Brand honesty

I discovered a gem in the archives of the Mutual Marketing blog on brand permeability, and enjoyed John Moore's observations about an experience at Orange (UK wireless co.):

I popped into an Orange shop this morning. I just wanted to look at the latest gizmos in case I wanted an upgrade. I arrived in a good mood and the Orange Phone Trainer and I exchanged enthusiastic "how-are-yous?" simultaneously. Since we'd both signalled enthusiasm, I thought I'd just launch in by asking if all the advertising hype about Phone Trainers at Orange was true. In return, I got a fairly convincing, unofficial warts-and-all explanation. The gist of it : actually, a lot of the people are gadget-freaks anyway and don't really need the sort of training they're given.

Now you and I can interpret this unofficial story any way we like. Control-freaks might say that Orange have failed to control their brand message. Actually, I thought this guy reflected quite well on Orange - he came over as honest and straightforward.

I feel I got an honest glimpse into a little slice of Orange (sorry) behind the advertising facade. And found it more engaging than their image-making.

At my last company (a phone company) we did qualitative research and found that 'honest and straightforward' was at the top of our customers' wish lists. The only problem was, the management team didn't subscribe to either the buyer-centric philosophy or being honest and straightforward. They were purchased last year by another company and are no longer in existence. Hmmm, go figure.

Brand permeability and transparency are now even more essential in today's connected economy, and one way to achieve that is to be very careful in matching new prospective hires to your brand promise. Every employee is a brand ambassador (wouldn't that be a good job title on business cards!). If the Orange employee referenced above wasn't an enthusiastic gear-head, John would have had a different -- perhaps neutral or negative -- experience. When we recognize that the Brand isn't a static entity but an IDEA that manifests through employees and acknowledged by the minds of customers (buyers, partners, etc.), that's when we begin to build an authentic brand.