brand handling

Here's the Campaign thing from last week. (Ignore the email address on there, they seem determined to stop people getting in touch with me.)

I always thought 'account handler' was a rather revealing term. There aren't many other things that get handlers. Circus animals do. And B-list celebrities. But not much else, just 'accounts' in advertising agencies. And it seems to sum up some of the seedy cliches of the business. You sense that someone who's 'handling' an account is not really there to serve the needs of the client organisation, they're there to persuade it to spend more money, or to not change agency, or to indulge some creative whim or other. Maybe that's why there don't seem to be so many people calling themselves account handlers these days, I guess if you were genuinely good at that kind of manipulative handling you'd be smart enough to ditch the label.

I mention 'handling' because it seems like the perfect word to describe one of the pointless terrors of the modern marketing world; the tendency to endlessly debate and delineate the characteristics and minutiae of the brand, while completely failing to connect with any genuine business problem. I've come to think of this as Brand Handling; a kind of academic game which sucks everyone in but which only results in the Brand being Handled; that is pummeled, fondled and massaged through endless meetings and PowerPoint decks but with no substantive change happening in the real world. I bet you know what I mean. If you suspect you might have become involved in this perilous activity here are five telltale indications of early-stage Brand Handling: 

1. You spend massive amounts of time debating which shape would be best used to clarify your brand model. More than one vegetable is on the list of potential shapes.

2. It takes longer to explain what your brand stands for than to explain what your product does. And doing so seems more important to you.

3. You've been involved in long meetings and furious email exchanges about whether the fifth of your brand values should be 'fun' or 'funny'. You don't see anything amusing in this.

4. You understand the semiotics of your product label but not the list of ingredients on the back.

5. You've worked on a piece of business for 6 months and the most creative thing you've done is put interesting pictures in PowerPoint.

I don't mean to point fingers here, because we've all done it. But this tendency to indulge in pointless theory is all the more dangerous when we're confronted with a commercial landscape that demands immediate and constant action. Spend too long Handling your Brand and you'll forget about serving your customer.

Comments

[peter]

pans get handled as well.

[russell]

True. I'd forgotten that one. And baggage.

[Stan Lee]

In Australia we have Account Service. I'd rather work with people who handle a piece of business than those we service it.

[Fink]

Russell, do you think they should be relationship managers instead? what would the traditional servicing role become in the years to come? here in india, they often get a bad rap for being yes'men to the client, or only caring about timelines. If their key function is to manage an account, working closely with the client (like a client exec who works in the agency) - perhaps its time for a new job descriptor?

Like Stan, I agree that servicing as a term seems rather passive - whereas handling/ managing or building relationships suggests some real value. Servicing makes me think change oil, polish the car. manage, handle makes me think - make it run better.

[mm]

just reviewed and re-structured what was formerly known as account handling/client services. Every job has now become Communications Consultant or Communications Manager.

That is what they do. Manage comms campaigns or provide a comms consultancy on behalf of clients.

This is what my clients pay for. Someone to develop comms ideas and then implement them in the most efficient and resourceful way.

[Mrs Belmot]

Your article in this week's Campaign REALLY turned up the heat on old Bullmore and his 'blogging is for idiots' stance (from LAST week's Campaign).

How are you feeling about 'duke-ing' it out in public with an old war-horse?

If this is going to turn into a war of words, I'm glad I've got a front-row seat. Sock it to him in the chops!

[David Taylor (from Where'sTheSausage)]

Hi Russel. I have another name for what you describe: "strategy tourism"! Its the subject of my latest book, and summarised here:
http://wheresthesausage.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/01/strategy_touris.html

[fredrik sarnblad]

I remember discussing this "handling" word with my wife several years ago. We were both asking ourselves how such a word could have become a generally accepted descriptor, given its rather obvious and negative connotations. The circus animal and B-list celebrity analogy really puts this into perspective.

The pointless theory aspect of planning you astutely describe as brand handling has been a major frustration for me for years. And every so often I can’t help but fall into “eruption mode”, which happened recently on my blog.

It is refreshing and encouraging to say the least to read your Campaign piece. Cheers.

(Thanks for the pointer Marcus. This made for a brilliant start to the day)

[Francis Anderson]

I really couldn't agree more with this. (Although I confess my medium of choice is still powerpoint!)