Branding, Business, and Making Them Work (Part 5)
Creative COLLABORATION (a discipline of Brand-Building)
Strong and long-lasting buildings are built in collaboration. Hollywood perhaps proposes a perfect model for this. It takes hundreds, maybe thousands of people to make a movie.
In making movies, we find some of the most unlikely collaborations. The reason is, to present a scene as real, you have to employ the expertise that can make each element in the scene real. Technology, Psychology, Arts, and many more fields and professionals working behind the scene are oftentimes more than the ones we see.
In brand-building, there are a couple of collaborative networks that attempt to do justice but not all of them do.
Marty Neumeier says there are three basic models for organizing brand collaboration.
The One-Stop-Shop (The Company).
The organization controls and manages all the resources to develop and steward the brand. The PR, research, identity, events, product design, promotions, naming, packaging, brand strategy, etc. All done within. Whilst this is easy to manage and promises some consistency, you are limited in your choice of team and personnel and there’s bound to be little ownership of the brand (it’s usually doesn't go far). My take is, it’s not a very effective way to build a brand.
Brand Agency
Allows you to hire the best firms and professionals to develop and steward the brand. The great part is, it places the choice of teams and personnel within your prerogative and it promises consistency but it also limits the ownership of the brand
Integrated Marketing Team
My favorite. It is managed internally but with open collaboration among best-of-breed specialists in every area. What this means is that while the brand is managed internally, each aspect of building the brand is done in collaboration with whoever does it best. The upside is, you are able to choose teams and personnel that most suit your branding goals. There’s also a promise of consistency because it is managed internally and there are huge chances of brand ownership. The downside though, is that it is difficult to manage but it’s not impossible.
To build a great brand, you need the best minds and hands. You need teams and professionals with deep insights.
The mathematics of collaboration is MAGIC
In your journey to creating impressions and building a great brand, you have to be willing to collaborate (at Hollywood’s level) and manage collaborations.
If you are following, we have explored a few disciplines. Difference, innovation, and collaboration. Tomorrow, I’ll write about VALIDATION. I hope you read
