Partner Plus Brand Basics Session 3 Workbook

Brand Basics: Building Your Business on a
Powerful Promise and Engaging Experience

Part 3:
Bringing Your
Brand to Life

A Cisco Partner Plus Resource

Brand Basics Parts 1 and 2 gave you a foundation to build
on, explaining what brand is, why it’s valuable, and how to
begin developing your own brand strategy. Part 3: Bringing
Your Brand to Life will help you turn your brand promise into
tangible connections with your customers. You’ll learn about
brand identity, messaging and tone of voice, as well as how
to begin building a brand culture within your company. Finally,
we’ll give you some tips for effectively activating your brand.

Brand Identity 4

As you’ve learned in the previous Brand detail, but it’s important to understand
In this section you will Basics sections, brand is a complex that they all work together to convey an
learn: concept, and arriving at your own brand image of your brand. In general, the more
promise takes time and effort. You consistently you apply these components
• What components make may not be there yet, but it’s still worth to your brand communications, the more
up a brand identity considering what to do with your brand recognizable your company will be and
strategy once you have it. Let’s begin by the more clear an understanding of
• The importance of each
looking at the most visible manifestation of your promise you will pass along to your
element of an identity
any brand – the brand identity. customer.
system
• How to begin developing Brand identity consists of five key As you will see, brand design is not purely
or evolving your own ingredients: logo, color palette, subjective – it is less about what you like
identity typography, imagery and graphic than about communicating what your
elements. We’ll talk about each in more brand is like. Understanding that is the key
to understanding strategy-based brand
design.

Brand Basics Part 3: Bringing Your Brand to Life / A Cisco Partner Plus Resource

5

The Five
Components of
Brand Identity
LOGO COLOR

BRAND
GRAPHIC
ELEMENTS
IDENTITY TYPOGRAPHY

Imagery


“Most of the logos we
admire more often than
not are part of a well-
designed system.”1


7

Logo A logotype in all capital letters might feel
If your brand is who you are – what you more authoritative than one in all lower
stand for, what you promise and how case, and a bright red logo may appear
you deliver it – then your brand identity is more active than a dark blue logo. The Sometimes, the exception proves the rule. Youth-
what you look like and how you present designer uses all the tools in their toolbox oriented brands like MTV purposefully use very
yourself. Your logo is the most prominent – color, typeface, symbols, etc. – to paint a
flexible brand identity systems. This unconventional
and recognizable part of that presentation picture of your brand.
approach expresses their challenger brand
– it is the face of your brand. strategies. Freestyle approaches to logo usage are
beginning to emerge in more “serious” categories
Logos come in all shapes and sizes.
They usually contain the name of the Many logos are stand-alone word marks, as well – Google is one well-known example.
company and some sort of associated meaning they consist only of a type However, this is a high-risk approach to brand
icon or symbol. The best logos express treatment of the company’s name. identity, and requires either a significant marketing
some fundamental aspect of a brand’s budget or a dedicated customer base to support it.
positioning – the vision or the promise.
It may seem farfetched to think about
your logo expressing your strategy, but Most logos contain both a word mark and
that’s what good designers do – they an associated symbol that represents
understand what you are trying to say some aspect of the brand.
through your design brief, and translate it
into visual language.

For example, a bold serif font associated
with a columned building icon might feel Sometimes a brand becomes so well
more classic and serious than a playful know that a word mark is no longer
script font associated with a heart icon. needed.


8

Color and Typography used by food brands quite literally and Tip: If you are a global
Color is one of the most powerful tools in a by banks more figuratively. Today, with organization, consider all of
designer’s arsenal, and alongside your logo the rising importance of sustainability your markets before committing
is often the component of your brand that and environmental awareness, green heavily to one color. Colors
customers are most likely to remember. is becoming more associated with have different meanings across
The right color or colors can communicate ecological brands and the corporate
different cultures. For example,
a lot about your brand because colors responsibility efforts of many companies
while white traditionally represents
have longstanding associations in our across categories.
transparency and clarity in Western
culture. Typography – meaning the font or fonts nations, in China white is the color
For example, blue is associated with associated with your brand and how they of mourning.
safety, calmness, security and trust, so are used – is an often-overlooked area
insurance and medical companies often of brand expression. Many designers,
use this color in their brands. Red is and indeed some marketers, harbor a
associated with emotion and action, so it’s deep interest in this aspect of brand
often embraced by retail brands and for identity. If you are one of these people,
calls to action across all types of brands. or you hire one of these people to work
Just think – how many red “Sale!” signs on your brand, you are in for some very
have you seen in your life? entertaining, if esoteric, conversations! Choose colors that express your
Due to the level of specialization required strategy. In this example, the bright
A color’s meaning is not fixed, however, to discuss typography in depth, for the accent colors used by IT solutions
and green is a good example of this. purposes of this course we’ll focus on
provider Presidio represent the
Traditionally associated with growth some foundational definitions and basic
bright ideas inherent in their
and plenty, for many years green was tips.
"Practical Thinking" brand promise.


