Essential requirements for a successful brand – PART 1

A strong brand is an essential contributor to a company’s success. Consequently my company Heywood Innovation encounters many companies who are eager to further their understanding of what branding is and what it can achieve for them. No two companies encounter exactly the same challenges and opportunities. This requires of a dedicated branding consultancy like Heywood Innovation an in-depth understanding of your business and what will influence the future success of your brand. The following are key influencers of a corporate brand’s success.

DISCOVERY
Discover the real you
The first stage in any branding project is to understand what your present brand is, what it is capable of becoming and what it can achieve. To source this information we engage your team with our facilitated TeamPlan process that we employ to enormous effect to focus group thinking, ‘cut through the clutter’, develop ideas and enable the team to take ownership of the brand’s direction.
>    provides accurate information on your present situation
>    helps gain insight to what can be achieved
>     ensures the branding team head in the right direction

FUTURE VISION
What you hope to become and to achieve
Essential to the success of your brand is a powerful vision for the future. Without this there are no clear objectives for the brand to work towards and no identifiable goals to achieve. We work with company leaders to create, manage and implement long term vision for their brands. Jointly we develop an achievable vision and bring it to life by visualising it and creating innovative ways of communicating it to your audiences.
>    understand how you see the future of your company and its industry
>    identify opportunities and threats that might impair the vision
>    discover your organisation’s core assets and competencies
>    make it a powerful and passionate story that permeates your organisation

WHAT’S YOUR NAME?
The most important brand element
A name is the one element in branding that you hope never to change. It must reflect your company’s personality and its core brand values. In a world inundated with names, yours must be differentiated from competitors and truly memorable. The opening up of global markets means that your company name and those of your products and services must transcend cultural and linguistic barriers. It must also be registerable as a trademark to protect your rights.
>    make your name distinctive and different
>    ensure it is easily pronounced and understood by your key audiences
>    ensure it has no negative connotations in other cultures and languages
>    register it to protect your intellectual property rights

KEY BRAND DRIVER
The heart of your brand
Deep within your brand lies a quality, a belief, a differentiator that is central to its success. The one thing that drives your business forward, that your competitors cannot match. Why is it essential to identify your brand’s driver? To be successful a brand needs to be differentiated from all others and hold a perception in the minds of its audiences that it is the only one that can satisfy their needs. Ideally their perception should be based on one clear and endearing aspect of your brand that stands head and shoulders above those of all competitors.
>    one clear and endearing aspect of your brand
>    helps differentiate your brand
>    helps build a positive perception of your brand in your audiences’ minds

IT'S A LONG TERM PLAN
An investment with interest
Corporate branding doesn’t happen overnight. It’s unlikely that you will gain the total benefits of a new brand within 12 months. Look at it as a minimum three year programme to establish the brand, ensure it addresses the objectives of your future vision, nurture it, gain feedback, refine it and monitor its performance. Brands grow and must respond to ongoing external and internal forces. Adjustment and refinement are a necessity. Put in place guidelines to ensure that the agreed direction is followed and the brand is consistently applied.
>    results don’t happen overnight
>    determine performance criteria
>    monitor and test
>    be prepared to adjust and refine


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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Brand intelligence. How to take the risk out of brand decision making.

Being in the branding business is full of risks. The biggest one at the moment is getting paid. And that’s after you’ve been to hell and back trying to win the job in the first place. Seriously, some people in this business take big risks with their clients’ reputations and livelihoods by prescribing ‘solutions’ founded on ‘gut feel’, the direction of the wind, the day of the month, the alcohol content in their bloodstream and sometimes the patterns of tea leaves in the bottom of their cup. Sometimes it just makes you cringe when you witness a client happy to cut corners, rely on an expert’s opinion, go for the cheapest option and neither they nor the brand ‘expert’ have a clue what’s really inside the heads of their customers, employees, shareholders, suppliers and the people who clean the offices. And sometimes the Board neither. There’s a fatal streak in many clients spawned from a level of confidence that ‘we know what we’re doing’, ‘we’ve been there before and it came out alright’ and ‘the tea leaves never lie’. A perverse need to take risks and enjoy the thrills, usually at the expense of someone else’s money, job, reputation or company.

