Most organisations understand that the brand is a source of sustainable competitive advantage, and increasingly consider it among their most valuable assets. It is our opinion that an effective brand strategy can help you improve others’ understanding for what you do, preserve integrity and retain goodwill & respect as well as influence choice and drive revenue.
As might be expected, we have plenty to say about the role of the brand in business. We have gathered a few articles here under the four key themes of how brands are manifested.
We enjoy sharing our knowledge and are very happy to meet for a coffee or a brief chat to discuss the challenges you might be facing.
Please feel free to call Mark on +44 (0)7867 800 608
Clarify your strategic vision as a brand promise
Use words and images to bring your brand/s to life
Plan and execute an effective brand experience
Use your brand to motivate your staff
What if marketing had meaning?
Clarify your strategic vision as a brand promise
Brand and business strategy are like the left and right hand. They are the yin and yang of well-planned businesses.
Your brand promise must be evident through;
- Internal service quality; which drives employee satisfaction and commitment.
- External service quality; which influences customer satisfaction and retention.
If the service qualities of both are aligned with a compelling brand promise then your strategic vision will be clearer to your target audiences, making the business more attractive and ownable. Perceived business relevance, profit growth and increased value will naturally follow.
Some people say that a brand is an ‘idea’ and that, while the product /service can be easily categorised, it is actually the promise of this idea that people buy into. This is what we call the brand promise and to define it will help your business address three key challenges.
- Be different – motivate with a distinctive and clear proposition
- Be valued – attract the right relationships with the right audiences
- Be smart – encourage your audiences to support you in your marketing efforts
Being different in a world that is constantly evolving is the first. Just think of some of the changes you have seen in your lifetime. It is the same in the business world – nothing stands still anymore. Anything that does stand still gets left behind. Ensuring your business doesn’t get left behind is essential. Presenting a unique and memorable offering is often a basic requirement for motivating business success. Wrapping this offering in a memorable story is the best way to own a unique and motivating brand promise.
Secondly, your brand is a design, marketing, communication and human resource tool, which will enable your business to build trusted relationships with audiences. Being valued by each at any time is the key to strong performance. Making a promise and then keeping to it will help substantiate your story. This tangible evidence delivered across every point of interaction with your brand will help to build loyalty. The more the whole story lives the idea, the greater chance your business will have in attracting the right relationships with the right audiences.
Thirdly everything you do, everything you own and everything you produce, helps to communicate the brand promise – so be smart. Successful businesses are built on collaborative working and your audience will play a big role in helping you to develop the wider story. This is something your marketing team should actively seek; after all “word of mouth advocacy is worth millions spent on advertising”. It is therefore important that your audience understands your vision as a brand promise and can see how it belongs in their world. Your audience must be allowed to see the promise as something they can own. Make the story personal and your audiences will write themselves into it and in so doing will support you in your marketing efforts.
If this interests you and you would like to know more, then contact us today and ask us to help you develop your ‘brand strategy’ so that you clarify your strategic vision in your brand promise.
We did a similar thing for PRA...read more
Use words and images to bring your brand/s to life
The old adage “less is more” is almost always correct. It is also true that “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Therefore, we all need to learn to focus on what really needs to be addressed and not waste time on what doesn’t.
This is true when creating new brands, repositioning and rejuvenating brands in need of change, and working across the full range of communication challenges brands demand of us.
It’s only when you can feel a brand’s personality that you can buy into its promise. Brands should therefore look to appeal to their audiences’ senses by using a few carefully chosen words, images and other recall triggers.
Use words – The most powerful brands know how important it is to use words appropriately. The right words will help create; outstanding names; memorable messages and compelling behaviour. A set of values should drive your ‘belief system’ and underpin your organisation’s communications. The core values (no more than three or five in total) must be a unique combination to help distil your brand communications into simple, powerful, effective messages. Establishing a few key messages and delivering them creatively, will not only make the communication task more manageable but, will also encourage consistency in the story and so ensure your words are heard. “If they didn’t hear it, you didn’t say it”.
Use images – A brand is an investment, getting the design right from the start is crucial. Do you know what shape or form best captures your brand idea? If we are not careful to stay true to the brand’s sense of colour, tone of voice, design cues, we run the risk of producing communication that are simply less effective, or worse “off-brand”. Think about automotive brands. They are so much more than the badge on the front; they are the shape of the body-work, the sound of the engine, the smell of the interior, the choice of colour/s, the arrangement of the lights and the design of the radiator grill. All of these are what we refer to as ‘recall triggers’; the many components to each of our mind’s image of a brand promise. A brand image must not be an accident. It should be designed, crafted and carefully managed to ensure consistency in delivery. “It ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it and that’s what gets results.”
