Recently while on twitter I just happened to catch a tweet (from @Danielemmons) that contained the following joke;
Batman: “What’s the purpose of having an invisible jet?”
Wonder Woman: “What’s the purpose of everything Bat shaped?”
I responded (to @nandoism who was the retweet source) with;
Bruce Wayne: Why BatBranding of course ;-D
This got me thinking a bit. If someone asks you to name three superheros your mind ma drift across Spiderman, Superman, Hulk or any number of others. More than likely you will think of whichever one is currently in theaters like say Iron Man but I almost guarantee Batman will be in that group. The answer is quite simple because Batman is the most branded superhero ever. Every single gadget has his name in it. Don’t believe me watch the original movie from 1969 with Adam West. There’s a Batcave, Batmobile, Batboat, Bat-A-Rang,and even Bat-Shark-Reppellant.
Let’s face it the bat is brilliant. Honestly would you expect anything less from Bruce Wayne? I mean he could be the CEO of a fictitious multi-billion dollar company if it weren’t for his good business sense. Seriously no other superhero in the history of comicdom has the branding of the bat.
Consider our joke above regarding the Invisible Jet? Is it any wonder that Wonder Woman probably would not make the top three on anyone’s list. Truthfully ask yourself to name three female superhero’s and you are likely to jump right to Storm, Batgirl, Rouge, Gene Grey (Dark Pheonix) and a handful of others before you even get to Wonder Woman. I am not saying that she’s any lesser of a hero than any of the ones I’ve mentioned thus far, but that invisible jet pretty much sums up her branding strategy.
So what does all of this have to do with you and your business? Well nothing and everything. You can sit there trying to come up with every possible mutation of your company name and logo injecting it into every product or service you offer but I doubt you will achieve the branding of golden bat status. I mean I could try infusing the olive from my consulting company Olivent Technologies into everything we do but I honestly do not think it will yield quite the same results as a Bat-A-Rang. But as we develop new products and services I will take time to pause and reflect on how these new items affect our branding policies.
I will certainly endeavor to make sure that we do not launch any invisible jets. Until then quick to the Olive Grove and ready the OliveMobile. Yeah I know it just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mikel King (http://twitter.com/mikelking) has been a leader in the Information Technology Services field for over 20 years. He is currently the CEO of Olivent Technologies, a professional creative services partnership in NY. Additionally he is currently serving as the Secretary of the BSD Certification group as well as a Senior Editor for BSD News.
Leave a Reply