The more intelligent companies realise that you need to get inside the heads of your various communities, the people who really matter – on the inside and on the outside – who are the life blood that keeps the business rolling. What are they thinking right now? And here’s where deep psychoanalysis will reveal your inner fears. Do they like me? Do they fear me? Do they think I don’t know my job? Will they laugh when I open my mouth to speak? Do they think I’m a dangerous risk taker at the reins of the business who never researches before making a decision that may impact on the wellbeing and future of the business? No, it’s not you we want to know about, it’s them. We’ll deal with you and your innermost fears later. It’s about the customers who love your brand. Those who hate it. Those employees who would go to the ends of the earth to work for you and dedicate their life to you. Those who are disengaged by the risky world around them. Those with little faith in the future. Those who think your vision pierces their very soul. Those who don’t work for you but wish they could. Those who speak volumes about you at every opportunity. Those who give you home baked cookies for your birthday. What do they think right now? Are they for you or against you, or simply don’t care? You have to find out. What a wealth of insight and knowledge lies so near at hand. A mass of ideas that could form the blueprint for brand transformation and success. And how many get to do this? Not many. In the words of motivational speaker and philosopher Jim Rohn... “Some do, some don’t”. It’s up to you whether you enjoy the risky stuff. Throw the dice and hope for the best. Be the big shot. On the other hand it makes a lot more sense to commission an online survey – of your customers, employees, shareholders and suppliers. They only cost a few thousand dollars. Look upon it as an insurance policy for the future. How much is your brand worth by comparison? Better find out. Start here. Right now. And tell that ‘expert’ to get lost. You’ve got more intelligent things to do.


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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All part of the service

Service brands require the services (!) of employer branding more than product brands. After all, service brands are people centric. They rely on people to be always giving of their best – customers who interact with employees see that person as being truly representative of the brand. If that person is offering less than great service, let’s say they’re having a bad hair day, their favourite team just lost or their car just broke down, then there is a likelihood that they will not be truly living and expressing the brand. And it only takes one bad service experience to lose that customer for life.

Customers can therefore have very different experiences with a service brand. If the performance isn’t consistent or fails to live up to the customer’s expectations of what great service should be, the prospects for customer satisfaction and future sales through word of mouth are at risk.

Service-based organisations need to do a more thorough job when it comes to communicating with and engaging their employees. Brand managers in particular are beginning to change their traditional belief system that ‘the customer is always king’ to one where ‘if we don’t value our employees and keep them engaged and motivated, we’ll never have customers in the first place’. Get it right on the inside first before you tackle the outside.

Sadly bad service is all around us. Websites that don’t work. Telephone sales people that annoy. Transport without a timetable. Restaurants that don’t care. Banks that treat you like a number which is never number one. The financial downturn however is teaching companies the hard way that a service company has to offer exceptional service. Many of those that offered only average service are no longer with us.

Change has made companies realise that ‘our staff are essential to the success of our brand and our ability to attract and retain happy and loyal customers’. Conversely ‘a successful brand is essential to our ability to atttract and retain happy and loyal employees’.

Company profits going backwards are stimulating more internal reviews to make staff realise what exceptional service really is and how to achieve it. Companies must ensure that their employees understand what their brand stands for, what its competitive benefits are and how to articulate them to customers, and deliver a compelling proposition of what the brand can mean to that customer.

Remember. Every employee action and everything they say reflects on the brand.


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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Vale One Centre and Billy Blue

The past few weeks have witnessed the passing of two Sydney-based creative icons.

