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
Share on Facebook
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
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
Share on Facebook
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
Share on Facebook
Thursday, April 09, 2009
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
Share on Facebook
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
Share on Facebook
Monday, April 06, 2009
Brand changing times
Yes, it’s getting really ugly out there. We all thought in our ignorance that this was just a passing phase, that a modest readjustment down on windy Wall Street was all it needed to fix a bit of greed and arrogance. Maybe just a six month thing, then we’d be back cruising the car show rooms, flocking to the open houses and living the social life fantastic. We got suckered in big time. This is for real. Real hurt. Reality do without. The beer ran out and the pub’s gone. Some people haven’t had to 'do without' before in their lives. I tell you there’s nothing like deprivation to bring out the best and worst in people. Truth is there’s no money left. This is change we can really believe in, like the man said. Bankers are copping the flack at the G20 meeting in London. Not a good time to wear a suit in the city. Empty bottle on the bowler time. A good time though for the anarchists to come out of hiding and flex their intellectual muscles with a brick or two. I digress. Who’d want to be in retail? Even retail king Gerry Harvey is crying over his unsold LCD screens and TomToms. The simple formula is: consumers don’t spend, so companies don’t spend. And if you’re in the service industry that sucks. Companies aren’t spending because they have no cash. It’s a consumers paradise if you have a bit of that fondly remembered stuff called cash lying around. Retailers will bite your arm off. Blood on the pavements. I never thought I’d see the day when shop windows would display loud signage proclaiming sales discounts of more than 50%... but they’re out there. Just like the mens fashion outlets, our trousers really are down. All this deprivation has heralded the Age of Big Emotional engagement. Brands have to work hard big time. They really do have to get inside your head and press those emotion buttons like never before. Big attraction and big differentiation are the big requirements for the New Brands. Forget the soppy Lovemarks and posturing in new age restaurants in Heysham. This is Brand Reality time over a pint of Boddingtons in Blackpool. Cut the crap time for products. Truth rules. No more romantic nonsense courtesy of big budgets and head-in-the-clouds admen. Good honest products for a good honest price accompanied by good honest 'emotions penetrating' sales patter. Yes, consumers still want the fancy stuff on which to spend their recession shrivelled funds. But they don’t want a multi million dollar ad campaign assaulting their senses, desperately persuading them to buy it. Now you can really choose what you want in your own time. It’s time to reconsider our approach. Yes, it’s time to beat the competition if there is any left, with innovative and cost-effective ideas to get inside consumers’ heads. It’s also a good time to get inside their heads anyway to find out what they’re thinking right now. Recessions can do strange things to consumer buying habits. What was good last year is now all stirred and shaken. It’s time to think differently. Tap into their present desires. Do they want more or less? Or more for less? Knowledge is king. The sobering thought is... get it wrong now and you won’t have a business left. Get it right and you’ll be laughing like never before. Recessions have a habit of spawning new brand heroes.
(with apologies to Kevin Roberts – he’s not a bad chap really for a north country man, just fell in with the wrong crowd)
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
Share on Facebook
(with apologies to Kevin Roberts – he’s not a bad chap really for a north country man, just fell in with the wrong crowd)
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
Share on Facebook
Friday, March 20, 2009
Car brands fail the crash test
Oh no, not more recession stuff! ‘Fraid so.
These are extraordinary times we are going through and a total contrast to the free spending, confident and carefree times we were enjoying only a year ago. Following are some chilling statistics regarding the state of the world’s auto brands mixed with a bit of crystal ball gazing.
I predicted in this blog before Christmas 2008 that Chrysler would become a big casualty and it looks increasingly as though my prediction will come true. The company lacks the ability to secure sufficient finance to guarantee a future beyond the first few months of 2009 and has few new models with which to secure an ‘exciting’ rating and win back buyer interest and respect for the brand. GM on the other hand may just be saved by its radical restructuring of recent months into four core brands, its more adventurous new model line up and last minute dash for credibility in the hybrid stakes.
