“And he was good to his dream.”
Brand Owners need to be OK with dreaming bigger.
Business objectives need to be met. That’s it. Flat out. No bull.
But the funny thing about objectives are the different roadmaps one can take to get there. And often the roadmap is faulty and outdated; it does not know Highway X no longer takes you to Interstate Y. Because, you see:
Roads change. And Brand Owners need to be able to handle it — even be ready to adapt and go in a new direction, wherever that might be.
Roads change in a variety of ways:
Conditions can be poor
Potholes and weather do a number on roads. The person or people in a business that do not understand your point-of-view and reasoning (or choose not to) but are not the Brand Owner can still slow down a project/campaign. And even blow out a tire on it.
Bad weather — a lack of funds and inner-office politics — can render a project/campaign dead in its tracks.
Brand Owners need to spot the holes sooner and forecast the storms faster.
The speed limit increases or decreases
Vehicles that were once going 80 are now going 100. Or vehicles that were once going 60 are now going 40. But who wants to be on that road? How can you ever get somewhere in a punctual manner?
Brand Owners need to keep up. Often, when speed limits are lowered it is for safety reasons (and this is a great thing) — but safe brands become dead brands.
Brand Owners need to be willing to drive on the Autobahn.
Construction might be happening
The Brand Owner recognized a problem and decided to fix it. But like a roadway being torn up and repaved, the Brand Owner now faces detours and stoppages. Productivity might go down in other departments. And the Brand Owner will become concerned about “timing.”
But Brand Owners need to trust the strategy and campaign put before them. Because, you see:
It is in the Brand Thinker’s best interest to help the Brand Owner.
To paraphrase George Lois in The Art of Copy:
“The client needs to realize I’m trying to make them rich. Filthy stinking rich.”
I have yet to meet a Brand Thinker, Marketing Strategist, Copywriter, Design Thinker, or anyone related to the business over drinks (when we all get honest) and hear them say, “Oh, man, I loved coming up short on that one.” It doesn’t and will not happen with the lot of us that are in it to win it. A Brand Owner’s positive results are just as positive for us.
We earn more referrals.
We earn accolades.
And we earn the satisfaction of a job well done.
Catch what word I just used there? Look again. See it: Earn.
Brand Thinkers are earners. Increasing brand awareness is an objective. Why? Because it increases the Brand Owners bottom line. So: Brand Thinkers go out there and determine the best — and I’ll say it again, the best — means for obtaining that objective. Because we’re in it together.
The unfortunate thing is the number (and I don’t even want to guess it) of Brand Owners out there driving their Brand towards a brick wall, into oncoming traffic, or off a cliff because they refuse to allow their Brands to earn the way they should. Maybe the Brand Owner has their seatbelt tied too tight. Or maybe their GPS was programmed wrong. But whatever it is, they need to fix it.
“If birds can fly for long periods of time, then….why can’t I?”
Orville Wright said that. And he did some amazing things — like dream.
Eventually, all the roads are going to be filled with potholes and ice, or too slow for timely transportation, or under too much construction resulting in confusing and annoying detours that no one wants to navigate.
Brand Owners big and small better be ready to fly.
