U2 can be famous, just like Bono
I would like you to give five minutes thought to a world famous corporation: Thawte Consulting.
What's that you say? You don't know it? You should. You probably make use of their product a few times a month, if not more often. Never mind. Let's try someone else. Have you heard of Steven Spielberg? Of course you have. How about Dreamworks SKG? Ring a bell? Did you know that the three letters at the end of the name stand for Spielberg, Katzenberg and Geffen, the three brains behind the company? Spielberg is well known - Dreamworks maybe not as well.
When marketing their brands, the people and personalities behind them can become as large, if not larger than the brands themselves. Of course, it is inevitable that those personalities can become the brand themselves. Think of our world-famous icon Madiba. No locally written article on branding can exclude him, and his spin-off brand 46664. His personality, exuberance and all-round great demeanour are what make the Madiba brand what it is, and 46664 will continue to be around for a long long time.
Someone else who is bigger than her brand (in more ways than one) is Oprah Winfrey. She has her finger in more than one pie (sic!) but is still the face of all of them. Even her self-titled magazine, O, features her on each and every cover. A sure sign that she uses her image as a marketing tool, and is as big as her brand. Another prime example is Virgin's Richard Branson (or should that be Richard Branson's Virgin?). Everyone has heard of Virgin, but just as many have heard of Richard Branson. In fact, I'm willing to bet he's better known than his brand in some places.
The million dollar question though, is what will happen to those brands when the personality behind them is no more. Could O Magazine survive, with its current offering, without Oprah at the helm, Virgin without Branson or U2 without its charitable front-man, Bono? My guess is not and once the personalities go, so will the product. Yes, some version of the product may continue, but not as it was before, and the loyal (personality) followers are likely to move on to the next big thing that catches their interest. These brands will have to reinvent themselves, with or without a famous figurehead at the helm - and then may have to start the rebranding process all over again...
Getting back to Thawte Consulting though. I am pretty certain most of you have heard of Mark Shuttleworth. If not, put down this magazine and go Google him. No wait, carry on reading - I l tell you myself. Mark started a Internet Security business in his parent's garage in Bellville, Cape Town. To cut a long story short, he managed to persuade (Internet browser) Netscape to bundle his product with its browser, and soon thereafter was bought out by his biggest competitor, for a disgustingly huge amount of cash. (Nice one Mark...). Anyway, he needed a name for his company, and as he himself put it, though and thought of a name, and after coming up blank, decided to stick with Thawte.
Regardless of the popularity of the person behind the brand, the product itself needs to be marketed as a stand-alone entity, so that it can continue to grow and succeed, long after the face has moved on...
I write a regular marketing column for Invisage, a subsection of IE Magazine. Read it here with the most recent listed first.