Here is an example of that from Martin Lindstrom:

…branding is much more than developing a familiar consumer image.

I realized a couple of years ago, when one of my colleagues was asked by a major U.S. airline to write a standard announcement to be used by the airline’s captains, that many operational elements, as well as deliberate promotional strategies, are all integral to branding and the establishment of image and identity.

The speech was carefully composed incorporating the advice of a psychologist and a marketing expert, and the writing of one of the country’s best copywriters. The aim was to achieve an announcement that would carry the airline’s image message to the passenger, just as the company’s logo did. This event made me realize the full potential of branding: the 360 degrees that I briefly discussed last week. And 360-degree branding is everything.

Full article here.

Related posts:

1. How to Create a Logo Ideally, your company logo enhances potential customers and partners' crucial...
2. Animal Planet Logo Change You might consider me very late on this, and in...
3. Logo And Slogan – Key Elements of Brand Positioning Interesting article approaching the use of visual identity and positioning...

When analyzing your current brand situation there are three elements that should be taken in consideration:

• A. Where is your brand at the moment? – how’s your brand perceived by your audience. Where you stand in the eyes and minds of your stakeholders. This is your Brand Image.
• B. Where do you want it to be? how do you want it to be perceived. There might be some surprises in making the differences between how you wish your brand to be perceived and how it is actually happening. And this is Brand Identity.
• C. What are you communicating? What are you actually doing to move from point A to point B. What part of your brand identity you actually communicate to your audience. What is the value you communicate, how do you do it. How do you translate your identity into valuable propositions for your audience. And this is Brand Position.

We should keep in mind that the target audience for your brand should be either your current customers or potential new ones, your employees, your partners etc. You should carefully consider appropriate ways to communicate with each of them in order to have a message that converge to your brand identity.

Since you have to start with the final purpose in mind you should, first of all, correctly have a clear vision of what do you want your brand to be. How do you want it to be perceived? Defining a brand identity should be step one. In his “Building Strong Brands” book, David A. Aaker identifies four traps you can get into when you approach the development of the brand identity:

1. The Brand Image Trap

The brand image trap comes up when the brand image becomes the brand identity rather than just one input to be considered. Creating a brand identity is more than finding out what customers say they want. It must also reflect the soul and vision of the brand, what it hopes to achieve. While brand image is usually passive and looks to the past, brand identity should be active and look to the future.

2. The Brand position trap

The brand position trap occurs when the search for a brand identity becomes a search for a brand position, stimulated by a practical need to provide objectives to those developing the communication programs. The goal then becomes an advertising tag line rather than a brand identity. There is a need for a rich and complete understanding of what the brand stands for in order to create an identity.

3. The external perspective trap

Most of the brand strategists position the brand identity creation as an entirely external oriented process, something that gets the customers to buy. The external perspective trap occurs when firms fail to realize the role that a brand identity can play in helping an organization understand its basic values and purpose.t is hard to expect employees to make a vision happen if they do not understand and buy into that vision.

4. The product-attribute fixation trap

A brand is clearly more than a product or a service. Focusing your entire strategy and brand identity on the attributes of your product is an erroneous strategy, especially on a long-term.

Related posts:

1. How to Protect Your Brand Identity on Social Media? Whether you are a start-up or an already established business,...
2. 5 Dimensions of Brand Identity Brand identity is composed of various shares that trigger particular...
3. Identity, Message, Presentation – 3 Levels of Branding Identity, Message, and Presentation – this involves a more thoughtful...

1.   Presentation (basic look/feel) – this is less a true branding exercise, than an attempt to arrive at consistent visual standards. Often, this will involve a logo of some sort, and some graphical/color standards that are designed and enforced in all production (e.g., a stylized T&D with a red and grey scheme).
2.   Message and Presentation – this includes the above, plus the addition of some sort of defining and aspirational message that truly represents the aim of the group.
3.   Identity, Message, and Presentation – this involves a more thoughtful process of seeking to articulate the value, culture, outlook, and goals of the department, now and for the future, and crystallizing this in clear summary statements and messages. In this case, an exercise of “brand-storming” precedes development of messages and presentation element, since those are the outflow of identity definition.

More here.

