The Big Think: BP–A Brand and a Lie

Your brand is you.  And perhaps most importantly, your brand must reflect the real you… your unique and undeniable  DNA. 

Or to put in another way, your brand ego shouldn’t write checks that your skill set (and history) can’t support.  But that’s exactly what happened to BP.  They created a brand build upon core ideas that were in direct conflict with their actions.  It took the gulf disaster to make this apparent.  And once the myth is revealed, there’s no going back.  And it very well may be the death of BP.

But let’s start at the beginning.   Here are the ACUTAL branding elements for BP crafted by Landor, a top branding company.

The Verbal Brand Driver–Beyond Petroleum

The Brand Promise–At the core of BP is an unshakable commitment to human progress. We aim for radical openness: We will be the magnet for people who want to change the world with new ideas by delivering a performance standard that challenges the world’s best companies.

The Brand Beliefs:

Progressive– transforming the way we do business .

Innovative – delivering breakthrough solutions. 

Performance – setting world-class standards. 

Green – demonstrating environmental leadership

So, what are our lessons learned?  It’s basically very simple.  Your brand must be true.  True to what you are and what you do.  It’s been said, nothing kills a bad product faster than good advertising.  And it’s the same thing here:  if your brand is a lie, it won’t take long for it be be discovered.  And when that happends, watch out!

This entry was posted on June 22, 2010 at June 22, 2010 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.