I Work Here, But I'm Also the Brand

This was too good to pass up on branding and who actually represents the brand - a blog post by marketing guru, Seth Godin. It is a near perfect follow-up to our recent posting on Billy Mays and the brands he represented. In that post, we asked the question as to whether or not the brands he pitched could survive without him since he was arguably, the brand!

In the case of Seth Godin's posting, look at the reverse situation. It's a sad reality that there are employees out there working for supposedly reputable brands, yet taking no responsibility to uphold the integrity of the company, business, product or services because...drum roll...it's just a job...all I do is work here!

Seth nails it: when you are employed by the company, then you represent EVERYTHING about that business and thus, the brand. And, that means the good, the bad and sometimes the ugly (thank you Mr. Eastwood).

Thankfully, there are companies out there who have instilled a culture within their organizations where employees 'get it'. Go to a Chik-fil-A sometime and you'll see it from every single employee. You'll never hear one of them proclaim 'I just work here'.

Long Live the Brand

Pitchman Billy Mays revolutionized direct response advertising via his unmistakable commercial presence that always opened with “Hi, Billy Mays here…” He became the icon of direct response television commercials and infomercials. What’s interesting is the effectiveness of his pitches that resulted in the sales of millions of dollars of product.

This brings up the question: was Billy Mays really the brand or was it the product he was selling? His products certainly have become household brand names – OxiClean, Orange Glo, Awesome Auger, Mighty Putty, etc. But, without Billy Mays these arguably would be unknown. However, having a strong pitch for a product is just one aspect to building an effective brand – it has to work and be well received by the consumer. If these products didn’t deliver on their brand promises as Billy demonstrated in his commercials, additional sales would likely have never happened. Still, with a guy like Mays and his notoriety representing the products, one could make a strong case that he is more of the brand than anything else. He is the voice, the image, the seller, the convincer – the guy who compels the sale. That’s more than just a sales guy.

It is very difficult to think about any of these brand names without the name and image of Billy Mays coming to mind at the same time. What happens now? His commercials continue to be aired since his death and unquestionably the products are selling. Over time, will they sustain without Billy Mays? Have the brands built a strong enough following to succeed without their pitchman? Only time will tell us how these products will perform sales-wise in the future and whether or not they can live on without their beloved spokesperson.