In his book, United We Brand, Mike Moser gives an excellent historical example of branding: the United States of America. Back in the eighteenth century, the Founding Fathers laid out the values that would govern the new nation when they created the Declaration of Independence:

“. . . that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Statements like these gave the leaders of the new U.S.A. a set of bedrock guidelines to follow. The Constitution would flow from these core values. The Bill of Rights was crafted around ensuring, at its core, Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. And when the nation faced crisis in the Civil War, President Lincoln returned to the core values in his Gettysburg Address:

“Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

Boom. Straight back to the values set forth in the Declaration of Independence.

Consider instead, asks Moser, what might have happened if the Founding Fathers had concentrated on creating the nation’s flag — its logo — first. They might have hired Betsy Ross to design a wonderful, eye-catching flag, and then toured the colonies, using the great new design to inspire men to rebel against the British, to fight and to die. Without being backed by values, the U.S. flag was — and is — just a piece of cloth. Amazingly, this is what many companies do today when they embark on a new “branding” campaign.

What values does your corporate “flag” represent? When seeking to make the important choices for America throughout the centuries, American leaders could always look to the values on which the country was founded for guidance. So too should companies’ leaders have a set of bedrock values and principles to turn to. An organization with defined values won’t need to constantly reinvent itself, to change in the face of new trends, new challenges, or even new leadership.

And they won’t need to constantly reinvent their brands.

[tags]branding, branding campaigns, brand examples, brand values[/tags]

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This entry was posted on Saturday, March 17th, 2007 at 12:30 pm and is filed under Authentic Brands. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.