Overthinking the Logo

Logos are funny creatures. Employees (and especially boards of directors) can become completely indignant at the idea of changing a logo. People become fiercely opinionated about colors, symbolism, image use, etc. and all of a sudden, everyone is an artist or graphic designer.

While it's great to have a logo that means something, resonates strongly with a particular audience, or is loved by all of top management, the fact remains that these attributes simply are not necessary. There may be some backlash from this, but I'm going to say it: sometimes a logo just has to look good and be easy to use.

There are a couple things to remember when developing a new logo. Remember these, and hopefully the experience will be a little more bearable and you will walk away with a usable, iconic logo:

• The logo is not for you or your employees; it's for your customers. You don't need to love the logo like your own child in order for it to be effective.
• If you are trying to create a logo that has symbolism in it that no one would understand without it explained to them (i.e. "the three stripes here stand for the three pillars of . . ."), then don't bother. You won't have the opportunity to explain it to 99% of the people who see it.
• You don't need a 100% consensus on a logo for it to be effective. Design-by-committee will always produce a bland result.
• You probably aren't going to create the next Nike "Swoosh" so don't even bother trying!
• Focus on ease of use, simplicity, and scalability. These are the factors that will really matter once you start using the logo.

Having a well-thought out, symbolic, and robust logo that everyone loves is a perfect scenario. Sometimes, however, we have to be realistic, get some work done, and deliver a product that does what it needs to.

Brand "Maturity" for U.F.C.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (U.F.C.) taps into much the same scenario as Romans that had tens of thousands heading to the coliseum cheering on their fighting. Today, television increases the number of viewers to hundreds of thousands.

The “sport” is a pay-per-view “league” using mixed martial arts in bouts that regularly end in knock out or opponent surrender. Referees often call the fight because they are afraid for the health of the losing fighter. It is like WWE, but without the actors and numbers currently competing alongside professional boxing.

U.F.C.’s first attempt at mainstream media in the early ‘90s was halted by states unwilling to publicly host the then barbaric event. The “league” was at the time no more then a no-rules brawl. In order to legalize their events, U.F.C. had to calm down its fights by slowly and slyly inserting rules in an effort to “professionalize” the sport in the minds of the general public while still keeping its blood thirsty fans.

Why is U.F.C. continually backing away from its rugged anything-goes foundation now that they’re able to host fights? Growth. There is so much growth that they attempted to make the sport an Olympic event in 2004 and are currently lobbying to be featured on ESPN. Now they are forced to adapt their image to attract new spectators and break away from the niche market they occupied before, pleasing its limited audience.

U.F.C. is not the exception. Many companies shed the ways of their founding nature as they mature and look toward expansion. Some fans of the sport see it as “selling-out” but as new fans flock to U.F.C. by the thousands, it’s easy enough for them to turn the other way.

The no holds, mixed martial arts brawls they have branded themselves with, have helped them to secure a following, but like every brand, as it matures and grows it must adapt.

Brands Outlive Products

People tend to believe brands come and go along with the times. One day you saw Brim coffee on store shelves along-side Eagle Snacks, and the next year they’re gone. Allow me to make the statement: brands don’t die. Products themselves are discontinued but product brands continue in the memories of people.

Take River West Brands, a small company out of Chicago who base their company solely on acquiring “ghost brands” (brands whose products have been discontinued). They believe in the nostalgia and affection people have for brands and have made a business out of reviving these brands (with some tweaks).

So next time you walk down an aisle wishing for a bag of Eagle Snacks because you used to eat them as a kid or get some Brim coffee because you used to drink it on your way to work, remember that the power of a brand will sometimes outlive the power of the product itself.

Branding by Department: Human Resources

Internal audiences are often the most overlooked group when it comes to branding. To many business owners and executive directors, employees don't spring to mind when thinking of key stakeholders. How can employees embody the brand when if the brand doesn't surround them? Branding is not simply an external tool.

Taking your brand to an internal operation like HR is usually more complicated than using properly designed business tools. Consider a few of these areas that are great places to integrate your brand into your human resources practices:

Interviews: This is the first time a potential employee will encounter your organization, so structure your interview format to reflect the best aspects of your brand. Should they meet the principles? Should it be an intimidating experience? A warm, friendly experience?

