Vague or Specific Brands?

Within the spectrum of brand definitions, there are two extremes: vague brands and specific brands. Before we look at the implications of each, let's define them.

Specific brand: A brand that defines itself narrowly and with detail. Examples include Starbucks, Ray-Ban, and Kleenex.

Vague brand: A brand that defines itself via characteristics, emotions, and broad strokes. Examples include IBM (the new IBM), National Geographic, and Disney.

The differences between these types of brands go beyond names and logos. A specific brand is limited in its ability to spread beyond a limited category. Ray-Ban, for example, is exclusively sunglasses. Customers would not eat at the Ray-Ban Restaurant or buy Ray-Ban shoes. A vague brand is the opposite--a brand that can transcend categories and work across many channels. National Geographic has a television channel, a magazine, guided tours, retails shops, and many other conduits for its brand.

Each also has benefits and drawbacks. A specific brand is much simpler to establish and manage. Since it is highly focused, the messages and all other elements are easier to control within a narrow category. The drawback is that the brand is limited in terms of expansion. It becomes very difficult to spread a narrow brand.

When dealing with a vague brand, there is a huge amount of potential and variety. Like with Disney, a strong vague brand can extend from hotels to consumer products to consulting. The drawbacks here involve intense monitoring and management of the brand. A wide variety of goods and services means managing multiple messages, approaches, and styles that all have to fall under one overall brand umbrella. The cost of this management is much higher than a specific brand, but so is the potential.

As you develop your brand, try to think into the future to where you want to take it. I am not suggesting that you start off with a hard-to-control vague brand, but with proper planning, your move to a broader brand will be much simpler than if you try to do so with a specific brand.

Branding During a Recession

When times are tough, marketing and communications usually experience the first cuts. Why? I really don't know. If anything, an organization should market more, but this is something you'd hear from practically any marketing professional and this is not my point. Sometimes branding exercises must still move forward, despite cutbacks and market conditions. How can an organization spend a little but get a lot?

There are some basic elements to a brand that, if leveraged properly, will get you far without undertaking a full-blown development project:

• Logo: At the very least, a logo that is a simple word treatment--graphics are not necessary, but something to use as your "stamp" is.
• Color palette/strategy: A basic color strategy is sometimes all a brand needs to help it stay consistent throughout its use.
• Message: Without a message crafted towards the target audience, a brand lacks direction and power.
• Image strategy: At some point, imagery (photos, illustrations, etc.) will come into play, so having a strategy, however basic, will help to maintain consistency.

A good way to save money is to hire someone to help you develop these and work with them and contribute as much as you are able. I know it sounds counter-intuitive to save money by paying someone, but often a professional branding expert can help you move through this exercise much quicker than on your own. Having the same person/agency work on everything is another good way to cut costs--packaging development almost always saves time and money.

Everything on top of these basic items can either be developed in-house or on an as-needed basis when funds become available. You will be surprised at what you can accomplish with this small toolbox of brand elements. Much like the 8-pack of Crayola crayons, it's all about how you use them that determines your result.

For Most, "Rebranding" is a Misnomer

A lot of people hire my agency for rebranding. They walk in and state that their current brand is too old; it must be updated! Truthfully, the process behind branding and rebranding is nearly identical. The reason for this is that for 95% of organizations, the work that we do is a realignment of the brand.

A true rebranding is much more than updated visuals and messages (any faithful reader of this blog knows that!). To really rebrand your organization, there must be a change in the organizational culture that fundamentally affects the way you conduct your business. There is a reason for this--something I've learned in my years as a brand consultant.

When one develops or introduces a brand to an organization, it is completely ineffective to force a core brand attribute that isn't already present in the organization. What I mean is that while developing a brand, more often then not, we are bringing to the surface key differentiators that already exist within the organization. For example, if your organization is, at heart, a stern, calculating, profit-driven machine, then a whimsical and playful brand is going to a major problem. When we brand, we are not necessarily creating anything new, just shining a spotlight on what was already there, perhaps hidden. [Please keep in mind that true rebranding efforts do exist. These are often challenging, well-planned, and organization-wide executions.]

It is natural for an organization to see the need for a realignment once in a while. Culture and operations drift and so an update has to happen to keep communications fresh. I suppose the truth about branding is that whatever your brand is, it already exists, but it might be buried. You just need someone to help you dig it out and let it shine.

The Branding Werewolf Approaches!

Look out! Oh--that's right. There is no 'branding werewolf.' What a silly idea, right? Well if there's no such thing, then why are businesses and nonprofits always looking for a silver bullet to slay it?

