A client of mine informed me this morning that someone broached him about selling one of his marketing channels.
The buyer wants to merge it into his existing brand. Seeing that the buyer neither has a functioning website nor a brand that I can find, I suspect he thinks he is going to get brand power from the purchase of this existing channel.
And seeing that my client’s brand is himself, it is obvious to me that the buyer doesn’t fully understand what a brand actually is and how it works.
His buying a channel will have about as much effect on his branding as buying carbon credits has on green house gasses.
“Branding is any kind of marketing communication that is intended to produce ‘long term’ changes in human behavior by creating ‘long term memories.'”
Les Binet
From the quote above, the key words are long term. Branding isn’t some ethereal whisp you can magically transfer from one to another. It’s not an unseen force floating around and through things you can harness.
Branding is unique to you, to your company. It is about striking emotional chords with consumers. It is about building identity, forming an attachment, and creating trust to inspire loyalty in your customers.
And this is something you build over time. It is not a sprint, it is a marathon. Expecting to acquire someone else’s branding power is about as farfetched as expecting to win a marathon having never before trained or run because you wear the same outfit as the marathon champ.
