As marketers, we are constantly focused on creating and building brands…and often extending those brands with additional products. The CPG channel is the champion of this strategy, much more so than foodservice. Lately, however, major brands have been on a rampage to extend their brands further and further from their original base.
A new book dealing with this issue has just been published: “OBD: Obsessive Branding Disorder." The author, Lucas Conley, asserts that branding has "jumped the tracks, barreling through popular culture unchecked." He errs, I think, by elevating the argument that consumers are overexposed to commercial messages and impart too much meaning to the clothes they wear and the cars they drive. Then he takes things a step further. Branding promotes the sizzle over the steak, Conley argues, and the time and money spent on branding could be --- should be --- spent on other pursuits, most notably R&D and innovation.
Overall the concept of OBD is an interesting one; something marketers should consider as they not only “build their brands” but also as they “build ON their brands.”
The linked article also points out the bottom line on Conley’s book:
- People gravitate to brands because they offer us mental shortcuts, helping us cut through the clutter of everything we buy.
- Companies may look to change their image when in fact it is their core offering that needs to be overhauled, because a new logo is much more easily rendered than a better product line.
- Billions of dollars are spent in the pursuit of what may be wasteful rebranding. For example, AT&T's 2006 branding campaign was its twenty-third in 25 years.
- Today's marketplace is one where items once seen as commodities are now branded. At the same time, the level of competition and the ease with which products can be copied speaks to the utility of being able to tell similar offerings apart.
- In an effort to sway consumer decisions, companies are pursuing what may be seen as ever more insidious promotional campaigns. Sony invented a fake movie critic to favorably review its films while Procter & Gamble controls a network of thousands of word-of-mouth advocates.
An article about the book, published today at Knowledge.com outlines the book’s primary messages, and critiques them in the context of the corporate marketer. It is worth the read.
In addition, there is a link to a video clip of an interview held with the author by Stephen Colbert, aired last week. His critique is even more biting and obvious.
- http://knowledge.wpcarey.asu.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1652#
- http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/videos.jhtml?videoId=178712
Enjoy!