Author: Tenet Admin

Another year has come and gone. Many of you have worked diligently to ensure that all branding efforts helped your brand increase its value, connect with all stakeholders and retain its competitive edge. As we look back, we can applaud our efforts, bask in our successes and learn from our challenges. We can also ask ourselves if there were anything we would have done better or even differently? With a new year right around the corner, we have an entirely new set of 365 days of opportunity where we can continue to make brand performance improvements.

Here are five questions you can ask yourself and your answers will help to determine the areas requiring the most brand focus over the next 12 months:

1. Did your brand achieve its highest value?

Every brand has equity. It can be something tangible such as its actual financial worth and brand equity value, which we define as the impact of brand on financial performance expressed as the percentage of market capitalization directly attributable to brand.

Do you know how much of your brand actually contributes to corporate value and/or stock price? Brand equity can also mean something more emotional such as having a strong association to specific core values that are rooted in a trusted brand heritage (i.e. Johnson’s baby) or in customer service (i.e. Amazon, JetBlue). Perhaps your brand is strongly associated with certain visual attributes such as color, typography and imagery (i.e. Coca-Cola, Harley Davidson). Do these still apply to your brand? Are there specific strategies you should be employing to increase your brand’s financial and emotional equity?

2. Is your brand’s strategic platform still providing a unique point of difference?

While you know who your competition is, when was the last time you conducted a thorough strategic analysis of not only your brand’s positioning, but also those of its peers? Competition is increasing across all industries and product categories, with mergers and acquisitions resulting in powerhouse brands and with the influx of new brands launched each year. Where your brand may have once dominated a certain white space, you may find that you are no longer alone and that the competition is infringing upon your territory and causing confusion among your target audience. While your core promise might still apply, perhaps there is some aspect about your brand’s personality and/or positioning that need to be updated.

A simple “gut check” on your brand platform may indicate the need to make adjustments. Some times minor enhancements can result in significant increases in brand performance, especially in further differentiating from the competition.

3. Were your employees, customers and investors fully engaged with your brand?

Once you’ve ensured your strategy is on target, your brand must be fully engaged with your audiences. It all starts with your employees. Your employees are your brand! The best of the best brand strategies will not reach true potential until your employees embrace the strategy and live the brand to the fullest. From the mailroom to the c-suite, from the new hire to the most-tenured employee, each person must be engaged in the brand. This causes a positive reaction that enables them to successfully influence and engage customers, making them want to buy. It also will make investors take notice, enticing them to support and invest in your brand.

4. Is your brand still dressed for success?

Your brand’s overall look and feel greatly influences its ability to connect with your customers. Is your corporate or brand identity as strong as it can be? Chances are, when it was initially designed it was developed for traditional media and communications outlets. Have you assessed your brand’s identity and visual platform within the digital space including the web, mobile and social media? Is it responsive in the digital world? Is your brand’s look and feel evolving with the times and keeping itself relevant with your customers? How does your brand look compared to competitors? Does your brand still “own” a particular color, typestyle or icon or does it need to be evolved or even get a facelift? Visual appeal is critical in ensuring your brand stands out from the crowd and avoids getting lost in a sea of sameness.

5. Has your brand been speaking with a consistent voice?

Your brand is at the center of the universe. Its strategic platform is the blueprint that defines your brand and how you do business, your internal culture and your overall communications’ strategy. When doing strategic outreach, your brand’s core messaging must be consistent, yet tailored to each of its target audiences for maximum impact. For example, how you speak to an investor would be different than how you speak to your employees and even a vendor. However, in order to build your reputation effectively, you must have a consistent voice, keeping true to your brand’s essence. While the intended audience may influence individual messages, the core of your brand should ring true throughout everything you communicate.

It takes time and thoughtful planning to build a great brand. The BMW-owned MINI is an example of careful brand planning long before the car was first sold in the US, making the marque appear to spring to life, fully formed and cool. Other brands take years to come into their own. Starbucks opened its first store in Seattle in 1971. As of October this year, there are thousands of Starbucks locations in 62 countries — all remaining true to the brand’s look, feel, taste, and gathering place. But it wasn’t until the 1990s that the Starbucks brand came into its own.