9

Definitions Tips
• Serif fonts have small extra strokes • In general, serif fonts are considered more classical, and sans-serif fonts
at the ends of letters. Times and are considered more contemporary.
Garamond are popular serif fonts. • Serif fonts are easier to read in printed material, sans-serif fonts are easier
• Sans-serif fonts have cleaner lines, to read in digital material.
lacking the extra flourishes. Arial and • Using all caps for logos or headlines can appear confident or even
Helvetica are popular sans serif fonts. authoritative; using all lower case generally feels friendlier and more
• Letter weight refers to how thick the inclusive. If in doubt, using initial caps (like in the title of a book) is a good
letters are – ranging from extra bold middle road.
to bold to regular (sometimes called • Script fonts, rendered to look like handwriting, can sometimes be a
roman) to light and even ultralight. shortcut to make a design feel more human and relatable. However, most
• Cap height is the height of a capital designers will tell you that a good handwriting font is hard to find!
letter like “C” or the ascender on a • There are a few fonts that are installed in all computers, often called
lower case letter like “h.” default fonts. Make sure you choose commonly available default fonts
• X height is the height of a font’s main for electronic documents and websites – this is the easiest way to avoid
body, like a lower case “o” or the hump frustrating formatting errors.
on a lower case “h.”
• Leading refers to the vertical space
between multiple lines of type.
• Tracking, or kerning, refers to the
horizontal space between letters.


Images don't always need to be literal.
Photographs that evoke ideas you want
to stand for, like speed, connection and 10
productivity, can also work. Here's an example
from the recently redesigned website of IT
solutions provider Presidio.

Imagery • Lifestyle imagery - meaning shots of in the B2B space and the IT services
people in their everyday life, usually category. Infographics are often
Imagery refers to the pictures you use at work in the context of B2B - can associated more with individual messages
in your brand identity, whether they are often communicate more than product or communications than with the overall
photographs or illustrations. For the shots. brand. However, some brands may
purposes of Brand Basics we will focus on want to consider leveraging infographic
photography, as almost all brands today • In general, full-color imagery is more design at a higher level. IBM is a best-in-
require some form of photography in their engaging than black-and-white class example of using iconography and
brand communications. imagery. infographics as the foundation for a brand
There are as many approaches to identity.
• Using imagery that depicts the end-
imagery, and opinions about imagery, customer benefit - for example,
as there are brands in the world today. confidence, or security - helps put the
However, here are some things to keep focus on the higher order value you Tip: Useful online image banks for small
in mind as you consider what type of provide. businesses include:
imagery to use in your communications:
• Research indicates that social media • www.istockphoto.com
• Product imagery is less important in • www.stockfreeimages.com
posts (tweets, etc.) including imagery
B2B service industries than in other • www.shutterstock.com
are much more likely to be viewed
industries - if you’re just going to be
than posts with text alone.
showing the same hardware that your Also, photo-sharing platforms like Flickr
competitors sell, how differentiating or Infographics are an increasingly popular and Instagram are increasingly including
compelling is it? way of communicating today, particularly functionality that allows companies to
license individual’s snapshots for business
use.


11

Graphic Elements Good things to keep in mind when consider solid shapes if your brand is
developing or choosing your graphic communicated mostly online.
Graphic elements are design elements
elements:
that are incorporated into your identity • Consider category norms and choose
system but are not specifically included in • Think about who will be working to either leverage them or differentiate
your logo. They might include shapes, like with your identity and choose an from them. For example, patterns of
rectangles or circles, patterns, like stripes, appropriate level of complexity. If wavy lines representing networks are
grids or polka dots, or line styles such as a global advertising agency will be prevalent in the IT industry. Using that
curves or straight key lines. Sometimes handling your communications, you element will help immediately identify
your logo or part of your logo can turn into can risk a complex brand identity the business your brand is in – but at
a graphic element – Louis Vuitton’s iconic system with many graphic elements. what cost?
repeating LV pattern is a well-known If you will be doing all of your
example of this. communications in house, you might
be better off with one or two simple
While graphic elements are different from
elements.
a logo, they are often derived from visual
equities present in a logo. For example, • Consider the media you normally
a brand with a soft, flowing logo might use to communicate, and choose
also use curved lines and curvy shapes elements that complement or are
as graphic elements. Conversely, a brand easily executed in that medium. For
with a blocky, edgy logo might use right example, shapes with gradient fills can
angles and squares as graphic elements. be a challenge in digital executions –


