Over the years it’s been an ongoing mantra, hummed quietly at first, but then increasingly  loudly, that we should look to the world of marketing for inspiration when addressing employee awareness, behaviour and culture.

As someone who trained in marketing, many years ago, I can see the parallels. In fact, I routinely circulated  the idea, in my early years, for people to think of “security as a product”. I would then ask them how we could use marketing insights to increase the chances of our audience buying it, and once they had bought it, to ensure “they keep buying it”.

Now, the enthusiasm, for talking about the potential role of marketing is very welcome, but what’s less welcome is the confusion over the difference in between marketing and branding. In the world of information security, professionals, can sometimes get confused, using the words inter changeably, thinking they mean the same thing but in fact they are different, with a small over lap admittedly.  

To help clear this up, and open up a broader discussion on how brand directors and managers go about market awareness, influencing behaviours and shaping culture, I reached out to my guest Geraldine Michel.

Géraldine is full Professor of Marketing, Dean of research at the Sorbonne Business School, and chair holder of the research chair ‘Brand & Values’. She has published numerous books in her area of research, and is the editor in chief of the academic journal ‘Decisions Marketing’.  She also tells a great story! Who doesn’t want to hear about the story of Lacoste or Versace and how it might help us re-think the human factor.