I’m digging into Jim Collins’ latest effort “How the Mighty Fall” in which he details the five stages of decline of great companies. (see video). His analysis made me wonder if a brand goes through comparable stages of decline?

While I don’t have four years of Jim Collins research on which to base my opinion, I nonetheless have observed (and experienced) five common missteps that can contribute to strong brands becoming weak and irrelevant (or never becoming strong in the first place).

Who am I?
It happens all the time.  Brands can’t agree internally on who they are. Or, equally common, they want to be all things to all people. In its simplest form, a brand is a cue. That means a brand must stand for something, not everything. Who are you? You tell me or your consumers will soon tell you. Even worse, they won’t notice or care.

Who cares?
Brands frequently confuse a target audience with the people who buy their product or service. These are not the same. As the name suggests, a target audience is who a brand is focused on reaching. This enables clear decision-making and a tight edit point. Brands may still appeal to consumers beyond their target – a halo audience – but what the target audience thinks/feels/believes/does should be informing key brand decisions.  

“Save as”
Like people, sometimes brands get into a rut. Unlike people, though, brands are not always willing or able to acknowledge the rut. This can translate to repeating stale strategies and promotions, hiring a homogenous or similarly skilled team, or dressing up old ideas with a new look/feel.  If any of this sounds familiar, the first step is awareness.

Good strategy deck
I always say that ideas are easy, execution is hard. Brands may have a plethora of good ideas that never take flight for a number of reasons:
•    No internal buy-in from key stakeholders – especially those responsible for executing
•    Minimal customer service training, creating a disconnect with consumers and the brand
•    Minimal budget towards consumer PR or social media, impacting reach and buzz
•    Inconsistent execution across channels or regions – the idea may not serve their business
•    Internal politics  (it can be like high school in that way)

It’s a given that good strategy is imperative for brands to become and stay strong. You need a lot more than strategy, though, to make a brand sing.

“It’s not my job”
In many companies, “brand management” falls under the CMO or CBO. In smaller companies, it may lie within Sales. (I have even known of companies that weren’t sure who was managing the brand.) Regardless of the formal home for brand management, in some way, everyone manages the brand. In other words, brand management is an organizational competency and a collective responsibility of many. In rare companies, branding is bred into the culture from the outset. This leads back to the first point. In order for employees to manage the brand, they must understand it. They must also believe it, care about it and see how it relates to their job.

To all the strong brands out there – stay strong and shine on!