The Employer Brand: Bringing the Best of Brand Management to People at Work

6

Brand Fundamentals

Until the late twentieth century most people would have only associated the term ‘brand’ with consumer goods and services. The term is now used far more widely and it is commonplace for the term ‘brand’ to be used to describe virtually anything carrying a distinct identity, and the reputation, good or bad, associated with that identity. Branding has become the snake oil of modern management. If you believe the brand pundits, branding will cure all ills. It will secure customer loyalty, drive growth, increase profits, induce undying employee commitment to the company’s cause, ward off the evil eye of critical investment analysts, reverse national decline, win elections and fill an otherwise drab, mundane and irreligious world with new hope and meaning. Branding has filled every nook and cranny. Self-help gurus have even begun to recommend that people should start thinking of themselves as brands and manage their careers and lives accordingly. The popular media is crammed full of celebrities busily promoting their personal brand image to maintain their place in the light. There is even a ‘stock market’ where you can track the rise and fall of a celebrity’s brand value. People have become justifiably cynical about ‘branding’, but when you strip away the over-claims, the flim-flam, gloss and spin that often accompany the branding bandwagon, the fundamentals of brand development and management remain extremely valuable.

In the following chapters we will attempt ...