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Public sector branding: what does the future hold?
Monday, 1 February 2010
At a recent Breakfast Briefing sponsored by Further, a panel of experts discussed branding in the public sector with an invited audience of marketing, communications and branding managers. The experts included Dan Ritterband, Marketing Director at the GLA, James Farnham, Managing Consultant at the COI, Professor John Balmer of Brunel University and Dan Metcalfe, Head of Planning and Insight at the Department of Health. Whilst there was much debate, several key themes emerged:
Public sector brands are some of the most powerful and engaging brands in existence. The NHS, the Army and the BBC, amongst others, elicit tremendous loyalty from employees and large numbers of people feel a strong emotional attachment towards them. However it seems few people outside the marketing and communications community understand the true role of public sector brands. Few realise that effective public sector brands are about engaging people and changing behaviours, not about logos and banners (although of course the visual expression is an important branding tool).
The number of public sector brands has grown exponentially in recent years. For example prior to the incoming administration there were no less than 48 environmental brands at the Greater London Authority! There are several drivers behind this proliferation, including the growth of government and its extension into all aspects of society, devolution, more outsourcing and less command and control from the centre (a trend to localism). There is an argument of course that there is only one brand that counts in the UK public sector – and that’s HM Government. Surely all the other public sector brands are sub-brands?
The proliferation of brands has also been exacerbated by some politicians who use branding to promote their policies and as a signal of progress, rather than to build something that is meaningful, engaging and enduring.
So what does the future look like?
Expect to see more mergers of government bodies and some current brands disappear as the downturn drives efficiency, but don’t expect all public sector brands to wither anytime soon! Despite swinging public sector budget cut-backs, which will happen whichever political party is returned this Spring, there will continue to be new government initiatives, campaigns and bodies launched after the election, and many of these will demand a brand.
But brands will need to earn their keep. Perhaps in some cases extant private and third sector brands can be used to promote a cause (rather than creating new public sector brands) – so could Adidas, Puma or Reebok be used to help support government health and fitness targets for example (the NHS is already working with some third sector brands such as Diabetes UK?).
And marketers and communicators in the public sector need to become more confident brand apologists. Brands can make a huge difference to people and are valuable public sector assets. As marketers and communicators we should try to resist the call for brands which don’t have a real purpose – though we recognise that that can be a tough challenge if the demand is coming from on high.
Finally there is a need for public sector branding, marketing and communications people to work together more effectively. They should share best practice and approaches, but also look for opportunities to stretch brands, reducing the need for new brands. And perhaps most of all there’s a need for more and better evaluation of the effectiveness of public sector brands.