Policies: Do you have a code of ethics? Is there a particular dress code that reflects your brand (casual vs. formal vs. "creative")? Does your leave policy reflect an opportunity to relax or does it stress the importance of the job?

Documentation: Make sure all HR procedures are documented on branded company materials.

Compensation: Salaries, bonuses, raises, and other forms of compensation should be tied to and reflect brand attributes. Give bonuses based on brand milestones, review employees on their ability to embody the brand, and structure your compensation packages to reflect the core nature of your brand (i.e. stock-heavy compensation denotes strong ties to the company, cash-heavy can denote a stress on personal reward for employees).

Perks: The extra attributes to a compensation package say a lot about the organization. What type of savings/retirement package do you offer? Is it tied to the company's performance? Consider the other perks such as memberships and opportunities. Do they stress relaxation, professional development, or health and fitness? Which one aligns best with your brand?

Mediation: The way your HR department handles mediation is important. Choosing between supervised mediation, seperated hearings, formal documentation, and other methods should be tied to your brand.

Hiring: Maybe most important of all, who you hire and where you advertise those job listings is of critical brand importance. Looking for people who can embody your brand is the best way to ensure that you are stacking your ranks with star brand ambassadors. Define the attributes you are looking for and search those people out in places that are most likely to attract them (online vs. career fair vs. head-hunters, etc.).

As always, examine your current HR systems and try to find brand opportunities. They probably exist all over the department and are waiting to be aligned.

Branding by Department: Accounting

An oft-overlooked venue for branding is accounting. Accounts receivable, accounts payable, book keeping, and reporting all serve their utilitarian functions, but there is opportunity here to spread your organization's brand. Some easy-to-implement methods include:

• Utilize properly branded materials (letterhead, envelopes, etc.) for all invoices/bills
• Use branded checks with properly identifiable information (i.e. don't use checks that have the name of a holding company or alternate corporate name on them)
• If you have a high-end brand, especially with large invoices, consider handwritten invoices or including a handwritten note along with the invoice
• The invoice is often the last experience a customer will have with your company, so including proper detail, thank-yous, messages, etc. is your opportunity to close the relationship with consistent branding (assuming you opened the relationship with proper branding).

Simple branding methods, such as the items above, can be put in place by just about any organization. If you are already doing some or all of these things, consider some more radical extensions of your brand into accounting:

• If you have a united, trusting, or team-based aspect to your brand, consider an open-book accounting policy that would allow all your employees to view your financial records (private companies only, obviously)
• Consider the way you prepare and send invoices: can this method be better aligned with your brand? Should large invoices be hand-delivered? Should invoices be emailed to improve convenience?
• What are the terms for your billing? Upon receipt? Net 15 or 30? Do you offer a discount for early payments? There could be an opportunity with these parameters to align them with your brand position.

Remember, these are just some suggestions. Give branded accounting some thought and develop some techniques unique to your organization and your brand.

Branding by Department

This article is the first in a series that I will be writing about how to extend branding across your entire company/organization. To truly take advantage of an organizational brand, it can't be confined to your marketing department. We will discuss how you can use your brand as a holistic tool, fully integrated within areas that most people never consider.

A brand, especially when you have hired an agency to develop it, is a serious investment. It is a tool that embodies the essence of the organization and to work properly it must be more than a short list of guidelines that gets pulled out when a new brochure is developed.

I hope that by exploring the different ways you can bring branding into the fold of accounting, human resources, sales, operations, and other typical departments, your organization will be able to harness the effectiveness that branding can have when you have succesfully and consistently connected all business functions together.

Come back soon for the first article on accounting.

Branding Converges on the National Mall

After reading a special insert into the Washington Business Journal last week, I was heartened to see that…alas!...five federal agencies and a private trust are working together to refurbish the National Mall. Now, if you are not from the DC area, you will probably be thrown off by that term “mall.” To us, it means something along the lines of “long strip of grass downtown with lots of monuments and museums.”

This is interesting considering the recent branding efforts commissioned by The DC Convention and Tourism Corporation. According to them, this town is about power, illustrated with their new tagline of “take a power trip.” The Washington DC Examiner reports how they arrived at this conclusion: “The new campaign is the result of more than a year’s worth of research that showed people most associated D.C. with the word “power.” They also thought of it as inspiring, beautiful, a place for learning, and a place to make and experience history (April 3, 2008, Examiner.com).

