Branding has long been a buzzword in business – a neat and undeniably useful exercise in establishing a company’s values and then projecting that to staff and customers.

Every firm should have one and no one will argue a powerful brand image does not carry considerable commercial clout.

There are, you will not need reminding, various strands to establishing that brand – far deeper from the swanky new logo or motto you slap on your stationery or products.

From establishing your firm’s moral compass and approach to staff, your supply chain and customer care, it should run deep, from the very top of the establishment to the bottom.

Buy-in from everyone, you will be told, is as essential as delivering upon it.

Get it right and it helps you develop a reputation on which you can trade and pick up new business.

And, of course, at the heart of many a brand statement is corporate responsibility – be that to your employees, your community, your contractors or your customers.

All of which brings us to a shining example of how one of the most established, one of the most respected, brands in the UK got it so horribly, dramatically wrong.

The Post Office was, for so many, many years, a beacon of reliability. We trusted it. We relied on it. We invested our faith in it to serve us and its constituent parts to the best of its ability.

As a consequence, it developed what appeared to be a bullet-proof reputation. Its brand was a by-word for trust; the most valuable commercial commodity.

But, as anyone will tell you, a reputation takes a long time to establish and moments to lose.

The Post Office’s handling of the Horizon scandal is certainly not in the ‘how to maintain a powerful brand’ handbook.

It had a corporate responsibility to its contractors – among whom were the sub-postmasters it employed. You do not need reminding how it failed them so dramatically and so disgracefully.

There are, no doubt as we speak, brand consultancies queuing up to offer advice on how to salvage that reputation it once had. All should be suggesting an overhaul far more than skin deep.

But, for a generation, it will be forever associated with this scandal. That trust is, however much it may be regained incrementally going forward, damaged. Potentially beyond repair.

Why should Kent’s businesses care? Because, whether you are big or small, it should act as a textbook lesson in not thinking clever design and good intentions are the bedrock around which a brand is formed.

It needs to be true, it needs to be sustained and it needs to be delivered at all time – or you can pay the heaviest of prices.