I’ve heard marketers talk about how they’re going to “spin” a campaign. There’s a problem with that line of thinking. It’s short-term and ineffective. Spinning a campaign is NOT likely going to change a company’s brand in any significant way. Here’s Laura Reis’ riff on a recent WalMart attempt at doing just that. A brand, you see, (using Michael Eisner’s words) is “enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures.”

It’s like a pack of wild dogs pulling a sled. If they’re all going in different directions, you’ll get nowhere fast … and adding another dog (with a strong spin) won’t change things. If you get all the dogs pointing in the wrong direction, again, adding another dog won’t likely change the situation. The only way to steer brand is to put in the time, energy and PLANNING to get the dogs to run in the direction you want. The problem with both brands and dogs is they’re both kinda fickle and unpredictable.

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 19th, 2007 at 2:04 pm and is filed under Brand-tastic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.