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 More
than 110 top marketing professionals were treated to two days of
non-stop presentations and discussions on November 13-14 at AMA’s
Corporate Branding 2002 Conference at the O’Hare Marriott
Hotel in Chicago.
Attendees hailed from leading companies and organizations
in 34 states and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada,
Japan and Norway. They listened to nine featured speakers, two panels
of branding experts and had a choice of ten concurrent sessions
led by top marketing practitioners from leading companies. Scott
Davis, Managing Director of Prophet Consulting, chaired the event.
“This Conference truly fulfilled AMA’s
mission of serving as a forum for the exchange of ideas between
business professionals” said Matt Schwartz, AMA’s Marketing
and Sales Practice Consultant. “We were delighted at the quality
of the thinking, the depth of the case histories and the vigorous
dialogue between all participants.”
One of the highlights of the conference was the
candid review of the branding challenges high-tech leader Hewlett-Packard
faced in the past two years by HP’s Senior Vice President
for Global Branding Allison Johnson. These included a new high-profile
CEO from outside the organization, the debut of a controversial
new theme line and branding campaign, extreme business pressures
caused by the recession and, finally, a prolonged front-page proxy
fight over a proposed acquisition of Compaq.
Conference attendees were treated to a showing
of the new “everything is possible” brand-building at
campaign, a classic branding effort relating company products and
services with customer success.
Ms. Johnson shared a few lessons from HP’s
turbulent experience with building, maintaining and redefining a
company and its brand image—lessons that apply to organizations
of all sizes:
- Branding is about defining your vision and staying true to your
principles, no matter what.
- Make sure your people are with you—that they understand
how important it is to consistently reflect your brand vision
in everything you do.
- Communications, with employees inside the organization and outside
with other stakeholders, is the key.
- Support from the top—real tangible support in every way
all the time from the CEO—is critical in the brand building
success.
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