My wife Susan and I were visiting a friend’s home this week and I noticed what appeared to be a branding iron embossed with his initials hanging on the wall. He shared that it was a gift from a friend enabling him to brand steaks he grilled.
That triggered an almost instant connection to the concepts of branding in companies, artists, and service providers. They all leave a mark on their products that distinguishes it or them from competitors and hopefully from copycats.
It turns out that mental connection was right: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand
There you see the origin of branding irons was to prevent theft. I think we all are aware of cattle being branded so rustlers could be caught and the cattle they stole recovered. Knowing this traceability, clever thieves would simply slaughter the cattle in the fields and leave the hides behind.
Today, companies recognize that brand identity and differentiation are crucial elements in brand loyalty. Then, how do you differentiate a commodity like electricity or natural gas that are indistinguishable from providers. The only clear differentiator is price, right?
Some of you quick thinkers will respond insisting that it is the way electricity is made that differentiates the provider. Was it produced using solar, wind, hydro, nuclear. or fossil fuels? Others of you will remark that the time and duration of supply matters because the value of keeping the lights on for everyone changes all the time.
So, the value of the commodity depends upon the value of timely and reliable supply for a customer. Therefore, customers who are flexible about when they get their power should pay a lower price than those who simply want it available at the flip of a switch.
In every case, the energy provider leaves a mark on the minds and hearts of their consumers. Now that we define this objective, it seems to me that education and proof of your generation, delivery, and reliability excellence also define that mark.
Over the years, energy providers learned that one of the most important brand differentiators was their energy efficiency and demand response programs and services, which educated and enabled consumers to be participants in this brand identity.
I am not sure energy providers realize how important this is any longer. The mark being left today is the impression that the industry simply doesn’t care about these essentials any longer. The result is we reduce this all to price … it is moving back to a pure commodity.