So which other car brands are in strife? Hummer is up for sale. Daimler has a (worthless) 20% stake in Chrysler and is struggling to make money as a result of model succession issues and having no small engines. Smart is down to one model and is losing sales to the Fiat 500 and Toyota’s newly released iQ city car. GM’s German brand Opel may be forced to consider an alliance with BMW and Daimler. Aston Martin’s sales down 28% and Land Rover sales down 30% in 2008. Will BMW be forced to collaborate with its arch enemy Daimler or will it look to Italy? In Australia the gas guzzling Holden Monaro is no more. Lancia’s much vaunted UK launch has been cancelled. Luxury brand Maybach is to be killed off in 2012. The hi-performance Dodge Viper sports car brand is up for sale and unwanted. Honda’s much publicised $200m annual budget Formula 1 team is no more. And Tesla, one of the electric technology saviours, is delaying a much needed new model as it struggles to find $400m in new funding.
But wait, haven’t we been here before? Memories come flooding back from 2005 when MG Rover in the UK went to the wall crippled by funding issues, serious mismanagement, unwanted cars and terminal clashes with unions, which tarnished forever the once illustrious BMC and Leyland brands. To add insult to injury MG, that most loved of British sports car brands, is now in Chinese hands, owned by Nanjing Automobile for which the media is not predicting much success.
And what happened to all those other UK car brands that disappeared over the years? – AC, Alvis, Armstrong Siddeley, Austin Healey, Berkeley, Bond, Daimler, Gilbern, Hillman, Humber, Jensen, Jowett, Morris, Reliant, Riley, Singer, Sunbeam, TVR, Wolseley and many more...
So what does all this mean? For the car industry brands it heralds a potentially lengthy period of brand rationalisation:
> Model brands will disappear eg Viper (Dodge), Solstice (Pontiac), Monaro (Holden), Fairlane (Ford Australia)
> Manufacturer brand mergers and acquisitions eg Tata take over of Land Rover and Jaguar, Nanjing Automobile acquisition of MG, Porsche take over of VW, BMW-Daimler merger?, Chrysler-GM merger?
...and some may go to that big car yard in the sky eg Maybach, Chrysler?, MG?
What does this mean for branding consultants? Probably a lot of work to reinvent/reposition car manufacturers, power up the electric/hydrogen/fuel cell revolution; create new super economy city car sub-brands; define the newly expanding hybrid sector; put new spin on economy motoring, green credentials and the new ‘post combustion engine’ lifestyle era, and rush out and buy an expensive carbon fibre road racing bicycle.
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
Share on Facebook
These are extraordinary times we are going through and a total contrast to the free spending, confident and carefree times we were enjoying only a year ago. Following are some chilling statistics regarding the state of the world’s auto brands mixed with a bit of crystal ball gazing.
I predicted in this blog before Christmas 2008 that Chrysler would become a big casualty and it looks increasingly as though my prediction will come true. The company lacks the ability to secure sufficient finance to guarantee a future beyond the first few months of 2009 and has few new models with which to secure an ‘exciting’ rating and win back buyer interest and respect for the brand. GM on the other hand may just be saved by its radical restructuring of recent months into four core brands, its more adventurous new model line up and last minute dash for credibility in the hybrid stakes.
So which other car brands are in strife? Hummer is up for sale. Daimler has a (worthless) 20% stake in Chrysler and is struggling to make money as a result of model succession issues and having no small engines. Smart is down to one model and is losing sales to the Fiat 500 and Toyota’s newly released iQ city car. GM’s German brand Opel may be forced to consider an alliance with BMW and Daimler. Aston Martin’s sales down 28% and Land Rover sales down 30% in 2008. Will BMW be forced to collaborate with its arch enemy Daimler or will it look to Italy? In Australia the gas guzzling Holden Monaro is no more. Lancia’s much vaunted UK launch has been cancelled. Luxury brand Maybach is to be killed off in 2012. The hi-performance Dodge Viper sports car brand is up for sale and unwanted. Honda’s much publicised $200m annual budget Formula 1 team is no more. And Tesla, one of the electric technology saviours, is delaying a much needed new model as it struggles to find $400m in new funding.
