Mobium

I went into a bar the other day looking for my mother. She’d wandered off again. Somehow I ended up in a heated discussion about branding with two business marketing types.

One was adamant that branding is just a bunch of mumbo jumbo concocted by agencies and brand consultants to get more money for doing what they’ve always done; advertising, direct mail, collateral, design and the like. The other guy insisted that in this day and age branding is essentially what you do with your logo and tagline on your Website, banners, sponsorships and the like.

Welcome to the end of the world as we know it

Three things occurred to me during our argument. The first was that there are still people out there performing the professional equivalent of making left hand turns from right hand lanes, trying to pay for drive-thru tacos with a check and calling 411 to get the number for information.

The second thing that occurred to me was that neither of these guys recognized that we are going through a massive and revolutionary shift in how business people get, evaluate and use brand information. And that paradigm shift changes not only how they will use brands to make decisions in the future but it also changes the very nature of what a brand is or will be. In this new paradigm brands will be much more holistic.

The third thing that occurred to me was that I’d never find my mother in a bar anyway. She’s in a nursing home.

But it also occurred to me that maybe I should do some research and take a stab at describing what these new, more holistic, more powerful new paradigm brands will be like.

Characteristics of new paradigm brands

I think that brands that will succeed in this new, connected market where customers and prospects control the flow of information, communications and the buying process will have 11 untraditional things in common.

• They will reflect what the company and offering truly is, not what the company wants people to believe it is.

• They will be built around what is important to and most valued by customers and prospects when they are making a purchase or use decision.

• They will look for their value, vision and promise in their customers’ businesses, not their own.

• They will find a unique, engaging, human voice.

• They will enter the market conversation around the brand to listen, learn, react and respond, rather than simply to send out, cram and jam interruptive messages down a one-way communications channel.

• They will create meaningful dialogues with their customers and prospects, not self-serving monologues.

• They will connect employees directly to the market conversations that are going on about the brand.

• They will connect employees to customers by integrating and circulating the voice of the customer (their issues, buying criteria, perceptions, point of view) back into the organization at all levels.

• They will align their external market and brand position with the company’s internal culture around a unifying vision, mission and belief system.

• They will communicate a consistent corporate belief (a reason for being beyond making money) both internally and externally.

• They will use this shared belief system to secure trust and loyalty from within the organization and from their customers.

But that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.