Brand Asset Management – a game changer.
Risk taking is part of our business. You do your research,
analyze the competition, put in the many hours of strategic
development, all in the pursuit of a client who, you hope, will
agree with your approach, see the business benefit of your strategy
and, ultimately, feel aligned with your process and your
personalities. Truth is, often it comes down to a subjective vote
on, yes, the creative.
We were faced recently with an opportunity to pitch a new
branding initiative with a major North American sports franchise
and, in our first "RFP question session" with the client, we
noticed an unavoidable lack of consistency in the way the brand was
presented to us.
Having attended the BBN Academy in November, we found ourselves
wondering if this wasn't an opportunity to put BAM into practice.
We couldn't have made a better choice.
When it came time to pitch the "branding initiative", the client
was undoubtedly expecting a creative campaign that would bring new
excitement and attention to the brand. In any other situation, we
may just have presented something along those lines. Instead, and
to their surprise, we showed them why their biggest problem was not
the lack of a compelling campaign, but rather, the lack of a
compelling and strong brand. We introduced BAM and the steps
involved that would solidify their brand essence across the
organization and provide the solid brand foundation from which they
could then build campaigns. Most importantly, we stressed the need
for their involvement in the process.
We spoke from a place of confidence and authority, using the
model and its global applications as proof of our belief in the
need for this process.
Not only did we pitch BAM with confidence, we did not offer one
piece of creative, stressing that without a solid brand platform
and position, we'd just be putting a Band Aid over something that
would remain broken.
We had pitched intelligence over creative and, I'm very proud to
say, we won.
Will this change the way we approach new business pitches? Not
always, but certainly when branding is part of it. The power of the
BAM model is in its logic and simplicity and while our clients may
be looking for the "next big idea", they can't argue the need to
first define and position their brands with unified, organizational
agreement.
Of course the creative work is still to come, and the
development of communication campaigns will flow from the branding
work we've done. With a strong brand identity and key communication
platform, the creative will only help to strengthen the brand and
the subjective client decision-making will be avoided as they
themselves are the crafters of the message.
No matter what a client is expecting, take a look at their brand
and ask yourselves if there isn't an opportunity to rise above the
competition and really bring some tangible value to their
business.
BAM will get you in the game.