Brand value is a key component of a company’s success and it takes several years to establish by implementing a brand strategy that supports the business. However, in today’s digital environment, brand value can be compromised in a matter of minutes and negatively affect the brand and company. As such, brand security is an issue that needs constant attention to minimise possible reputational damage to the brand and the associated risk of losing customers.

As data hacks occur more regularly, it highlights the need for companies to take privacy issues more seriously as the repercussions of not doing so carry serious reputational damage for brands. According to the IBM 2018 Cost of Data Breach study, if a data breach causes an organisation to lose just 1% of its customers it will cost the business on average $2.8m, and if it loses more than 4% of the customer base the cost is closer to $6m. The costs associated with a data breach are made up of lost business, the negative impact on reputation and employee time spent on recovery.

As such, companies cannot afford to ignore the reputational risk of a data breach and need to have measures in place to maintain trust with customers.

THE ROLE OF COMPLIANCE AND REGULATION

Customers expect companies to have stringent measures in place to protect their personal information and mitigate possible risks of data breaches and hacks. This is supported by the findings of a recent study by RSA Security, which found that more than 57% of consumers blame companies for data breaches rather than hackers. Further, the study states that a loss of customer trust is the biggest risk associated with data breaches and hacks. This should be a key concern for every organisation, as once trust is lost, it is near impossible to win it back.

To alleviate some of the risk, countries have introduced regulations such as the local Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act and Europe’s GDPR, to ensure companies operate with transparency while protecting customer privacy and using data responsibly.  While SA is yet to indicate the fines associated with breaches of the POPI Act, the GDPR has announced two tiers of administrative fines for noncompliance: €10m or 2% of annual global turnover, whichever is higher; and €20m or 4% of annual global turnover, whichever is higher. In many instances, this fee is equivalent to the 2%-3% marketing budget that organisations assign annually. While this should be a concern for companies, the reputational damage of a breach should be the biggest concern for organisations as it is far greater than the value of a fine.

While government compliance and regulations should be adhered to, companies also need to implement their own compliance and risk standards internally to keep customer data secure from possible hackers and third parties.  For example, marketing departments often use website tools to target customers online and share customer details with third party companies to create personalised campaigns. Both of these examples expose customer details to third parties and increase the threat of customer data being hacked.

To combat this, companies need to remove the segregation of duties from a single department and combine the expertise of the marketing, legal and IT departments to build brand trust and mitigate possible brand risks at all times. In doing so, they will be adding additional layers of security to prevent data breaches both within the company and via potential hackers.

INTERNAL STANDARDS

While marketers are generally familiar with the threat of data breaches, in many instances they do not have insight into the particular vulnerabilities associated with marketing data and how to safeguard it. This requires the expertise of both the legal and IT departments to put measures in place to counter the possible risks.

To improve brand security, the marketing, IT and legal departments need to work closely together to combine technology, data management, content and customer experience. In larger organisations, brand security officers have been appointed to focus entirely on protecting the brand reputation of the company. This role is charged with assessing, mitigating and managing marketing risks while looking at issues such as fraud, viewability and transparency. In essence, this role is responsible for guiding the organisation in terms of data security and customer privacy.

THE ROLE OF TEHNOLOGY IN BRAND SECURITY

While technology is a key challenge for data breaches and fraud, it also has to be part of the solution. Governance, risk and compliance software offer companies a solution to address several of the GRC challenges they face by automating mundane reporting tasks and providing a single view of the requirements. However, companies need to also gain visibility into the compliance environment of the future if they are to limit potential risks and threats.

However, companies cannot rely on a single solution to address potential issues and need to safeguard their customer data by implementing solutions that provide internal security standards and equip their customers to prevent possible data hacks and breaches. By using automation software solutions that help companies to deliver consistent brand experiences and provide verification tools in every e-mail, for example, customers are less likely to fall victim to possible phishing scams. However, beyond this, the company needs to also have measures in place to prevent fraudulent e-mails from being sent from within the organisation and minimise the possibility of identity theft.

Automation software presents a solution to help mitigate certain risks by automating tasks according to business objectives and brand standards. This will result in all components and rules being merged into a holistic solution and will remove the segregation of duty from a single department to minimise potential risks to customer data and fraudulent activities.

THE BIG TAKE-OUT

Customers expect companies to have stringent measures in place to protect their personal information and mitigate possible risks of data breaches and hacks.

CONSISTENCY AND AUTHENTICITY BUILD TRUST

While marketing departments are faced with the challenge of capturing the imagination of the customer while ensuring data privacy at the same time, brand consistency and authenticity should be the foundation on which customers establish a relationship of trust. This is achieved, for example, by using primary fonts which can be harder to replicate, e-mail signatures with built-in verification tools and documents that meet compliance standards such as correct director details and company addresses.

To achieve this, technology should be implemented, not only to automate repetitive tasks, but to ensure that the company is able to establish trust with customers in every interaction. In addition, technology should be used to provide a layer of added security to the organisation while providing data and analytics to determine possible risks, mitigate fraudulent activity and gain visibility into how its brand is being used to engage with customers.

