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June 27, 2006
Communications and Brand: A Commons in Common
For as long as I can recall thinking about it I've been puzzled by the lack of connection between communications and brand management. That's not to say that they don't talk, but rather, that the relationship's often disfunctional.
There are a number of reasons for this on both sides of the fence. One of the largest disconnects is that that communications and brand management are so darn close that the most significant differences are not in what they do, but the tools (or media, if you prefer) they utilize.
Communicators are measured on their ability to measure the impact of their activities on the targets of their communications. Brand managers: same. Brand managers are evaluated on their ability to convey complex issues of corporate identity in simple, effective messages that connect emotionally. Communicators: same.
Clearly there are important differences. The brand manager doesn't have to talk to the press when the CEO has a dalliance with his admin., to understand or articulate financials to shareholders in the annual report, to work with innumerable middle managers who don't want to communicate until everything is known and done, and so on. Similarly, the communications manager's job's not on the line if product sales don't increase by x% relative to the cost of the new image advertising campaign, s/he doesn't have to poison the well of good will by playing "brand cop," squashing hundreds of good, well-intentioned ideas because they're not "on brand," provide brand training that nobody really gets or cares about or explain to HR, Finance, IT and the like why they can't have "their own brand."
Nevertheless, the overlapping territory has made brand and communications uneasy bedfellows at the best of times.
In my work, I try to get communications and brand at the table together. I've found that this is one of three or four absolute must-haves for brand project success. That's why I was so delighted to stumble today across the new IABC Branding Commons.
If you're on the brand side of the fence you may not know of IABC, but the International Association of Business Communicators is one of the three most important associations in the lives of most communicators (the other two being PRSA, the Public Relations Assn. of America, for external communicators, and CCM, the Council of Communications Management, for senior communicators).
What's really nice about this new IABC site is that it's an open forum for members and non-members to discuss brand and branding (along with other topics in other related forums) with communications practitioners. Today, as you might imagine, the dialogue isn't very technical or sophisticated, but I'm confident that will change in time. And I'm hopeful that if you read this blog--or even just this post--you'll be willing to be part of that change, that you'll visit the site, contribute your thinking, challenge what needs to be challenged and recognize the good thinking you find.
Posted by davidkippen at June 27, 2006 02:41 PM
Comments
Can I also add that when I was a Group HR Director I created a Brand Development Manager within the function to work woth communciations and the brand marketing team so that the internal and external branding where aligned. So I believe it should be a triangle of the 3 ?
Only just come across the blog but great posts!
Posted by: Anna Farmery at June 28, 2006 04:17 PM