As part of the Best Global Green Brands 2013 (BGGB) launch this week, Interbrand hosted an event at The Guardian newspaper's headquarters in London. With luminaries from the world of sustainability and branding in the room, and a panel-based format, the debate was always likely to be engaging and interesting. Here were the stand-out points I took note of:

Firstly, Jez Frampton asked the crowd who had three or more old mobile phones in their drawers and cupboards at home and the majority of the audience put their hand up (including me). This illustrated why Apple, among our top global brands, slipped down the BGGB ranking: product disposal is not something they are addressing actively enough.

Jake Backus, Customer Sustainability Director for Coca-Cola was a panelist. Coke is more interested in what they call casual greens rather than dark greens, as there are more of them, plus they’re looking for brands to help them be better consumers. They want their preferred brands to be more sustainable, rather than looking for the most sustainable brand in the marketplace. There’s an opportunity for leading brands to take note from Coke.

The panellists agreed that sustainability is a genuine unfulfilled business opportunity. Consumers do want great products that are better for the world. But they don't want to compromise on quality, performance or convenience. This is a huge opportunity for businesses and brands with R&D resources at their disposal. An example cited by Jake Backus was Coke’s I LOHAS water product, which has taken Japan by storm, in part because of its environmental credentials (although dark greens would probably be uncomfortable with claiming imported bottled water qualifies as "sustainable").

As the above example demonstrates, sustainability can be part of a growth strategy. This is particularly true in developing markets, where consumers credit brands that innovate in sustainability with technical excellence and therefore assume their products are superior.

There was an interesting contrast between BMW and Nissan. BMW recognised that to build a successful ground-up electric car they had to set up a business unit that was entirely outside of the core business. Nissan, meanwhile is looking to put sustainability much more at the heart of the business.

And I loved the idea that we, as brand stewards, should be looking at foresight rather than insight. The consumer wants to be led, and asking them what they want now will not result in leadership.

Finally, leadership itself was a key topic. I heard Coke talk about being very aware of its "social license to operate." Taking a leadership position on the issues it can and should be influencing – child obesity being the obvious one – is a responsibility they’re not ducking.

If last night’s event was anything to go by, our BGGB study is stimulating exactly the kind of debate we had in mind. I’m looking forward to following the feedback.

Fred Burt is the Managing Director of Global Accounts at Interbrand.

Across Europe people are counting down to the start of summer. It’s time to shake off winter doldrums, get out and have some fun.

Huge sports events and concert tours kick off. This season’s concert lineup promises to be huge with big names like The Rolling Stones, Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, Pink, Beyonce and One Direction headlining world tours. In sports, this summer brings the 2013 UEFA Champions League Final in London, arguably the biggest football event in the world, and the World Masters Games in Torino, Italy.

Best Global Brand Coca-Cola, consistently earning the number one spot on Interbrand's annual report, is kicking off a number of concerts and sporting events this summer. Starting May 16 in Manchester, UK, Relentless kicks off a series of house parties across England, co-hosted and co-curated with local musicians, featuring live performances and popular DJs. Delphic headlines the first show also showcasing Bipolar Sunshine and Egyptian Hip Hop.

May 24 – May 25 in Köln, Germany, O’Neill Wake the Line launches. Transforming the Köln Stadium into a wakeboard course, top riders from around the world will compete for prize money and prestige while concerts and after parties feature groups like Die Orsons and Flo Mega and popular DJs.

The house parties and unique sports events align with the brand's image as part of a young, active lifestyle. The brand successfully appeals to Millennials with a high-energy website featuring films on extreme sports, athletes and footage of various Relentless festivals. The films have garnered thousands of views on YouTube and the brand engages its fans on Twitter and Facebook as well.

The brand’s summer events not only offer it an opportunity to create memorable branded experiences for consumers, it's a chance for Relentless to reconnect with loyal consumers after this winter’s new packaging design release was met with customer complaints. In the post-digital world brands get feedback real-time and in this case, countless comments of dislike and protest in its social media communities.

In February Relentless revamped its packaging with an emphasis on a much clearer color-coding of the varieties. In the course of the redesign, however, they dropped an important functional benefit: the re-sealable top of the can.

The new packaging color palette differentiated itself from those of competitors like Red Bull and Monster, but with that move Relentless lost some of its visual punch and some felt the design was "a bit too light" for an energy drink. One critic I spoke with noted, "it feels like switching from AC/DC to Coldplay while keeping the lyrics."

Loyal fans were most upset to see the re-sealable can part become history. One fan went so far as to write a 450-word Relentless love-story, ending in a break-up with the brand posted on its Facebook page.

