I used to write a column for CW - called Inside Track. "Yes, we know by now. Move on." For one week only I am revisiting a selection of the challenges - if you think it is still a problem, some ideas to stop history repeating itself. If you don't, go enjoy enjoy enjoy... (after yesterday's indulgance)...
1st published in CW on 29th July 1999 - this is verbatim and includes a reminder of the millennium bug - th eonly brand we ever had, and that one didn't come to muchj
In need of a rebrand
In the consumer and business world, brands are king. Companies spend millions of pounds every year on the creation, build and protection of what is in effect their main image, and sales weapon.
Brands represent everything about a company, by association, and often it is a simple picture, letter or image that conveys a whole set of values, feelings and buying decisions. Scottish Widows, McDonalds and the musical Les Miserables are three strong examples.
Companies rated as rising stars for the future are those with very clearly positioned, confident and identifiable brands, which:
• Build customer loyalty
• Present a feel-good factor
• Position the whole organisation, its activities and goals
Where does it, as an overall industry, stand in the branding and image stakes? Until recently we had no brand or group identity whatsoever, however that problem was resolved last year.
Launched on News at Ten to attract maximum publicity, has been widely splattered (literally) across the national press and billboards, and now available in chocolate form from your local newsagent.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, IT – the millennium bug.
A much-needed campaign, brilliantly portraying the dangers ahead through an image that is far from cute and cuddly. The downside of this campaign, however, is that it is the only brand IT have.
Clearly we need a new identity for the future and a group of industry and marketing experts are proposing to invest in a new brand for IT, to establish a new, positive image.
While many IT companies have established strong brands in their own right – Microsoft, IBM and Oracle are all major business players on the world stage - we have no umbrella brand that represents all elements of IT.
The proposal is for a new logo that will attract graduates into IT, as well as painting an exciting story based more on the need for interpersonal skills than technology.
Marketing experts will be involved, and these independent experts will advise on how IT looks in the eyes of people outside the industry.
It is time to reposition our industry, and through this realise the opportunities for IT in business.
Many organisations have done this, for many reasons:
• To achieve goals that have eluded them (e.g. The Labour Party)
• To reposition after poor publicity (e.g. Marks and Spencer)
• To relaunch as a global player (e.g. Axa)
Wires, strange terminology and lines of code have dominated our short history.
Let us rally to support this excellent initiative, which has the real opportunity to bury this image forever.
If we are to play our part in shaping the future of UK PLC, we need to attract new people, at all levels. Time and again people cite our image as being a major reason for not coming into IT.As we at last cross over into a new century, we have the opportunity to transform IT, shape a new future, and bury the wires and cables forever.
Tomorrow - Board Value
The Art of War - 3
The speech that rekindled loyalty and arguably won the US Civil War…
Was not the Gettysburg address, it was the speech that Colonel Chamberlain gave to a large group of deserters that had been given to him the day before the biggest battle of the entire war.
And he desperately needed them to join his Northern Maine regiment for the upcoming battle.
Impeccably researched, and based on “The Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara, the film Gettysburg is the definitive account of the Battle of Gettysberg, a battle that saw more men killed in three days than died in the entire Vietnam War.
And in that battle many historians agree that it was Chamberlain’s holding of Little Round Top that won the day, and was the turning point in the whole war, in favour of the North.
As you read his speech, made entirely off the cuff, note his skills at using the word “we,” his constant linking of the overall aim of the war with the present choice the men face, and most of all his repeated use of three points together, as he spoke, one of the most powerful techniques in presentations. I
Chamberlain approached al of the deserters just after they arrived, and spoke to them together, as a group.
This is quite simply the most powerful, passionate and persuasive speech I have ever seen re-enacted on film:
“I’ve been ordered to take you men with me, I’m told that if you (laughs quietly) don’t come I can shoot you. Well, you know I won’t do that. Maybe somebody else will, but I won’t, so that’s that.
Here’s the situation, the Whole Reb army is up that road aways waiting for us, so this is no time for an argument like this, I tell you. We could surely use you fellahs, we’re now well below half strength.
Whether you fight or not, that’s up to you, whether you come along is is…well, your coming.
You know who we are and what we are doing here, but if you are going to fight alongside us there are a few things I want you to know.
This regiment was formed last summer, in Maine.
There were a thousand of us then, there are less than 300 of us now.
All of us volunteered to fight for the Union, just as you have
Some came mainly because we were bored at home, thought this looked like it might be fun
Some came because we were ashamed not to
Many of came because it was the right thing to do
And all of us have seen men die
This is a different kind of army
If you look back through history you will see men fighting for pay, for women, for some other kind of loot
They fight for land, power, because a king leads them, or just because they like killing
But we are here for something new, this has not happened much, in the history of the world
We are an army out to set other men free
America should be free ground, all of it, not divided by a line between slave states and free – all the way from here to the Pacific Ocean
No man has to bow. No man born to royalty
Here we judge you by what you do, not by who your father was
Here you can be something
Here is the place to build a home
But it’s not the land, there’s always more land
It’s the idea that we all have value – you and me
What we are fighting for, in the end, we’re fighting for each other
Sorry, I didn’t mean to preach
You go ahead and you talk for awhile
If you choose to join us and you want your muskets back you can have them – nothing more will be said by anyone anywhere
If you choose not to join us well then you can come along under guard and when this is all over I will do what I can to ensure you get a fair trial, but for now we’re moving out
Gentlemen, I think if we lose this fight we lose the war, so if you choose to join us I will be personally very grateful.
Tomorrow - How the art of bluffing made D-Day possible