How integrated should your brand be?

Every company, whether growing or stable, whether organically evolving or actively acquiring other companies, faces the challenge of keeping its brand integrated. But, too much integration can also be a problem. The question, then, is how integrated should it be?

When brands come apart

Large companies and small companies all face continual change in their markets. This can be part of the what we might call "progress". New products get introduced. New services come into vogue. And new solutions emerge to old challenges. Sometimes the company selects a new or additional strategic direction. This change can be due to more mundane factors. For example, hiring a new employee often brings new capabilities into the company.

Whatever the source of these changes, they force a subsequent change in the company itself. In the face of these disruptions, the company has to alter how it sells, operates, and delivers.

And when a company changes, there is always the risk of miscommunication, particularly in branding. That is, there is a significant danger that not everyone (in the target audience) has an accurate understanding of the company. One of the biggest reasons for this is intertia, viz. people don't pay that much attention to companies, even one's they work with. Chance are, no matter what else has happened recently, your client views your company the same way she did when you first met. In addition, there is often confusion and uncertainty in a company that is changing. And this causes mixed or inaccurate messages to the market. In addition, there can be problems with believability. Even if you communicate accurately, and even if people pay attention and understand, they might not believe it. This constraint on brand migrations is especially powerful and nearly impossible to counteract. Only logical, reasonable migrations will make sense and be accepted.

When brands won't come together

When companies acquire another company or merge with one, there needs to be a process to join the brands in an intelligent way. If this isn't done properly, the brands can fail to coalesce. This can result in the same kinds of miscommunication. Clients of both of the former brands can get confused and lose trust in both companies. Moreover, the future customers, the ones the merger was created to serve, will also fail to understand the new company.

Brand disintegration threatens your business

All of these miscommunications result in brand disintegration. Specifically, there are more than one view of your company in the market; your company has more than one brand.

The problems that arise are obvious. Neither your current nor future customers feel satisfied that they understand your company. The risk of this kind of alienation is, of course, rapidly declining sales.

Brand re-integration creates a narrative

The risks of disintegration are so great that creating an accurate message platform and communicating are crucial to the health of the business. Brand re-integration seeks to identify inconsistencies and address them, while planning for rational future evolution of the brand. When done properly, we can tell a story about the company. That is, we can communicate about the company as a whole without contractions or confusion.

And I do mean a story. The narrative structure imposes conditions of human meaning that a guideposts for communication with your audience (who are, after all, humans, too). If you follow this narrative structure, you will be able to communicate effectively. If you don't, your brand will not make sense. You can try this out. Just talk informally about your company to a stranger. At the end, ask him if he understands. Chances are, he will ask you a few clarificatory questions, based on flaws in your story. If you can't easily answer all the questions, you will know that the that this flaw your story is rooted in a flaw in your brand.

Can a brand be too integrated?

It seems clear that we should integrate the brand in order to avoid misperception in the marketplace. And we have proposed the brand story as the guide for this integration. The question now arises, how integrated is integrated? What about different division, units, and departments? Does everyone have to have the same story?

The answer is, of course, "no". A reasonable, logical story does not mean that there is no room for difference or disagreement. Such diversity just needs to make sense.

Moreover, as every reader knows, the best stories are those that leave room for wondering. While a good story always hangs together, it doesn't have to cover every detail to be compelling. In fact, in some sense, the best stories are those that, while making sense, leave substantial room for speculation.

When a story, or brand, is excessively integrated, it appears forced, false, and unbelievable.

Be integrated, but not monolithic

So, the point here is that brand and message integration is critical. But, this integration should not be taken to mean uniformity. A monolithic brand is just as unhelpful as a poorly integrated one.