Look upstream and add value to your brand
Things aren’t going in the right direction. A trickle of customers has started to head for the exit, the organisation feels a bit lost, and unsurprisingly, profits are trending down.
Let’s fix the brand. That will turn things around. A new name and shiny revamped logo with all the trappings. New website and marketing materials.
And sure, you might get a small short-term bump. After all, stuff started slipping due to neglect, so any activity will boost people’s hopes and interest. But a longer-term fix needs a different mindset.
In his book Upstream, Dan Heath says, “We can — and we should stop dealing with the symptoms of problems, again and again, and start fixing them. At the same time, we should be open-eyed about the challenges we’ll face as we make that shift”.
Which is good advice. Because what ails you didn’t start today. Or even yesterday.
That customer leaving? She first got peeved a few months ago when her order took forever and was damaged when it did arrive. That bottom line slide started when a competitor launched a new product you decided was a flash in the pan.
At the beginning of the book, Heath shares a public health parable (commonly attributed to Irving Zola).
“You and a friend are having a picnic by the side of a river. Suddenly you hear a should from the direction of the water — a child is drowning. Without thinking, you both dive in, grab the child, and swim to shore. Before you can recover, you hear another child cry for help. You and your friend jump back in the river to rescue her as well. Then another struggling child drifts into sight … and another … and another. The two of you can barely keep up. Suddenly, you see your friend wading out of the water, seeming to leave you alone. “Where are you going?” you demand. Your friend answers, “I’m going upstream to tackle the guy who’s throwing all these kids in the water.”
Which makes upstream the only place to look if you genuinely want a different outcome. Thinking about the brand as a solution to anything is akin to endlessly pulling children from the river without bothering to find out how they got there.
The brand is only a store of the value created or eroded by promises kept or broken. And the only way you increase it is to make better promises and keep them. My Promise Wheel is handy for making and keeping them and pointing to what’s going wrong and where the rot began.
You can grab a copy here.
Yes, that logo from 1980 will sometimes benefit from a makeover. And the speed of change online means websites always need updating. But while those housekeeping tasks have an impact, children will still end up in the river unless you shift your gaze.
There are reasons aplenty why people don’t. Fixing that thing in front of you feels terrific. Endorphins rush to your brain, screaming ‘good job’.
Less fun. Looking for the breaks in the supply chain or for what’s driving my employees to leave. There’s no immediate satisfying fist bump. Just trudging through data, research and processes. Sifting what I think is true from what’s happening.
Upstream is unheroic work. Which later, further downstream means customers come in droves. People show up eager to work. The bottom line has turned the corner, and revenue is rising. And the brand? Well, the accumulating store of value means I can do more work, open more stores, launch new products, and maybe even buy my competitor.
See you next time.
M