Customer trust and a company’s reputation are too important to be left to a single department. To be successful in safeguarding customers’ details, companies must tackle the challenge from various angles and implement several solutions that make it more challenging for hackers to access their information. At this time, technology savvy companies that implement solutions to safeguard their customer data are putting themselves at the forefront of the fight against the competition. However, in the future, this will become standard practice to protect their customers and meet their expectations.

It is imperative that companies have measures in place to minimise the possibility of reputational damage. Brand consistency is one of those measures.

Several factors cause serious reputational damage to brands these days, ranging from social media to fake news and cyberattacks. It’s therefore imperative that companies have measures in place to minimise the possibility of reputational damage. Brand consistency is one of those measures.

THE VALUE OF BRAND CONSISTENCY

Brand consistency is a vital tool that helps customers and potential customers to recognise a brand and helps to establish relationships of trust with customers. A survey conducted by Investis Digital and Forrester Consulting found that “more than half of businesses see an improved reputation as a result of consistently communicating their brand values”.

When you deliver a consistent experience in every interaction with customers, they know what to expect when they engage with you. It also demonstrates that you take detail very seriously and gives customers confidence that you will deliver quality service to meet their needs.

This consistency provides brand security: should customers receive a phishing e-mail which includes your company logo, for example, they would know – based on previous experience – that the e-mail didn’t come from your organisation.

ACHIEVING BRAND CONSISTENCY

Brand consistency can be achieved only when specific brand guidelines are established, managed from a central department in an organisation and implemented by every employee. These include visual elements such as the logo and font colour, as well as the tone of content used in communications.  However, as employees have access to e-mail and company materials across multiple devices and are able to create personalised customer communication as needed, achieving consistency is a great challenge for organisations.

To ensure brand security, all employees need to know what the brand stands for, understand their role in delivering a consistent brand experience and be committed to delivering such experience in every customer communication. Not only does this help establish the brand’s reputation, build trust and assist in securing the brand, it can even protect customers from potential threats.

EASING THE PROCESS OF BRAND CONSISTENCY

While many companies have brand guidelines and standards in place, sharing these across an organisation and having all employees implement them is a real challenge for marketers. The survey reveals that “only 25% of businesses rate themselves as very effective at consistently managing their brand values across digital channels”.

To ease the process, employees need to be given tools that will help them deliver consistent brand experiences at every customer touch point. All relevant documents, from letterheads to sales collateral and presentations, should be easy to obtain from a central location using the technology that the staff has become accustomed to using daily.

THE BIG TAKE-OUT

Brand consistency in all customer engagements helps to build brand trust and can provide a layer of security for organisations and their customers.

E-mails should be branded with beautifully designed e-mail signatures, and should be written in the correct font type and colour. To provide added peace of mind for the recipient, e-mails should include the organisation’s unique font in the signature, as this is far harder to replicate than ordinary fonts and adds an additional layer of security. 

The content should also be aligned with the overall brand. Employees should have easy access to predeveloped and pre-approved content that can be personalised to include specific client information. Attachments should be branded correctly and need to contain the correct information to ensure brand consistency in all communications and to build brand trust.

ADHERING TO LEGAL REQUIREMENTS

E-mails should adhere to legal requirements such as those in the Privacy of Personal Information Act and the Electronic Communications Act. To achieve this, e-mails that contain personal information should not be shared with external parties but must be sent to the customer only through the organisation’s own internal server.

Disclaimers should be included in every e-mail to protect confidentiality, privilege, copyright and contract information, for example, and to avoid defamation, discrimination, harassment and viruses. Without a disclaimer the company could be faced with a possible lawsuit from recipients.

PUTTING THE BASICS IN PLACE

It should be easy to obtain access to all content and branded materials, regardless of the device or where the employee is based. Branded communications should be managed from a central location. Tamperproof mechanisms need to be built into the system to ensure that employees can’t make changes to documents, presentations, e-mails and other company information without the necessary approvals.

Ensuring brand consistency across employees and devices is a critical task in establishing trust with both employees and customers. It requires a strategic approach. Technology also needs to be implemented across organisations to help ensure brand consistency in all customer engagements, as this can provide a layer of added security for both the organisation and the customer.

Marketing needs to evolve into a fully integrated role – it should own the customer experience, embrace technology to meet customers’ digital requirements and have a seat at the boardroom table to drive and influence product development based on marketing insights.  This was the key take-out from a BrandQuantum marketing round table held earlier this year to debate the role of marketing in today’s digital business environment. 

Other issues discussed at the round table include the fact while digital isn’t new, several marketers are still grappling with it, and in many instances, it remains a separate function from the marketing department. Marketers agree that they lack the knowledge and skills to use digital tools and technologies to their advantage and need to upskill quickly if they are to own the customer experience.

Customer experience, which is critical in giving businesses the competitive advantage, is a complex phenomenon that is greatly influenced by every customer engagement at every touch point. With so many touch points throughout an organisation, consistent brand experiences that are not diluted are crucial.

