Creating a new brand in trying times – embrace the fundamentals PART 3

Once you’ve created your brand, you must tell people about it – what it means, what’s different about it, the vision that it represents, its values and the promise it makes to its customers and employees. You will need to:

> craft compelling marketing messages that influence and satisfy audiences
> create a ‘look & feel’ that is distinctive and memorable
> develop a brand language
> create advertising that achieves deep emotional connections
> customise communications to your key audiences
> ensure all communications are consistent and recognisable

When it comes to branding consultants – you get what you pay for

Execution
Having put so much hard work into planning the brand and its fundamental components, it makes a lot of sense that your investment in the brand is protected by consistent and accurate application. Your brand consultant should produce brand guidelines that help users to understand the new brand and templates to ensure intelligent and consistent application. Rolling out the brand can include many applications such as stationery, website, presentations, signs, marketing collateral, advertising. This process needs to be planned and managed, particularly from a budget perspective, as it is only too easy to be caught out by the production costs for printing, web development and media placement.

Employee engagement 
Employees are the life blood of your business. Choose them well and treat them well. Above all else ensure they fully understand the brand – what it is, what it means, what it stands for, the promise it makes, its values, vision, what you hope for it to achieve and the role your employees play in its success. If they are in customer facing roles, it is critical that they are able to embrace the brand and communicate its benefits clearly, succinctly and with real enthusiasm.

Brands need constant management and refinement

Monitor performance 
The launch of your new brand is only the beginning. Regularly monitor and assess its performance against the criteria established at the start of the brand building project. Also measure it against the performance of recognised high performing competitor brands. Measurement must be internal as well as external – find out how engaged your employees are with the brand and how well they are communicating its benefits to customers. Remember that when it comes to employees, regular communication is a must if you want to inspire them and retain them. 

I firmly believe a new breed of innovative brands will start to appear in 2009, inspired by fast moving, innovative and committed entrepreneurs with smart ideas to leverage opportunities in changing markets and with new visions for the future. Established brands will suffer as they try to adapt firstly to the challenging conditions afflicting the markets and then again as they manoeuvre to respond to recovering markets. My crystal ball says change will happen in Q3 2009. I guess that gives you 6 months to make your move.

Tony Heywood is an international branding consultant and founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.

View some of Heywood’s work on www.heywood.com.au

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