I recently participated in a recorded Google Hangout for itSMF USA on the subject of SLAs – specifically, on whether or not they were actually useful. At some point in the conversation, I said that “IT doesn’t need SLA’s, it needs a brand.” That led to a little exchange on twitter about what that meant.
To help explain what I meant, I am posting an excerpt from a report I wrote called, The Three Secret Skills of Next Generation IT. If you would like to receive a copy of the full report, click here.
Somewhere along the line, branding collected a negative perception. It became code for manipulative marketing practices and for contrived positioning and posturing. As people became bombarded with “brand messages” they got turned off to the idea of being sold and so anything that felt “marketing-ish” was seen as bad. Very early in my career I was in sales. One of my clients had become a friend and I always enjoyed our honest and frank conversations. I remember at one point being sent to sales training. Upon returning, I tried to dutifully apply some of what I had learned. Two minutes into my first conversation with my client/friend, she stopped me cold by saying, “Oh no. You went away and you got slimed.” I was trying to sell her, when what I already had was so much more powerful: an authentic relationship.
Branding is not about selling or manipulating. It’s not really even about marketing. At its most basic level a brand is just a promise.
The most successful brands are those that come to embody a set of promises about what you will get when you purchase that brand. It might be a luxury brand where the promise is that you will be in style and have the highest quality materials. Or it might be a value brand where the promise is that you will get a consistent quality at an inexpensive price. Despite being turned off by marketing hype, most of us still rely on brands for most of our purchasing decisions. Whether it is a large national brand or the “brand” of the local mexican restaurant down the street, the brand represents a promise of consistency. You know what you’re going to get. And that’s a good thing.
What is the brand of your IT organization?
I hope that you’ve figured out that I’m not talking about some shiny logo. I mean what is the consistent experience that your customers expect to receive when they deal with you? In all likelihood, your organization does not have a brand. Or more accurately, you do not have a brand that you know of or that you control. In everything that you do today, you are communicating a brand message. It may be a brand message of inconsistency and poor quality, but it’s still a brand. Your customers are creating an idea of what your brand stands for every day. The question is what is it?
As we enter The Quantum Age and are faced with endless competition, IT’s brand will become incredibly important. Managing it will be vital. It is a skill that will be desperately needed. Effectively managing your brand is really a three part process – and you will need to develop your skills in each part: Defining, Embodying and Communicating.
Defining
There is some really good news. You are not defined by what you are right now. You are defined by who you want to become. This is true in life and on a very personal level (a subject for another day), but it is also true of organizations. The first part of the process is to define what you want your brand to represent. How do you want IT to be perceived? What should people think of when they see IT’s name posted somewhere? What images or ideas should pop into their heads? Whatever they may think now is not indelible. In fact, the best way to change it is to begin by reimagining how you want them to think of you. That will become the essence of your brand. You need to learn to master the art of this process of imagining a future. You must learn how to project and articulate how you believe your customers should see you and think of you. It can be difficult. There are number of techniques that can be drawn from marketing theory that can be helpful, but the essence is that you must practice proactively projecting the desired image of the organization – and being able to articulate that “brand message” clearly and plainly.
Embodying
Do you know where most marketers go wrong? They think that marketing is the message. They concoct some outlandish marketing claim that they think will inspire someone to buy whatever it is that they’re selling, but they fail to realize that the greatest brand message is the product or service itself. Instead of creating a meaningful brand message, they create a perception of inauthenticity and manipulation. A brand is a promise. That means that it is worthless if the organization does not embody it. To master the skill of branding then requires two key elements. First, you must be bluntly aware of your organization’s current capabilities. You cannot make a brand promise that you cannot keep. Second, you must ensure that once that brand promise has been made that you can build the coalitions necessary to protect it. Using your definition work, clearly articulate the brand message, fully aware of current capabilities and then challenge the organization to live up to the promise. Using your coalition, build disciplines and practices that are designed specifically to protect the brand. It is the most important part of building your brand – living it.
Communicating
The last step in the process is to communicate your brand message, authentically, to your customers. This is the most “marketing” part of the branding skill. But it is important to remember that this not about being flashy or creating hype. The key here is authenticity. Simply go to your customer and have an honest conversation about your brand and what it means to them. This is part art and part science. You need to learn how to strike the right balance. You need to get the message out there. Marketers will tell you that it takes seven impressions for an idea or message to get through. But you need to do it authentically. You must do it in a way that projects an open an honest dialogue. This goes back to the idea of humility. You must strive to not project a message of “Look at How Great IT Is – We Rock!!!” and instead project a message of “We are Here to Serve. This is Our Promise to You.” To make it more complicated, how you do this most effectively will be largely driven by your organizational culture. How do your customers want to be communicated with? When and in what fashion are they going to be most receptive to your message? There is no right answer or one way. It will take a fair amount of trial and error to get it right. And it’s going to take a lot of patience. But get it right and it will be extremely powerful.
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