20 Jan Brand: Great Expectations and the Outside In
Like all living things, organisations only look good and work properly on the outside when all is well on the inside.
Jason Freeny sculpts anatomy models (scale models with cut-away sections that reveal internal organs and bone structures) with a twist. He dissects some of the most recognisable toys in the world; Barbie, Papa Smurf, Mario, they’ve all had the treatment.
See more here on his website.
It struck me that Freeny’s bizarre mix of cartoon simplicity and anatomical precision is also a very good visual metaphor for ‘brand anatomy’.
The term ‘brand’ is often misunderstood. One of my favourite brands (the name is at the bottom of this post) has this very clear definition of what brand means to them on there website. Every organisation should have their own definition but I think this is a good example:
“The [X] brand is more than simply our familiar logo. It is the expectations that people have of the company towards its products and services, and the accountability that the [X] Group feels towards the world around it.
The brand acts as a guarantee of quality and originality.”
Because brand is so closely associated with ‘marketing’ the relevance to public sector isn’t always clear; yet we expect so much of public services. Brand, as defined above, is there to serve as an organisational structure within which those expectations can be understood and met by the whole organisation, regardless of its size.
The attributes of a brand are as follows; skills, vision, associations, personality and values. The first four may differ between departments or strands of a business/organisation. For example, Virgin has several business strands – Virgin Media, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Trains – where the personality, the skills required, the associations (heroes, competition) and vision (mid/long term aspirations) will differ to varying degrees.
The values however should remain the same because Virgin customers expect the same quality, the same attention to detail, the same premium service across all strands of the business – values are the foundation of the brand. That’s what Virgin stands for.
Like all living things, organisations only look good and work properly on the outside when all is well on the inside.
Service Design takes an organisation’s expert knowledge and explores new ways of helping them tackle problems. But how do you help an organisation build if it has no foundations? It is essential then that any service design activity look at the strength of the brand first.
A contributing factor of an organisation’s development and success is staff awareness and application of brand values. That means everyone, from the top down. If an organisation’s values are not understood (internally or externally) then it will not invite or sustain innovation and change.
Even the biggest brands can grow complacent and lose their way in this regard. Lego, currently amongst the top three toy brands in the world, almost disappeared in the early 90’s as it lost touch with its customers. Conveniently for my metaphor the famous brick company rebuilt on sounder foundations and innovated as part of the process – you read their brand statement earlier in this post!
In strategic designer we must think about our values and those of our clients. A useful exercise to get you started is thinking about the brands in your life:
- Who are they and why do they have your loyalty?
- What are their values and what do they look like in action?
- Is there anything in these relationships that you can relate to public services?
- Do you see public services as brands?
I would love to hear your comments!
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