Is 2.0 Turning Your Brand Schizo?

By Meg Hoppe, Creative Director @meghoppe

Social media, PR 2.0 and Web 2.0 (not to mention Marketing 2.0) are collectively pulling marketers in directions they didn’t know existed five years ago. These tools and approaches have transformed marketing, creative, outreach, reach, the message, the medium – everything. Now more than ever brands need to be managed with discipline and consistency wherever they go, whatever the medium.

Here’s an analogy that admittedly borders on the corny, but it works for illustrating the dangers of a disjointed approach to brand management in a 2.0 world:

You’re about to undergo major landscaping of your yard; you hire a tree and shrub guy, a flower guy, a sod guy, and an “outdoor living” guy rather than hiring one landscaper with capabilities in all these areas (maybe you thought this would save you money, or get you the best experts -- who knows).

The sod guy, believing beauty to be a vista of green grass, tells you to commit 90% of your property to it; the tree and shrub guy wants to fill the space with plots of pines; the flower guy hopes to transform your entire yard into an English cutting garden, and the outdoor living guy plans to create some weird spa/lounge/swim-up bar thing.

Pardon the mixed metaphors, but that’s exactly what happens when you hire someone with only a hammer in their toolbox---everything looks like a nail to them.

You can avoid brand schizophrenia – competing goals, confused strategies, tactics and presentations of your brand across the many media – by building a strong team that can focus on the consistent presentation of your brand. Whether that’s an internal team or an outside group you partner with isn’t as important as is how they’re prepared to operate as a team: with common goals, open communication and information sharing, and the trust that comes from commitment.

Whatever solution works best for your organization, take the long view in building a team that can all pull in the same direction with all the capabilities to express your brand’s promise and personality, so 2.0 becomes a leverage for your traditional marketing elements. Leave schizophrenia for the healthcare professionals.

About the Author - Weidert Group Staff Content for the Whole Brain Marketing Blog is produced and published by the Weidert Group staff. Our goal is to provide helpful and informative marketing advice for your use and interest. Please contact us at contact@weidert.com