Bring your brand/s to life – When we bring words and images together a very powerful thing happens; the message becomes an experience. This is vital if we want our audiences to believe in the brand idea. In order to find new routes to the customer we must place ‘experience’ at the heart of the communication planning process. The objective should be to leverage marketing and organisational development initiatives to bring the brand alive. How should your brand behave internally and externally? If it were a person, how would it react in every situation? Brand managers should be constantly striving to keep the brand fresh. Many a successful brand has become complacent, taken a nap and rested on its laurels too long, living off the glory days only to wake up adrift in unfamiliar territory.
The old adage..."It takes a soul to touch another soul; the soul within the brand."
We can help you develop your ‘brand communications’ to deliver the desired experience for your brand/s:
- Manage the communications
- Visualise the brand story
- Create and explore new opportunities
If this interests you and you would like to know more, then contact us today and ask us to help you to bring your brand to life.
We did a similar thing for First Protocol...read more
Plan and execute an effective brand experience
It takes time and pressure to make a diamond. The word diamond is derived from the ancient Greek and means ‘invincible’. A diamond brand might be perceived to be an organisation that has aligned all its key relationships; strategy to performance; leaders to their people; people to their customers; and business to the community.
Effectively managing each relationship so that it reinforces the desired brand experience is the secret to creating an invincible brand. This is because the brand has a central value to the absolute marketing mix by;
- Improving understanding of what you do
- Preserving integrity, goodwill and respect
- Influencing stakeholder awareness and belief in your products and services
This is just as true and important inside the organisation as it is outside. And it is important to remember that a brand is a living thing, which must be carefully nurtured. This is best achieved when agency/client and agency/agency work together in a collaborative way. It is important to work in partnership with client organisations to explore and develop strategic thinking, pushing boundaries and challenging convention. Planning and executing a brand experience, one that will differentiate the story from the also runs will demand a diverse mix of intellectual rigour and creativity. The aim is to shape the experience, embrace creativity and drive innovation to create top line growth for the business and so add value.
Shape the experience – be clear about the idea underpinning the brand. This is what gives the business its soul, allowing the audience to reach deep inside and to be rewarded for their interest. Brand experiences that consistently deliver on a relevant idea and involve their audiences in the story will engage prospects much more successfully. “Tell me and I may forget, show me and I may remember, but involve me and I will understand”.
Embrace creativity – to keep the experience fresh and exciting it is important to understand the role of creativity. Unfortunately, this is something we have marginalised in business culture for too long. Fundamentally everyone is creative and it is only when our culture is designed to encourage creativity that exciting and fresh things begin to happen. Creativity is revealed in our ability to solve problems, big and small.
Drive innovation – the objective should be to focus on ideas and inventions that help recruit and retain the best staff and customers, because these give people something to engage in. An effective brand experience will be all about the journey, not the destination. It is the experience of this journey that will allow the brand experience to enhance (or not) the reputation of the business.
We can help you develop an effective ‘brand experience’ to influence and drive cultural change through:
- A greater sense of relevance
- Improved recruitment and retention
- Enhanced reputation
If this interests you and you would like to know more, then contact us today and ask us to help you to develop an effective brand experience.
We did a similar thing for BT...read more
Use your brand to motivate your staff
"No matter how good or successful or clever you are, your business is in the hands of the people you hire". Lord Seiff (Former President) Marks & Spencer PLC
A recent IoD Business Opinion Survey highlighted that underperformance is the key issue facing Directors today. This probably explains why we are often asked to help organisations understand the role brand plays in motivating a team’s performance.
Winning businesses are made up of winning teams. These are groups of individuals united by;
- Having a unified sense of purpose
- Being inspired
- Doing the right thing
‘Having’ a unified sense of purpose – Experience suggests that unless new initiatives are aligned with the team brand they will tend to face resistance.
Winning teams have a clear sense of shared purpose and vision. Each individual member of the team feels included in delivering the vision. They know that to succeed they must first ‘have’ performance measures in place. These help to drive momentum and keep the team focused on winning together.
Professor Cary Cooper once said; “People need to feel some sort of ownership of their own destiny for a leader to influence their attitudes and behaviour”
In his campaign, Obama delegated and refused to micromanage. Under the slogan “Respect. Empower. Include”, he used social networking to mobilise thousands of volunteers and motivated them by letting them get on with it – driven by a shared vision of a new way and the confidence that “yes, we can.”
‘Being’ inspired – For teams to win they must first be inspired by a winning idea. We refer to this as the team brand. This is usually based on the core business brand while acknowledging the specific purpose and vision of the individual team.
