Few things in marketing and advertising are as unintentionally hilarious as “brand standards manuals.” These are thick books that establish in minute detail how a brand’s image should be strictly conformed to, philosophically and graphically.
Diebold makes ATMs. They also make electronic voting machines. The ATMs rarely screw up, at least not with my account. The voting machines, on the other hand, aren’t so perfect, — and the press is starting to take notice.
Here’s a page from their Brand Manual:
The Diebold vision and positioning are captured in a formula that is both our go-to-market brand line and our internal mantra: “We won’t rest.”
The implications for behavior are obvious: an untiring pursuit of perfection, a zero tolerance attitude toward achieving anything less than absolute customer satisfaction, a zero-tolerance attitude toward resting until the job is done, the challenge met, the problem solved. It involves going above-and-beyond the call in everything we do, in never-ending pursuit of a better product, a better solution, a better, faster, less expensive way to deliver service.
Pay close attention in next week’s election.
