Padcetera is a portmanteau of my initials (PAD) and “et cetera.” While the main thrust of this website is dedicated to Brand System Theory and brand reputation in general, I left room for other ideas and work product (i.e., et cetera) as time and energy may allow. Otherwise, brand is the main 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 experiences with three public companies. Those experiences led me to question the conventional practice of assigning responsibility for brand reputation primarily to marketing, communications, and brand professionals who often have limited influence over the organizational activities that actually shape it. These observations became the foundation for Brand System Theory, and my book, What Does the Brand Say?, which views reputation as an outcome of the entire organizational system and brand as something organizations must learn to operate, not merely manage.

How to Approach this Material

This website is not oriented to advancing “playbook” brand strategies and tactics. While some strategic concepts are sprinkled in here and there, the discussion largely is devoted to expanding the brand practitioner’s frame of reference and encouraging senior leaders to regard brand as the governing standard of all organizational affairs.

Beyond brand stewardship 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 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 brand reputation.

This website, as the extension of What Does the Brand Say, seeks to elevate organizational consciousness around brand and more specifically to a pre-eminent role in guiding culture, strategy, and operations. That’s the definition of a brand-led organization, where every team member and touchpoint interaction reflects the integration of brand across the organization’s systems. And that’s the main premise of Brand System Theory.