But wait, haven’t we been here before? Memories come flooding back from 2005 when MG Rover in the UK went to the wall crippled by funding issues, serious mismanagement, unwanted cars and terminal clashes with unions, which tarnished forever the once illustrious BMC and Leyland brands. To add insult to injury MG, that most loved of British sports car brands, is now in Chinese hands, owned by Nanjing Automobile for which the media is not predicting much success.
And what happened to all those other UK car brands that disappeared over the years? – AC, Alvis, Armstrong Siddeley, Austin Healey, Berkeley, Bond, Daimler, Gilbern, Hillman, Humber, Jensen, Jowett, Morris, Reliant, Riley, Singer, Sunbeam, TVR, Wolseley and many more...
So what does all this mean? For the car industry brands it heralds a potentially lengthy period of brand rationalisation:
> Model brands will disappear eg Viper (Dodge), Solstice (Pontiac), Monaro (Holden), Fairlane (Ford Australia)
> Manufacturer brand mergers and acquisitions eg Tata take over of Land Rover and Jaguar, Nanjing Automobile acquisition of MG, Porsche take over of VW, BMW-Daimler merger?, Chrysler-GM merger?
...and some may go to that big car yard in the sky eg Maybach, Chrysler?, MG?
What does this mean for branding consultants? Probably a lot of work to reinvent/reposition car manufacturers, power up the electric/hydrogen/fuel cell revolution; create new super economy city car sub-brands; define the newly expanding hybrid sector; put new spin on economy motoring, green credentials and the new ‘post combustion engine’ lifestyle era, and rush out and buy an expensive carbon fibre road racing bicycle.
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
Share on Facebook
Friday, February 27, 2009
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
Share on Facebook
> 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
Share on Facebook
Friday, January 30, 2009
Creating a new brand in trying times – embrace the fundamentals PART 2
PART 2 of three blog posts
Tony Heywood is an international branding consultant and founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore
Plan from start to finish
Make sure right from the start that you are clear on the scope of the brand building project. Work with the branding consultant to plan the stages and establish the likely budget you will require to build the brand, market it, communicate it and manage it. This can vary significantly depending on the type and size of the business, and its objectives, products, services and locations. Work out a realistic and achievable schedule and determine performance criteria by which you will measure success once the brand is established and working for you.
Ensure you are very clear on the values and vision that underpin your brand
Discover who you want to be and how to get there
Working with the branding consultant you will be challenged with some fundamental questions relating to the objectives you have for the brand. Basically they need to discover the real you and determine whether your future plans are sound and achievable. Questions such as “What activities will the new business engage in now and in the foreseeable future?” “Have you researched the market to determine whether there is a need for your products and services?” “How different is your offer to those of your competitors?” “What perceptions do you believe customers will have of the business?” “What values and vision will drive the business?” “Do you have a name for the business – one that is distinctive and won’t infringe a competitor’s trade mark?”
Create your vision for the future
Without a bulletproof vision for the future, one that is achievable and sustainable, you will falter all the way to insolvency. All the great companies have a powerful, unique and passionate vision that permeates their entire organisation. Without one there are no clear objectives for the brand to work towards and no identifiable goals to achieve. It only achieves success when it is embraced by all employees and becomes inextricably linked to the brand.
The name is the most important element of the new brand
Everyone with whom you interact will refer to you by name. It is the one element you hope never to change. It must appeal to target audiences and be relevant to the nature of your business. The name you choose for a new fashion house for example, will be very different to that you would choose for a new accountancy firm. Remember that new names are very difficult to register, either as a company or as a URL for your website – there aren’t that many words left in the English language! Consider whether you will need to extend the name in the future. Can the name be extended to accommodate a complementary line of business? Can it be registered in another country in which you may want to operate?
