Cowboys offer valuable lessons on internal branding for today’s corporations.

During a visit to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, one exhibit in particular caught my attention. In addition to a complete history of the American West and its cowboy traditions, the museum offers the visitor an orientation to the world of livestock brands. It is this world of brands from which I found corporations could learn a great deal from the cowboy.

In the late 1800s, cowboys drove huge herds of cattle across the central plains of the United States. During these cattle drives, they would often meet other groups of cowboys driving their cattle. As was often the case, the cattle would come together to form one enormous herd. To tell which cattle belonged to whom, each ranch had its own special symbol that would be branded with a hot iron on the hide of every calf belonging to that ranch.

Brands became almost a heraldic crest, a cattleman’s coat of arms, if you will. Brands not only identified an owner or a ranch, but also provided a set of traditions and a unique sense of identity for the cowboys. It was not uncommon for a cowboy of the times to ride for the brand more than for the individual ranch owner.

Today, a great deal of effort is invested by companies seeking to create internal branding efforts, designed to inspire employee identity, loyalty, and a sense of ‘riding for the brand’.

The Cowboy Branding Process:

The National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Museum exhibit offers a wonderful description on how the branding process actually worked.

On the great plains of the American West, “Ketch Hands” roped each calf and pulled it near the branding fire. Flankers then grabbed the calf by the ear and loose skin of the flank, lifted it up and laid it on its side. Others called out the brand of the calf’s mother and the appropriate branding iron was brought to the fire.

While one man held the calf, an “iron man” branded the calf at the hips, ribs, or shoulder according to the practice of the owner. Iron Tenders heated the irons in the coals of wood or cow chip fire until the iron turned the color of the ashes –not red hot. If the iron was too hot it caused a sore that could become infected; too cold, the mark would “hair-over” and leave no lasting brand impact.

Modern, corporate brand managers employ an analogous process. Today’s “Ketch Hands” are typical pre-purchase activities such as; advertising, sales promotions, point-of-purchase displays, and trade show sellers. Each element designed to bring potential buyers “closer to the branding fire.”

Ropers of today often take the form of lead management and CRM processes. As prospects come into the company via electronic means they are often tagged via a cookie or other ad-serving technique to identify their origin.

Some companies have consistently done their branding job so well that their customers come willingly to the “branding fire”. Examples where customers actually brand themselves include: Harley Davidson Motorcycles –whose customers often tattoo the Company’s logo on their bodies; Nike –with millions of customers, around the world, branding themselves with the Nike Swoosh. The same can be said for other popular clothing brands from Ralph Lauren’s Polo to Greg Norman’s Shark.

Where the ultimate aim is for customers to perceive a brand as unique, relevant, credible, and differentiated enough to seek it out, most brand managers must adopt the Cowboy’s “iron man” process and apply the brand one interaction at a time. However, rather than having one “iron man” modern brand managers must look for ways to make each brand representative an “iron man” in their own right. Today’s brand “iron men and women” must look for ways to imprint their brand on their customers through behaviors, attitudes, and consistent delivery of brand promises made.

While it is entertaining to draw similarities between the branding process of the cowboys of old and modern branding it is, admittedly, an over simplification. Today’s brand managers do not have the luxury of taking one key opportunity to permanently brand their customers for life. In addition, unlike the rancher, the brand is not truly owned by the company, but by the customer.

Moments of Truth

An important goal of the modern brand manager is to uncover each “moment of truth” in the relationship between his/her brand and the customer. For it is within each moment of truth that brands are built or damaged. Being a frequent business traveler, I will use the airlines as an example, however many other businesses provide abundant examples as well.

Competition within the airline industry is fierce. Consequently, significant investments are made in traditional mass branding activities such as advertising, brand architecture, look and feel, and other identity alignments. What, based on my all too frequent experience, is missing is a true focus on “moments of truth”. Moments of truth are those times where the modern “iron man” has the opportunity to create a positive branding experience for his/her customer. These moments include everything, from the time spent on hold waiting for a reservation agent, to the interaction with airport ticketing agents, gate agents, customer service representatives and perhaps most important of all, the cabin staff.

On a recent flight into and out of a major US airport there were significant weather and air traffic control delays. Flying into the airport, the cabin staff handled the situation extremely well, with empathy, with humor, and with understanding. The net effect is the passengers were informed, knew the bounds of what could and could not be done, and trusted the brand representatives were doing everything possible.

Flying out of the airport on the same airline, but different plane and different staff, the situation was completely reversed. The cabin staff did not communicate, was not empathetic, nor friendly in any way. At the brand/customer “moment of truth” the net effect was a plane full of people who had a very bad experience with the brand. This was completely unnecessary.

The key for effective overall brand management is to ensure that each “iron man” understands his or her role in the branding process. In the airline example, each person from customer service representative to cabin steward IS the brand manager. For they represent the brand to the customer.

Like the Cowboys of the Wild West, today’s brand manager looks for ways to differentiate his/her product or service from similar offerings. The modern brand is a sign of ownership, of heritage, of quality level, and of employee identification and affiliation. The trick is to apply the brand “stamp” consistently so that it leaves a lasting mark on the mind, without being too hot as to cause a sore, as in the airline example above. On the other hand, the branding iron must be hot enough to prevent “hair over” and thus no long-lasting branding effect.

The ultimate goal of both the cowboys of the past, and brand managers of today, is to create more ‘riders for the brand’ to help differentiate the brand and to create more loyal advocates for it.

Courtesy of http://www.brandchannel.com