Jewison directed romantic comedy about a woman engaged to one man but falls in love with his estranged younger brother. A little messy and a little perplexing especially for the woman’s grandfather, who, upon hearing the news towards the end of the film proclaims sympathetically, “I’m so confused”.

This must be how most marketers feel these days. Their professional lives are becoming increasingly complex on so many levels.

Consumer research, which was simply either quantitative or qualitative now has the added dimension of big data. One of the most cited pain points expressed by marketers is the amount of information they feel compelled to digest. They simply don’t have the time or recourses to properly exploit it. Big data can often cause big headaches.

Do your customers own your brand?

Not really, but they are increasingly more empowered to influence its destiny.

Do your shareholders own your brand?

Not really, but they can surely influence its value and market capitalization.

Do your agency partners own your brand?

No. They never did, but they certainly influence its success.

As a marketer, you may not personally own your brand but you and you alone must assume sole responsibility for its stewardship and success.

More than ever, clients must take 100 percent ownership of their brands. Sure, once upon a time, they could partner with a major agency that would help steward the brand. I started my career as a client. Our agency was Ogilvy and Mather. They helped us with everything from consumer research, package design, sales promotion, media buying and planning and of course advertising.

I was recruited as a marketing assistant. I was the assistant to the assistant product manager. We helped the product manager research, write and defend marketing plans designed to sell more of our portfolio of products. We worked on frozen foods, Swanson and Pepperidge Farm Dessert brands.

Our focus was on selling product. We were measured on sales and market share gains. Perhaps we inherently knew we were building brands but that was not our focus. Our focus was on selling stuff. Brand value wasn’t discussed.

How the world has changed in the nearly 4 decades since. Lining my bookshelf today, next to the Campbell Soup mug, are some twenty-five books on brands. Over the course of my career product managers were replaced with brand managers.

Let’s stop the craziness.

After sitting on the sidelines attending a variety of industry conferences over the past five years and listening to more than one pundit state emphatically that companies don’t create brands customers do, it’s time to call balderdash.

Times have changed but brand creation has not. If companies have relegated the creation, management and nourishing of brands to consumers I’d argue they’re just plain lazy.