One Centre was a relatively recent addition to the Australian creative scene, distinguished by a strong desire to create and grow brands on a global scale and seemingly driven with great passion. Rapid growth, stellar ambitions and a craving to employ the cream of Australia’s available creative talent despite the continuing financial gloom, sounded an ominous warning to those who have experienced previous downturns. It is all too easy to criticise those businesses that have tried and not succeeded. One Centre however should be both a warning and an inspiration to all creative businesses of the difficulties that can befall the bold and the brave, but also what can be achieved with high ambition and vision underpinned by a talented team. The business is presently in administration and waiting for a cashed up suitor to run the ruler over the figures and the prospects. I wish them well.

The well known and well respected creative icon Billy Blue is closing its doors after what must be 30 years in business. When I first arrived in Sydney in 1980 from recession-torn England and willingly immersed myself in vibrant new surroundings, I noticed one day a beautifully designed free magazine called Billy Blue, the likes of which I had never seen before. Its wide acceptance, high recognition and ability to integrate fine words and inspired design, succeeded in establishing the name and spawned the Billy Blue empire, comprising creative business, design school and hotel school. What a great shame it has gone. An important chapter in Sydney creative culture has been consigned to the history pages. My regards to all therein who have pushed forward Australian design boundaries. Thank you for the inspiration.

A blight on this recession. May it end soon.


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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Wow, Richard Murdoch gets it wrong!

Saatchi & Saatchi get’s it right. Neil Shoebridge gains a few column inches but not a lot of credibility. In that hallowed journal the Australian Fin Review today it has been reported by the abovementioned scribbler that Rupert Murdoch, in a moment of weakness while reporting a 47% operating slump in his empire’s operating income, proclaimed that “the worst is over”. Yes, he was referring to the global financial calamity. Really, as if any self respecting business owner would take any heed of that, never mind global chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi Kevin Roberts as a restaurant critic. Kev goes on to say quite modestly, in a moment of creative and intellectual muscle flexing, that in his talks with chief executives in the US and the UK, 2010 will be another tough year. That must have been a real tricky one to figure out. I guess that’s headline news for many people. Darn it! And I thought I could go out and celebrate in January. Guess that’s another wasted year. Kev, how could you ruin it for so many people. Just when we’d built up some real confidence. You must be a real party pooper from way back. And then he gets on his soap box and astonishes us all with his concept of ‘winning ugly together (with clients)’. This boy just doesn’t give up. Fresh from his famed Lovemarks (really!) concept where brands have replaced women as the object of men’s desires (and vice versa), ‘winning ugly’ naturally requires companies to give up their relationships with all other ad agencies apart from good ol’ S&S and guess what? Yes you got it! They’re obliged to transfer all business to S&S. Just think what this guy could achieve selling Chryslers in up state Noo Joysey right now. With love marks on the dashboard and a ‘Let’s get ugly together’ sign on the back seat... who knows what may happen.


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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Corporate brand used as an endorsement

In a competitive marketplace consumers need reassurance that the product they are about to purchase has high levels of quality and reliability. Sometimes the product brand needs a little extra support to ensure these demands are met. This little extra can come in the form of corporate endorsement where the strength of the corporate brand is leveraged to support and enhance the product brand. The two appear together, on the product, on packaging and in advertising. The corporate brand as a result is given more exposure than it normally would have.

What is the down side? What if the product bombs? The corporate brand may be tarnished for some time.
Virgin has used the corporate brand name across its entire product portfolio. The much publicised problems relating to its rail franchise could very well have tarnished the Virgin brand. The fact that it hasn’t is testament to the strength of the core brand.

Placing the corporate and product brands together allows the product brand to assume its own identity and positioning, but also source added strength from the corporate brand and its perceived qualities. This approach can help when a company wishes to introduce new products into a mature market, where it can be very difficult to gain penetration without the visual endorsement of a strong and credible corporate parental brand.    

Cadbury does this very well with its many confectionery products – Cadbury’s Creme Egg, Cadbury’s Bournville, Cadbury’s Roses, Cadbury’s Caramello where each product name has assumed the role of product brand.

