Talking Point: Communication to help nurture brands of the future – II

Existence of brand levity, the natural strength that works against degeneration is a true sign of great brands. Brand Levity has four aspects which give a brand the ability to oppose forces that pull it down – these are: Memetic Integrity: Many correlate the greatness of a Brand with its size, growth, stature, or visibility. However, a superlative Brand is only identified by its integrity to its core proposition. Brands with high Memetic Integrity attract followers, who in turn become carriers and propagators of the Brand’s meme creating new converts with ripple effect. 

Any great Brand must live this real self, and communicating within these real boundaries will create lasting value for the brand. Purpose: The Purpose of Brands is not in reaching a quantifiable destination. Instead, a Brand’s primary Purpose is in its journey. It must be such that during the course of its life the path creates strong and positive influences and relationships with other brands and people in the universe. Involvement: Most firms work towards the betterment of those they serve – employees, investors, customers. 

Despite this, all businesses cause some direct and indirect ‘collateral damage’. Each firm ‘chooses’ what it considers to be its Involvement boundary and therefore chooses what to impact. This border definition makes the most critical impact on its business decisions. Ownership: The owners of Brands are those who carry the brand-meme and actively propagate it. Call them loyal consumers, ambassadors or emissaries – they are ones with the ownership of the Brand. 

A true Brand exists only by one rule, that the carrier of the brand-meme is its only owner. When the business acts in a manner consistent to this thought, the entire approach to the brand alters. ‘To know’ transforms to ‘to know from owners’. If this approach is adopted, every step the business takes turns beneficial to the stakeholders and in turn to the Brand itself.