Digital Living Network Alliance

Highlighting the real-world value of industry standards

OVERVIEW

The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) is an industry-led consortium of consumer electronics, telecommunications, computing and mobile device companies focused on creating seamless interoperability and connectivity for consumers. Looking to drive membership and consumer engagement, the organization brought in Tenet Partners to help.

CHALLENGE

DLNA was having difficulty gaining consumer awareness and visibility. With little articulation of the organization’s vision and value in evidence, an important opportunity to help the industry grow was going largely untapped.

HOW WE HELPED

Given the natural complexities of a member-driven standards group, DLNA’s Board needed help setting a clear course for advancement of the brand and mission. Through a series of facilitated workshops, Tenet unearthed a critical gap in brand positioning, and at the same time established a series of strategic imperatives for brand development including clarification of the DLNA value proposition and helping manufacturers leverage the brand in helping consumers understand the value of interoperability and its impact on the products they buy.

Tenet conducted field work including visits to trade shows and retail stores, along with one-on-one interviews with consumers and industry professionals. We observed pockets of interest in DLNA, but not broad-based enthusiasm among many of the key participants. Explicit support for DLNA was evident in select manufacturers’ communications—LG and Samsung, for example—but by no means all. While other member companies acknowledged support for DLNA, most had little visible presence of the certification in their communications. And the largest challenge was that few people could articulate DLNA’s benefits clearly.

Diving deeper into the challenge, Tenet conducted a global quantitative research study that focused on understanding the issues consumers had expressed during the qualitative interviews. Part of the study tested visual and verbal concepts and assessed the brand equity of the DLNA Certified mark. Building on the resulting insights, Tenet then led a collaborative process to articulate a clear brand strategy, messaging and design approach, and to build consensus with the DLNA membership.

OUTCOME

The program helped DLNA regain momentum as a vehicle for achieving a common objective in delivering a better consumer experience. Key to that success was a deeper level of engagement with all stakeholders to embrace and support the organization and its mission.  By June 2015 the organization claimed membership of more than 200 companies, and over 25,000 device models had obtained “DLNA Certified” status.