Brand Guru

With the Financial Times calling him “the world’s leading practitioner of branding and identity,” Olins is a living legend in the world of branding. He set up a brand consulting firm in 1965 in London when the industry was still grappling with the concept of ‘advertising’. In the five decades of his craft,he has helped in the building and revival of several companies,institutions and countries like Orange,Volkswagen,Prudential,London,Tata,Akzo Nobel,Coca-Cola,Renault,Apollo Tyres,Poland and many more.

An advocate of the fact that corporate identity is “strategy made visible”,Olins talked about how over time brands develop a psychological connection with people and how people relate a particular brand with certain characteristics. He exemplified his point by saying,“Nivea should never try launching a Cola product. The idea of Nivea is so very different from that in our minds… that we cannot even imagine a Nivea Cola,let alone buy it!”

A student of history from Oxford University,Olins has the unique experience of teaching in seats of learning like the London Business School and the Copenhagen Business School. Having advised McKinsey and Bain on strategic branding and marketing,he was awarded the CBE in 1999 and the Reputation Institute’s Lifetime Achievment Award in 2006.

But the years of teaching in some of the world’s best business schools have not made his language heavy with jargon. Asked about the difference between advertising and branding,Wally’s simple answer was,“Advertising is communicating the product to the audience (customers in this case),while branding is the product itself and the world around it.”

Olins talked about how the perception about Spain changed because of successful positive branding. “In 1975 all we cold think of about Spain was Franco and Fleminco. Perceptions have changed vastly today only because of the rebranding process,” he said. He explained how a brand can perform a whole lot of tasks like favourably affecting share prices,making customers look closely at a product,communicating easily with customers and shift their perceptions.

A staunch disbeliever of the idea of any government imposing a certain brand identity,Olins believes,“Branding is an investment and not an expenditure. It is an intangible investment. One has to keep investing,but not only on the brand but also on the product and service.”

In 1998 he authored Corporate Identity,a seminal work on the subject. His book titled The Brand Handbook meakes the subject easy and lucid for everyone’s understanding.

“The world is changing from being a unipolar one to a multipolar one. This has huge cultural impact. Every country wants to build up its seperate identity to attract foreign investments and tourists,” said Wally. “However,this attempt to create an idea of what a country is all about,is not at all effective as it is done in a very crude and out-of-fashion method. Proper branding is the answer,” signed off the legend in the world of branding.