Business people are practical. They are reasonable people making reasonable decisions – and that’s their problem. Begin with pragmatism and you kill the brand. A pragmatic point of view can be your worst enemy….
Following are five pragmatic questions often asked of any new idea. If you are building a new brand or re-imagining an old one, refrain from asking these questions upfront:
Question #1 …. “How will we do it?” There is no emotional energy inside many companies because they were seduced by this simple, seemingly innocent, question. You suppress other, more important, questions when you ask “how” too soon. Start by asking passion-generating questions like:
- What makes this worth doing?
- Is this something I want to do?
- Is this something we ALL want to do?
What feels like a delay in action is an opportunity for the team to own the branding mission at a deep level. I’ve been in organizations that were “making great time, but going nowhere.” Their brands were DOA in most cases.
Question #2 …. “How long will it take?” The speed of today’s marketplace makes it tempting to go for a quick fix rather than crafting a brand for the long haul. Don’t underestimate the time it takes to create and fully operationalize your brand ownership vision.
Question #3 …. “How much will it cost?” It’s easy to rationalize brand-destructive actions: “We don’t produce things we really believe in because it takes too long or it costs too much.” Their brands become more infamous than famous.
Question #4 …. “How do we measure it?” Pragmatic efficiencies can kill brands before they have a chance to establish themselves. It drains the human “something else” from a product or service. Optimization cultures have a hard time holding off on this question – then they wonder why no one dares to innovate. Great brands often start with crazy ideas that are, initially, immeasurable.
Question #5 …. “How have others done it successfully?” Start out with this question and you’ll look just like your competitors. Brands are not built on “better sameness.” There are many brands stuck in the mediocre middle that began with the best practices of others.
Again, I’m not arguing against pragmatism – these are all valid questions. They just shouldn’t initiate the brand creation process:
- Determine what you want to do
- Focus on how much time, effort and treasure you will commit to your vision
- Put your humanity into it
- Create your unique difference
There will be plenty of time to be practical once you know what you really want to do. Don’t kill your brand with premature pragmatism — give it a fighting chance.
NOTE: The ideas in this posting are mine. The inspiration comes from a wonderfully provocative book by Peter Block, The Answer to How is Yes.
Whoa, those are tough ones. I live in constant struggle with those five issues. I am asked those questions by the people who sign my checks regularly. Sometimes I have no choice but to go headlong into those convresations, though they fell like they are sucking the life out of me. I’m a passionate person with wild ideals (Piscean dreamer), so these questions are just too “real” and uncreative.
Here’s how it has gone;
1) How will we do it? By tapping into the passion people have for the brand, or creating it from scratch. But how? I don’t know, but we can’t be like all the others.
2) How long will it take? Too long. I believe 3-5 years before significant growth is achieved. Rebuilding takes time and patience, but the people who get in early will be very passionate brand evangelists if we do it right and take our time- paying attention to the little details.
3) How much will it cost? Well, since you haven’t given me any kind of budget to work with, it won’t cost much at first. Ultimately, I’d like it to cost something. The big investment is time and energy to create that passionate community- then they’ll do the work for free.
4) How do we measure it? Sales aren’t enough. I want to be able to tell you about what people think about us. Do they like us? Do they think we’re cool? Would they consider our products when they already have something similar? That’s when I’ll feel good.
5) How have others done it successfully? Not sure and don’t really care. We aren’t them. We don’t have their budgets. We don’t already have their distribution. We have to be us and be unique because that is all we are.
These conversations are not easy to have because you have people who need easily defined metrics of progress and mapped out strategies to get there. For one, I’m not smart enough to provide that stuff. Secondly, I like to improvise. I love doing presentations of my brand. I always have things I want to discuss and even have written scripts to follow, but it never goes that way. I always end up off on a tangent. Passion takes you in many directions. During the big tradeshow in late September, I’ll spend almost as much time talking about the product as I will talking about the sport, the industry or the people. A simple walk through the line might only take a few minutes, but I frequently have folks in the booth with me talking about cycling for more than an hour. (Some of them might even buy some bikes.) In the end though, they talk to somebody who is as crazy about the sport as they are.
Not very pragmatic I suppose, but mcuh more fun.
Great article !!
I believe that for obtaining a return on investment it is necessary to be invested emotionally.
Graphs and stats only show us a trend and can help us to set up relevant strategies but the main goal of a marketer is to bring a little of dream in the everyday life of the consumer : then, being pragmatic is the worst choice a marketer could do !!
Look, for years marketers have been complaining that they can’t “get a seat at the table.” Well, if you can’t answer fundamental business questions, you don’t deserve one.
For as long as we fail to hold ourselves accountable to hardcare business issues, we’ll remain the poor flower children huddling outside the door.
Jonathan – you’re right that everyone that wants to be ‘at the table” must be able to speak the language of business. That’s why I didn’t argue against pragmatic business thinking. For me it’s both/and not either/or.
Christelle – at the end of the day even if you get a paycheck, we are all volunteers. If there is no emotional investment the returns will be limited. Thanks for the encouraging comment.
Tim – I would love to be there just to watch one of your “meetings” with your managers. Thanks for pulling back the curtain for us to see a little of what goes on. As you know, I believe the truth is in the tension – keep at it.
Regarding a seat at the table of business.
“if you can’t answer fundamental business questions, you don’t deserve one.”
Hmm…
While that may be true at GM or Wal-Mart, who have shareholders to answer to every quarter, there are many business mavericks who can’t answer any of those questions when they start work on something that becomes really big.
So let’s not say either way is the “right” way. They both have their successes and failures.
Edison had no idea how much time nor expense it would take to create an incandescent lightbulb, and had no source of comparison. He just knew he wasn’t going to stop until he succeeded. That’s passion.
We shouldn’t forget to apply that same spirit as we brave the unknown regarding cancer research, non-petroleum-based energy solutions, space exploration, global warming, robotics, and countless other breakthroughs that will return many millions of times the initial investment.
“Inc.” and “Fast Company” magazine are full of stories of ordinary people with extraordinary results who never had a business plan, scoffed at the status quo, changed their direction on a dime, and did things their way.
Seat-of-the-pants business practices with more questions than answers might not be the better way to start a trucking business or a bakery, but it might be the better way to go about changing the world when nobody believes it can be done.
It’s faith vs. fact. Decide which temple your business lives in.
I agree when people in essence “over think” creative ideas and attempt to measure them against others they often kill it before it gets off the ground. I work for a company that is all about the metric and its a little difficult to get people to step outside the box with innovation. Innovation can improve upon a baseline and build a better product.
I like the idea of generating passion before you delve into the nitty gritty.