It’s time to turn-back to tune-in. People are looking for more ways to enjoy life again, simply. Families are finding the importance of sitting down to dinner (this time without cell-phones and remote controls), people are searching for vacation getaways where there is limited phone reception and internet, people want to learn about the past – hence sites like ancestry.com and the show ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ (in its second season).

Classic brands are taking note and tapping into this emotional yearning from consumers. Of course, this only works with brands that ‘we’ grew up with. With the use of throwback packaging, these brands are triggering consumers to think about the past and reminisce about the ‘good ‘ol days,’ even if it was just 10, 15 or 20 years ago.

At Toniq, we believe this trend will continue to grow and be applied across more consumer segments like fashion, food and beverage, entertainment, and even technology. Keep an eye on companies like Restoration Hardware (which is enjoying a comeback), Chevy (yes, that’s how Chevrolet wants you to refer to the iconic brand), LL Bean, Converse and Keds (collaborating with hip new brands to bring the classic footwear to a new and younger audience), and lookout for more shows like Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire.

Here in the US, it’s the return to classic Americana.

This is a Guest Post by Cheryl Swanson. Ms. Swanson founded Toniq (www.Toniq.com) (1999) after leading several design firms to world-class status with her emotions-based, visual approach to brand strategy development. At Toniq, she continues to evolve her strategic expertise by seeking new ways to connect with consumers.

Swanson’s years of trend tracking, design management and research have coalesced in a theory of “Brand Effervescence (TM)” an innovative approach to brand building. This image-based approach is a synthesis of cultural anthropology, consumer trends research, marketing and design, and a study of the psychology of symbolism and color.

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While the summed importance of branding (of the carrier and the phone) in purchasing decision seems to remain constant at a total of 59% it is worth noticing that 19 percent of customers cite the type or brand of cell phone as a key factor during the initial process of selecting a wireless service, up from 11 percent in 2004. While the brand of wireless provider is still the most popular reason influencing the initial selection process, it has decreased significantly in importance, down 8 percentage points from 2004 to 40 percent in 2006.

Other key factors that influence the initial selection process are price/promotion (29%) and retail location (12%).

While this strategy is adopted due to high competition in the field, I honestly don’t find it sustainable on the long term because promoting the cell phone instead of the service plan and the carrier that provides that service may lead to sales growth in the short term, but it can potentially have a negative long term impact with higher churn rates.

The study actually shows this. As such, among customers who are most influenced by the cell phone brand, the likelihood of switching carriers in the next 12-month period is 60 percent higher than among customers who cite the brand of the wireless provider as their key factor in the selection process.

On the other hand study shows that among major wireless carrier-owned retail stores, T-Mobile ranks highest in customer satisfaction for a fourth consecutive reporting period. T-Mobile receives particularly high ratings in all four factors that determine overall satisfaction. T-Mobile is followed in the rankings by Verizon Wireless and Alltel, respectively.

Volume 2 of the 2006 Wireless Retail Sales Satisfaction Study is based on experiences reported by 7,530 wireless users who completed a retail sales transaction within six months prior to being surveyed. The results are from the two most recent reporting waves, which were conducted in April and July 2006. More about the study here.

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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

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Secondly, innovation is a major driver of growth and profitability, though it may work against the brand if it does not align with the core tenets of the brand.

Thirdly, innovation is a core brand strategy and must be an integral part of the brand concept.

Studies have shown that the new forms of innovation driving today’s companies are based on an intimate understanding of consumer culture. Unquestionably a deep understanding of consumers and a broader awareness of trends fuel inspiration and creativity – and better position companies to balance innovation risk and opportunity.

Innovative companies possess four distinct cultural characteristics:

Inclusiveness
Innovation flourishes through well directed collaboration, knowledge sharing and the availability of information.Innovative companies encourage the flow of ideas and information in both horizontal and vertical directions throughout their organizations.

Flexibility
Apart from being highly innovative internally, innovative companies are equally adept at identifying useful or disruptive innovation on the outside. They are more likely to involve external partners and pursue their strategic priorities through alliances, mergers, acquisitions or outsourcing, even if it means working with competitors

Structured approach
Most innovative companies have specific initiatives in place to capture creative concepts and promote innovation. They realize that innovation is less about nurturing solitary genius than about encouraging a whole culture of innovation, so that new ideas are constantly surfacing and being tested, while older ideas are kept alive to be adapted to new circumstances.

Strategic leadership
Finally, the most important factor without which an innovative culture can never flourish is leadership. Every innovative brand has a solid foundation built by good leadership. Successful leadership in business requires clear communication of the vision to subordinates in order to direct a company towards chosen goals.

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Mr. Wreden takes ambitious steps in explaining the significance of “sustainability” in customer relationships and the value of measuring marketing spending to establish accountability and profitability. Sustainability is critical, since by some estimates 80-95 per cent of products fail to become brands, he writes. Sustainability is also important because more than two-thirds of purchases are one-off buys. Only a brand focused on sustainability will take the steps that lead to second, third or even a lifetime of purchases.

ProfitBrand amplifies this concept, known in direct-marketing circles as the true value of a brand: “A brand is not built by acquiring customers; it is built by keeping them,” he writes. “Most competitive product advantages can be duplicated. The one advantage that cannot be duplicated is customer relationships.” Branding strategies that aim to make a company No. 1 in the market, for example, are doomed to failure, Mr. Wreden argues. That’s because brand sustainability can be achieved only on the basis of relationships formed on customer terms, not company terms.