Regardless of how they start, all great brands are built on a well-conceived brand platform. To build yours, start with these five steps:

1. Start on a solid foundation of understanding.

What’s true about your organization should form the rock-solid basis of your brand. Take a good look in the mirror and determine just who you are. How do you conduct business? Do you try harder like Avis? Are you great in service or production? Are your tools as tough as Sears Craftsman? Is the company a time-defined leader or an upstart start-up?

2. Support your brand with your strengths.

Every company has its own immutable and distinctive strengths. It could be your people or your products, your knowledge, or your expertise. Chubb Insurance is strong on experience and service. Trader Joe’s stores pride themselves on discovering interesting foods. Whatever your strengths, they form the pillars to support all your branding efforts.

3. Examine your personality.

Your employees each have their own personality. But a company itself needs its own unique personality. Identify the three or four attributes that characterize your organization and describe them in human-like adjectives. Ace Hardware stores chose “helpful.” United Airlines has reclaimed “friendly.” These will guide everything you say and do with your brand.

4. Stake a position.

With a world of many competitors, you need to help your customers understand where you stand relative to the other brands. What makes you different? Why should someone do business with you? Consumers only have so much room in their brains in some categories. In the 1970s, the classic 7-Up lemon-lime soda brand positioned itself as the Uncola to take on Coke and Pepsi.

5. Keep your promise.

All of your work should rise up to one big idea. It’s what your product or service promises to deliver to your customers and employees that touches their hearts and souls. Tide laundry detergent promises to get sheets “whiter than white,” which isn’t about color but the satisfaction and purity that comes with cleanliness. The web site Pinterest is a tool for collecting and organizing things, but the root of it is really about sharing. Once you’ve made your brand promise, you must hold true to that promise in all your communications and consumer interactions.

Laundry detergent? Female. Pick-up trucks? Male. Feminine hygiene products. Definitely female. Beard softener? Macho. But what about breakfast cereal? Cars? Gardening products? And condoms? As the boundaries of what’s masculine and feminine blur through the gender and orientation of actual customers, traditional gender-based marketing is following suit.

TV advertising now features dads selecting detergent, single women shopping for cars, and heterosexual couples buying condoms together. But to add to the changing gender-based roles of traditional audiences, there’s a growing recognition and acknowledgement of same-sex couples, gay and lesbian, and transgendered audiences that makes gender-targeted branding increasingly complicated. It’s time that brands raised their awareness of gender, too.

Communicating gender-specific brands takes sensitivity and savvy. Here are five key factors to help align your efforts:

1. Know your brand’s past and present audiences.

Some brands retain their gender focus after decades in the market; others change their gender relevancy as society and audiences evolve. Take breakfast cereals — once targeted solely to women, this category has since expanded audiences as men took a more active role in feeding their families. Use research to review your current audience demographic to ensure you’re not missing out on expanding to other audiences.

2. Don’t get caught up in stereotypes.

Brands themselves have no gender. A car is a car. Paper towels are used by both men and women. It’s the associations that people bring to products and services that can attach a gender bias. Be sure that your messages and perspectives speak to the product’s benefits; not your pre-conceptions about who uses it.

3. Put purpose behind your messaging.

You can’t be everything to everyone. You can’t even be most things to one gender. Have a clear brand platform and justify your brand identity through reasoned and thought-out messages. Gender-based brands with a well-founded identity can better weather consumer cynicism towards masculine/feminine brands.

4. Stick to who you are and what you stand for.

You can no longer assume traditional roles and send clichéd messages to your audiences. Consumers are savvier than ever and will call out insincerity or poorly communicated efforts. If your brand is honest about what it stands for, don’t be afraid to show it.

5. It’s okay to be gender-neutral.

You can target all genders equally or work to find a balance. Many companies are realizing that gender-based brands will not remain 100% gender specific. Women will purchase condoms for their men; men will make better choices in toilet paper. Remember that cash registers are gender-neutral.

The ultimate goal of your brand is to help sell your products and services. The trick is to find and build brand relevancy among your target demographics to better sustain and grow market share. Being true to your brand also means being true to who your customers are.

