Halfway Is Not An Option

When you add up all the time organizations spend to figure out who they are, who others believe they are and where they want to be in the future, the number would stretch into the millions of hours. Corporate executives bring in branding experts, hold focus groups and interview all levels of investors, employees and customers to develop a cohesive brand. It takes lots of time, effort and money. Then, after months of planning and executing the strategy, the program stops for a multitude of reasons. Sound familiar?

Unfortunately, this is a common situation in today’s world. Going halfway in meeting a goal should never be an option. Do athletes go into a competition and decide halfway through that they will just give up? Do musicians decide to only write half a song? Do employees stay employed giving 50% effort in their work? Of course not. What is the point of the entire exercise if the organization just completes half of the marketing plan?

A brand is more than a logo and a corporate identity manual. It is a great mistake to believe that a brand doesn’t need communication to help position it in the hearts and minds of an organization’s audience from investors to employees and customers.
The most successful brands know they need to find better ways to communicate with their customers now more than ever before as technology is driving change at a rapid pace.

For instance, Apple knows they have to continually develop new products that their customers want. The more successful they become the more effort they spend in communicating with their customer base and listening to them. Apple executives know that competition is constantly wooing the marketplace with the next generation of products and services. By continually telling their story and communicating with their loyal customers, they can keep sales growing. Apple always goes the distance in executing to their branding strategy.

Going halfway with a branding effort can have disastrous results. There are many organizations that have made this mistake, learned by it and have vowed never to do it again because they lost momentum, competition took market share, sales slumped and stock prices plummeted.

If the marketing plan is based on solid research and planning then it should be executed completely. Then it will be a valuable asset benefitting the organization’s relationships, sales and future investment opportunities.