Branding in an era of complexity: Insights from Howard Belk

From reimagining the U.S. Army’s recruitment campaign to defining brand experiences for corporations and governments, Howard Belk, CEO of global brand consultancy Siegel+Gale shares why simplicity is the ultimate competitive advantage in today’s trust-deficient world.

You’ve worked on branding for the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force. That’s not something I ever thought about that would need branding. Tell us a bit about that.

They are fascinating programs that we’re very proud of. We branded the United States Air Force quite some time ago, but that brand is still alive and well. We came up with a phenomenal brand idea for them: “No One Comes Close.” It works on a couple of different levels. One is their mission that no one comes close to this country or wherever they are defending, and there is also pride in that branch of the military.

Then, a couple of years ago, we rebranded the United States Army. That was a joint project with another big Omnicom agency. In that case, we returned to an idea the Army had long centered on: “Be All You Can Be.” The Army had strayed from that to an idea called “An Army of One,” which was reviled by the rank and file because that’s not what the Army is about. The Army is about a team; you don’t succeed alone. We went back to “Be All You Can Be,” which is a value proposition for young people. We rebranded the look and feel, assets, storylines and brand architecture.

Talk about why simplicity is so important and how effective it is.

Siegel+Gale is a philosophically driven firm, grounded in the notion that simplicity pays, that simple is smart and that consumers and employees crave it. It’s an idea that our founder, Alan Siegel, landed on in the 1970s. He was doing work for Citibank and realized that the simplest kinds of customer relationships come burdened with about 11 pages of legalese. It’s impossible for a mere mortal to make sense of. As one of the original proponents of plain English, Alan said, you can really distinguish yourselves and build richer, stronger, longer-lasting relationships when you simplify. 

In a world where people don’t know who to trust and there are really high-profile stumbles and betrayals of trust from brands, corporations, government figures, etc., simplicity is an antidote. And at the end of the day, our studies show that people will pay more for brands they see as simple to engage with.

Oftentimes, a brand tries to attract customers across all demographics. How do you deal with that when you are trying to make something so clear, while also making it resonate with different age groups?

Not every brand wants to reach every age group. For example, with the US Army, there were two audiences. But the primary audience was 17- to 27-year-olds. So that value proposition, the way that it was told, the language that was used, the scenes and ads that were shown, were all designed to ensure that the brand and the story and the offer got in front of that group.

Now, there was another audience: existing military personnel and alums. The rebrand had to ring true to them, too. But it’s often the case that you don’t want to reach everyone. And in fact, it’s good to be precise about who you need to reach to achieve success. Principles like simplicity, clarity, transparency and ease cross all demographics. Everyone responds to that, regardless of age.

What are some examples of brands that really impact your behavior in the way you approach organizing your life, the things that you buy, the things that you do, etc.?

Amazon, and the reason is they’re utterly transparent; they’ve got a very clear value proposition. The brand crosses sectors of my life. If I want to buy something for my home, I can log onto Amazon and no matter what it is, I can have it in two days. If I want to stream a program, I can do it with Amazon Prime. My relationship with Amazon gives me benefits when I shop at Whole Foods. And at work, we use Amazon Web Services for our cloud storage. So that’s a phenomenal business and brand, with great consistency across the different domains they operate in, which is hard to do.

Another brand that is reluctantly becoming part of my life is AARP. Full disclosure, Siegel+Gale branded AARP twice. First in the 2010s, and then again, a couple of years ago. They wanted to refresh the brand and build a more robust set of brand assets and better brand governance principles and rules. So, they asked us to come back and help them again. AARP is a phenomenal organization that provides real value in terms of services you need for your life but also advocates for you as a cohort and does a range of things in a very consistent fashion.

Can you think of brands that absolutely bungled it and had a brand disaster episode?

The classic example is Gap. With no notice whatsoever, no fanfare, no buildup and no storytelling, one day, the brand changes its logo. From a graphic design standpoint, it was a lousy piece of work. And the world said no and Gap said, okay. And they changed it back, so that was that.

And that just happened recently with Jaguar, when they came out with this insane new campaign and logo and showed a new demographic buying Jaguars, and the entire world said, who is that company? You can lean into the future, but you’re a fool if you ignore your past.

How are you seeing AI impact the world of branding? 

AI is definitely affecting the world of branding, and you have to embrace it. Why wouldn’t you? One of its huge benefits is speed. You can work fast; you can lay the groundwork to develop a point of view in a fraction of the time that it might have taken you before.

There is a generic quality to what you can get back from ChatGPT, and what we found is that, if you’re pursuing a question, there’s a threshold you pass where you’re getting deeper, and then suddenly it goes generic. It forgets where you were and starts delivering trite answers. That’s where the editor or operator must be watching. You have to work with AI in a very active way. When you do, it’s phenomenally helpful. 

When you get to what a brand is really doing, do you think it’s about human connection? Do you think there’s an emotional component to it?

One thousand percent. That’s the holy grail. Especially today, you must find some connection with people where they trust you. They trust what they’re going to get, they know what they’re going to get, they want what they’re going to get, and they believe they’re going to get it every time, and feel comfortable with what it costs to get it, in whatever domain. 

Building a real connection with stakeholders is very important, and it can manifest in different ways. And you have to acknowledge that a brand will have a limited role in somebody’s life, but to whatever extent it does, if people feel like they’re understood—as much as a company or a product can understand them—then you get that connection where they will move more quickly to engage again.

This interview has been edited and condensed.