Company types: Wanters and Dreamers

The personality of any company is a determining factor for commercial success. The management of (visual) branding, the way this is organised throughout the company, the nature of the ambitions, the feasability of ambitions, the results; these strategic factors are profoundly influenced by the culture and structure of a company. The previous outline dealt with the first two types of companies. Now I will tell you more about the other two types: Wanters & Dreamers.

Parameters

There are five basic parameters that determine to which category a company belongs to:

1. Position of the brand(s) in the Management Board
2. The way the discipline Brand Management is structured
3. Relationship of the brand(s) v. business targets and results (profit & loss)
4. Internal governance of the brand(s)
5. The quality of the output and the results

Wanters

Wanters are led by managers who understand that a brand is important, but they do not have a great affinity, knowledge or ambition to understand the complexity of branding. The brand is treated as the derivative of the actual business activity. The branding policy is the prime responsibility of the Marketing Communication Department, though in certain companies the Corporate Communications Department also has a say in matters. What also happens is that the responsibility is divided between the two departments. Together they have to advise and convince the Management Board.

None of the members of the Management Board has a professional background or sufficient experience with branding and marketing. Often one of the members has the brand in his portfolio. The brand is explicitely part of the joint decisionmaking process. In terms of professionalism and budgeting you can say that Wanters are more limted than Originals and Professionals. Brands that are owned by Originals and Professionals are often used as benchmark. They strive to reach with their brand(s) a comparable level and commercial strength. They mostly lack the same level of consistency, awareness and perseverance to actually become equals to Originals or Professionals.

Another matter is that they are limited in the way they are consistent with their brand. The managers in charge often turn to ad hoc activities that have a specific goal, but affect the consistency of the brand. This is due to the fact that the branding policy is not deeply embedded in the mind, mentallity and organization.

Quite often third parties can place a strong mark on certain (marketing) activities. Looking at the business sectors, I have noticed that Wanters can be found in more traditional markets like building, construction, engineering, but also ICT. Another field you will find them in, is the privatised companies. Take for example Deutsche Post and the Dutch energy-company Eneco. My assumption is that it takes these formerly state owned companies at least ten years or more to grow from Dreamers into Wanters. So what are Dreamers precisely?

Dreamers

Dreamers are conducted by managers who don’t perceive the company as a brand. The company is nothing else but the business activity, the Management Board is primarly focused on trade or administration. The concept of marketing and communication is very limited. These type of companies do strive to be professional, but are weak with respect to budget and content. The focus is more on communicating their message then on building a brand.

Therefore the way the brand and communication are internally organised is restricted. The department and manager in charge does not have a strong position with the company. He is more focused on execution and experiences a great distance. It is hard to get the brand to become an agenda item and it is difficult to take decisions. This leads in general to weak brands, only the good intentions are visable.

Many examples of Dreamers can be found in for instance health care, non-governmental organizations and in (semi) government institutions. 

A friend of mine collected logo’s of ICT-related brands. He ended up with an huge collection of brands that more or less all have the same visual identity. What all these brands communicate is “we are indifferent about our brand, we are generic as a company, we have nothing special to offer, we have no ambition and skills in marketing”.

Be it tomorrow or in the future, these companies – or their competitors – will discover that you can boost your company culture and market performance by paying more professional attention to (visual) branding. Ambition will bring them from Dreamers to become Wanters, and maybe in the long run to the status of Professional. 

Migration

My basis rule is: you can migrate from one company type to another. Up and down. In general not more than one step at the time. There is –like always- one exeption to the rule: Originals are born that way. You can’t call yourself Original by strategic planning. Therefore, It will be very difficult, if not impossible, for a Professional to become an Original. This can be hardly a problem, for most Professionals it would be a foolish ambition. There would be little to gain and a lot to loose. Being an Original has everything to do with a deeply embedded culture of entrepreneurship and a strong adventurous spirit. 

Image below: The example from collected logo’s of ICT-related brands.