Related posts:

1. 9 Responsibilities of a Marketing Department Rob Engelman is putting up a list of nine core...
2. Employees Branding Guidelines The brand-developing process centers on the messages the organization sends...
3. Corporate Identity and Six Steps to Improve It In a world full of confusion and contradictory messages, effective...

Authentic brands are not about marketing. They are not products. They live inside the company. And they are held and enacted of the people, by the people and for the people!

Just like the Declaration of Independence created the foundation of a nation, so does your brand act as the foundation of your company. Its principles are the framework for thought and action by everyone in the company. Without it there is no consistency, no alignment between what you say and what you do, no synchronicity between who you are inside and the way you present yourself outside.

You may ask—“well isn’t that the same as culture?” The answer is yes and no. Authentic brands are in many ways the identity of the company culture. They help that culture become visible. They also embody the values and purpose of the company, giving all these things a face and a voice that can be seen and heard by everyone the company touches. But especially your employees. As the people who most keenly impact the day-to-day beliefs and actions of the company it is constantly amazing how little they are considered when brand is discussed.

It is employees who show the brand to be true or not. Authentic brands live or die with the people in the organization. If they don’t believe the brand, if they don’t feel it is their cause, no campaign or change program on earth will help it succeed. Authentic brands feel natural. There is no need to “educate” the employees—they feel it immediately. There is no need to launch the “new” brand on your unsuspecting customers—they have known it for years. When you are doing it day in and day out, saying it becomes almost superfluous.

This is exactly why you should want to find your authentic brand. Just imagine a brand that is enduring, that lasts beyond the next ad cycle, that is sustaining and sustainable, that feeds the soul of your company and makes the whole stronger. Imagine a brand that doesn’t cause disharmony inside your company, that doesn’t cause friction with the way you already do things.

This is an authentic brand!

Read the full Michael Hogan’s manifesto: We Need a New Word for Brand (600kb PDF file).

Related posts:

1. Defining Branding While discussing earlier about the concept of branding and how...

This is a brand which, through a sea-change in its culture and mental set, is staking everything on a speedy, ongoing, renewal of its products, its technological research, the quality of its design and a new constructive relationship with customers. This new-found philosophy has already generated the Panda, Croma, Grande Punto, and Fiat Sedici and will shortly give birth to the Nuova Bravo.

So a new identity, represented symbolically by the new logo through the retrieval of the colour red and the shield as central element, features that characterised Fiat logos up to the ‘Sixties; and through certain formal aspects, the three-dimensional nature of the logo and colour, which suggest an idea of advanced technology, of Italian design, of dynamism and of marked individuality.

says the official press release of the company.

Related posts:

1. 5 Things to Consider When Designing a Logo The logo is the visual representation of everything your company...
2. What is the real worth of your logo? Logo designing is that part of branding which may cost...
3. (Just) Logo Is Not Branding branding is more than that. Actually if you are...

Every day we are bombarded by millions of messages. They’re everywhere, from print media to highway billboards, local supermarkets, public phone booths, our mailboxes, radios and television sets.

Add to that the explosive growth of the internet and the new communication opportunities this medium presents, and today’s business owner or manager has a near-impossible task at hand; making his or her message stand out among the noise generated by others.

Next the article is presenting the 5 key strategies for a competitive visual identity (logo) as the first of the two crucial components of branding:

1. Be unique
2. Instantly communicate the nature of the business, product, or service.
3. Be appealing to the target audience
4. Be able to withstand the test of time
5. Be able to work in context of all potential communications’ media

The second and equally important component of branding is a verbal one. It is often referred to as a slogan, tagline or a positioning statement.

1. Be as unique as the company logo
2. Be brief and memorable
3. Be honest

Read more here.

Related posts:

1. 6 Basic Qualitites of Brand Positioning The right positioning incorporates strong values and differentiators that are...
2. Key Brand Elements There were probably said before, one way or another all...
3. Positioning – what’s new? Since we discussed earlier that positioning is one key element...

The strategy is set. You clearly know who you are, you’ve decided on your brand difference, you’ve found folks who want what you have, and you’ve mapped out the great experience you will deliver. Now you must employ the big brand bang and let your message resonate through every point of market contact.

The next step in building your brand is tactical. What specific weapons are you going to launch, at whom, and with what frequency? How will you be heard, noticed, and remembered in a crowded, chaotic playing field, possibly working with less money than your competitors? I refer to this engine as ‘‘speaking loudly even when you whisper,’’ by which I mean making sure that even your smallest effort is on target, relevant, and working to build the brand.

