Neo Batakathi

Over the years of its development, corporate branding has been treated as a scorecard goal for Marketing or Communications personnel. The belief that branding is an isolated concern from an organization’s core business has for years defeated the fact that brands need to be alive, tactical and intentional.

Modern branding has evolved from the traditional linear company image checklists to complex interactions between individual departments in an organization. Today, the sum of functional interconnectedness translates to the brand.

For instance, if the creative department labours on the company logo without realizing that the logo does not appear in isolation it mostly accompanies a product that must satisfy the end user, branding is automatically defeated.

To do away with the arising challenge of having a powerful creative team running parallel to a dissatisfactory product or service, professionals in the communication departments need to make the brand everyone’s business.

Derived from the scientific study of physical anatomy, a whole systems thinking approach can be used to discover where a brand sits within the problems it is trying to solve for both internal and external customers.

Systems Thinking places emphasis on the aspects of interconnectedness; context; feedback loops and looking beyond causality.

INTERCONNECTEDNESS

Recognising the interconnectedness of all departments is a sure way of achieving brand sincerity.

To build a successful brand, an organisation will require an interdependence modus operandi where every department is acknowledged as having an effect on the next and the brand in its entirety.

All brands seek to tell a story to the correct audience. To capture the multiple complex systems that make up a brand’s story, the storytelling should start by identifying the internal network that the brand depends on.

CONTEXT

The brand’s success will require managers to see the interconnectedness of events as compared to just analysis which compartmentalizes events in order to ensure better understanding.

Covid 19, Brexit and more recently the war in Ukraine are enough evidence that a company’s products, projects and services never exist in isolation; they are always belong to and influenced by the wider environment.

For organisations to draw out the narratives that matter for their brand, it is important to identify how they are placed or misplaced in the global environment and regional geopolitics.

FEEDBACK LOOPS

Since everything is interconnected, modern branding thrives from constant feedback flows between departments creating an ‘everything concerns everyone’ approach to solution provision.

Looping of departmental feedback assists in reviewing company procedures, processes and resources for improved branding outcomes.

BEYOND CAUSALITY

To achieve a lasting corporate image, an organization will need to shift from linear cause and effect to a deeper understanding of interdepartmental connections and their effect on the brand.

For the longest time, communication departments have been left to engage in fire-fighting against brand battering that is inaccurately attributed to isolated causes. This has led to the wrong thinking that creating and maintaining a particular brand image can be achieved through a series of organised reactions.

If corporates are to build lasting brands let it be a truly cooperate task, a burden for all departments to marry the company goals to customer expectations.

Neo Batakathi is an award winning Media and Communications practitioner. She holds high level qualifications in Mass Communication and Digital Marketing.