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Brand

Would Your Customers Wear Your Brand on a T-shirt?

According to an article in BrandWeek, ad agency David & Goliath surveyed pub-goers in California and asked them which liquor brand they would be willing to wear on a free T-shirt.  Jack Daniels and Corona took the top spots, but the interesting part of this unscientific study is how it can be applied to just about any industry.

Consider your own market.  If you surveyed people about your brand’s industry and asked them which brand they would wear on a T-shirt, what brand would they choose and why?  Would your brand be the one they’d be proud to display on their shirts or would they rather show off their loyalty or approval of a competitor’s brand? [Read more…] about Would Your Customers Wear Your Brand on a T-shirt?

Branding Strategy – Go Big or Go Home

I often tell my branding clients to develop their brands with their biggest aspirations for those brands in mind.  What’s the point of creating a business and brand if you don’t have big goals for it?  So often I hear of businesses that create a brand and grow out of it within a couple of years.  At that point, the company needs to invest time, resources and money into rebranding when that problem could have been avoided if the brand was originally created with stretch goals in mind. [Read more…] about Branding Strategy – Go Big or Go Home

Write a Brand Statement

We’ve all heard of mission statements and vision statements, but what about brand statements?  I think a brand statement is a critical element of strategic planning that should be written at every level of a business.  In other words, a corporate brand statement should be created as well as brand statements for each business unit, branded product line, and so on.

A brand statement is a touchstone for both employees and consumers to communicate the intrinsic value of the brand as well as provide direction for where the brand is going in the market.  A brand statement can motivate employees and define the company’s brand promise and message quickly and succinctly.  In other words, a brand statement cuts through the clutter and shouts out loud what the brand stands for in no uncertain terms. [Read more…] about Write a Brand Statement

4 Faces of Branding

Every brand wears multiple hats, meaning it portrays a slightly different face to different audiences.  Typically, there are four main faces of branding that every brand portrays to the different audiences that see it and experience it.

Your Brand’s Face to Your Business

Your brand represents a specific image, message and promise that supports your overall business.  Analysts, investors, reporters, shareholders, business partners and so on typically see this face of your brand.

Your Brand’s Face to Your Employees

Your brand represents a specific image, message and promise to your employees that makes it meaningful and motivational.  This is the face of your brand that makes people want to work for your company.  This brand face is particularly important for companies that grow through mergers and acquisitions and need to integrate multiple sub-brands under a single company brand umbrella.

Your Brand’s Face to Your Customers

Your brand represents a specific image, message and promise to your existing customers that makes it meaningful to them and helps them develop an emotional connection and relationship with it.  This is the face of your brand that makes people want to buy your products and do business with your company again and again.

Your Brand’s Face to Non-Customers

Your brand represents something completely different to non-customers who have not yet experienced it first-hand.  This is the face of your brand that requires a significant investment in terms of developing awareness, recognition and expectations for it in order to drive non-customers to action and turn them into brand users and eventually loyal customers.

Take some time to evaluate the four faces of your brand.  Do they match?  If not, is there a valid reason why they’re different?  The strongest brands represent a consistent image and promise across all four faces with targeted messaging that enhances that face but doesn’t change it.  What do you need to do to make sure the four faces of your brand are consistent across all touch points of your business?  Making the necessary changes now will strengthen your brand in the long term.

Image: Flickr

Brand vs. Commodity

The next time someone in your company suggests to you that investing in brand development, positioning and messaging isn’t important, remind them that without your brand, you’d have little left to compete with than price.  In other words, without your brand, you’re just another commodity.

Certainly, your products and company offer features and benefits that consumers want and need, but it’s your brand that makes those features and benefits recognizable and preferred.  Those features and benefits are extensions of your brand.  Will they function on their own without a brand to support them?  Perhaps, but a brand makes those features and benefits much more powerful and helps to further differentiate them from anything else available on the market.  The brand makes them special and makes customer loyalty possible. [Read more…] about Brand vs. Commodity

Website Branding and Usability

I’ve been thinking about website design and branding this week, so I thought it would be a good time to talk about branding and website usability here on Corporate Eye.  Having come from a large corporate background, I’m well aware of the struggle between the marketing and IT groups when it comes time to create a new website.  The process begins by putting two groups of people who think completely differently in a room together and forcing them to create an end result that not only works but also drives business. [Read more…] about Website Branding and Usability