While Relentless has had success connecting with fans in social media, its handling of the backlash didn't help matters with answers that seemed copy and paste instead of authentic, organic conversations. The brand's approach seemed to fuel the complaints.

Alexander Murray, a strategy director for Interbrand Tokyo comments regarding the potential for social media "disasters" for brands and strategies to avoid them, "With many social media ‘disasters’ a fast, decisive response can help reduce any risk of long-term damage to the brand. However, this can be one of the hardest things to achieve. 'Company culture' ('the way we do things around here') is critically important. It allows people to respond quickly and instinctively to unpredictable situations."

"It is a cliché," Murray adds, "but the time to take action is before you have a problem. People need to know what the right thing to do is, before they are faced with a situation where they have to make a decision. Managing a brand in the new social world is less about dictating rules and more about empowering people."

Nora Geiss, a director and digital strategist for Interbrand New York's Verbal Identity department adds, "Social media 'disasters' almost always represent an opportunity just as much as they represent potential for damage. The difference between an opportunity and a path to damage depends on how well the brand is listening to the conversation around their efforts, how responsive they are in the immediate term, and how strategically they approach evolving their response in a meaningful way over the long term."

"Ultimately it still comes down to transparency and genuine interest in the concerns of your audience," Geiss says. "A good rule of thumb: If your customer is standing in front of you in person sharing the same concerns that they share over social media, what would you do? How would you respond? What promises would you make to address their concerns? And how would you keep the conversation going?"

Relentless now has the opportunity to tap into the energy of its summer lineup and position itself as a BandC rather than a B2C. Now is the time to build a social media strategy going forward to build on and grow from consumer feedback in a positive and genuine way. As Patrick Stal, MD of Interbrand Amsterdam says, "With social media missteps, consumers understand that brands are human, make mistakes and are usually willing to move on with the brand if there’s genuine communication going forward."

Christoph Meyer-Roscher is part of Interbrand Hamburg's Design Team.

From slow journalism to babies in bags, here are names that Interbrand New York’s Verbal Identity team are talking about this month:

Written by Nicole Briggs & NY's Verbal Identity Naming Team

Delayed Gratification is a quarterly publication from The Slow Journalism Company. Self described as unique and quirky, we love how fitting the name is for the type of publication it is. They’re proud of being “last to breaking news.”		Sift is an app that takes all of your shopping emails and puts them in one place, creating a personalized shopping experience. Just in time for the holiday, we love the way the name says filtering and sorting.		Baby in a Bag is a snuggly bag, aka sleep sack or baby sleeping bag, in which you place your baby. Simple. In a world of cutesy names for baby products, a descriptive name can stand tall.
Lyft, speaking of descriptive, is an on-demand car service app for cheaper, safer rides. Its lightly coined spelling makes it a catchy way to catch a lift, and it’s linked to a pretty cool domain name as well.		Flyknit is Nike’s new light-weight sneaker. Meant to feel lighter on your foot and created through a knitted process, the name tells you all you need to know about the construct of the shoe.		Pulpy is drink made by Minute Maid, and the first billion-dollar Coca-Cola brand to emerge in China. It’s a name that elevates the texture of the product to the name, and makes what could be functional detail a fun, ownable asset.
Red Bull Total Zero. A great name for diet version that is totally on voice. It has that counter-culture ironic twist, appropriating a negative a la Radiohead’s "I'm a creep" with that hint of adrenaline. Bottom line: It’s a cool way to say diet.		Look Mum No Hands! is a café in London that caters to cycling enthusiasts. We love that the name plays on a phrase that expresses pure amazement, and violates the idea that names must be short and memorable.		Sniptease, not striptease, is the official salon of MTV reality show Jersey Shore’s very own JWoww and Sammi Sweetheart. While the brand is cheeky, it’s fun to say.

We all make promises. Brands are built on them. Some of the best brands deliberately layer promises to reach consumers at a more emotional level. The same can be said in politics, aggregating policy views up to something greater. FDR promised a “New Deal for the American People.” Reagan stated, “It’s morning again in America.” Most recently President Obama promised “Hope and Change.” All have made these bold emotion-driven promises to their consumers – the American voters.

The number one rule in branding (and business for that matter) is don’t over promise and under deliver. So what happens to brands – and presidents – when customers believe they have not delivered on their promises?