Defining the brand
This is the process of determining the essence of your brand – identifying those characteristics that make it unique, attractive and able to generate positive perceptions in your customers that it is the only one that can satisfy their needs. These include personality, values, differentiators and more. To be successful, a new brand must be differentiated from all others and be easily recognised. The objective is to build a high level of brand awareness by creating an emotional attachment with customers and positioning in their minds that drives incontestable loyalty and sales success.
Creating a powerful ‘look & feel’
Your new brand must look unique and distinctive. Key elements of the brand must be created – logo, positioning statement, colours, imagery and brand language for later application into product packaging, marketing, communications and branded environments. First impressions are important but so is consistent application of the brand. Having a ‘look & feel’ for marketing material that bears little resemblance to the ‘look & feel’ of your website will get you nowhere. Audiences are increasingly looking for interactive experiences underpinned by compelling messages that bring them closer – physically and emotionally.
Tony Heywood is an international branding consultant, founder of Heywood Innovation in Australia, United Kingdom and India, and joint founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
View some of Heywood’s work on www.heywood.com.au
Share on Facebook
Tony Heywood is an international branding consultant and founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore
Plan from start to finish
Make sure right from the start that you are clear on the scope of the brand building project. Work with the branding consultant to plan the stages and establish the likely budget you will require to build the brand, market it, communicate it and manage it. This can vary significantly depending on the type and size of the business, and its objectives, products, services and locations. Work out a realistic and achievable schedule and determine performance criteria by which you will measure success once the brand is established and working for you.
Ensure you are very clear on the values and vision that underpin your brand
Discover who you want to be and how to get there
Working with the branding consultant you will be challenged with some fundamental questions relating to the objectives you have for the brand. Basically they need to discover the real you and determine whether your future plans are sound and achievable. Questions such as “What activities will the new business engage in now and in the foreseeable future?” “Have you researched the market to determine whether there is a need for your products and services?” “How different is your offer to those of your competitors?” “What perceptions do you believe customers will have of the business?” “What values and vision will drive the business?” “Do you have a name for the business – one that is distinctive and won’t infringe a competitor’s trade mark?”
Create your vision for the future
Without a bulletproof vision for the future, one that is achievable and sustainable, you will falter all the way to insolvency. All the great companies have a powerful, unique and passionate vision that permeates their entire organisation. Without one there are no clear objectives for the brand to work towards and no identifiable goals to achieve. It only achieves success when it is embraced by all employees and becomes inextricably linked to the brand.
The name is the most important element of the new brand
Everyone with whom you interact will refer to you by name. It is the one element you hope never to change. It must appeal to target audiences and be relevant to the nature of your business. The name you choose for a new fashion house for example, will be very different to that you would choose for a new accountancy firm. Remember that new names are very difficult to register, either as a company or as a URL for your website – there aren’t that many words left in the English language! Consider whether you will need to extend the name in the future. Can the name be extended to accommodate a complementary line of business? Can it be registered in another country in which you may want to operate?
Defining the brand
This is the process of determining the essence of your brand – identifying those characteristics that make it unique, attractive and able to generate positive perceptions in your customers that it is the only one that can satisfy their needs. These include personality, values, differentiators and more. To be successful, a new brand must be differentiated from all others and be easily recognised. The objective is to build a high level of brand awareness by creating an emotional attachment with customers and positioning in their minds that drives incontestable loyalty and sales success.
Creating a powerful ‘look & feel’
Your new brand must look unique and distinctive. Key elements of the brand must be created – logo, positioning statement, colours, imagery and brand language for later application into product packaging, marketing, communications and branded environments. First impressions are important but so is consistent application of the brand. Having a ‘look & feel’ for marketing material that bears little resemblance to the ‘look & feel’ of your website will get you nowhere. Audiences are increasingly looking for interactive experiences underpinned by compelling messages that bring them closer – physically and emotionally.
Tony Heywood is an international branding consultant, founder of Heywood Innovation in Australia, United Kingdom and India, and joint founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
View some of Heywood’s work on www.heywood.com.au
Share on Facebook
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