The silver bullet, in this case, is that perfect logo, name, or other element that makes you say "Wow! That's it!" when you see it. Many people expect this to happen during a brand's development and often use it as a litmus test for their final decisions. While a 'wow' factor is a great phenomenon to come across, it is unfortunately an unrealistic expectation and often inhibiting to the process.

What constitutes the 'wow' factor is different for every person because it is based on personal opinion. Your goal in brand development is not to create something that knocks your or your boss' socks off, but rather to create something that is competent and sends the correct message to your target audience. Also, keep in mind that it is rare for a single brand element to stand on its own. Logos, names, colors, messages - everything - are almost always within some sort of context, existing within a cohesive brand system where each component supports another. There is no need for each portion to be immaculate on its own.

The reality is that we all have to learn to accept something that competantly gets the job done. For many, it is difficult to sign off on something that doesn't feel like the surefire, 100% solution, but those people must remind themselves that any weakness in one area will be compensated by the strength of another. It is the beauty of a cohesive system.

Perk Up in the New Year

If you haven't begun to feel the pinch of the current economy in your business or organization yet, you're either extremely fortunate or about to get a nasty surprise. For the rest of us who have seen prices go up and new business ebb, cost-cutting is an inevitable tactic to employ so we can bear the economic strain. A particularly painful, yet effective, area to cut costs is employee perks and benefits. However, there is opportunity here (yes, BRAND opportunity).

If you must remove perks and benefits from your employee package, it softens the blow to replace them with other, lower-cost perks. These can also be brand-building tools, if carefully selected; the types of perks you offer your employees say a lot about a company, its values, and its brand. While none of these are going to be a good replacement for health insurance or 401k matching, they could soften the blow of some cutbacks:

Creative Brand

• Impromptu field trips


• Free beer in the office


• Time off for creative projects/hobbies.

High-end Brand

• Consulting and planning services


• Concierge services


• In-office massages.

Nurturing Brand

• Daycare/on-site lactation room or emergency child allowances


• Holiday turkeys/hams


• Time off for volunteer work.
  

Don't let these examples limit you--getting creative with perks is what makes them stand out. For example, RedPeg Marketing of Alexandria, VA sometimes awards its employees their bonuses with suitcases full of cash instead of checks. It doesn't cost any more, but the impact is huge. Use these to promote your business as a place that cares about its employees but, more importantly, lives the brand that it promotes.

Sources:
Jacobson, David. Extreme Extras. April, 2006. Money.
Penttila, Chris. Employee Benefits in Today's Economy. January, 2009. Entrepeneur.
Create loyal employees with creative benefits and unique perks

Branding Is Not for You

Attention brand and project managers: branding is NOT for you. Please allow me to explain.

Whether it is a company, a product, or nonprofit, a brand is not at its strongest when it is developed to suit your personal tastes. Like the color blue? Fantastic--go buy a blue car. That particular name sounds good to you? Use it for when your baby is born.

Too often, I see clients steer their branding in the direction of their own wants and desires for a number of reasons. Maybe they want to leave their own personal stamp on it. Maybe they just want something that they can look at and feel good. This is completely mistargeted.

A brand exists as a promise to your customers and should be made up of elements that resonate with their needs. One cannot expect those needs to be addressed when the brand is made up of the CEO's favorite aspects of the company along with his/her favorite colors. Logos, messages, colors, fonts, and all the components that make up a cohesive brand should all be developed with the target audience in mind and - guess what? - that might not be you.

Audience Segmentation and Brand Consistency

Wouldn't it be great if every business had its own fiefdom of customers and all of those customers fit a nice little mold? That way, we could use a singular message, a singular marketing approach, sell to everyone, and all would be happy. Unfortunately, it just doesn't work like that.

The truth is, most of our businesses and organizations have multiple audiences that we have to satisfy, but we only have one brand. The real challenge in addressing all of these core groups of people is to reach out to them in a way that is unique to their needs but still brand consistent. I am unaware of any silver-bullet method to develop these approaches, but there is a framework that will guide you along your path:

• Map out the core elements of your brand and extend them out to all of the elements that go along with them
• List all of the audiences with which you need to communicate and develop profiles for them regarding what is important to them, the factors that help them make a buying decision, and demographic information about them
• Using your extended brand elements, begin to match them up with your audience profiles so you can see the path you must take to communicate within your brand
• Finally, use your paired up information to craft messages, sales pitches, and other marketing tactics that will help you to reach out to these audiences in unique ways that are still on-brand.

