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 Marketing has always been part science and part instinct. The marketing component is the purview of the numbers crunchers. Instinct is the fuzzier realm of gut feel, tempered by experience and judgment. It is often difficult for executives to navigate the turbulent waters of branding, which is part measureable and part elusively ephemeral.One thing is certain. A favorable and well known brand shows up on the balance sheet. There is another factor that is evident. Brand strength is not a permanent asset. Brands change, fluctuate and in some cases become time bombs that alter the course of corporate history. Think about Time Warner and AOL for example.
Word of mouth has always been a potent influencer of brand, for good or ill. Its importance has now been compounded by the Internet and its social networks. A recent survey of Internet users found that helping a friend or family member with a purchase decision was the most common Internet world-of-mouth activity. More than two-fifths of respondents said they shared advice offline about information they learned on the Web.
According to the experts, the attributes of a good brand are: it confirms credibility, connects emotionally with the buyer, motivates decision making, and confirms user loyalty. To dip into this pool of goodwill, marketers must understand the needs and wants of customers and prospects.
Viewing a list of the top 100 brands, it is apparent that virtually all of the names are well known to a large percentage of the population. The perennial leader is Coca-Cola, followed by Microsoft, IBM, GE, Nokia and Toyota. Other names near the top of the list are McDonalds, Disney and American Express.
There are three brands presently in flux that illustrate the changeable nature of a brand. Hyundai, once thought of as a low cost auto maker with questionable quality, was featured in Fortune Magazine. The headline: “With best-in-class quality, marketing hustle, and aggression that borders on recklessness, Hyundai is speeding to the head of the pack. It has given Toyota a scare, and now it is pushing its way into the luxury-car game.”
GE, once the most exalted of corporate Titans, is on the receiving end of a torrent of criticism. It is being punished for the fact that earnings have gone into steep decline, credit rating was lowered and dividends were reduced. According to Chief Executive Magazine, stockholder groups are calling for a change of leadership.
Finally Charter Communications, which is trumpeting its package deals on Internet, cable TV, and telephone, isn’t getting much positive feedback from its customers. Consumer Reports says Charter gets the most complaints of any of the big telecommunications companies. Clearly that is a wakeup call to management to pay more attention to service quality and customer satisfaction.
 The first imperative is to deliberately, consciously wean the organization from excessive control, the methods most executives learned and practice in their profession. The late Peter Drucker explained, “Because the modern organization consists of knowledge specialists, it has to be an organization of equals, of colleagues and associates. No knowledge ranks higher than another; each is judged by its contribution to the common task rather than by any inherent superiority or inferiority. Therefore, the modern organization cannot be an organization of boss and subordinate. It must be organized as a team.”
The urgency of shedding authoritarian control in business received attention at the first of the year with the release of a Conference Board survey that found only 45 percent of Americans are satisfied with their work, the lowest level recorded in more than 22 years of studying the issue.
Judy Estrin, an expert on innovation, contends, “America has lost the core values that were the catalysts of its success. We can-and must-regain our momentum, adapt to a new reality, and restore our culture of innovation and commitment to science at all levels.” She concludes with this challenge, “Sustainable innovation will require sweeping changes at all levels of society-from the schoolroom and the playground, to the boardroom and executive suites, to the hallways of our nation’s capitol.”
Author and consultant Edward E. Gordon, in his new book Winning the Global Talent Showdown, makes the point that the world will soon be facing a “huge talent shortage”. He advocates innovative partnerships in which local governments, schools, businesses, labor unions, parents, training organizations, community activists, and others collaborate to develop completely new approaches to education.
Another issue is raised by Columbia University professor Alan Brinkley. He writes, “Our society could not survive without scientific and technological knowledge. But we would be equally impoverished without humanistic knowledge as well. Science and technology teach us what we can do. Humanistic thinking can help us understand what we should do.”
Ray Kurzweil, scientist, inventor, and futurist, offers this perspective: “People often go through three stages in considering the impact of future technology: awe and wonderment at its potential to overcome age-old problems; then a sense of dread at a new set of grave dangers that accompany these novel technologies; followed finally by the realization that the only viable and responsible path is to set a careful course that can realize the benefits while managing the dangers.”
 Forler Massnick It is time for the annual rite of attempts to forecast what will happen in the new year. In his book Rethinking the Corporation, Forler Massnick quotes Winston Churchill’s complaint, “The future is one damn thing after another.” Peter Drucker put an academic spin on it, “”Forecasting is not a respectable human activity and not worthwhile beyond the shortest of periods.”
Nonetheless businesses squander millions of dollars on the futile task of forecasting, creating a multi-billion-dollar industry. Massnick commented, “This is despite the fact that prognosticators have one thing in common: They are usually wrong.”
William A. Sherden, in his book The Fortune Sellers, wrote, “The theories of chaos and complexity are revealing the future as fundamentally unpredictable. This applies to our economy, the stock market, commodity prices, the weather, animal populations, and many other phenomena. There are no clear historical patterns that carve well-marked trails into the future. History does not repeat itself. The future remains mostly unknowable.”
There is, however, one reality that business leaders can count on for the indefinite future. Since the beginning of recorded history science and technology have progressed exponentially. For thousands of years that progression was slow and gradual, but now is breathtaking. That is the nature of things that progress exponentially.
For evidence, simply refer to the Science and Technology entries on this website. Massnick makes this observation in his book, “Opportunistic companies will organize around a philosophy of constantly scanning the horizon for scientific and technological advances that can be turned into successful products and services.”
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Marketing has always been part science and part instinct. The marketing component is the purview of the numbers crunchers. Instinct is the fuzzier realm of gut feel, tempered by experience and judgment. It is often difficult for executives to navigate the turbulent waters of branding, which is part measureable and part elusively ephemeral.One thing is certain. A favorable and well known brand shows up on the balance sheet. There is another factor that is evident. Brand strength is not a permanent asset. Brands change, fluctuate and in some cases become time bombs that alter the course of corporate history. Think about Time Warner and AOL for example.
