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[ September 2005 ]
Mind the Gap.
by Michel Hogan
We've all heard of the famous sign found in every
London underground station entreating all who step from platform
to train to "Mind the Gap!" Perhaps the sign should become
a fixture in the offices of organizations around the world.
Look around you. much like that black hole between train and
platform brands can disappear in the gap between the inside
reality of a company and its external market presence.
The most common symptom of the gap is the practice
of saying one thing and doing another – and we don't
just mean in the obvious ways. Customer service, product quality,
employee
relations and just about every marketing campaign out there
are all common victims of the gap. But how about the ways a
company uses technology, deals with partners and vendors,
considers a merger or acquisition? Many brands – recently
and publicly venerable HP – have fallen into the gap
by not understanding that their brand is more than the usual
collection
of communications tactics, marketing messages and customer
perception. It is a fully-fledged expression of what they believe
to be true and what their actions show to be true – or
it at least it can be!
What are your core values? Do you live them?
Why does your company exist (beyond the bottom line)? What
is your promise to your customers, to your employees? What
are the truths that live between the market perception that
you try with ever greater desperation to control, and the day-to-day
reality?
No brand can thrive (let alone survive) when
it is put in the position of being its own worst enemy. So
next time your company starts asking "what to do about the
brand"
it might be worth taking the well-worn
advice of the London underground – Mind the Gap!
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