Corporate Branding

[KENAT]

Anyone else endured Corporate Branding.

Anyone think it adds anything or is it just a pointless exercise to keep arts, business & marketing graduates busy.

I can just about understand doing it for Sales and Marketing but we just had an all hands meeting for 2 hours this afternoon about it.

Or how about anyone have any smart anograms or similar I can substitute for our new "internal rally cry" of

Performance = Success

I also posted a copy of our "Elevator Statement" next to the freight elevator.

 

[lewtam]

Corporate fad = WOFTAM

I like the practical use of the Elevator Statement. Does it include: 'We will strive to have an uncomfortable silence in the elevator, avoiding eye contact and social interaction no matter how familiar we are with other elevator passengers"

Or does that just happen at my company's head office?

LewTam Inc.
Petrophysicist, Leading Hand, Natural Horseman, Prickle Farmer, Crack Shot, Venerable Yogi.

 

[MadMango]

I've been through 2 brading efforts at different companies. At the end of both I was left with this empty feeling in my gut. After I found out what the company paid for branding services through some consultants (the lowest was $50k USD), I laughed all week.

One company wanted to move away from their "lettery" name, and go with a logo. Imagine the Chrysler diamond-star or Coca-cola ribbon. The consultants displayed a huge 180"x 72" banner with about 30 ovid logos, all looking mostly the same. The winning design was selected, and a few months later I pointed out if the oval was turned on it's side, it looked like rising tide waters, and asked what level of confidence that gave our customers. Within the year the logo disappeared.

[green]"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."[/green]

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[jmw]

Re-Branding sometimes seems like the last resort of failed management; when the business is going to pot re-branding is a nice straw to clutch at. It is easier to say "Our customers don't Understand us" than "Our management team don't understand the (their) business.".

It is paint to cover the cracks.

There will be some notable branding successes followed by a raft of failed imitations. In the companies where I have experienced this, they fell into the second category.



JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[MortenA]

Branding is a "management consultant" stunt. Something to make them feel important IMHO.

Its the worst buzz-word around presently!

Best regards

Morten

 

[corus]

Face facts, management don't have much to do all day so exercises like this keep them off the streets where they could be harrassing old ladies to 'leverage' them across the street. That could be your mother. Think about it.

corus

 

[kchayfie]

Its not always a complete waste of time. One division of our company was sued by a client and we won. Another division of our company wants to work with a different division of the same client. They want to give us the work but our corporate name is unpopular up the management tree over there. The division wanting the work went through a rebranding exercise and got themselves a new name so they weren't associated with the other group and hey presto! a big contract falls in their lap.

If the clients management had been engineers instead of accountants, a) the change would have been spotted and b) it wouldn't have been necessary anyway because they would have known which was the right team for the job!

 

[epoisses]

A good reason why (I know I have to watch my words now) one should not look TOO far down on this kind of exercises. Even though from engineering point of view it may be bull, we have to face the fact that there are parallel universes in which brands and buzz words are worth big money.

 

[ornerynorsk]

Aw, come on. The people who have no real skill to offer the world need a job, too! Wait a minute, they could go into politics.

 

[KENAT]

Well, while our "Internal Rally Cry" may be "Performance = Success" (note it doesn't say good performance, just performance) our Brand is apparantly "THE HERO, Where there's a will there's a way."

I did find out what the elevator statement is though. It's what you're meant to say to customers/prospective customers in the elevator on the way to your meeting or whatever.

 

[epoisses]

ornerynorsk,
if they have no real skill, how come they make money than you do?
:-D

 

[epoisses]

(..) more (..)

(annoying that one can't edit posts here)

 

[bioengr82]

For those who believe there is no value in "branding" a product or business, I refer you to First in Thrist. It is an excellent read. Despite what we engineers would like to think, an excellent product that performs it's intended function better or more effectively than our competition is only part of the equation in a free market.

Get used to it.

 

[KENAT]

Like I said in my OP I can kind of see the point for sales & Mktg. Maybe even some kind of short presentation at a regular all hands meeting but:

2 Hour dedicated meeting
150+ attendees
Average burden rate probably >$100/hr

Thus just the attendance at the meeting probably cost > $30,000.

That is before you consider the cost of flying in and providing accommodation for some of the presenters, paying for the branding consultant who was there the whole time but only presented for about 5 minutes + the goodies they gave away (cookies, water, pens, caps and paper pads nothing exciting).

This in a division of the company that has a cyclical market, who are at a trough in that cycle, had layoffs just last month and are busy quashing rumors of more layoffs.

The presentations were also full of marketing and management speak which made it seems stupid/patronizing, especially given that probably at least half those present were Engineers or Scientists. It was patronizing enough at a drugstore I worked at as a cashier but in a company that should be aware that at least half those present are probably of above average intelligence it really seemed misguided.

 

[vpl]

epoisses

You can "edit" the post by clicking on the red flag and asking the site people to do it for you. They're usually more than willing.

Patricia Lougheed

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of the Eng-Tips Forums.

 

[KENAT]

And so it has begun.

A colleague and I are having a 'discussion' on something by email and he's added a few 'spectators' CC and started throwing in lingo from the branding.

He's thrown our internal rally cry (performance = success) at me.

I've matched him our internal rally cry and raised him the company brand (the hero) and part of a guiding principle.

Just think if this hadn't come up I could have spent several hours on something productive!

 

[jmw]

Beware of BCCs
Brown nosers and the like are adept at misdirecting your attention.

Rebranding is nothing to the mess that takeovers and mergers can create with various parts of the company fighting to preserve an "identity", usually as a product brand name


JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[KENAT]

Well one of the people he CC is important enough that I've been on best behaviour(ish) I very carefully worded my response, although I'll probably still get it from my manager when he gets in, he was out yesterday.

Interesting you mention the takeovers & mergers, that is the case here.

Our Metrology division is a combination of what were several different companies. While I don't notice the fight for a product brand line as such many of the employees who were here before the mergers/acquisitions do generally resent the change in status quo and sometimes act accordingly.

 

[MedicineEng]

The best memories that I have from a corporate rebranding was the lobster dinner and how I (and other persons including the CEO) got absolutely drunk in the CEO's table. After that, everytime that there was a company dinner, I was invited for the big heads' table. I wonder why...
Guys fighting to sit on the table and the young engineer that knows how to tell some jokes and drinks as hell has a season ticket...
I think those Marketing guys were puzzled as this strategy didn't come in the books...

Ahh, good memories of corporate rebranding...

 

[MortenA]

I think that most engineers believe in the free market and the value of marketing - and knows that without these functions the companies would die. BRANDING ACMPAIGNS on the other hand seems like a waste of time and money. A futile management exersice.

I was consultant at a company that went through a big branding exesice - just to buy/merge/whaterver with a lot of other companies, change the name and management and then whats this exercise worth then?

OK there may be a party or a free dinner - but just as often its a late afternoon mandatory meeting where the CEO tries to "encourage" the little folks and then some consultants showing some overheads.

Best regards

Morten