If you love your brand — set it free
Just like a forest, a brand is a complex living thing. It’s the collective reflection of the people it represents. People work with passion, solve complex problems, delight other people and learn over time how to get even better at doing what they do best.
Just as people are dynamic, fluid and constantly learning — so too a brand cannot be structured too rigidly if it is to be adaptable in today’s fast moving world.
During his heartbreaking press conference to announce that Nokia was being acquired by Microsoft, the Nokia CEO, Rajeev Suri, ended his speech with tears in his eyes saying, “we didn’t do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost”.
He was right in saying that Nokia hadn’t necessarily done anything wrong, but what Nokia had failed to maintain was their founding spirit of brand adaptability.
Historically, the company was founded in 1865 as a papermill. In 1898 it transitioned part of itself into a rubber business; and then, an electrical company. It was only in the 1960’s that Nokia developed an electronics department, which later morphed into the telecommunications giant known famously today.
Even without the pressure of rapid, modern change, Nokia’s DNA resembled that of a chameleon, but for some reason, thanks to the rigid formalisation of their brand and business (most probably because the size of their global success had reached such a point that any change would have spelled disaster for their delicately balanced revenue streams) it was ironically their adopted inflexibility that ended up being their biggest stumbling block. The gilded cage of global success was sadly the reason for their eventual demise.
Staying relevant in 2016 really means letting go of the reins of control just a bit more than most modern analytical managers are comfortable with.
Embracing the fluidity and natural adaptability of a complex adaptive system like a business or brand, which is given direction by suggestive guidelines rather than strict rules, regulations and manuals feels counter intuitive. But nothing could be more stable than actively trying to structure a brand which isn’t too rigid and therefore vulnerable to rapid change.
A fluid brand should be represented by staff who are all inspired and encouraged to take on the responsibility of brand management and speak on behalf of the brand in their own way — guided by the company values and the brand story.
Strategically then the brand vision should be clear and inspiring, but also loose enough to allow for endless possibilities, because a tight brand destination is far too easily missed by very small changes that are out of your control.
At Yuppiechef, one of our core values is integrity. Because of this, we view the business and the brand as the same thing. The brand therefor must always reflect the business and people behind it as both change and adapt over time. The brand cannot be a static picture of what was before because as a collective of people we are learning new things about business and life and where the world is heading, every day.
The very first page of the Yuppiechef brand guide is blank — other than a two word quote by the philosopher Plato that really sums up how we see the journey of managing the Yuppiechef brand.
‘Know thyself’
These words are a reminder that as a brand, the quest to know ourselves will never result in us arriving at an eventual destination, but is rather a daily enquiry into who we are.
It’s an active learning process, an ongoing journey of discovery, that will always keeping us curious and will most probably never be completed.
Written by Cherryflava