Read the full review of the book here. (free registration required).

Other leading business books selected by the editors at Strategy + Business in marketing categories include:

• All Marketers Are Liars : The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World, by Seth Godin
• Brand Hijack : Marketing Without Marketing, by Alex Wipperfürth
• How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market, by Gerald Zaltman

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This is the caption phrase of a recently released Interbrand white paper on The Strategy for Chinese Brands.

This paper, the first in a series of two, examines this “Chinese Brand Strategy,” current perception issues, lessons from the best global brands, and the impact of leading Chinese brands. A second paper will examine Chinese what brands must do to be globally successful and how entrenched players must respond to the increasing competition.

Many Chinese brands, says the study, are quickly embracing practices common for the best global brands:

Recognition

Well-performing brands enjoy strong awareness among consumers and opinion leaders. These brands lead their industry or industries. This type of recognition represents the nexus of perception and reality, enabling brands to rapidly establish credibility in new markets.

Consistency

These brands achieve a high degree of consistency in visual, verbal, sonic and tactile identity across geographies. They deliver a consistent customer experience worldwide, often supported by an integrated global marketing effort.

Emotion

A brand is not a brand unless it competes along emotional dimensions. It must symbolize a promis that people believe can be delivered and one they desire to be part of. Through emotion, brands can achieve the loyalty of consumers by tapping into human values and aspirations that cut across cultural differences.

Uniqueness

Great brands represent great ideas. These brands express a unique position to all internal and external audiences. They effectively use all elements in the communications mix to position within and across international markets.

Adaptability

Global brands must respect local needs, wants and tastes. These brands adapt to the local marketplace while fulfilling a global mission.

Management

The organization’s senior leadership must champion the brand, ideally with the CEO leading the initiative. A leader’s continual articulation of the brand philosophy and the brand’s view of the world is meant to give the business strategy a recognizable face. The commitment is crucial, allowing for a unique positioning that transcends local idiosyncrasies and appeals to a universal aspect of human nature and experience.

Get the full report from Bnet

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The study identifies the ten brands in the United States that have made the greatest percentage gains in business value as a result of superb brand strategy and execution over the three-year period, from 2001-2004.

The list includes a wide range of consumer and business-to-business brands, as well as mono- and sub-brands.

Landor’s Breakaway Brands Study represents a significantly different approach from the more traditional published brand rankings which tend to categorize brands by size or popularity. Instead, our study quantitatively values measurable improvement in brand strength over three years,

said Hayes Roth, Vice President, Worldwide Marketing and Business Development for Landor.

While the study includes popular brands, like Google and iPod, it also recognizes newer brands that are still carving a niche for themselves, like LeapFrog and Sierra Mist, as well as old favorites, such as Eggo and Gerber, that have successfully revitalized their franchises through well conceived and executed strategies. The study demonstrates that building strong brands is vital to virtually any organization, regardless of its size or industry.

The study identifies the following ten Breakaway Brands:

• Google — Internet
• LeapFrog — Educational Toys
• Sony Cyber-shot — Digital Cameras
• Sierra Mist — Soft Drinks
• Subway — Quick Serve Restaurants
• BP — Oil & Petroleum
• DeWalt — Power Tools
• iPod — Consumer Electronics
• Eggo — Packaged Foods
• Gerber — Baby Foods

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Branding as a topic today is filled with clichés and buzzwords that can sometimes trivialize the real advantage of having a good brand. A brand is more than just hype communicated with heavy spending on advertising and promotion. That just creates awareness, which helps but being well known isn’t enough.

Creating desire

First step in setting-up a brand strategy focused on business growth is to create a brand that has the ability to turn need into desire. With strong brands, customers don’t just want to buy from you, they want to have a relationship with you.

Value proposition

A brand involves a focused strategy requiring action. It encompasses what you do and how you behave as an entire organization to create value for your customers beyond product and price. The business world today is highly competitive and relatively transparent, with greater access to information making it easier for customers to make comparisons. The value-added experiences a company provides to its customers — from service to delivery, or from customization to relationships — all are brought to focus and unified through the brand.

Customer-driven

Strong brands help simplify customer choice and guide prospects to your products. They are a powerful way of differentiating your company or products and building strong relationships with ever more demanding customers. This is more critical today as the market has become increasingly customer-driven, and the demand economy is predicated more on customer needs than manufacturing capabilities.

In fact, the branding process should start by assessing your customers, not your products. By fully understanding your customers, you can make your brand more relevant and valuable to them.

Branding also gives you a better opportunity to segment customers into higher-value opportunities that might be more receptive to your brand message. The more successful you are at adding value for customers, the greater your ability will be to move decision making away from price, and to charge potentially higher prices.

Growth strategy

Above all else, branding should help a company gain more customers, make customers more loyal, and impel them to recommend you to others. It should increase sales over the long term.

Branding is a corporate strategy, not a marketing initiative. It has to be managed daily to be effective, and must be sustained to create long-term value. Creating, developing and maintaining a strong brand requires focus, commitment, and passion throughout the organization.

A strong brand requires:

• Understanding of customers needs, wants, behavior
• Commitment from the top to make the brand a corporate strategy
• Focus of the entire organization on building and sustaining the brand
• Consistency of the brand story across all customer touchpoints
• Passion of all employees to believe in the brand and support it daily

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