What do we mean by ’brand’ or ‘branding’? You could ask any number of professionals and you would get numerous answers. A generic definition would be ‘a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers’….so far fairly obvious!
What isn’t quite as obvious and arguably more essential is that your brand affects the personality of your product, company or service. It defines the perceptions, good or bad, that your stakeholders have about you.
To complicate matters further there are different types of branding. Product branding is the most accessible but there are other forms such as concept branding, attitude branding, multi branding etc etc but one golden rule applies so whichever type of branding you are committed to and that is one of credibility; your brand’s claims must be credible and appropriate to your values.
So where am I going with all this, aside from the marketing 101 lecture?
Apparently brand ‘Big Society’ is dead… WOW! Now anyone that knows me or the work of the Trust will know that I have waxed lyrical (apologies to those stuck having to listen) that it is not a simple accident that the once much loved ‘Big Society’ could be shortened to ‘BS’….I’ll give you a moment in case you haven’t quite got it yet! That’s all the whole ‘Big Society’ sham was…a ‘brand’ and not a very good one at that. Certainly it wasn’t constructed by credible communicators who understand the importance of messaging, vision and ultimately the real world.
But…and it is a very big but…the theory behind the hype (and bad branding) is sound and what’s more is alive and kicking!!
Take a trip to any of our sites and you will see individuals ‘doing their bit’ on a daily basis. This isn’t so much about people having their social conscious pricked and thinking they should be doing something, these are people passionate about their environments, wanting to come and join in to make their spaces better, cleaner, prettier and most of all theirs.
So back to branding. What did the whole ‘Big Society’ brand say about the government? I think it cast a damning light on the fact that they do not know or understand their audience and yet more crucially they carried on with a concept brand that could neither deliver or satisfy the promises made.
At the Trust we encourage people to get involved, to take part, to join conversations to make things better…we don’t ‘brand’ it. We call it common sense.
If you give people the access, opportunity and support they can and will make a difference. Personal and spacial pride cannot be demanded it is earned and in our experience people simply don’t appreciate BS!
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