Brand guru Scott Bedbury returns to SA

In the one-day event, Bedbury will cover brand-building and marketing, as well as an exclusive session on optimising the opportunities available for companies – and the nation of South Africa – in the build-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

According to Bedbury, a successful brand is not the result of a clever advertising tagline alone. “The words Just Do It were only spoken in one Nike advert in eight years; the words themselves didn't hit home, it was that they were born out of a great strategy. Indeed, on paper, those words meant nothing, but they started to come to life as part of a corporate culture change.”

Accountability of management

He believes that management should be held accountable for how they influence the corporate brand. “We are seeing companies hold their top executives accountable to brand equity performance, not just financial performance.

“This is particularly important if companies need to streamline: there are many ways to increase the financial performance of a business in the short-term, but many of these will kill your brand in the long-term.”

Author of A New Brand World, Bedbury stressed that building a strong brand – such as a Coca-Cola or Microsoft – demands the building of a strong internal culture that honours and strengthens the brand across the entire organisation. “The brand is everyone's responsibility. It is not just the responsibility of the marketing department – every employee impacts it,” he says.

Successful brands respect or meet the emotional needs of customers, employees and the communities they serve. Often, these emotional needs are more important than the physical needs met by the product or service.

“Starting point”

“Great products are just the starting point to building a truly great brand. Great brands connect to something that is timeless and meaningful. Great brands have core values, core positioning and core products around which local market nuances strengthen relevancy. You have to create the best possible experience for your customers – and your restrooms say volumes about your brand.”

Bedbury used the emotional connection with customers to set Starbucks on an intelligent growth path, increasing the store base from 350 stores to several thousand stores, while also expanding the brand's reach into grocery products with coffee ice creams, whole-bean coffees, and bottled Frappuccino coffee drinks.

He also helped drive Starbucks's global expansion, opening its first overseas market in Japan in 1996 and creating a global partnership with United Airlines that same year.

Under his guardianship, Starbucks broke new ground – and also some industry rules. Part-time employees were given healthcare benefits and all employees received stock ownership. Starbucks changed the way large retail chains behaved at every step of the customer and employee experience.

Previous to his time at Starbucks, he spent seven years at Nike, helping it grow from US$750 million to US$5 billion in revenues, while building one of the world's most meaningful trademarks. Bedbury took the brand from number three to number one in the world by broadening its consumer base and by forging lasting emotional connections to its publics.

Scott Bedbury is a member of the Global Leaders Community Expert Panel (www.globalleaderscommunity.com and www.brandstream.com).