Inexplicable Influences #002 - The Battle of the Brands

I was never quite sure about this, but watching all eight seasons of Game of Thrones, again, was way better than I had expected. The stories just came together much better without the year (or two) between seasons. 

Now, in addition to the cast, the relationships between characters and the completely unexpected plots, what is really epic through the series are the various battles. Not just for their scale but often for the strategy behind the war. And this is what I thought may make some interesting correlations to the battle of the brands we are associated with and their competitors.

‘Marketing Warfare’ was one of the early books on marketing that I remember enjoying thoroughly and even using for one of my MBA projects. I do believe these thrilling battles will help us look at this concept in a different way while borrowing the basic idea.

This may not make too much sense if you are unfamiliar with the show and it surely has a lot of spoilers... So pardon me but this one is for the well initiated. 

I have restricted it to five battles and my take-aways from them. Here I've chosen battles with a mix of characters so that a range of strategies emerge. The chosen five battles are:

1. The Battle of the Bastards

2. The Battle Beyond the Wall

3. The Battle of Blackwater Bay

4. The Battle of Castle Black

5. The Battle of Winterfell

I was tempted to add The Battle of King’s Landing... but decided against it as the lesson there is more of a truism. If you have the might (in the marketing world I see this as the financial might) to blitzkrieg your competitors, well it’s a no-brainers...enjoy being ruthless. But to me these other five battles bring out some invaluable lessons in Marketing Warfare... read on and tell me what you think.

1. The Battle of the Bastards

So in case you have forgotten, this was the battle between Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton where the former wanted to take back Winterfell and save his little brother Rickon Stark.

Lesson 1

When Ramsay kills Rickon, Jon forgets about the strategy to draw in the enemy and charges towards them, a largely outnumbering force. This leads to almost certain doom.

The lesson - Don’t  get emotionally motivated by market realities and ignore your well thought out plan. One sees the same lesson in Behavioural Economics too - it,s dangerous to make long-term decisions based on short-term emotions.

Lesson 2

Despite Sansa warning Jon about the extents Ramsay could go to, Jon didn’t seem to expect Ramsay to make a game out of killing his brother... Jon consequently can not control his emotions. The perils of which we saw in lesson 1.

Hence, the lesson - Don’t use yourself as a benchmark for your rival’s behaviour.

Lesson 3

And finally for the last lesson from this battle. Jon’s army was facing sure defeat till Sansa arrives with The Knights of The Vale. You will remember that meant calling on Peter Baelish who had more than once shown his true colours.

The obvious lesson is to have a back up. But what struck me as more useful especially since I think it is the most difficult to adopt is this lesson - Adversity makes strange bedfellows - be smart about it..

2. The Battle Beyond the Wall

The most striking part of this battle is the Night King killing Viserion, the dragon, and subsequently adding him to the army of the dead. I am going to focus on just one lesson here but I believe this is one that is very critical.

Lesson 4

When your brand has something really strong on its side, protect it with all you have. Don’t let other brands usurp what is yours. And what I mean by this is what your brand stands for, what is at the core of your brand, can others take it from you. Do you do enough to hold on to it.

The lesson - Protect your Brand Identity like your brand’s life depends on it, because it does.

3. The Battle of Blackwater Bay

This battle was fought at King’s Landing when Stannis Baratheon marched on it with his fleet. It seemed like there was no way out for Joffrey and Cersei and they had all but prepared for their end. But then, Tyrion Lannister with his innovative ways and Tywin Lannister with the backing of the Tyrell forces turned around a sure defeat.

Lesson 5

When Tyrion learnt about the impending attack by Stannis, he got creative. He sourced the green wildfire left behind by the mad king. And planned a secret attack on the significantly larger Baratheon fleet. This bought him time till his father and his armies got there.

The  lesson - Don’t lose your footing under the onslaught of a mighty opponent- instead hit back with an unexpected move.

4. The Battle of Castle Black

This is the battle between the wildlings and the Night’s Watch. This is the first time we see Jon Snow in the role of a leader. It also continues in the show’s tradition of killing a member of the key cast with the death of Ygritte.

Lesson 6

While one lesson is in how Jon Snow rose to the opportunity of taking lead. To me the bigger lesson is in the sacrifice of Grenn and the five men who were sent to block the giant and hold the gate.

The lesson - Sometimes a smaller brand may need to keep a competitor at bay, often at its own cost to save the main brand in the portfolio.

5. The Battle of Winterfell

And finally, the penultimate battle in the show and to me the best of them all. It has all the characters you admire fighting on the same side. And it ends with the death of the Night King.

Lesson 7

It is Aarya who seizes opportunity and uses her year’s of relentless training to final slay the enemy. Which brings us to the final lesson in this piece.

The lesson - It may take years of hardwork, but with focus and the right attitude, a challenger brand may be able to take on the mightiest of adversaries.