It’s no secret anymore that an essential element of an internal brand launch or refresh starts with a powerful employee brand engagement program. But to make the introduction of your new brand more than an announcement at an all-staff Town Hall meeting, or a coffee mug with a new logo, you’ll need to inform, teach and engage with your employees so they can understand, and learn how to act “on-brand.”

Every organization is different, but here are five proven secrets to keep in mind when developing your employee brand engagement.

1. Think like an insider.

Understand what your employees need to know, who influences them and how they learn. Brand may seem like a soft communication to many people. Showing that your brand strategy can help realize the goals of your business strategy can make converts across your organization.

2. Put the right team in charge.

A multi-disciplinary team representing branding, HR, training, Learning & Development and internal communication will give you a broader perspective with more insight and guidance on how to reach and engage effectively with employees. By enfranchising these sometimes disparate departments, you will be able to reach employees during all phases of their worklife – from on-boarding to performance reviews to daily work.

3. Make a commitment.

An employee brand engagement program that’s all fireworks and no substance will soon fizzle out after introduction. Considering that a new brand takes time to be accepted among employees (as it will with your customers and prospects), you will need top-level buy-in and resources from senior leaders to maintain your program for months. You’ll lose credibility if you start and stop half way through a program.

4. Ride the curve.

Support for an employee brand engagement program aligns with a traditional Bell curve. The front of the curve is typically made up of allies who will immediately embrace a new brand when they understand its rationale and importance. The front of the rising curve are fast followers who, once they are engaged, will follow the leaders. Employees on the tentative back of the curve often need more encouragement and explanation to coax them over the hump. Lastly, the highly vocal naysayers often get too much attention. Acknowledge them, but spend your time and resources elsewhere.

5. Engage your whole company.

Your people are your brand. That means everyone – from the executive floor to the factory floor. To get the buy-in from the entire company, you have to make the strategy and implementation of your new brand relevant to each person. For the sales team, a new brand is an opportunity to be different from the competition. To the C-Suite, your brand can have an impact on market price. To an engineer in product development, your brand is the inspiration for a new idea. But as the driver of the brand engagement, it’s up to you to connect your people with their brand.

Imagery is a vital part of any visual identity system. Building a central repository of “brand-correct” photography can be a terrific way to ensure that your images are working as hard as your other brand assets in communicating a consistent and appropriate tone across all touch points. But what’s the best way to build that library?

While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, these five will get you started in the right direction.

1. Use strategy as your guide

Just like every other aspect of your visual identity, imagery needs to reflect your distinctive personality traits and positioning in the market. Many organizations do a terrific job of building a brand platform and developing a brand positioning. They also tailor logos, color palettes, type systems and graphics to their brand strategy, but go “off the shelf” when it comes to their images. Your agency should help you define what a “branded” image looks like, both in terms of overall style as well as content. That will be the guide as you populate your library, providing you with a powerful tool that’s in alignment with all of your other brand assets.

2. The more proprietary, the better

I almost hate to say it, but the best image libraries I’ve come in contact with have been populated with commissioned, proprietary photography. By “best”, I mean most distinctive and relevant to the brand. I’m sure that seems obvious, but it’s worth a reminder. Yes, the idea of building a proprietary library from scratch can seem daunting in terms of time, logistics, and cost. But, depending on your particular criteria, it can be eminently achievable and not even as expensive as you might think. Even if it’s only for a portion of the library, you owe it to yourself and the brand to research it as an option.

3. Be creative

It’s safe to assume that you rarely have the luxury of an open-ended timeline or copious amounts of money when developing brand assets and tools. This is also likely true in other areas of your business. But, in other situations, you might be more willing to think outside the box and be extremely creative with the resources and talent to get the job done ahead of schedule and under budget. Why not with an image library as well?

Sourcing brand-appropriate photography doesn’t always mean superstar photographers, exorbitant locations or model fees. We recently supplemented the image library of a non-profit by engaging several of our photographer friends to shoot people and scenes from their day-to-day lives at their leisure over the course of a couple of weeks (all with appropriate consent and model releases). While we compensated the photographers well for their time, other expenses associated with photo shoots were avoided and the result was a set of genuine and distinctive images that fit the brand to a T.