Coca-Cola (the long-running most valuable brand on Interbrand’s Best Global Brands report) has built an incredibly strong brand. In 1985, Coke was perceived to have broken the foundation of its promise when it changed its secret formula and launched New Coke. Consumer backlash from passionate Coke drinkers resulted in Coke’s pulling the product out of market after only a few months. “We did not understand the deep emotions of so many of our customers for Coca-Cola,” said then company President Donald R. Keough.

Similarly, Toyota built a tremendous brand around its promise of quality, durability, and reliability, becoming the second largest automaker in the US in 2009. When its quality promise came into question because of gas pedal malfunctions, the brand – and sales – took a significant blow losing nearly 2 full points in market share. However, both of these brands have recovered from these events and are now stronger than ever.

Presidents have faced similar challenges with delivering on their promises. George H.W. Bush’s now infamous “Read my lips, no new taxes” promise was broken two years into his presidency and became a focal point for Bill Clinton’s winning campaign strategy, unseating the incumbent. Lyndon Johnson failed to deliver on his promises to end the Vietnam War, creating a credibility gap so large he chose not to seek reelection in 1968.

How can Coca-Cola and Toyota break core elements of their promises and bounce back when presidents seem to struggle? One advantage brands have over presidents is the time to establish credibility in consumers’ minds. Coke and Toyota spent decades building consumer faith and trust in their brands. Missteps can be absorbed without completely breaking the brand's relationship with consumers.

Presidents have a far more limited ability to establish confidence in their brands, making any breach of trust seem devastating. First-term presidents have only had minimal time to prove themselves to voters before the reelection cycle begins and from day one each is scrutinized. Consumers want campaign promises delivered quickly and decisively. Any perceived breaches of confidence should be addressed proactively and transparently.

This election season, despite overseeing the passing of significant legislation in his first two years in office, President Obama struggled to rally voters on the Hope and Change promise that led him to the White House in 2008. It may be that Hope and Change are too broad or abstract. Some Americans say they feel that they have not seen what they felt they were promised. From a branding perspective, if your promise is not clearly articulated to consumers and linked to tangible expectations, a negative perception gap can result, which can be damaging to brands.

As Tom Zara and Pete Cendella note in their piece Citizens All: The New Rules of Corporate Citizenship on performance gaps, "There’s a potential sinkhole in the market, waiting to suck value away from brands. It’s the gap that can open up between a company’s actual corporate citizenship performance on the one hand, and the public perception of that citizenship, on the other." While they wrote on corporate citizenship, this can apply to any performance and perception gap. "A negative gap occurs when a brand fails to get credit in perception for its performance. These brands are not seeing the full return on their Corporate Citizenship investment. That’s why it’s critical that companies find ways to tell the story of who they are, why they choose to engage as they do, and how they are having an impact in doing so."

This perception gap for a president brand creates an interesting challenge in brand strategy. If policies need to be flexible to meet the needs of a dynamic global economy, can politicians ever build their brands at the same level as “Happiness” (Coca-Cola’s brand promise) without setting themselves up for failure? Do they need to only build their brands around policy positions to give voters something tangible to measure against?

A word of caution to brand Romney should he be elected today. As a candidate he has made numerous tangible promises to voters including labeling China a currency manipulator, repealing Obamacare and establishing the conditions to create 12 million new jobs. If elected, his ability to deliver on these promises will greatly dictate his brand perception and his ability to build his credibility and trust on the national stage.

In Presidential elections, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Voters make this “purchase” once every four years, and the winner takes 100% of the market share. As voters go to the polls today, let’s hope they have done their homework before they buy and know what promises they can (and cannot) believe in for the next four years.

For more in our Interbrand IQ political branding series, see Political Branding: Brand America 2012. 

The ANA Masters of Marketing Conference: It’s a time when we hear the thinking behind the work of some very well run brands. This past week, I had the pleasure of attending the conference and seeing some of the top leaders in marketing share the back-stories about their work and their lessons learned.

Having just launched Interbrand's Best Global Brands 2012 report, it was interesting for me to see the high correlation between key themes that emerged during the conference and what Interbrand recently highlighted as the key drivers of today’s top brands. This year, Interbrand rallied around the key theme of humanity.

“Today’s best brands are in touch with their own humanity and the humanity of others” according to Jez Frampton, Global Chief Executive of Interbrand. Humanity in brands takes many forms, ranging from what the brand does to serve society to how the brand relates to individual customers.

Jim Farley, Group Vice President of Global Marketing, Sales and Service at Ford Motor Company talked about risk taking and forging human connections with consumers. Ford understands that people are now looking for more authentic brands, and Ford’s marketing objective is “to be the brand that the most average consumer connects with,” combined with an underdog mentality.

