Ian Louden – Future Brand

My name is Ian Louden and I lead the team at Future Brand to develop a range of material for ArcelorMittal, all based around the implementation of the ArcelorMittal brand.
It is our job to make sure that the brand of the company matches up to the vision of ArcelorMittal to become one of the world’s most admired companies regardless of industry classification.
One of the things that are very important is the notion of what people say about you once you have left the room – that is what ‘Reputation’ is. Because reputation is so much a part of brand, we want to do as much as we can to make sure that the company’s reputation is in their hands and not shaped by others. The other part of brand is ‘aspiration’. ‘Reputation’ is what you are known for, ‘aspiration’ is what you plan for the future, put them together and you have the ‘brand’. Reputation is not only what you have done, it is what people know you have done, and it is important to make sure that those messages are very clearly received.

It is rare to have the opportunity to be so involved in branding a company the size and vision of ArcelorMittal. It is a privilege and a huge challenge. This project is so much broader and larger than branding projects I have worked on before. The old fashioned notion of brand was the logo, the colour and the strap line. While all those elements are still very important, the broad notion of brand is what you think and feel about a company. We are actually trying to influence how people feel in their hearts and influence their behaviour. With 320 000 people around the world, all speaking different languages, some not having access to computers and others not being able to read, this is a huge challenge and it takes time for the message to seep in … but it will eventually.

Pictures taken during the photo shoot organised by TBWA\Corporate.