4. Make it your own

As much as I believe in point number 2 above, the fact is: Most libraries are populated with stock images. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. The selection of high-quality stock photography out there is tremendous. But, with a little extra effort, you can make your stock-filled library feel almost as proprietary as a custom effort.

By doing some consistent post-production adjustments to visual elements such as color balance or saturation (using your identity and color system as a guide), or pre-cropping images in a unique way, you can not only make photos from different sources feel more like a unified family, but also add to their distinctiveness and alignment to your brand.

5. Don’t forget context

As you’re building your library, always keep your ultimate applications in mind. If your organization does a fair amount of web banners, for example, be sure your library contains images that can be cropped/extended for long horizontal use. Engage the owners of key customer touch points in your organization to make sure their communications needs are well-understood; not so much about style as it pertains to the brand, but specific content and format needs. A well-thought out image library is only effective if it gets put to use.

Making sense of data can be overwhelming – and the challenges only become increasingly compounded in this age of “Big Data” as more sources, bigger data sets, and less-structured content continues to be made available. But developing meaningful findings out of data is a highly thoughtful human exercise that no algorithm can ever replace.

We refer to this process as “strategy-driven insight” – an approach to collecting and analyzing data designed to achieve the stated objectives of an organization.

Here are five tips to help you focus on what is most important when it comes to packaging information in a way that is truly actionable:

1. Wear three hats at once.

Developing a meaningful narrative from data is not only about doing good research – it must also be purposeful to a company and capable of influencing the behaviors of the people that shape those organizations. This process requires that you consider the following three perspectives: -Scientific: be methodical, rigorous and logical -Business: focus attention on growth, profitability and efficiency -Human experience: integrate the personal, the emotional and the entertaining.

2. Know where you’re going, but be open to surprises.

Before you begin generating insights, create a clear direction for the path you intend to follow based on the goals of the organization. But be prepared for the unexpected. If something doesn’t fit, take a step back, reevaluate and adjust your commentary accordingly.

3. Utilize whole-brain thinking.

Convergent thinking is the process of developing clear, concise answers to a problem – this is often associated with linear and analytic “left brain” thinking. Divergent thinking is a method used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions – this is often associated with intuitive and creative “right brain” thinking. Strategy-driven insights require both, so be comfortable drawing from the two hemispheres of your gray matter by embracing the chaos and contradictions experienced between exploring options and narrowing choices.

4. Follow the large and the small.

In the world of statistics, normal curves, major trends and general patterns are effective ways to map out data. But in the world of insights, it is equally important to pay close attention to the details and the outliers. Utilize both quantitative and qualitative findings – and have each inform and challenge the other.

5. Use the tenets of branding as your guide.

As the process of analyzing and translating data takes you into new territory and shines light on things you may have never seen or considered, it can quickly become confusing. To easily prioritize and organize the final story, come back to the basic questions we use when evaluating brands: is it clear, relevant, believable, and differentiating?

If you are mindful of these methods, you will be successful in transforming reams of 1s and 0s into plans that move people and businesses.

You’ve invested time and resources into creating a clear and compelling brand. Now what? Even the best strategy will go to waste if your brand isn’t properly implemented and maintained. Consistency across all touch points reinforces and turns up the volume on your brand promise. Alignment in everything you say and do is essential in building awareness and nurturing positive impressions of your company. While the underlying strategy will shape your visual and verbal expression, it is your brand guidelines that ensure the integrity of your brand image. They are a critical tool in brand management. Yet many companies file them away in a drawer and never look at them again, jeopardizing their brand investment.

Here are five tips for getting the most out of your brand guidelines

1. Paint the full picture.

Your guidelines should begin with the full brand story to put the brand expression in context. Even if it only includes a brief overview of the strategy, it will help everyone working with the brand to develop a deeper familiarity. Knowing why the expression was built the way it was fosters understanding that will enable them to better promote the company.

2. Don’t forget the exceptions.

Every brand guidelines will come with a set of dos and don’t: how to use – and how not to use – all of the elements of the visual and verbal expression. The larger a company is the more likely there will be exceptions to some rules. Outlining the known exceptions to the rules will reinforce that there are a limited number of ways a brand can be altered.

