Has your brand got a conscience?

Increasingly, brands point to their environmental and social conscience as part of their brand values. Will this be an ongoing trend?

People look to brands to act responsibly. Consumers may have lost faith in governments but they do expect companies that take their dollars to do the right thing. A brand with a strong conscience helps reinforce good brand values, increase confidence in their product or service and bolster its reputation. This helps to build the intangible value or assets of a brand.

Companies work hard at producing strong brand experiences and some of the best companies in the world now even take on corporate conscience as a best practice. Intangible assets or goodwill can add tremendous value to a company’s net worth. Before Intel introduced their ‘Intel Inside’ trademark, no one really cared about which microchips went into their computers. They created a ‘consumer brand’ for a product category that was previously invisible to consumers. That successful branding effort made the company one of the most powerful and valuable of its time.

To prove the power of intangible attributes, try this test. Close your eyes and take note of what you picture in your mind or how you respond when these three brands are mentioned. Apple. Ferrari. Starbucks. You have not even purchased anything tangible but that test probably evoked subconscious reactions. Did you recall smells, images, colours or feelings? Those are the intangible attributes of the brand you have just ‘experienced’. The best brands embed such subtle but powerful emotional connections with their customers.

Intangible attributes are also experienced post-purchase. These attributes are what the brand promises you once you have purchased a product or service, such as durability, luxury, peace of mind, security or family togetherness.

The other important aspect of building up intangible attributes is living up to your brand promise to all your stakeholders behind closed doors. Google is a good example. It was established as a business for a few years before it was established as a household brand name. Essentially, it reached two ‘tipping points’. First, it became ubiquitous for search amongst a core group of technology enthusiasts and later on, the world at large.

Google has consistently worked behind the scenes to deliver better results faster. With the recent scandal surrounding Google's Street View cars’ collection of private information from their Wi-Fi networks however, their reputation was threatened overnight, especially for a company whose motto is to ‘do no evil’.

Reputations cannot be built overnight but can be damaged overnight.

In the past, media outlets could be influenced and in some cases, controlled. Today, every blogger on the planet can write about any topic. This watchdog effect is powerful.
I wont’ be surprised to that a consumer version of wikileaks.com emerges in the next few years.

Asian brands are a mixed bag when it comes to having a conscience. The best brands are very progressive in showing that they have a corporate conscience but at the end of the day, what is good for the bottom line is what is most important to companies.

The trend of brands building ‘conscience’ as part of their brand attributes will continue globally, and hopefully catch on more and more in Asia.

Peter Read
Senior Vice President Asia Pacific
Global Intelligence Alliance