In the case of Heinz the corporate name endorses product descriptors as opposed to product brands eg Heinz Baked Beans, Heinz Tomato Ketchup, Heinz Cream of Mushroom Soup etc.

What should be the visual size relationship between the two brands? This varies from one company to another depending on your objectives. Sometimes the corporate brand has equal prominence to the product name where the corporate brand is used very much as an identifier. Sometimes the corporate brand assumes a small size where it is used primarily as an endorsement.

Endorsement branding is increasingly used as a mechanism to integrate brand structure across country markets, providing a common element to unify product offerings. Sometimes different cultures, different consumer tastes and differing perception of the brands can dictate that the relationship must change from country to country.

A good example of this is leading coffee manufacturer Douwe Egbert with its ‘lady logo’ which appears on its coffee products worldwide. The size of the lady varies from country to country. The related positioning statement also changes so that in Spain the positioning emphasises coffee richness while in Holland, the association is with family values and comfort.

In conclusion, yes there can be considerable upside to corporate brand endorsement so long as you have confidence in the integrity of the product brand.

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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What value brands now?

Brand valuation companies like Interbrand must be rubbing their hands with glee. All those brand valuations they did in 2007 and 2008 don’t exactly count for very much in 2009. They have to start all over again. All but the fortunate few companies will be shadows of their former selves. Many of these would have paid substantial sums to protect themselves with the brand valuation ‘comforter’, this calculation of brand value using complex and often incomprehensible methodologies lying somewhere between science, accountancy, higher mathematics and astrology. Was this also meant to be a reliable guide as to how the company would fare in future months and years? If so, I guess it didn’t work. The future is as unpredictable as ever, as anyone in the creative business will tell you. After 30+ years in the business my experience has been that you’re lucky to be able to predict two weeks ahead. I guess that’s what makes it exciting, and not the most stable of career paths.

I digress. Brands also are unpredictable. Take Pacific Brands here in Australia. An iconic suite of Australian brands that can trace their origins back to 1893, whose products were spruiked by the likes of Pat Rafter and billionaire Sarah Murdoch – Berlei, King Gee, Yakka to name a few. 1,850 jobs slashed, 200 brands being sold off, manufacturing being transferred overseas, share price at record low. I wonder what the brand value was in 2008 and what it is right now? Get my drift? Brands go out of fashion particularly when price is an issue. In the case of Pacific Brands, its demise has been centred for many years around its inability to manufacture at a price that could compete with overseas manufacturers.

You’d like to think share price comes into the valuation equation. Let’s take good old Royal Bank of Scotland. Back in 2007 shares were cruising around £6.30. At the beginning of this year they were dredging the bottom at 20p.

Controversy can contribute to a decline in brand value. The Satyam brand, yet to recover from the ‘cooking the books’ controversy, has recently been revalued at 87.8% less than its 2008 FY valuation. Brands such as these remain valuable assets but presently are damaged and don’t reflect their true value.

Brands have gotten onto companies’ balance sheets mainly through the efforts of accountants and some branding agencies. Complex formulae have been devised to demonstrate in a logical and rational way that brand value can stand up and be scrutinised along with all the other company assets. The brand is thereby given credibility in financial circles and also with shareholders, who now have something else to ponder over their tea and biscuit at the AGM.

Despite my critical stance, brand valuation does mean a great deal to those brands who maintain a high profile with the buying public eg airlines, fashion labels and alcoholic beverages. Here the brand is by far the most significant asset – as in the case of Pacific Brands, with outdated factories, machinery and manufacturing processes that have little value in the potential fire sale to come. But the brands can live on, providing they fall into safe hands who can revitalise and rebuild brand value.

At the end of the day real brand value is simply calculated as the amount the market will reasonably pay for the brand. There are plenty of examples of companies who have been sold for an amount far in excess of their accepted valuation, either because the purchaser could see new and better ways to leverage the asset or because they made a monumental cock-up.

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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