With the branding of cities in mind—New York did it, why not DC?—one would want to know what the customers (in this case, residents, workers, and visitors) want, prior to deciding what to deliver to them, both in kind and in deed. So one would deduce that these agencies are taking on the responsibility for the second identified interest, “[an] inspiring, beautiful, a place for learning, and a place to make and experience history.”

It is inspiring to hear this fine example of how branding works, right in the heart of our nation’s capital. It works because the brand responds to the consumer, rather than the other way around. All too often, brands emanate without regard for what is desired from their constituencies, a common mistake.

A New Type of Clutter Inside our Homes

My niece just broke up with her boyfriend.

This would not be significant if not for the fact that she is temporarily living with me, and that I am in the branding business. Watching this newfangled breaking up process fascinates me. Not only do they break up in person, but there is a whole set of additional breaking rituals: facebook, myspace, 4 email addresses—some shared by both of them, instant message habits, cell phone access, and more.

As a branding professional, this hit home (no pun intended) about how busy the minds are of people in their early 20s. It rivals the time commitments of single moms or dads, overextended entrepreneurs, and those that have absorbed others’ jobs due to budget cuts. There is simply not enough time in a day to make careful buying decisions.

So for many of us, this adds another layer of complication when it comes to stating clearly what we are delivering to our customers. Are you sure your customers are fond of what you are delivering? They are the ones that create the perception of your brand and control it. Also, we must consider whether our customers use any of these communication tools to talk about your organization—if so, opinions are being shared about your brand quickly. For example, my niece is on one or the other about every 10 minutes. It is time for all of us to consider how to revitalize our brands so they get through the clutter, particularly for those in the early 20s that can’t walk away from their instant, web-based, and emailed messages very easily.

The Cult of Buffett

About a week ago, I questioned whether or not Apple had a plan to replace the great leader in their cult of personality. It turns out there is another company out there—even more successful than Apple—with a similar situation.

Berkshire Hathaway, the company with the highest individual stock price in the world, is led by the great Warren Buffett. If you are lucky enough to own a share of BH (BRK-A on the NYSE), you are welcomed at the annual shareholders' meeting in Nebraska which is more like a giant carnival than a financial conference. People converge in Omaha from all across the globe, just to have the chance to meet the guru, who has made more money than practically anyone else, through shrewd acquisitions of solid, profitable companies.

Much life Apple, Buffett is the source of the company's success. Unlike Apple, however, Berkshire Hathaway has a strong plan to replace Buffett when he eventually retires or passes away. The fact that BH has made stockholders aware of this (albeit secretive) plan, has mollified fearful investors and will probably mitigate the drop in stock price that is inevitable when Buffett departs. Acknowledgment of and planning for this brand's evolution will probably save millions of dollars for BH investors.

The Dangers of the Corporate Blog

"Start a blog! Your site needs a blog to communicate to customers!"

That's a favorite suggestion among consultants and advice-givers these days. I think this is because many of us have been led to believe that starting and running a blog is as easy typing an email and that if you post it, they will come. Sorry optimists, but that just ain't the case.

A blog can be a powerful brand extension and marketing tool. But before you jump in feet first, consider these important items to remember:

• Before you do anything, does a blog even make sense for you? Is there a need to opine and open this channel to your audiences? If your only reason to start a blog is because it's the "thing to do," just stop right now and spend your time elsewhere.
• A blog is an extension of your brand, and as an extension, it should be consistent with every other marketing effort in look, content, tone, and presentation. Pick a topic that makes sense and one that you know you'll be able to write about over a long period of time.
• People usually do not just stumble upon a new blog. You will need some sort of promotional plan to generate traffic to your new site.
• Give your readers a reason to come back. Opinions, editorials, reviews, etc. are great because it's material they can't get elsewhere.
• Blogs are easy to operate, but that doesn't mean they don't require a time commitment. Make sure you are able to dedicate a portion of your schedule to writing articles.
• Make a decision to enable or disable the commenting on your articles. Remember, if you let people make comments, be prepared to police that material for vulgar or off-color comments.
• Finally, and I cannot stress this enough, DO NOT start a blog if you can't maintain a steady stream of posts. Nothing permanently sends a reader away like a blog that hasn't been updated in 3 months.

Blogs are a serious marketing tool, so treat them as such. They can be a great way to connect to your customers and constituents, but there are many common pitfalls that could turn your blog into a waste of time and effort.