#3 Don't think of a website as just website

In March 2023 Marketing Week published a report based on a survey among more than 3000 marketers stating that brand management its the second most undervalued skill by businesses.

Having worked as a brand strategist for quite some time this is something I can truly relate to. At the same time I find it very ironic that we as professionals still sometimes have difficulty proving that a strong brand adds value to the business. And that the skill to build a strong brand (brand management) is an essential business skill. It is a great paradox to say the least. We are suppose to be the masters of creating perceived value. Still the subject can be dismissed by executives as ”fluffy”, ”soft stuff” or thrown off the table with a comment ”I like our logo”. Ouch!

So why don’t we always succeed? Especially within B2B. I thought about this a lot. I think one mistake we make is that we are trying use the brand platform to sell our case. There is of course a time and place where that is relevant, but most of the time I believe it is not. It is too abstract for anyone who is not a branding nerd to understand. It is too open for interpretation. It very often created by an external part. And these points I think opens the gate to opinion paradise.

When that gate is open everyone runs naked through it with great enthusiasm. As head of brand, corporate brand director, brand manager or a brand consultant you find yourself in a storm of unfounded opinions and gut-feelings. Everybody is all of a sudden enthusiastic about branding. The whole executives team loves it. Everyone can participate and no rules apply.

Now to the point. If everyone (almost 😊) love to talk about branding it is not the subject that is the challenge, it is the input we use to start the dialogue that must change. We must have input that help us go from opinion-driven internal branding dialogues to fact-driven internal branding dialogues. We must have input that we can prove everyone in the organisation has directly, or indirectly, contributed to create.

Therefor I believe that converting website data into branding and communication insights can help us take control of the internal branding discussion and move it forward based on that. The website data represents the collective voice of the whole organisation. It is undisputed. It is already out there. This is what we collectively say to the market. We are all responsible for it and we all own it. Everyone has participated in crafting the stories with the purpose to explains how the company creates value for its customers, employees and other stakeholder. The website is our brandING platform. The ”ING” in branding is an important distinction. (You’ll find a deeper explanation of the logic in post #1 and #2).

That’s where Brand XRAI® comes in. It has been impossible to analyze large amount of website data from a strategic branding and communication perspective. The good news is that now you can. With Brand XRAI® you can. You can analyze your own company website data as well as your competitors.