It’s generally understood that brand, as the term is now used, began in the twentieth century. Linguistically it has a long history, but as it applies to the stakeholder’s image of a business, it has a fairly short one. All its diverse origins and evolutions could be investigated, but it’s not necessary to go that deep into history to gain an effective understanding. Simple definitions are the most useful.

An academic would be disappointed without years of research and pages of references, but smart business demands only the essential elements be evaluated and applied. That’s the difference between people who like to talk about business and those who like doing business—theory vs. hands-on implementation. Often, it is also the difference between a useful consultant who has the track record to evolve your company and one that has an impressive sounding theory about “how one might grow one’s business.” Use caution.

The short story about brand goes like this: As the mass-produced products from the industrial revolution came to market, it created an identity problem in the local store. The question arose: How does one differentiate a new, modern product (like a healing salve, for instance) from the local product everyone has trusted for years? The problem of communicating the unique value of any given product was born. Eventually this created an entirely new industry category that became part art and part soft science, which is now referred to as branding.

Brand equity, brand personality, brand valuation, brand experience, etc. are all useful terms and they help us discuss many crucial aspects of the sophisticated marketing approaches we have developed over more than a century. Brand does have a strong upside and has fueled economic engines around the globe for years.

It also has a downside. As the idea of brand evolved, it grew in strength as a separate entity from the business itself. This caused a dual vision for those who were in charge and misperceptions grew. The ideas of business and brand became more and more disconnected. Separate departments formed with separate directors. Silos began to emerge within the corporate culture with conflicting agendas and goals. Branding’s power grew to a point where the old ways of running a unified business were left in the dust.

Unfortunately, branding lost its head and became ego driven. It seemed to be able to generate its own power with little accountability to the rest of the company. For a time, the old way of doing business appeared to be dead.

Unrivaled entrepreneurs have the humility to uncover an accurate set of strengths and weaknesses, the boldness to delegate, and a solid, transparent criteria for decisions.

My opinion is not a popular one in this industry, but the self-indulgent waste in the branding, advertising, and marketing was the thing that pushed me to the point of being philosophically opposed to the industry. I went on a quest to find a way to redeem “marketers,” and the result was a systematic, efficient approach that streamlines the evolution of a company, and subsequently, a new service offered by my company Pivot Lab. It’s the accumulation of years of soul searching, study, and practical application of the theories I collected along the way. These are the theories that succeeded in practical application in the real world of business. What use are ideas if they don’t produce the results we are looking for?

It’s the one thing (other than stable cash flow) that businesses long for—loyalty from buyers and from their staff. Some would say that it is nearly impossible for a business to hold a person’s attention and trust. What would cause this? Too much clutter and too many distractions? The unraveling of moral fiber in our culture? What?

Here is an interesting fact. Gallup says, “Many employees are highly motivated when joining a company but then become increasingly disillusioned.” That sounds quite similar to how a consumer looses interest in a product or service.

It seems clear that, in the beginning, the employee or buyer is pleased they have made the right choice for themselves, but some how there expectations are not met.  The source is easy to find the solution simple in understand, but challenging to execute.

If a company truly understands themselves and their offerings and then has the discipline to represent it correctly, in both hiring and communicating with potential buyers, there will be little disappointment. The company will have accurately explained what the person is about to experience and the person will then have the exact experience they expected, hopefully an even better experience than they expected. It’s likely the decision maker will feel more committed to the business, and loyalty will be built, as it always has been, with one trustworthy action after another.

The difficulty really lies in defining the true values and principals that naturally propel a company forward and aligning the company according to those guidelines. But once you’ve done that, it all becomes straightforward, your business and marketing strategy as well as how you relate to your staff and buyers.

We may have all been better off without the invention of the “Brand”. It’s truly unfortunate that the term “Brand” became so fashionable. It’s caused a bit of confusion. The thing we call brand is understood in its simplest form as the outward expression of a business—the image its consumers, partners, and competitors come to identify with any given business. But in the last sixty years, it has become so much more. It’s become an entity that exists somewhat on it’s own and has subsequently become separated from the business itself.

An indicator of this phenomenon is that we’ve come to the place where there are typically different strategies developed, one for a business and another for its brand. And they may not overlap all that much. “Brand” has even become a unique economic asset in the valuation of a total business. It continues to entice the already emotional stock market to behave even more emotionally, and we’ve all seen how branding has unscrupulously influenced the uninformed consumer.

Here are a few more tips on developing a healthy honesty in business.

