Once upon a time, a long long time ago, in a faraway land, a baby was born to a virgin and a carpenter. He lay lying in a manger — and kings and shepherds, angels and beasts came to worship him.

So goes the Christmas tale — and the creation of a celebration of giving and peace and goodwill to all men.

That was until the Coca-Cola ad men got hold of it 80 years ago and turned Christmas red, white and green, with magazine ads featuring Santa Claus as a kind, jolly man in a red suit.

 

Prior to the 1931 introduction of the Santa of Coke lore created by artist Haddon Sundblom, Santa had been depicted as everything from a tall gaunt man to an elf. He had worn a bishop’s robe and a Norse huntsman’s animal skin.

It’s not just Coke who have played with the Christmas brand. Take the PC brigade of Birmingham in Blairite Britain in the late 1990s when Christmas became Winterval to avoid excluding non-Christians.

The Great British High Street — in desperate need of some Christmas cheer admittedly — redoubles its efforts every year to recast it as the season of greed, debauchery, drunkenness and gluttony.

Tweeters and texters inevitably prefer the simpler Xmas to Christmas, though I’m sure it’s a move by Simon Cowell to sprinkle his X-Factor over every walk of our life.

And it’s a wonder that McDonald’s hasn’t applied for patents on Turkey Nuggets with all the McTrimmings.

So rather than rebrand Christmas with its 2000 years plus of brand equity, we’re simply returning to its rightful essence and promise with our 2011 Christmas card.

Please take with a pinch of salt, serve with a wry smile and consume with tongue in cheek. And enjoy!

Branding has got to be one of the most misunderstood concepts among business leaders.

Perhaps it’s because you get different answers if you ask them to define a brand — from a ‘promise’ to an assurance of quality or service; a perceived value or pleasure out of using or being associated with a company or product; a sustainable source of competitive advantage; a valuation of reputation; or the essence, emotion or culture of a business.

Or maybe it’s because there are so many myths surrounding branding, willingly propagated by strategists and people wanting to charge a fortune for something feared more than a Hogwarts’ Dark Art.

 

Myth 1: Brand loyalty is dead. Tell that to the marketers AND the accountants at Coca-Cola, Nike, Google or Apple!

So onto Myth 2: Branding is for the big boys only. Think of how FaceBook overhauled MySpace (MyWho? I hear you say), Easyjet took on British Airways and lastminute.com became a dotcom sensation. They were just ‘little ideas’ not so long ago.

Myth 3: Branding is expensive but worthless. OK, so some spend a fortune and screw up on naming and logos. Just read our naming blog from three weeks ago for the bad, the ugly and the good. Done right, it’s priceless.

Myth 4: It’s all about big budget advertising. While it helps, this was never the case, and is even less true since the internet dawned and social media was born.

Myth 5: Branding works instantly. While branding is powerful, it’s not a miracle worker. It’s about building sustainable competitive advantage on the back of an authentic promise. In branding as in business, patience and persistence pay.

Myth 6: Not every business needs branding. Wrong! You have no business strategy if you haven’t thought about your brand, how to differentiate yourself and how to build and sustain your position for the long term in a competitive marketplace.

Myth 7: Brand managers own a company’s brand. No! A CEO, branding department or internal communications teams can ‘line people up’ but your staff and customers are your biggest ambassadors. Again, read our PY blog from a couple of weeks ago.

And if you still believe branding is fluffy, confusing or a waste of time or money, share your comments on my thoughts or give me a call to take issue.

Are you keen on camels? Me neither. In fact, I don’t know a single person who likes them (though that may change with a visit this Christmas to Abu Dhabi!)

They’re fantastically functional, I grant you, and perfectly adapted to the harsh climate and environment they inhabit — just pig ugly, so to speak (if that’s not being swine-ist).

That’s why the inspired creator of the original iconic Mini, Sir Alec Issigonis, came up with the saying ‘a camel is a horse designed by committee’.

And he knew a thing or two about winning design. After all he created two more of the top five best-selling British cars — the Morris Minor and the Austin 1100.

 

In design, as in all walks of life, it takes vision, independence and lateral thinking to break the mould.

No surprise therefore that we see statues in every city celebrating the pioneers of our heritage, from Stephenson to Watt and Churchill to Lennon — and not a single memorial anywhere to a committee.

Similarly, to borrow a phrase from my old friend John Lyle, for brands to stand out it takes brave design and bold decisions by inspirational individuals.

Or, if you want to avoid a camel of a brand, make sure committees, focus groups and democratic rules are kept a million miles from the final decisions.