Companies must adapt to the new business landscape, which is driven by customers’ requirements and regulatory changes. Organisations have restructured accordingly, and marketers believe that an integrated marketing approach has to be adopted to respond to customer needs quickly and deliver a consistent customer experience.

A key challenge for marketers in larger organisations is legacy issues – traditional processes and systems that prevent change, as well as time frames that do not allow for long-term strategic planning.

Smaller organisations may have the advantage of having teams in place to meet customer expectations and keep up with the latest trends, but they don’t have the brand strength to help them overcome potential hurdles they may encounter in building the brand reputation.

Macro-trends such as the Protection of Personal Information Act, privacy issues and data protection present new challenges to marketers, who need tools to help them to be nimble and compete against local and global organisations.

THE BIG TAKE-OUT

In a changing business landscape, both the marketing department and the chief marketing officer need to redefine their roles and gain a deeper understanding of the technologies available to them to build strong brands, with consistent messaging across platforms.

Adding to this, marketing departments are under pressure to demonstrate their value to the organisation. Today’s marketers are being asked to marry marketing with sales functions and put measurement metrics in place to determine their combined output and the contribution to the company’s profits. In some instances, the role of marketing heads are shifting to that of chief growth officer and they are held accountable for the company’s sales success. With the right tools in place, marketers will be able to pull metrics that analyse their activity and show the success of various initiatives based on these metrics.

Brand remains a critical component of the success of the organisation, and while marketing is under pressure to deliver immediate results, its real value will be seen only in three to five years on the brand scorecard. Marketing’s success should be measured by customer experience over time and not just by the company’s profits.

In organisations where marketing has a seat at the boardroom table, marketing insights drive and influence product development and determine how the company moves into the market, effectively positioning the company against its competitors. A brand’s values remain critical to driving a company’s success. For this reason, marketers believe the greater the brand trust and love the greater the impact on the income statement.

Equally important is having employees buy into the brand and the company culture. Often larger, established organisations have an advantage over newer or smaller organisations, as the culture is already entrenched, and potential employees buy into it when applying for a position to work there. But it is important for both large and small organisations to take their employees along on the journey of building the brand and providing them with the right tools to deliver according to the company brand in all customer interactions. After all, if a company doesn’t pay attention to the smaller details, how can their customers trust them to get the more complicated things right?

Paula Sartini is the founder and CEO of BrandQuantum.

Consistency is becoming even more of a business imperative and a key driver of success. Perhaps this is simply because consistency builds trust among consumers, and consumers are more likely to engage with brands they trust.

BrandQuantum founder Paula Sartini says that for consumers to trust a brand, visual consistency is key: how the brand looks, what it says and what it does are the three fundamental elements which build consistency. As such, most branding agencies focus predominantly on the visual aspect of brand consistency.

However, the experiential side of brands is increasingly coming to the fore, influenced by a myriad factors that may not include visual consistency but have a significant impact on how consumers perceive the brand and is informed by all their interactions with that brand.

In today’s digital age, where consumers are exposed to brands across various platforms, it can be a challenge for companies to communicate a consistent brand experience in every interaction with their target audience. In addition, companies are required to adhere to several regulations, such as the POPI Act and the Consumer Protection Act. That is why branding cannot be the sole responsibility of the marketing department.

“This is why there is an increasing awareness of what I call operational marketing,” says Sartini. “What is the point of investing so much money into the visual consistency of a brand when a single thoughtless piece of communication not in keeping with the rest of the brand’s image can do untold damage?” she asks, adding that everything can be ruined by one negative experience at another touchpoint – for instance, an automated letter that does not stand up to the brand’s promise or the terms and conditions at the bottom of a letterhead that do not comply with the latest legislation.

It’s becoming harder and harder for brands to maintain consistency, especially when one considers the multitude of touchpoints where consumers and brands interact, not to mention the rate of change in the digital world. “Marketing departments have less and less control of the places where their brand appears, and they cannot be everywhere at once,” says Sartini.

BrandQuantum’s solution has been to develop software that manages brand consistency, freeing up marketers and their agencies to focus on other vital activities, without having to worry about policing their brands.

“This software, which is cloud-based, manages consistency across all touchpoints – every single piece of communication, on every program in real time. It plugs into Microsoft Office and is not managed by IT, rather it is centrally owned by the marketing department, who can make real-time changes, synchronizing content, toolbars and all the latest collateral to be compliant with the most up-to-date legislation and brand content,” Sartini explains. She says employees of a brand don’t have time to spend digging the latest collateral off the Intranet or shared files, which is why so often the wrong content is used. This software ensures every person has everything they need at their fingertips to maintain brand consistency.

“Operations may be the least sexy element of marketing, but ultimately it’s what keeps the business going and ensures consistency,” Sartini concludes.

The big take-out: In a climate where maintaining brand consistency is affected by many different factors and is becoming increasingly challenging, BrandQuantum has developed cloud-based software that manages brand consistency for marketers, agencies and employees at all touchpoints.