The brand dedicates approximately 20% of its budget on pre-launch activity to build excitement with customers and through local dealer activity. Ford has seen its brand value increase over the past year by 6%. 

Johnson & Johnson strives to care for the needs of society and the greater good. It is a business and brand that, despite some faltering in recent years, continues to work to put into action its core values documented in the brand's Credo. J&J aims to put patients, doctors and nurses at the top of the list of priorities, and it guides them to focus on social and societal issues like the need for Blood Donations and the need for more Registered Nurses.

According to Kimberly Kadlec, Worldwide Vice President of Global Marketing, J&J is also shaking up the original 4 P’s: Price, Promotion, Product and Place. They are now orienting themselves around more human terms: Purpose, Presence, Partnerships and Proximity. In doing so they’ve launched bold marketing programs tapping into innovative uses of digital channels to closely connect with users of their consumer products. Thanks to these types of efforts, J&J continues to be a preferred brand, despite being plagued by product recalls and shortages, and has seen its brand value increase 8% in the past year.

McDonald’s Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, Neil Golden, spoke about the success that his brand has had answering the call of those who were looking for healthier alternatives. Over the last few years, the brand has grown stronger by offering healthier menu options, including fresh apples in every Happy Meal for kids, and highlighting Favorites Under 400 – a selection of classic McDonald’s choices that have always been under 400 calories. Further, the brand continues to make the strategy of “Simple, Easy, Enjoyment” relevant in all markets that it serves. McDonald’s brand has had a healthy increase in value, up 13% in the past year.

Shifting toward the individual, humanity can also take the form of creating differentiation with a profound consumer insight. Approximately 15 years ago, Mastercard understood that credit card purchases were not as much a financial transaction, but a priceless moment being created. They have consistently ran the Priceless campaign all around the world since that time, keeping it relevant to local markets and making evolutionary adjustments over time.

According to Alfredo Gangotena, Chief Marketing Officer of Mastercard Worldwide, “When you go to heaven, it’s not what you take with you, it’s the experiences you’ve had.” He also praised the CMO’s he has succeeded for not bowing to temptation to change the campaign just because they were new to the job. Mastercard is a new entrant this year on Interbrand’s Best Global Brands, with a ranking of 94.

Humanity is also about being pure. At Interbrand, we often talk about the need for companies to constantly nurture their brands to keep pace in a rapidly changing world. For some brands, that means finding their way back to who they really are when looking for revitalization.

This was certainly true when listening to Alison Lewis, Senior Vice President of North America at Coca-Cola. She described how the number one ranked brand for 13 consecutive years has been focusing recently on revitalizing itself. They have rallied around a clear and simple idea: “Coke brings Joy.” To get back to iconic brand imagery and communications, the brand’s visual look was stripped back to its purest form and most foundational brand elements (red, the script typeface, the bottle contour, ribbon).

Additionally, they’ve been focusing on digital as the first screen to create 1-to-1 relationships with customers. Through an evolved CRM program that is aimed to keep people constantly engaged in a web of online places that they frequent, Coke understands that true relationships can be formed with customers that are not just cap to cap. Coca-Cola saw its brand value rise 8% in the past year.

Proctor & Gamble’s Global Marketing & Brand Building Officer, Marc Pritchard, highlighted an insight-centric approach when he spoke about the role of deeply understanding customers when developing marketing and advertising. He said that whenever a brand is performing poorly, he goes back to the brand’s launch. He looks at the original value proposition and the original creative, and then looks to see where it strayed off track.

He also spoke about finding deep cultural insights through observational research to help drive creativity that connects with people though real relevance. The winning formula he said is “consumer insight plus creativity,” because “creativity plus humor, without insight, is worthless.”

One example he spoke about is that diaper advertising for many years was about no leaks while toddlers crawled around, but P&G’s research revealed that everyone is happier after a good night sleep. So Pampers focused advertising on the benefit of dryness at night so everyone sleeps well. Pampers, P&G's number one selling brand in the world, was a new entrant this year to Best Global Brands 2012, raking at number 34 in brand value.

This year’s ANA featured many impressive speakers presenting their brands’ great achievements, the risks that they have taken and the lessons that they’ve learned. We believe that it was their drive toward forging greater human connections to society and individuals that helped make the difference. These connections were powered by deep customer insights, one-to-one relationships through digital channels and building admiration by doing right for the community it serves. It was even better to see that these success stories also helped to increase brand value for all ranked presenters – a demonstration that brand is becoming a more powerful business asset for their companies.

Kevin Perlmutter is Senior Director, Brand Strategy at Interbrand New York.