Compromise and a desire to please (or appease) all parties will never produce strong, memorable brands.

After all, how the FCUK would Trevor Beattie’s masterstroke have seen the light of day if it had been down to a politically correct committee to decide?

Just do it!

Staff are the lead ambassadors for your brand — never more so than now with all-pervading social media.

The most likely first interaction with your brand is the receptionist on the switchboard, the teenager on National Minimum Wage at your shop or the conversation on Facebook or Twitter.

Ask yourself, who is more likely to influence that interaction? The chief executive, the marketing department or Joe Bloggs, payroll number 12547N?

 

But a chief executive along with their marketing, HR and internal communications teams can stack the odds in your brand’s favour by creating a positive culture in which staff are engaged.

Only this way will you create the best brand experience for customers whenever and however they choose to interact with you.

DIY retailer B&Q estimates that ‘engaged employees’ add up to £70 million sales to its top line every year. Stores with more highly engaged employees consistently score better on customer satisfaction and loyalty, equating to £1 million more profit per store.

Indeed, employee behaviour and performance is the most sustainable competitive advantage a brand can have.

It was just such a realisation that led X-Leisure chief executive PY Gerbeau to make one of the most radical and inspired decisions within his organisation.

He sanctioned £300 every day for each of his front line team to resolve customer complaints at source without having to explain how the money had been used.

For instance, a team member could offer a customer who complained about a show return tickets to the next production and a pair of tickets to bring their friends too.

That meant every full time employee had the opportunity, tax free, no questions asked, to add about £60,000 to their ‘take home’.

PY’s message was two-fold: firstly, you are empowered to ensure our customers have a positive experience to tell their friends about; and secondly, I trust you.

Not only did it send X-Leisure’s customer satisfaction and loyalty through the roof, but it actually reduced pilfering or the discrepancy in tills at cashing up time.

Food for thought? Are you as brave as PY?

So, Everything Everywhere chief Olaf Swantee admits his company’s name is ‘silly’. Well, bugger me! You don’t say!

The Telegraph was the one to blow the gaff on the gaffer, whose story was then propagated by Marketing magazine.

How exactly the mobile operator, which was formed by the merger of two of the world’s best known and loved mobile brands, came up with this dud beggars belief.

Here’s your brief. Take the iconic and once inspirational Orange, under the charismatic leadership of founder and CEO Hans Snook, and mix it with the efficient and (latterly) brilliantly-marketed T-Mobile and produce . . . (drum roll) a damp squib.

 

Naming is never easy, I grant you, though it’s something ORB does rather well —and so differently from the multinational brand strategists who advised on the likes of Consignia and the British Airways ethnic tailfins.

Those two legendary cock-ups point to Everything Everywhere’s first mistake: if the boss can’t even back it, it’s got no chance. Consignia chairman Allan Leighton admitted he ‘hated it’ as he announced plans to revert to Royal Mail Group within two years and Maggie Thatcher famously draped her handkerchief over the offending model at the launch of the new BA tailfins.

But it’s more than just that. A good name should be based on the brand’s essence and should evoke positive images and associations with its unique positioning. It should also be distinctive, transferable, and easy to pronounce and remember.

Which still leaves huge scope for creativity, from people-based winners, such as Cadbury and Sainsbury, to place-based stars like BMW; from the abstract hit Apple to literal favourite I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter; and the evocative gem Egg to the simple brand extension Virgin Direct.

One last piece of advice for Messrs Swantee and Co: don’t make your brand name easy to mock. You failed on that one, though I suppose Everything Everywhere beats the potential brand-merge Ora-Bile . . . but only just!

Brands must take heed of how our minds and memories work to develop better relationships with their customers. That’s the central premise of a WARC book by Giep Franzen and Margot Bouwman.

As Amazon puts it, The Mental World of Brands ‘provides a compelling new start point for developing better relationships between brand and consumer. It asks: how does the brain work? How does it form memories and associations, and how can we make best use of this knowledge to leverage brands and protect and expand market share?’

 

It’s clear that a brand is so much more than simply a name, a logo and a strapline. Brand essence is at the very core of a business and it must infect every point at which the business or brand touches its customers.

Only then will customers connect with the brand and feel compelled to pass on the stories it evokes. Getting the right story and telling it in a way that engages consumers is critical to unlocking your uniqueness and bringing it to life.

