Countering the Contrarian

One of my favorite blogs to check regularly is The Ad Contrarian (thanks for pointing it out, Ewan). As suggested by the name, posts on the blog regularly take a devil’s advocate point of view on popular trends, like Twitter, or the web in general. I’m not sure how I missed it for so long, but I just recently came across a series of posts targeting one of TAC’s favorite gripes: branding.

Before I go further, let me say that part of the reason I enjoy the blog is because I respect the point of view of its author (Bob Hoffman of Hoffman/Lewis). In fact, I often agree with him. While I understand his frustration over “branding”—I’m easily annoyed by misuse and overuse of both the word and the concepts behind it—I did think these posts took aim at a bit too big of a target. As one commenter put it, he may be throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Anyway, here’s a summary of one of TAC’s posts and my response. You can follow the links below to see a few more of his posts, and you’ll see I’ve commented on those as well. It’s worth reading everyone else’s comments, too (many enthusiastically agree with Bob’s point of view). Would be curious to hear your stance, as well.

Excerpt from TAC’s Everything You Need To Know About Branding On One Little Page:

You want to have a strong brand? Quit branding. A strong brand is a by-product. It comes from doing a lot of other things right. For example:

1. Make sure you’re selling excellent products.
2. Make sure you’re taking good care of your customers.
3. Make sure your ads demonstrate how your product is different from, and better than, your competitors.

My comment:

I’ve worked at several organizations that call themselves “brand strategy firms” or something similar, and at all of them we focused on three things when developing brand positions for clients:

1. Company (or product, depending on the project) – staying true to its strengths
2. Customers – satisfying their needs
3. Competitors – differentiating from them

This tracks pretty well with your list, so I’m not sure you have as much of a beef with “branding” as you think you do.

Also check out these TAC posts:

• Brand Tinkering
• Championship Brand Tinkering
• The “Brand Problem” Problem

comment

Thanks for reminding me of this blog. This might be the best one: http://adcontrarian.blogspot.com/2009/03/clients-ask-all-wrong-questions.html

Now, go to our blog and check out the ways in which I crack myself up:

http://brandculturetalk.com/2009/08/27/microsofts-marketing-practices-beyond-the-pale/

Paul Burke ( 2009/08/27 at 08:43 )

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