3. Share with everyone.

Don’t limit the distribution to just the marketing or communications staff, everyone in the company and even some vendors/partners should be aware of the brand and its multiple verbal and visual components. Create the document as a PDF or online tool so it is easier to share. Not only does this save printing costs, but it also makes it easy for people to store on a computer desktop for quick reference when creating a document or determining the tone of an email or a proposal to a prospect.

4. Avoid insider jargon.

Guidelines should be written for designers and non-designers alike. Many professionals outside the creative realm aren’t as up to speed on design terminology or software applications used to create materials. But everyone should have a basic understanding of how all the components work together. Use references and language that can be universally understood by everyone who uses the guidelines.

5. Appoint the brand police.

All guidelines should include a contact person (or people) who is a resource and gatekeeper for all branded materials. This person can coordinate training and tutorials and answer quick questions. They should be given the authority make decisions when the guidelines may not cover a specific usage or scenario. They should also be empowered to identify off-brand items and remove them from circulation.

In today’s “Big Data” world, it’s easy to get lost in the cacophony of numbers and statistics. Companies look for an all-encompassing dashboard to divine brand health, but with advances in data visualization and an ocean of accessible data, the options can be overwhelming.

Here are five tips to keep in mind when diving into brand research:

1. Begin at the end

Insights should lead to business decisions. It is important to understand how this part of the process fits into the bigger branding picture. By articulating the decisions the data need to inform, you can determine what research you’ll need. Perhaps someone else has already built a study that works for you. Maybe there are publicly available sources that will shape your research. Did you know the federal government is a virtual warehouse of statistics and data? There are also prepackaged reports that assess entire industries and consumer segments – by working with these you can outline what’s missing and develop your research plan.

2. Be focused

When it comes to audiences and topics, don’t ask all the “want to knows,” keep it to the “must knows.” It’s tempting to toss in a few non-essential questions when conducting a survey but don’t fall into this trap. Every question should have a distinct purpose and should be track back to inform the business decisions to be made. It may be nice to know the income bracket of the audience but unless that will be used specifically, spare the respondent and analyst.

3. Start small

Once you’ve done all the work to locate your audience, it is important to be sure you ask the right questions. Getting feedback on a small scale before launching a larger audience survey can be incredibly helpful. This can be as simple as asking a friend or colleague who fits the audience profile a few of your questions as a sanity check on your approach. This easy step can help ensure that you are on the right track with your research and make the most of your budget and time.

4. Take advantage of technology

We live in a data drenched universe – there are lots of different ways to gather information.

Technology has made research less expensive and more accessible. For example, alternatives to the traditional focus groups – chats and bulletin board responses – make qualitative research a convenient way of gathering insights.

5. Keep it simple

Innovations in research platforms provide the researcher with options to conduct highly complex studies and develop questionnaires specific to the most exact criteria. While these studies can provide a layer of sophistication, sometimes a simple rating scale can do the job. Always think back to your objectives and start with the least amount of information needed. Add complexity only as the project requires it. This will ultimately keep costs down and make life simpler for everyone.

Great packaging must establish an intimate relationship with consumers. Packaging is the only brand touchpoint where consumers are actually physically engaged with your brand 24/7. From its purchase, to its storage, to its usage and to it being discarded your packaging forms a personal relationship with consumers. Packaging must take advantage of this opportunity. It must grab attention, make that right first impression and ultimately establish an emotional connection.

Here are five tips for ensuring that your brand’s packaging is dressed for success:

1. Packaging must be the 5th P in your marketing mix

Those marketers who integrate packaging as part of their marketing mix, otherwise known as product, price, place and promotion have a better shot at success. They recognize packaging is a vital branding component from the onset. By involving internal and external cross-functional teams early in the process you with all the tools required to plan for the functional, aesthetic and emotional needs of your packaging. All components of your packaging from the top down and inside out must work in harmony to ensure that it engages with consumers on a multitude of levels—size, shape, materials, dispensing features, color, printing techniques, etc.