12

Identity Development Tips Try Existing Resources • If you do have the budget for an
• Talk to people in your marketing agency, smaller local agencies will
Expensive designers and agencies are
department – someone on your team often be more affordable and offer
expensive for a reason - they tend to
may be a designer on the side or you a higher degree of client service.
do a good job. However, there are other
options, and if you’re smart about what going to school for design.
you ask for, you may be able to find some • Talk to your agencies – while Explore the web
real values. press release design, web design, • There are online design resources
advertising design and brand design - sites like logonerds.com,
Here are a few tips for developing your are all different things, it’s often better cheaplogodesign.com and
identity on a budget. to work with an experienced designer logoglo.com - that offer low-cost
than a novice. alternatives to agencies.
• Check your client list – are you • Explore Craigslist and other online job
providing IT services for any clients forums – there are more independent
who might have a design capability? creative professionals out there than
Consider talking to them about a ever before. Connecting with them
barter arrangement. directly could save you money.
• Crowdsourcing is a relatively new
Go local way to approach your brand identity.
• Check with area arts schools and Sites like 99designs.com will allow
design programs – you might be able you to send out a brief to dozens if not
to get the next great logo designer to hundreds of designers and pay only
work on your project for short money. for what you use.
• Local printers – sometimes print shops
have a designer on staff.


Tone of Voice and Messaging 14

As anyone who has ever spoken to a principle for everything you do. Your
In this section you will customer service representative knows, value proposition focuses that idea on the
learn: brands are much more than just visual. differentiated benefit you provide your
What brands say and how they say it has target audience. Your brand personality,
• The value of brand a dramatic impact on how customers messaging strategy and tone of voice
personality and how to experience the brand. Particularly in the are the translation tools that take these
develop your own case of smaller B2B service brands, much strategic components and begin to
• How to focus your of your customer’s understanding of your make them resonate directly with your
communications with a brand will come from touchpoints such customers. They should be present in all
messaging strategy as spoken sales presentations, written of your internal communications briefs,
• How to shape your proposals, your website content, etc. and any agency you partner with should
communications using be very familiar with them.
As we saw in Brand Basics Part 2, your
tone of voice brand promise serves as an organizing


15

Brand Personality on an individual, write down at least
Imagine if your company were a person… ten words that describe the character’s
what type of person would it be? That’s personality.
the simplest way to think about brand Thinking Outside the Box
personality. Would it be honest? Would it If your brand were a car, what kind of car
be friendly? Would it be helpful? would it be? Choose one, and write down
Brand personality is a useful tool because at least five words that describe that car.
so much of the language that describes Now repeat the exercise, asking what kind
a brand is often strategic. This language of animal your brand would be. Between
begins to sound more creative, which these two questions you should generate
makes it useful for the people who will at least ten more words.
be translating your brand strategy into Word Cloud
marketing materials. Arrange all the words you’ve come up
Here are three small group exercises with randomly on a page. Feel free to add
that can help you determine your brand a few more if you feel anything is missing.
personality: Pass copies of the page around, and ask
people to circle the 3-5 they think best
Celebrity Challenge describe your brand, and cross out the
If your brand was a celebrity, who would 3-5 that they think least describe your
it be? You can include characters from brand. Tally the votes, and you will end up
books, movies and TV shows if that is with at least three words for your brand
helpful. Is your brand more of a Han Solo personality.
or a Luke Skywalker? Once you’ve agreed


Worksheet 1: BRAND PERSONALITY
CAR ANIMAL

BRAND PROMISE

CELEBRITY OR FAMOUS ADDITIONAL WORDS
CHARACTER

BRAND PERSONALITY

In Partnership With


17

Messaging
A messaging strategy takes your brand
promise and makes it relevant and
motivating to specific audiences. Consider
for a moment – your potential investor
has different needs than your potential
customer. Customers across different
industry verticals are likely to think of you
in different ways and each have different
needs. Your potential customer thinks of Technicians Media Customer C-Suite
you differently than your current customer
does. A messaging strategy gathers all of
these factors into a matrix and gives you a
foundation for brand communications.

Developing your messaging strategy
takes work, but it is a fairly straightforward
process. Agency partners can help you
work through the details, and can add
Investors and Analysts Customers Across Categories
a level of professional polish to critical
components. It’s important to remember
that a messaging strategy is a guideline
Different target audiences have different needs, meaning you want to base your communications to
and a living document – as your business
them on different expressions of your core strategy.
evolves and as you learn more about your
target audiences, your messaging strategy
should grow with you.


18

Messaging Strategy company. What does success with
The Messaging Strategy Worksheet this customer look like?
contains the framework for what you need • Based on your Brand Promise and
to do. your Value Proposition, craft a simple
• First, write your Brand Promise and message that could help get this
your Value Proposition in the top target from where they are to where
two boxes. These are not there for you want them to be. It does not
show – these are there so you are have to be perfect or beautiful – the
constantly checking to ensure that messaging strategy is a tool to get to
your messages ladder up to a single brilliant advertising creative, not great
brand idea. creative unto itself.

