Four Laws of Brand-Building in the Digital Age (Part 1 of 4)
Law #1: From Organizational Scale, to Functional Speed
Law 1: From Organizational Scale, to Functional Speed
“Is it possible to create a brand purely online?”
A marketing director of an international brand asked me not too long ago. More than ten years have passed since social media appeared, and the word Digital Transformation (DX) has finally taken root. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated digitization, and even countries that had been slow to adapt to the digital age like Japan, are finally beginning to change. For instance, the Prime Minister of Japan, Yoshihide Suga, after taking office proclaimed the need for the Department of Digital in his government. Data reveals that the US e-commerce industry has achieved more growth in the last ten weeks than it has in more than a decade.
Many companies against the backdrop of the pandemic have shifted their marketing budgets to digital. However, digital tends to skew towards performance marketing and it is difficult to create an emotional bond with the audience. The conventional method, i.e. storytelling that many marketers loved for so long, has been effective to some extent, so a lot of traditional marketers still doubt the power of digital, saying, “It must be physical.” Physical and tangible items will never disappear, but digital will continue to grow.
How can we win the hearts of people, build brands, and grow our business in the 21st century?
The impact of COVID-19 is wide and deep, but we must keep our businesses going. During this time, I explored how in a post-COVID-19 world, you could build a brand in a highly digital era. I recognized these four paradigm shifts:
Four Laws of Brand-Building in the Digital Age:
From Organizational Scale to Functional Speed
From Original Selling (USP) to Point of View (POV)
From Case Study to Business Case
From Ideal Futures to Practical Futures
This thought leadership article is the first in a series of contributions.
Because of COVID-19, the world had to face a digital future that would have taken ten years, now.
When faced with change, the scale of an organization can be a strength in many ways, but it can also be a block, leading large companies to function with antiquated methods. Large brands and corporations often get stuck in their own hierarchy, politics, and old practices, making it difficult for them to be nimble and make progress.
Many companies have accepted, big organizations = slow.
Good news: This does not need to be the case.
Professor Scott Galloway of NYC Stern School made an analogy: In the world of sports, for instance, there is the phrase Functional Speed. Jerry Rice, an American football player in the 1980s/90s used this tactic frequently. He was by no means a fast player, however, he was a player who could instinctively determine when to accelerate and decelerate when it mattered the most.
Digital is now commonplace, and it is the use of Functional Speed that is essential for the strength of the company and brand, regardless of its size, or status.
The Speed of Google & Facebook
Large companies like Google and Facebook are excellent examples of businesses that have shown Functional Speed. During the pandemic, Zoom rose to dominance in the market to become the service for online video communication.
One of the reasons why Zoom was quickly adopted by many people, aside from the high-quality video, was the gallery view feature. This view lays out participants in a grid pattern, instead of side by side, making it easier to see the participants. Despite Google’s announcement of Google Hangouts (now Google Meet) in 2013 and Facebook’s Group Video Chat in 2016, they did not have the capabilities that people wanted. In late May 2020, Google and Facebook turned on their Functional Speed, and a few weeks after, announced they now offered the gallery view.
If you have experience designing or developing software and digital products, you know updating these features can take a long time, often more than a year. But both Google and Facebook responded to their competitor, Zoom, in just a few weeks.
Large scale companies such as Google and Facebook have Functional Speed. Of course, moving quickly for everything at all times is a want, but this is unrealistic. Both Google and Facebook were successful in executing a change when it mattered most.
Speed is not the only important factor. To demonstrate this, let me provide another example.
The Timing of Disney+
In September 2017, Walt Disney Company, a world leader in entertainment such as animation, movies, amusement parks, and content, announced that it would enter streaming. However, since there were already multiple streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime at that time, the public reaction was indifferent. Disney spent more than two years designing and developing Disney+ and launched it on November 12, 2019.
Within a couple of months of the announcement, the world was struck by COVID-19, people had to stay home, and the streaming business had unexpected growth opportunities. Less than a year after its launch, Disney+ had successfully acquired 70 million users.
Disney wasn’t quick when entering the steaming market or during the period of development. However, Disney’s president, Robert Iger, used Functional Speed properly as a leader of a massive, multi-national firm. It’s not that Mr. Iger moved fast to develop Diensy+. Instead, he took the time properly to develop and deploy it right. It was his decision to take the time to execute on a solid product.
That’s also Functional Speed, the ability to accelerate or decelerate when it matters most.
Brand Building in the Coming Era
In the Old World Order, one could rely on its own scale and spend money on a large number of brand campaigns. But that would have been the wrong thing to invest in for Disney. In the New World Order, investing long-term with the right speed, like Google, Facebook, and Disney, is what is needed to build a brand now.
From Organizational Scale to Functional Speed: it’s one of the mindset shifts that are paramount in establishing a successful brand in the Digital Age.
Next on Four Laws of Brand-Building in the Digital Age: #2. from Original Selling (USP) to Original Perspective (POV).
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