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This Bulletin features a discussion between EffectiveBrands (EB) and Scott Fuson of Dow Corning. It talks about Fuson’s experiences harmonizing Dow Corning under one master brand, educating and inspiring the marketing community at Dow Corning about the new strategy and architecture, and using all of the resources available to him to make the changes happen.
Scott Fuson is the Global Executive Director for Marketing and Sales & Customer Service for Dow Corning Corporation. Mr. Fuson joined Dow Corning in 1982 as a Field Sales representative in
Formulating a Clear Brand Strategy and Architecture
EB: One challenge that companies and marketers typically face is marrying the fact that they have both specialized brands and a corporate brand. How did you handle this, both strategically and tactically?
SF: We made the decision to target the low end of the market by developing a new web-enabled business model called Xiameter®, which offers low prices for large volumes of commonly used silicone products. We decided on this strategy because the Dow Corning brand is not a “price brand” and we don’t want to make it a price brand. To that effect, a new business model had to be developed.
In the past, we let our brand evolve and what ended up with was a house brand with the culture of the company embedded in it. Positioning our brand was somewhat new territory for us. At the same time we had a proliferation of new brands that really had no rhyme or reason. We realized then that it was time for a corporate branding strategy.
Three years ago, we looked at the house brand, Dow Corning, and decided what the attributes and brand drivers were. We then developed a brand architecture, which was done with the top 25 executives of the company. Ultimately, we developed a master brand endorser strategy, then went back to the portfolio and mapped all our products accordingly.
EB: Did you ever come across brands you owned that were very successful in a specific industry yet somehow their values seemed at odds with the Dow Corning brand? How did you go about resolving this?
SF: Yes, we found a number of brands in that situation. We addressed this by forming a Brand Council and creating a new position of Global Brand Manager. The Corporate Communications Officer, the Global Brand Manager, several leaders from across our industries and I were brought together to form the Council.
In our discussions, we made sure we educated the marketing and industry groups worldwide on the new marketing policy and on how to do branding globally. Part of this new policy stated that before you created a new brand you had to come to the Brand Council.
EB: How did you go about educating the marketing and industry groups?
SF: We educated them primarily through workshops. The workshops we conducted were about marketing education – what are the rules and general principles of branding, such as ‘The fewer brands, the better’, then we got into specifics like ‘What should the brand architecture be?’ You have to have agreement and support at the beginning of the process. We created a common language through education and everyone came back with recommendations.
EB: Was there ever a struggle between you and the other business leaders?
SF: Not necessarily, since the business managers and top 25 people agreed to the brand strategy and architecture. Everyone had a natural interest in participating. The attitude was basically, ‘Let's get together and clean this up.’
Additionally, every year the company develops 3-5 corporate priorities, based on the company’s strategy as a whole. These are things that drive everything forward. For the last three years, one of these priorities has been to energize the Dow Corning brand. When we hit our targets, we retire them or add new targets. Basically, energizing the brand was made a top priority.
Bringing the Strategy to Life
EB: How many brands did you have prior to the development of your corporate branding strategy? What impact have you seen as a result of the new strategy?
SF: Hundreds, although Dow Corning had been reducing the number of brands we own. Licensing income has increased dramatically as we have reduced the number of brands we use. Focusing on the central Dow Corning brand has brought in licensing fees from many areas that were not previously Dow Corning branded.
EB: Did the CEO support you in your efforts?
SF: She whole heartedly bought into it because when you energize the brand, you energize the people. So naturally, she saw the link and value that would be added from the work.
EB: Now you have to tell the business leaders that the brands need to change or are conflicting with the master brand. Can you talk about this?
SF: We essentially said, “Here's the list of the brands you own and we're going to migrate them to the house brand. If you have an objection, you have to come to the Brand Council." For the most part, there was very little conflict. There were some tough decisions. We continually asked for analysis to support the objections people raised, yet few had the data to back up their positions. Because the culture of the company places an emphasis on using "fact supported decision making," due to Six Sigma, the Brand Council knew what the sales were for each brand and what the budget was, so it was a very transparent, natural process.
We went through a process and set of criteria outlining questions such as: ‘How much are you investing?’, ‘What's the value of the profit today?’, and ‘What do you project it to be in the future?’ This also involved measuring the performance of the brand. We looked at the brands, ran through the hierarchy and had the data to respond to any challenges. The Brand Council was surprised at how much credibility and authority we had. This was all attributable to the research we had conducted.
EB: You've talked about educating and aligning the whole marketing group – how large is your team?
SF: 150 marketing professionals worldwide.
Brand communication in general, including the global communications leadership team, consists of about top 500 managers across the globe. I meet with them every other month, sometimes by voice conference. We have a regular call for Asia, one for Europe, and one for the
Taking the Temperature of the Brand
EB: How do you ensure that the information from the meetings reaches everyone in the organization and that they completely understand what is being conveyed?
The expectation is that all that communication will be cascaded down into each business unit by those attending the meeting. They're expected to organize this themselves, but the central group surveys people to see how effective the communication was. The survey is in the form of a web-based, Intranet questionnaire. Employees are asked if they would like to participate in the survey and can then go to the Intranet to complete it. In the survey, we measure their awareness of topics in several areas, for example:
- Energizing the brand as a corporate priority
- Brand drivers
- Brand attributes
- Salience and understanding of the information discussed
The survey is anonymous. I’d like to have more information on the types of people who score the highest and lowest, so I can see who best understands the information, executives or line people. We haven’t moved in this direction, though, because our results indicate that we’re already getting a pretty good understanding across the board.
The second communication tactic we use is the Intranet, “DC Connection.” On the Intranet, we post articles that are relevant to the execution of our strategy and priorities. One section is called "News from the Field," where anyone from the field can post a major accomplishment or their experience on a successful and significant project. Globally, we get about two of these postings each day. The site basically facilitates the sharing of best-practices, practical applications, and shows people in the back office that the strategy is actually happening and that it’s working. By providing a forum to highlight successes, we are essentially creating heroes, which we believe is a very important thing.
EB: How do you ensure that your ‘Brand Heroes’ are recognized?
SF: We have a Marketing Excellence Council that consists of lead marketing people from each of our industries. We have recognition events where top executives select the best marketing professionals from the previous year, based on certain criteria, which include elements of the company’s strategy. Marketers throughout the company know about this and are motivated to win these awards. From a career perspective, winning an award or participating in the process is essential to reach certain levels within the corporation.
Principles of Effective Global Brand Leadership
In this discussion, Scott Fuson emphasizes the importance of several principles of leading global brands.
Ensure Absolute Clarity for Stakeholders
Formulating a brand strategy and architecture that was clearly understood by everyone in the organization was the first step Fuson took in effectively managing the Dow Corning brand. Making “Energizing the Brand” a top corporate priority illustrated branding’s importance to the future success of the company. The creation of the Brand Council provided a means to mutually agree upon the core attributes of the brand. Through the Brand Council, Fuson was able to clearly convey what was negotiable about the brand and what could not be changed.
Inspire Commitment to the Brand
The support from the CEO, coupled with marketing education, drove the appreciation for branding within the organization. CEO-led meetings were used to disseminate information as well as engage and inspire employees. The employment of the “News from the Field” section on DC Connection, Dow Corning’s Intranet website, was essential in creating role models from within and fostering commitment to the brand.
Promote True Brand Behavior
The key to long-term differentiated success is rewarding those who consistently exhibit brand-building behavior. Fuson promotes brand behavior by highlighting successes through DC Connection as well as through major recognition events. Incorporating brand-building behavior into employees’ career paths makes it clear that commitment to branding is essential to success at Dow Corning.
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