Most people believe that they have fairly fixed personality traits and they don’t vary much over time. Although this may seem to be true, it is hardly the case. Psychological studies over the last few decades have revealed that human behavior is really dictated by our situation, by our social context. We only seem to have fixed traits because we are usually in familiar and somewhat stable social situations; if the context doesn’t change, then the behavior won’t vary much, either.
Behavior is always...
...situational
Many people (and many brand pundits) think the same thing about brands. A brand is a constant; a fixed set of associations and attributes that remain stable over time. But in practice, this is also hardly the case. Why? Because brands are, if anything, peculiar human constructs that contain all the strengths and weaknesses of our species.
A brand manager or brand strategist may assign attributes to a brand, but in the end a brand is based on the actions and activities of all the people who deliver the brand and interact with it. You know, employees, distributors, vendors, retailers, the media, and finally, the customers. It’s these interactions and behaviors around the brand that in the end define it.
As an organization, you have the power to influence these behaviors by delivering on your brand promise. That’s the challenge for most companies … to behave in all situations in a manner consistent with your brand promise.