Consider the iMania for Steve Jobs’ last mobile when people queued around the world last week at the launch of the iPhone4S. This isn’t rational behaviour. While the phone may tick many of the ‘need’ boxes of its users and BlackBerry’s woes may have helped push people towards Apple, these scenes are so much more about desire.

Apple’s overtly emotive appeal connects straight to the deepest part of the brain, the amygdala, and bypasses the logical resistance to shelling out another £500 for its latest toy.

Surely that’s a compelling enough reason to take a leaf out of Apple’s book and appeal to my senses as opposed to my common sense.

You will need to be switched on, keen and creative. We might get you to make the odd cup of tea but really you’re here to learn, so expect to be thrown in at the deep end.

The positions currently available are for a Graphic Design and Sales and Marketing intern:

Graphic Design:

The designer will be required to work alongside the rest of the studio. You must have a design qualification and be competent in the relevant software.

Sales and Marketing:

The internship will entail supporting the marketing and accounts team, administrative duties, client research and business development.

Both interns will be heavily involved in the office day to day and will get the opportunity to work on a variety of live and exciting projects. We are looking for passionate, driven people with a strong sense of brand awareness and the ability to work well in a team. Office banter is an absolute must-have.

Ideally you will be able to commit to a minimum of three months full time work. During this time expenses will be covered.

If you think you’ve got what it takes to join ORB please send your CV and a covering letter to lauren@thisisorb.com.

Sir Richard Branson has been preaching the Virgin mantra for 40 years now. The company itself says it believes in making a difference and stands for value for money, quality, innovation, fun and a sense of competitive challenge.

Virgin has always been clear about what it stands for, about the very heart and soul of the business — what one might call its brand essence.

The real value of knowing its brand essence is that it can communicate this to others — and they get it too!

 

So much so, that it is even able to trawl for its next big idea from the hoards of would-be entrepreneurs out there in a kind of pre-selected exclusive Dragon’s Den exercise called Got A Big Idea?

Branding commentator Ingrid Murray sets a fascinating challenge to brands — to describe your brand essence in just six words. She says far from customers recognising you and you alone, you might find your competitors saying the same.

Not with Virgin. My shot for them is: “The People’s Champion — challenging with irreverence.” This really could only be Virgin.

With this clarity, Virgin knows which challenges to take on. So even when they stray into unfamiliar territory or fail, it enhances the Virgin brand.

Take March 2009, when they joined forces with Ross Brawn to help resurrect the Honda Formula One team in a phoenix attempt at rising from the ashes — the edgy underdog willing to take risks to topple giants.

Similarly, a year earlier with the failed takeover bid for Northern Rock, which Added Value brand director Melanie Skotadis says enhanced its ‘hero’ status.

She said the language Branson used when the deal fell through was consistent with Virgin’s essence — “We have tried our best to save Northern Rock and the jobs of its staff”. Valiant, epic failure.

Virgin is not alone in articulating such a compelling brand essence. Nike’s ‘authentic athletic performance’ is brilliantly summed up in the two straplines Just Do It and I Can. And Mazda’s own video shows that brand essence is more about emotions and images than the words ‘zoom-zoom’.

Go on. Try Murray’s six-word challenge. As she says, it’s a revealing exercise!

So it seems West Ham United may offer Carlos Tevez an escape route from his Manchester City nightmare, according to ESPN.

I suppose the Championship Londoners where he began his English adventure offer a better prospect than County Londonderry Irish League outfit Limavady United.

Their vice chairman, David Brewster, cheekily faxed City on Wednesday evening offering to take Tevez on loan for the season amid a wash of posters appearing in the town — so long as City covered the small matter of his reported £286,000 per week after tax!

The knives are out for Tevez, however grovelling his apologies. Manchester United legend Paul Scholes coming out in sympathy is small comfort for the waves of animosity threatening to engulf the Argentine.

So how can a player worth £40 million only two months ago on Corinthians’ valuation suddenly turn into a liability almost overnight? Surely only in the crazy commercial never-never-land that is the English Premiership?

Or in the world of brands! Await with interest the results of Interbrand’s annual Best Global Brands, which are published next Tuesday. Will Coca-Cola keep its place for the 12th year running at the top of the table?

Last year the Coca-Cola brand was valued at more than $70 billion, while it achieved only $35 billion in net revenue for the year across all 500 brands and 3,500 beverage products.

By contrast, Gerald Ratner wiped an estimated £500 million off the value of his eponymous jewellery business overnight 20 years ago when he described his products as ‘total crap’.

Clearly Tevez has a way to go to match Ratner. And brand world is stranger than football.