Support Your Brand with a Solid Name

The process of crafting a name for your product, business, or organization is much like developing a logo. You will have many iterations, different structures, options with meaning, and options that just sound good. And, of course, you will have strong opinions all around about which options are great and which are terrible.

I don't want to go into the process of naming, as there are many different schools of thought on this. Rather, I wanted to mention the importance of supporting your brand with a good name. A name isn't there simply to be a label or just to sound good--it is there as a supporting brand attribute. The name must reflect your core brand promise and whatever that message may be (playful, smart, sophisticated, etc.).

Everyone loves a good example, so here are some real world names that support and some that don't support the brands that they represent:

The Good

• Victoria's Secret. An exotic, high class woman's name paired with the idea of privacy is a surefire fit for a high-end lingerie line.
• Uno Chicago Grill. Not a great name in itself, but the change from Pizzeria Uno was a savvy transition as the restaurant chain diversified its menu and expanded into different entree options.
• Kitchenaid. It's direct to the point with 'kitchen' but insinuates how helpful the products are with the addition of 'aid.'

The Bad

• Overwaitea Foods. The Canadian supermarket chain got its name for originally selling 18 ounces of tea for the price of a pound. Now it sounds like their products will make you fat.
• Chevy Nova. Sounds great, right? In Spanish it means 'doesn't go.'
• Noblis. This health care innovation nonprofit promises that you will never know peace (bliss) by way of its constant efforts.

Using Your Own Photographs

Using your own photographs of staff, events, products, and other dimensions of your organization can be a great way to personalize your marketing materials and strengthen your brand. Rather than stock photography or illustrations, there is a feeling of authenticity and "realness" when the imagery is of actual employees, customers, or even the office.

There are, however, may pitfalls to this practice. Use some of the tips below as guidelines to using your own photography in your marketing:

• The resolution of your photos is of critical importance to their respective uses. Make sure your photos are a minimum of 300 DPI (dots per inch) for printed pieces and a minimum of 72 DPI for the Web. Nothing ruins a good marketing piece like a pixelated, poor quality photo.
• Just because you are using your own photos, doesn't mean that they can't be shot professionally. It never hurts to hire a professional photographer to ensure that your shots are in-focus, properly lighted, and look great.
• Photoshop is your best friend. Make sure someone on your team can work the program and touch up, adjust, and otherwise alter your photos for the best results.
• Always get model releases from anyone in the photos that you plan to use. This includes employees, customers, bystanders, etc. No one wants a lawsuit on their hands because of a brochure.
• Make sure the content of your photos is appropriate for your use. Your library will be filled with great images, but careful use with respect to the piece with which they are associated is important.
• Art direction still has a place in your marketing materials, even if you are using your own photos. Careful selection for theme, color palette, style, and other factors will help keep the look of each piece consistent as you use proprietary photos.

Branding by Department: Research and Development

Not every organization has a formal R&D department, but it exists in some fashion for everyone that offers a good or service. Every time you consider a new service to offer, a new product to sell, or an enhancement to existing offering, there is some form of research and development occurring and - yes, you guessed it - your brand must play a critical role in this decision process.

We know that there is a direct relationship between brands and market position and there is also a direct relationship between market position and product/service offering. That being said, your brand can help guide your research and development process so you can be sure that whatever you are putting out to market is consistent with your position, thus strengthening your brand. Consider some of these tips to help keep your R&D process on-brand:

• Make sure the product/service you are considering has a place in your current line. If it has features that cause it to stand apart from the rest, then should it be housed under the same brand?
• Keep your price points consistent. If something new requires you to make a drastic change in the prices your customers are used to paying, it may not be a sensible addition.
• Profit centers can eat away at your brand. Making money is not the only criteria, so make sure you have other reasons to add something other than to increase your revenue stream.
• A new offering should ALWAYS strengthen your brand and position and never dilute it. If it isn't adding to your expertise in your niche, reconsider it.

As always, use these suggestions to get started, but don't be limited by them. There are many ways to view R&D with your branding glasses on, so don't be afraid to look at a new product/service from every angle.

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.

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.

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.

A New Logo That Actually Works

Well played: The new logo for Al Gore's Alliance Climate Project.

By putting some faith in his agency, Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection has a new logo and it speaks volumes about the organization and its need to communicate in a very specific way. Clearly, Mr. Gore's new concern needs the help of everyone globally--the approach to the logo with the word "we" is very different than most logos where the preferred motif is "us, not you."

This openness to global collaboration is a high-point in how organizations who are trying to affect real change need to start thinking.













Logo design by the Martin Agency & Brian Collins.