2. Packaging is your key differentiator

Yes, this may be an obvious statement. However, when you take a look at the statistics, you begin to understand how challenging this truly is. On average, consumers make 2.2 trips per week to the supermarket and are exposed to 40,000+ products on shelf. It is interesting to note that the total amount of products to which a consumer is exposed is almost equal to the amount of new products launched within one year. And only 5-8 percent of these new products have a chance of surviving. With numbers as staggering as these, the need for your packaging to differentiate and stand out on shelf is vital for your brand’s long-term success. With all things being equal, research has proven that consumers will use packaging as the tiebreaker in making a final purchase decision. Be smart and allocate the appropriate amount of resources that will help your packaging make a compelling statement on shelf.

3. Less is so much more

Packaging is a very valuable piece of real estate oftentimes with very limited space that needs to work extremely hard for you. While your packaging must reinforce your brand’s promise, it doesn’t have to tell the entire story. Focus on one core message that is relevant for your target audience and use the back panel and/or the web and social media to tell the complete story. Too much information can create confusion with consumers not being able to focus in on any one message. This could result in consumers paying more attention to your competition.

4. Don’t overpromise, but do over-deliver

Your packaging can fool me once, but it won’t fool me twice. One of packaging’s primary goals is to grab consumers’ attention enough to make them want to commit to trial and purchase. This is especially true if you are marketing a new product. While your packaging must dress your brand for success, it must be in alignment with consumer expectations. If what is on the inside either does not meet or exceed expectations as established by what is on the outside, you may get trial, but you will not get that much needed repeat purchase that will help guarantee long-term success.

5. Think well beyond the physical

Consumer products will always require a three-dimensional packaging for protection, transportation, storage, dispensing, etc. – something that cannot be replaced by technology. However, when developing your packaging, you must keep in mind the role technology plays in connecting your brand to consumers, especially in how the 3-D packaging is represented. It used to be that 80% of all purchase decisions were made in store. Now, it is the total opposite. The stats show that 80 percent of purchase decisions are now being made at home with consumers more diligent about using on-line research to pre-determine what they want to buy. It is no longer enough for your packaging to make a good first impression on shelf. How your packaging appears on the web, mobile and social media must be taken into consideration as more and more consumers of all ages are using technology to access information about your brand.

The few, the proud. The ultimate driving machine. The relentless pursuit of perfection. Just do it.

Great taglines deliver a simple, crisp communication of your value proposition. Great taglines don’t just happen. Capturing the essence of a brand in a handful of words requires a firm understanding of who you are (The Marines), what you do (BMW), how you do it (Lexus) and why (Nike). Only then can you turn your attention to the creative expression.

At its best, the tagline is a business asset reflecting clear strategic objectives. Here are five tips for creating a short, memorable phrase that communicates who you are OR what you do OR what makes you different.

1. Begin with a brand platform

Creating a tagline without a strategic foundation runs the risk of generating everything from internal dissent to external confusion. Know what you are trying to say before you look for memorable and meaningful ways to say it. The brand platform will serve as both guide and filter to what you say and to the tone you use in expressing it. Great taglines ring true – and the platform will clarify exactly what this means.

2. Don’t forget the context

Your name, your logo and your tagline are three pieces to a puzzle. Each piece contributes to the bigger picture – and each should rely on the others to carry some of the weight. A highly descriptive name can rely on a tagline to communicate your unique approach. A more evocative or fanciful name may need to be grounded by a more descriptive line. Strong brands find the right balance across these assets.

3. Focus

Five words or less. Maybe six or seven. You can’t say it all. Don’t try.

4. Avoid buzzwords

A strong tagline will endure beyond today to capture the aspirations of tomorrow. If everyone else is saying it, you can be sure it will feel trite before long – and it doesn’t belong in your tagline.

5. Find the hook

The trickiest part: the wordplay. Every tagline need not be clever. Many try too hard. Some work perfectly fine with a simple and straightforward approach. Yet the right balance is where the magic happens. A subtle double meaning or shift in interpretation can turn an everyday phrase into a memorable line. Explore metaphors, maybe punctuation, maybe even bad syntax. Don’t make your customers laugh – but if your tagline can work hard enough to open their eyes to what makes you special, it has more than done its job.