Tactic 1: Visual Identity

The footprint of a brand—your corporate identity, graphic system, or visual voice—can take your brand many good places. It can also head you straight into a wall if it does not accurately project what the brand is and consistently stick to the story.

Tactic 2: Advertising

Advertising can be used to generate leads, sell product, advocate beliefs, persuade, calm unrest, and build brands. Advertising is the act of paying to showcase a message, and more. Advertising gives the brand builder a high-speed lane to the market. On the other hand, it is not immune to falling trees, lightning, bad weather, careless drivers, or an occasional competitor with wings. Smart advertising can fertilize the brand soil and aid in the brand’s growth.

Tactic 3: Brand Partnerships

Sometimes two brands are better than one. Collaboration with other brands, vendors, and distribution channels not only adds firepower and reduces costs, but it ultimately can strengthen a brand.

Partnerships can be as simple as two brands co-hosting an event or as formal as an agreement involving new selling channels, co-op ad spending, joint research, and licensing contracts. When choosing any brand partner, you should adhere to an established set of guidelines that complement your brand and meet business goals.

Tactic 4: Media Relations

Twenty-four-hour news, free-flowing information, and breaking reports offer vast opportunities to get your brand message out with an added layer of authority and third-party endorsement. Despite the cynics, the media has immense influence on the market.

Organizations that don’t take full advantage of this powerful vehicle will miss sales, stature, and a substantial brand bang.

Tactic 5: Community Relations

Community relations encompasses any niche community where having a strong positive relationship is important and valuable to the brand and the market you serve. For many organizations, this includes your category industry and nonprofit interests.

Tactic 6: Sales Promotions/Events

Promotions are any activities that stimulate purchasing. Promotions can work well in both consumer markets and the business-to-business space if planned and executed correctly. A great sales promotion can launch new products, reintroduce new and improved ones, clean out an old line or inventory, synergize co-brands, cross-sell among product lines, arouse loyalty, and entice first-time sampling or trial purchases.

Tactic 7: Customer Service

Serving customers seems like a simple task, yet many savvy business leaders are blind to the huge service cracks in their business. A crack in service is extremely dangerous. One too many rude encounters, another insensitive act, or a downright bitter battle, and your customer will not only make you history, but his rage can spread like wildfire and burn up even the best brand.

Tactic 8: Sales

Selling with brand in hand shortens the distance to the finish line. Selling today is no cakewalk. New products, trillions of choices, and floods of options surround us. Pressure is high, competition is everywhere, and the economy is faltering. So what. Quit your whining. Add some brand to your sales arsenal, and the process gets easier and more effective.

Tactic 9: The Environment and Merchandising

Visual seduction is not just for retailers. Merchandising and environmental branding needs more respect. Once thought of as merely decorative displays or point-of-purchase sale stimulators, today merchandising and the environment are a significant brand-building tactic.

Tactic 10: Online

Building a brand, one thousand clicks at a time: Online technology has catapulted the brand like no other tactic. The impact on all business sectors and models is immense. Small companies can be global. Virtual stores can operate without inventory. Time to market is condensed to a warp speed, and the customer has more options and choices than ever before. As with every new horizon, there lie vast opportunities and difficult challenges

Tactic 11: Alternative and Buzz Activities

Guerrilla or alternative marketing has no rules. The more you can get away with, the better. Such campaigns are nontraditional. They disrupt and surprise. They can be crazy, irreverent, or bizarre, and many times they are extremely potent and effective for a lot less money than the ordinary campaigns

No related posts.

Lacoste has coming roaring back from obscurity to become one of the hottest sports/apparel brands around. The company’s US sales grew in the US of 1000% in 5 years. Not bad for a brand that was once languishing under General Mills’s ownership.

What can other brands learn from Lacoste’s comeback?

1. History Can Be Made Relevant to Today
2. If You Have an Iconic Identity, Use It
3. Seize Relevant Trends
4. Don’t Be Scared to Innovate
5. Patience Pays
6. Scarcity Adds Value

Read the full InfluxStyle article: 6 Reasons Behind a Brand Comeback- Learning From Lacoste

No related posts.