Welcome to Padcetera

Let’s start with the name of this website. Padcetera is a portmanteau of my initials (PAD) and “et cetera.” While the main thrust of this website is dedicated to brand-related ruminations, I wanted room for other, more personal imaginings and efforts. Hence, the tiny expansion of my upper left Johari quadrant in the form of “Et Cetera,” as time and energy may allow.

Otherwise, brand is the focus of this website, and specifically something I came to refer to as the “brand system.”

The notion of the brand system emerged over my years of brand stewardship for three public companies. It wasn’t until my last corporate role that I realized the limitations of conventional brand and branding methodologies compared to the countervailing organizational dynamics that militate against even the best brand strategies and tactics. Upon retirement from the W2 world, I felt compelled to share my thoughts about brand system theory in the hopes that organizations might see the value of elevating their brand consciousness to support and complement the work of their brand teams.

How to Approach this Material

Those reading in hopes of securing fresh ideas around brand strategies and tactics are likely to be disappointed. While some workshop-type thought starters are sprinkled in here and there, the discussion largely is devoted to expanding the brand practitioner’s frameset and encouraging senior leaders to regard brand as the organizing principle of all productive activities.

Beyond brand purity and brand promotion lies a universe of brand experiences, most of which occur without the direct exertions or knowledge of brand practitioners. This being true, the brand practitioner’s finest strategies and tactics are at best marginal in the larger project of brand reputation. Still, brand practitioners can influence their organizations’ perceptions and posture towards their most important reputational asset, which ultimately is the object of this discourse.

And that really speaks to the larger project confronting brand practitioners. The ideas presented here are more fittingly meant for an organization’s leadership, and not just the senior-most brand executive, who likely already understands the limited control she or he has over brand reputation.

By definition, a brand system operates across the entire organizational landscape and through thousands of daily actions and interactions. In turn, these actions and interactions result in brand experiences that the organization’s leadership should care about and attempt to influence, and especially those experiences that manifestly affect reputational equity.

As a result, the material herein seeks to elevate the organizational consciousness around brand and more specifically to a pre-eminent role in guiding culture, strategy, and operations.

It’s not enough for an organization to be brand aware. That only means brand exists in the background of the organization’s daily rhythms. Nor is it enough for an organization to be brand focused. While that’s a level up from being brand aware, it doesn’t capture the centrality of brand as an organizing principle.

What we should aim for is a brand-guided organization, where every team member and touchpoint interaction reflects the integration of brand across the organization’s systems. That’s the basis of the brand system, which is the objective of this project.