The previous entries addressed a study that shows people lie often and the most popular people lie the most often. Since every business wants to become more popular, how will this effect your business negatively?

Next it makes sense to address how can you minimize any negative impact. Here are additional ideas.

Learn how to investigate your personal and collective presuppositions. Writing them out in actual sentences or bullets is a great way to become aware of them. We make many assumptions in any decision process. Start with what you can unveil now and add to it whenever you become aware of another. It will become easer to recognize with practice. Eventually it will become a habit.

Make certain the problem is framed in reality before attempting to solve it. Develop the discipline to stop and ask the problem you are about to solve is really the one you need to be solving. Is there a problem that is deeper rooted? Is this problem based on un-investigated presuppositions? Why do we think this is the problem? Because it’s always been the one we’ve been trying to sole or do we really this is the real problem?

Demonstrate how the truth can be gracefully told. If you aren’t certain how to do this, seek out help. There must be someone you know who has this skill. Often a great sales person will be a natural at this; however beware they are typically comfortable with bending the truth. Begin to change your own speech patterns and launch a company-wide effort that acknowledges the current state of the organizational culture.

Just be honest?  It’s not that easy.

The last entry addressed a study that shows people lie often and the most popular people lie the most often. Since every business wants to become more popular, how will this effect your business negatively?

Next it makes sense to address how can you minimize any negative impact. How do you become honest in a culture that tends to lie? First it makes sense to start with facing the reality that lies are a possible lubricant for the culture inside your business—they can advance or destroy it. You cannot irradiate all lies nor do you need to. Does your associate really need to know their hair didn’t turn out well today?

Investigate your own motives. Access how much you value the health of your company. If this requires uncovering the truth about the entrenched beliefs about your company, your market, your current and potential buyers and your own ideas as compared to feeding your self-perception as a smart person with the best ideas.

Demand the truth. Ask directly for it. Keep asking for more. Establish at the beginning of the conversation that the rules are changing and when you ask what they think you really don’t mean ” agree with me so I feel good about a decision I’ve already made.” Be clear that you are seeking insight based on the reality of the situation. Be persistent. Repeat this every time you request an opinion. It will take perseverance to break the established culture of lying. Teach your executive staff to demonstrate this behavior.

It has been said that we live in a culture of lies—white lies, exaggerations, misrepresentations and outright deceptions. In fact, Robert Fieldman has recently published a book that demonstrates that the most popular people are the ones who lie most often. Plus before people know each other they will tend to lie once every ten minutes. My question is: how will lying effect business success or failure?

I believe lying is one of the most destructive forces in business. One of the leading offenders is the way an organization engages in self-deception. As an organization we often collectively kid ourselves in the interest of moving forward. But what is the true cost?

Consider this senario: You are running a company. You are likely a strong personality or you wouldn’t have had a good deal of success already. You have a new idea, and because you are a good boss with a great staff, you ask for your employees input. They support the major thrust of whatever you describe, raising minor objections. You head back to your office to begin an implementation plan.

Now imagine the potential reality: Your employees have high mortgage payments, a kid or two and increasing credit card debt. They also have a belief that their next raise will be tied to being a popular “team player”; so, they withhold awkward but insightful criticism. Your business slowly fails because the truth will put your employees immediate future at risk.

Everyone in this story is trying to be the good guy. But in reality the good guy employee would risk their raise. The owner who’s a really good guy would demand truth and create a culture of honest—rewarding smart, respectful and comprehensive thinking.

On the other extreme, I’ve seen the opposite problem in a company who’s motto was “challenge the process”. It’s not bad as an idea, but in practice it created a culture of nay-sayers. If you were brave enough to agree with anything you risked not living up to the motto. It paralyzed the organization. Large projects could not get off the ground because company-wide support was impossible to achieve. They made a collective pact to sustain a different sort of self-deception.

Clearly, it takes humility, courage and, of course, honesty to find out how lying might be damaging your business.

See Robert’s Book

There are a lot of brilliant entrepreneurs out there, and at some point, despite their impressive tenacity and competitive nature, they usually hit a ceiling. Moving their company to the next level becomes a frustration that is often mistakenly blamed on their staff. They work hard, come up with lots of new ideas but don’t get the results. Their nature demands that they move forward, but what else can they try?

Myself, and the team at Pivot Lab, are energized by the entrepreneurial spirit. We’ve worked with business for years and have witnessed this exact situation often. We’ve learned a great deal from the successes we’ve seen. This blog was started in order to pass that knowledge on.