Too often the brand is seen as some sort of manual, used to guide the way we should behave as a team. But using the brand values as a set of standards to guide us in this way is missing the point. Winning teams will only be empowered to win if they have together become inspired by the power of the brand ‘idea’ first.
Employees need to be allowed to feel involved, responsible and engaged because managing the brand should not solely be the responsibility of the marketing department. If the brand is an idea, then a winning team is one that is inspired to value this idea very highly. After all, if the team does not buy into the brand it is unlikely the customers will.
‘Doing’ the right thing – One winning team that comes to mind explained the secret of its success to us in the following way; "we operate with a simple brand idea; to treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves".
The company is a people business and therefore each member of the team understands the importance of respect and the role they each play in delivering this team brand idea. By creating a culture that benefits “others” they have each helped to ensure the success of the business. The team is very motivated because, in doing the right thing, the culture serves them with respect and is successful. In this way they also know that every member of the team gets to share in that success.
If you would like to know more about how to harness the power of the team brand to motivate a greater sense of inclusion, empowerment and respect for each other, then contact us today.
We did a similar thing for NHS Direct...read more
What if marketing had meaning?
CRM BE 4 ROI
I know this reads like a car number plate, but if like me you hate acronyms then, hopefully you will enjoy a laugh at the expense of this message and then maybe you will also stop to work out what it all means.
Cause Related Marketing (CRM) is not philanthropy or altruism. It is based on recognition by business that linking with charities or good causes can be mutually beneficial.
Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) is not just the application of technology, but is a strategy to learn more about customers’ needs and behaviours in order to develop stronger relationship with them.
Both terms use the same acronym. They both mean something different and yet, in my mind, they are also related.
What if businesses developed new ways of establishing meaningful relationships with customers, employees, suppliers, partners that were not just about a transaction, but instead shared values for the best interest of the whole community? This is why I ask you; What if marketing had meaning?
What distinguishes successful marketing is how it ‘engages’ with the way people think, the way people see, the way people feel, the way people ‘are’.
If a brand is looking to build deeper, more meaningful, relationships with its audiences then it should do this by looking to establish an ‘emotional’ bond. Never has this been as important than during a recession, when brands need to establish greater differentiation, stand out and ultimately Brand Equity (BE), in the minds of their customers.
Cause Related Marketing goes way beyond Corporate Social Responsibility because, if a business chooses to link its story to that of a ‘good cause’, then it intends to identify and align itself with that cause too. Care must therefore be taken to ensure the business acts with integrity, never appearing to be overly promotional, lest the campaign backfires. Provided the cause always remains the winner, the businesses associated with it will also enjoy a positive return.
In a Cause Related Marketing campaign a business may choose to pay for advertising for the charity, with minimal mention of the business’s name in return. It may also infuse its own marketing materials with the cause related messaging, or it may create co-branded products with a ‘gifting’ motivation, donating portions of the proceeds to the cause.
Therefore, the business must first ensure the charity’s story and the audience it will be reaching, are consistent with its own strategic goals. As always, the brand promise and the brand experience must be in alignment.
One of the grandest examples of this comes from BP. They were the first of the giant oil companies to align with the cause of decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels and thereby reducing their negative economic and environmental impacts. A huge part of their website is dedicated to “Environment and Society” and the company has successfully rebranded itself as ‘beyond petroleum’ even though most of BP’s revenue is still from petroleum based products.
Another example is the action taken by Aston Villa Football Club last year when they surrendered their sports sponsorship deal, worth some £4m in revenue, in favour of aligning themselves with Acorns Children’s Hospice. This is regarded by its followers as a great cause to be associated with and the goodwill won for the club is testament to the campaign working; research has revealed that their brand equity as a football club has increased significantly; their best ever premier league finish in 2008/9 season has revealed that the whole team performed better as a result; and their income for the same period went up, not down, despite the loss of the £4m sponsorship deal.
A more modern and perhaps smaller scale example is the way a number of businesses have supported causes by getting people Twittering. In January EduFire, an online live video learning business, promised to pay $1 to its favourite charity ‘Room to Read’ for every re-tweet of its message. To help track this they simply included the #edufire hashtag and were pleased and surprised to find they managed to show up on the ‘trending topics’ menu on the home page, right next to Blago, Obama and the Super Bowl. A spokes person for Edufire said; “it was a good way for the community to come together and do some virtual and viral good”. This is something I can totally concur with when I got swept up by the Hashtagathon on Twitter in aid of The £1 Challenge in 2009.
So I encourage you to consider the ‘meaning’ Cause Related Marketing can bring to your Brand Equity (if sensitively applied) FOR a serious Return On Investment.
CRM BE 4 ROI