On a recent business trip I picked up the latest Car and Driver magazine to get my monthly car guy fix. I usually don’t read the editorials in any of these car mags because they tend to say the same tedious things.Typically that includes a memoir of driving the newest Lamborghini on the Autostrada, or a rant against the US Government for this new regulation or that.

I was more bored than usual on this trip and started to read the lead editorial by Car and Driver Editor Eddie Alterman in the March issue. Lo and behold, I was amazed to read what ended up being Mr. Alterman’s master’s class write up on what it takes to be a true brand.

Alterman’s epic brand commentary focused on Lexus, the 20 year old luxury division of that little Japanese company called Toyota (which loyal readers of this blog know has become a bit of an obsession for me of late). The editorial discussed the new Lexus LFA "supercoupe," a $350K carbon fiber hunk of automotive awesomeness. Alterman drily noted that this Lexus show car looked like "somebody’s old Supra that crashed into a JC Whitney parts warehouse." Double ouch!! Mr. Toyoda (Toyota’s CEO) probably hated that put-down even worse than having to testify before Congress (well, almost).

But, what the editorial really was zeroing in on was the entire measure of what makes a great car company — and, by definition and association, a great car brand.

Alterman noted that "the real answer to the queston of Lexus’s product convictions is that it has none (ouch, again!). It’s a fine mimic, but there’s no dynamic cohesion among its cars."

I could not have said it better myself. In fact, I have been saying pretty much the same thing for the 20 years that Lexus has been selling its cars. Lexus is singularly a brand without a soul or personality. It is wildly successful because it sells what many perceive to the be pinnacle of quality and technical innovation. To me it has always just been a very expensive Toyota with a much better buying experience (more than anything, the Lexus brand is about that total ownership experience, not really the cars themselves).

Now, this is when the C&D editor really shows his brand chops. He comments: "A business, especially a luxury-car business, should stand for something more than just best practices and profit taking. A great car company needs its own animating idea, expressed through the entire product line — a spirit that holds the enterprise together. Even the BMW X6 has a little 2002 in it."

(For those non-car buffs and non-BMW enthusiasts out there, the 2002 is to BMW what the original Bug was to VW and the Model A and Mustang were to Ford — it was the car that set the template for the BMW brand all the way back in the 70s. BMW lives up to that sporty, fun, aggressively simple 2002 model even to this day.)

Alterman finally has this to say about Toyota’s hot new sports car and the company’s brand management prowess (or lack thereof). "It better stop trying to be all things to all people. It better figure out what it wants to be."

Great advice to all of us. As you figure out your brand (for your company, your organization, your service, or yourself), you need to always ask:

• What is the "animating idea" that will hold your enterprise together?
• What do you really want to stand for?

I am in total agreement with Mr. Alterman. The truly great enterprises always have a bigger purpose to them that is so much more than just making money or, heaven forbid, "maximizing shareholder value."

The great brands don’t try to be all things to all people. Strategy is about making choices, not just doing everything and hoping something works. Have you chosen what your brand promise should and will be? And then have you oriented everything in your company around that promise, and then stood by it through upturns and downturns, too?

Great advice is where you find it. From a branding perspective, you can’t do much better than Eddie Alterman’s editorial in the recent Car and Driver.

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