BRANDING FEBRUARY 2020
BRAND
ON THE RUN
Your company’s image has a huge impact on
corporate success – and often starts from within
BY SCOTT McTUBBIN, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, UNIFORM
Any established manufacturer who has
a vast sales network across Europe
with household brand name products,
should be guaranteed success.
However, this isn’t always the case.
In an era of continual and accelerating
change, many manufacturers are struggling to
prioritise and are losing sight of what’s of critical
importance: a clear and compelling purpose.
In 1961, when John F Kennedy was visiting
NASA for the first time, he asked a cleaner who
was mopping the floor, “What do you do for
NASA?”. The man responded, “Well Mr President,
I am helping put a man on the moon.”
The cleaner’s response gives a real insight into
how much clarity NASA placed on purpose. NASA
is a large and extremely complex organisation,
yet the leadership was still able to create unity
around a single idea that gave everyone that
worked there (and beyond) a sense they were
contributing to something much bigger. That
period in time is often described as the ‘golden
era’ for NASA – and it’s easy to see why.
The idea of defining (or
redefining) a company’s brand
purpose is often lost in today’s
ever-changing and complex
world and many companies
fall short of either not clearly
defining purpose or creating a
purpose that makes little
sense to either the customer
or employees.
One clear example of overstretching
a brand purpose is
the drinks manufacturer, Pepsi.
Last year Pepsi released an ad
starring Kendall Jenner centred
around the idea that somehow,
a can of Pepsi is the catalyst
for world peace. According to
YouGov, the brand experienced
its lowest consumer perception
levels in nearly ten years and
has taken nearly a year to
recover since the campaign.
On the flipside, Dyson are
a great example of a brand
with a clear purpose: to solve
problems that others seem to
ignore. And commercially, they
position the brand around this
idea which ensures everyone
from employees, to customers
understand that Dyson stands
for innovation and quality.
Brand alignment
As brand experts at Uniform,
we have worked with many
manufacturers to help them
define and communicate
purpose to stakeholders. This
can range from a complete
overhaul of the brand strategy
resulting in a new identity,
to repositioning companies
centred around a new or
evolved purpose.
An example of this is
Ideal Standard. Established
more than a century ago,
Ideal Standard manufactures
bathroom ware and plumbing
fixtures throughout Europe,
Middle East and Africa,
including at factories in
Staffordshire and Hull.
Although the company has
a rich history of design and
innovation, in recent years
the brand has become more
synonymous with volume
and value with its customers
and competing on price with
an increasing number of
competitors.
By trying to grow into new
markets and sectors, Ideal
Standard developed new
product ranges that satisfied
a wider customer base, but
they were not aligned to a
clear brand direction. Over
time, this diluted what made
Ideal Standard special and
created a portfolio of product
brands that seemed unrelated
and unclear, making the only
differentiation price.
Ideal Standard worked
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