Like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, branding success is in the eye of the shareholder. Results of any attempts to build or strengthen brand equity, lie in the laps of shareholders.
Exploring shareholder values and goals is a critical early step in the branding process, and an art that requires special handling. Without defined boundaries, those attempting to brand, or re-brand, may work themselves out of favor- off the canvas. The goal at this step is to clearly outline the canvas of a masterpiece not yet painted.
Coaching an organization through a branding, or re-branding, process requires knowledge of some key factors: industry norms, organization size, management style, cultural norms, etc. Organization size, for example, can greatly influence the method used, but the objective is still the same: to establish the boundaries of the artwork.
With a well defined canvas, entrepreneurial spirits can be stimulated to identify and characterize market opportunities on the horizon. Before setting out to identify opportunities, it is a good idea to determine the basic motives of shareholders. Shareholders with a lower risk tolerance tend to seek opportunities in existing paradigms; whereas, organizations with higher risk tolerance tend to seek opportunities where no man has gone before.
Organizations with low risk tolerance rely on information gained from within the current paradigm. They attempt to predict future opportunities by analyzing existing information: trends, market forecasts, competitive landscape, organizational accomplishments and strengths, current and pending regulations, recent industry announcements, etc. Consistent with their low risk tolerance, they tend to establish conservative values. Understanding your shareholders goals, risk tolerance, and values becomes a critical success factor.
Organizations with a thirst for new frontiers, tend to tolerate more risk with anticipation of higher gain. These organizations invest heavily in research and development. They fund processes that generate high volumes of provocative ideas; they evaluate ideas and develop new concepts. They tend to share ideas, putting more energy into paint new paradigms than protecting old ones. Still, key goal of these organizations is to create and secure intellectual rights to entirely new concepts that lead to new markets. A market leader in this category moves swiftly to become the dominant player- to become the 900 pound gorilla. Branding this kind of organization requires a completely different strategy, one that requires different tools, skills, and processes.
Clearly, before setting out to develop a new brand identity, it is important to understand the motives of the shareholder. Knowledge of shareholder motives, and their boundaries, will help identify elements of a new brand, like paint on pallet. With a pallet of paint, the artist can begin to develop a strong brand identity aligned with shareholders.
With the exception of my own nano-sized company, I've always been an extreme minority shareholder in other companies,so I never really had thought about the responsibilities of the shareholder in this light - pretty interesting. Along the same vein, I suppose there are a lot more "starting artists" trying to sell their wares at a hotel event than those that can truly combine innovation with capability and drive.
ReplyDelete