You have just spent a fortune painting your home the trendiest, just-left-of-white. It’s the perfect shade and its cashmere texture compliments the architecture beautifully. You are chuffed!

One morning, as you are pulling out of your driveway, you notice that a budding artist has blessed your wall with a self-commissioned orange, green and blue dragon-rabbit-thing and what looks like an ancient dialect that shouts Spozlegitt. A cool new buzzword?  Actually the painted creature is kind of pretty. You decide to keep it, it’s cool.

Later that day, returning home after a long day at the office, you notice some new additions to the wall. A bright yellow sign with blue lettering: AIRFORCE ONE SECURITY: TRESPASSERS WILL BE FED TO THE BOERBULLS. Although a little misleading - your wife’s Yorkshire Terriers only eat organic vegetables – you decide to keep it. For protection you tell yourself.

There is also a bold black and red A1 poster promoting an up-and-coming afro-jazz/death-metal/hip-hop band now on display. Although you are not into afro-jazz/death-metal/hip-hop someone at home may be and so you leave it decorating your brand new, just-left-of-white wall.

Kids have also been practising for 2010, kicking a dirty soccer ball against the wall, but dirt doesn’t stain - or so you hope.

A few weeks pass and it dawns on you while reversing out your driveway, there is little or no just-left-of-white brilliance showing on your wall. It is cluttered with signs, posters, graffiti and dirt. It really does nothing for the architecture anymore… it’s just a confusing mess of colours and mixed messages.

Your brand is just like a white wall seemingly inviting people to explore their creativity. I call this Brandalism and it should be illegal, punishable by serving a lengthy jail sentence.  When a secretary feels that butterflies and pink teddy bears add a ‘positive energy’ to a corporate email signature or when the sales team are convinced that red frisbees make perfect corporate gifts; you are dealing with Brandalism. When the production manager sends out  a memo with Tigger or Nemo frolicking with your logo, you are dealing with Brandalism. Don’t memo back adding an angry Daffy Duck… that won’t work!

Your brand is not just a logo; it’s the attitude and personality of your business. Your brand relies on that same secretary when she greets a customer, that sales team when they pitch using a Power Point presentation and even on the casual conversation at Piet Swanepoel’s braai. Who’s is Piet Swanepoel you ask. Who cares!  But he is hearing about your brand from one of your employees or clients. So you had better hope that your employee or client has the same understanding of your brand as you do.

So, I’ve got you fired up about my brand… but how do we get your empolyee’s to feel the same, how do we get them to respect  the brand?”.

There is no quick fix… it will take getting your employees to live your brand values; becoming effective cogs in the brand engine. Because without them your brand will never realise its full potential.

Quite frankly we need to repaint the wall!

Daryl Glass – creative director

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