Brand Schizo

Mike Stopforth succinctly charts the growth of the latest and most disruptive era in the evolution of brands, which has left Industrial Age businesses struggling to cope with a changed environment populated by Information Age customers and staff.

- Dr. Graeme Codrington, Author, board advisor and futurist, TomorrowToday

Mike Stopforth highlights the gaping divide between a new generation customer who embraces the speed, functionality and connectivity of a digital era, and the slow moving, mostly confused and bewildered corporations that are still relying on outdated business templates spawned in the 20th century.

- Andy Rice Speaker, Writer, Strategist

Mike Stopforth has written a really important book in Brand Schizo.

With his normal brio and racy style, he takes us back to the start of the Industrial era and then rushes us forward to the start of the referral economy he believes we’re living in now. Along the way he makes a compelling case for a new set of rules for success for companies and individuals alike.

- Dion Chang Owner, Flux Trends

BRAND SCHIZO MIKE STOPFORTH

Mike Stopforth Mike Stopforth is the founder and CEO of Cerebra (www.cerebra. co.za) and a sought after speaker on the topics of social media, social business, marketing, branding and communication.

“A bold vision for corporations in the 21st century,” Dr. Graeme Codrington

BRAND SCHIZO

INTRODUCTION

Who has time to read a book?

First, a confession: everything you need to know in this book can be found in one chapter.

I understand you’re a busy person. And it’s no wonder – we live in an age of compulsive and compulsory multitasking. Your time is ruthlessly dissected to serve your varied interests, in addition to making sense of the high noise of information bombarding you from every direction.

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INTRODUCTION

So here it is in plain terms: corporations are chronically ill. This is a problem, because economies are built on corporations.

Whether you work for, buy from or supply to a corporation, their sickness has a significant bearing on your happiness. This illness stems from a massive disconnect between what they promise and what they actually deliver.

As a direct result the corporate ‘brand’ is little more than lipstick on a pig.

The disconnect manifests in many ways.

Business executives and leaders can sense something is wrong, but they struggle to articulate their pain. They sense that control over their customers, and the way those customers feel about the company, is slipping away. They sense that talented, hardworking staff are all but impossible to attract and retain.

Much of this change has been attributed to the ‘social’ era of business – the introduction of

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BRAND SCHIZO

technologies and trends that have significantly shifted the way people connect, communicate and collaborate with one another.

And so, to ease the pain, corporations try to treat the superficial symptoms of this sickness. Millions of companies have scrambled to be ‘social’, most often out of: Fear: “our customers are speaking about us!”

Jealousy: “that competitor has 20 000 more Likes than us!”

Obligation: “we don’t understand it, but we have to do it!”

They hire young, connected staff claiming social media know-how. They employ the freshest agencies and undergo expensive rebranding exercises. Getting on Twitter, saying something, anything, becomes a fixation of urgent paranoia on the Board’s to-do list.

However, the root of the illness lies in this very attitude of compartmentalisation. The marketing department or agency presents a business that seems engaging and conversational. However, when the customer ventures beyond the intimacy and personability of its social profiles, this same business is inflexible, archaic and downright unfriendly.

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INTRODUCTION

I call this split personality, this painful internal clash: Brand Schizo.

How did this happen? When did the sickness take hold? Is social media to blame? I don’t think so. If we really want to understand Brand Schizo, we have to acknowledge our Industrial-Age legacy that shaped the unbending, monolithic businesses that operate today. Next, we have to isolate the moment that society shifted beyond this. I’m not talking about Facebook or Twitter. I’m talking about a fundamental shift that has had as great, or even greater, an impact on society and business as Gutenberg’s printing press – an innovation that in those times sparked the Industrial Revolution.

As I will explain in more detail later on, the turning point that sparked Brand Schizo can be traced back to 1989, a critical year of innovation that shifted the world on its axis towards our current collaborative, vocal and proactive society.

Beyond 1989, a systems-focused, dictator-style company is no longer considered a relevant way of doing business. Customers and staff are no longer content to be spoken at. They want to talk back, and

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they want business to listen. For the most part, this balance has not yet been achieved, which leads us to the painful position we find ourselves in today.

So take the key outcome from this chapter, put it in your pocket and walk away.

This will be enough to shift how you look at your company, your clients and your staff. However, if you want to understand the origin of Brand Schizo on a deeper level and learn how to overcome it through some practical examples, turn the page. Finally, an important disclaimer: this is not a book about ‘social media’ or ‘digital’. These terms have been used to the point of meaninglessness to feign mystery, because where there is mystery, there is margin.

Brand Schizo is bigger than choosing whether or not to open a Facebook page for your business. Its impact extends beyond the walls of your marketing department.

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Brand Schizo is the generalised conflict that has grown from the rise of an innovative, sharing-minded generation struggling to come to terms with the outworn company structures that serve them. It is an illness.

And, like any illness, once diagnosed, it is treatable.

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UNDERSTANDING BRAND SCHIZO

CHAPTER ONE

Where does digital start and end?

It’s 3 February 2013. Approximately 71 000 football fans cram into the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, while over 108 million viewers turn on their TV sets to watch the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens contend for the National Football League Championship. It’s Super Bowl night.

Early in the third quarter, with Baltimore having built a significant 28–6 lead, the lights go out in the Superdome.

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