In today’s world most companies know they have to be aware of their brand, of their visual image and work hard for differentiation, but what happens when a company does (almost) everything right. They hire a consultant company to do research about who they are, what they do, how to approach clients, and how they are perceived from the audience; they hire a designer to redo their logo, stationery, and website; and somehow they still don’t grab their public’s trust… the answer is action. The question that needs to be asked is:
Is this company behaving they way they promised? Are they really making decisions based on their brand promise or are they focused only on doing more business, no matter how it comes?

We need to change our attention from “what I am wearing and how do I look” to “how am I behaving in front of others”. I am pretty sure most of us (specially woman) have heard, at least once, the phrase “the beauty is inside”  and a Spanish one “aunque el mono se vista de seda, mono se queda” (you can dress the monkey with silk, but it will not stop being a monkey). Well, the same rules apply to branding. A brand goes beyond its appearance, beyond its look, it has to prove, with actions, that their promises are real, trusworthy, and according to their values.

Most of the time, the people that lead the company and/or makes the decisions, forget that they have to prove with actions what they promised. Over the years, the stress of having the business functioning and making profits (to the company, directors, shareholders) steals the attention from the day-to-day-prove-who-you-are management. It is the responsibility of the creative and/or marketing team to keep that as a priority, by reminding the decision-makers what the company is supposed to do.

It takes a real visionary to make promises a real fact over the years, no matter how big the company becomes. For this reason, today I want to share with you a great example of this; and a very brave one I have to say… Patagonia products has been one of my favorite products for a while, as much as Northface. As a nature and trekking lover, I relate to these two brands, and I am a pretty loyal costumer. BUT one of the things that I love the most about Patagonia, is their personality, their vision, and the real effort they make to live up to their promises and not settle for less. I actually have to safe for a while to be able to buy their products, but I do it anyhow. They keep their brand promise (and values) not only in every product they make (as much as I know), but in every business adventure they start, from books, to blogs, to equipment, entertainment, etc.  And this year, even with a very difficult economic crisis, they communicated a message that goes along with what they believe.

Black Friday is a very famous thing in the US, probably the best day for retail, and Patagonia put out a shocking message. Check it out in this link:

http://patagonia.typepad.com/files/nyt_11-25-11.pdf

Don’t buy this coat. I think this is one of the best advertisement I have seen in a while, and I think companies around the world (actually politians too) should take this as an example. It was a fresh contrast to what I read in the papers and saw in the news that day.

I am sure, a few months before Black Friday, the team at Patagonia was asking themselves: what do we do, as a company that promises to be green and fair with the world, in the most retail-crazy day of the year? what to we do…? Do we lower our prices and make a huge profit? Do we keep our prices and stay the same? or do we try to tell our audience what we think about this day, about the consequences, about what they should do, and at the same time keep our brand promise, by doing the right thing.

Keep your promises, remember your values, mision and vision everytime you make a decision. Keep your brand manual, your creative brief at hand. Read it often and share it with your staff, so you don’t forget who your company is and how they should behave. If you do this, and live up to your promises, you will always be perceived as a trusworthy entity/person/company…brand.

Cheers.