• Next, identify your three most • Populate the Proof Points section with
important audiences. For example, 2-3 of the most compelling Reasons
Enterprise Customers, Small Business to Believe, which are relevant to this
Customers, and Repeat Customers. message, from the list you compiled
You can add more later, but begin with during Brand Basics Part 2.
three to keep things manageable. Once you’ve done all this, you will have
• In a short sentence, describe how you an excellent briefing tool for your internal
think they feel about your company marketing department or agency partners.
today. Look to the interviews you did If you are developing and executing on
as part of the exercises contained this messaging strategy internally, it might
in Brand Basics Part 2 to inform this be worth spending a little extra time on
section. the “What we can say to them…” section,
as these messages will likely get out to
• In a short sentence, describe what the world with little additional polish.
you want them to think of your


Worksheet 2: MESSAGING STRATEGY
BRand promise:

VALUE PROPOSITION:

TARGET 1: TARGET 2: TARGET 3:

Current mindset: Current mindset: Current mindset:

DESIRED MINDSET: DESIRED MINDSET: DESIRED MINDSET:

WHAT WE CAN SAY TO THEM: WHAT WE CAN SAY TO THEM: WHAT WE CAN SAY TO THEM:

PROOF POINTS: PROOF POINTS: PROOF POINTS:

In Partnership With


Tip: In today’s hyper-connected, constantly sharing world, social media magnifies the
importance of tone of voice. Make sure the people in your organization who are involved
20
in any way with social media monitoring and engagement understand your tone of
voice and what kind of personality you are trying to express to the world. While allowing
employees to “be themselves” online can be valuable in terms of building genuine
engagement on communities like Twitter and Facebook, make sure they know what kind
of expression you are encouraging and what kind of expression is simply not allowed.

Tone of Voice
Here’s a good mantra to keep in mind when 1. For each of your brand personality words, remember and use them. These
thinking about tone of voice: how you say develop three specific guidelines that should be simple but meaningful
something is as important as what you apply to speaking or writing. For example, suggestions, like: always answer the
are saying. Consider when you have to for a personality word like “approachable” phone with a smile, always open a
pass along bad news to someone in your you might choose: avoid using technical presentation with a question, and
professional or personal life – you stop jargon, it’s okay to use contractions, and never use the word “no.”
and think about how you will deliver your never lecture a customer.
Gather all of these guidelines together
message. The same is true when you need
2. Look outside of your category for brands and publish them for your brand
to ask a question and you’re not sure you’ll
that have personalities similar to the communicators. Socialize them within
get the answer you want. And that’s really
one you’ve chosen for your company. your organization. Let people know that
what sales is all about – asking a question
For example, if you’re a bold customer your company values and rewards people
and trying to get to a “yes.”
advocate, look to Southwest Airlines. If who bring them to life. If you can, develop
When it comes to brand, tone of voice is you’re simple, friendly and stylish, look a quarterly award for the employee who
the tool that operationalizes your brand to JetBlue, and if you’re a professional does the best job of expressing your
personality. It consists of guidelines, and category leader, look to Delta. Examine brand through tone of voice.
sometimes examples, that explain to brand how they write in advertising and on their
website to help develop more ideas for Remember – your brand personality is
communicators how to bring your brand
your tone of voice guidelines. your tone of voice. If you’re having a lot of
to life through the written and spoken
trouble completing the exercises in this
word. You’ll need to agree on your brand
3. Come up with three specific tonal actions section, go back and take a look at the
personality before you can develop your
you want everyone in your organization personality words you developed. You
tone of voice. Once you have 3-5 words
to take when communicating your brand. might need to make an adjustment.
that describe your brand personality, here’s
This is a small enough number of things
a three-step process to turn them into your
to keep in mind that people will actually
brand tone of voice.


21

Brand
Culture Brand Basics Part 3: Bringing YourBrand to Life / /A Cisco Partner Plus Resource
you Brand to Life A Cisco Partner Plus Resource

Brand Culture 22

Throughout the Brand Basics course simply means capturing and repeating the
In this section you will you’ve seen references to the value of parts of your “way of doing things” that
learn: internal branding. This is just another are reflective of your brand vision and
way of saying it’s important to develop a brand promise, and reshaping the parts
• The definition and consistent company culture. You probably that aren’t.
purpose of brand already have a “certain way of doing
culture things” in your organization. In fact, you In order to begin building a brand culture,
• The four steps in probably uncovered some insights in this you’ll need to understand the process
the internal brand area and drew on them in the course employees go through to internalize brand,
activation journey of your brand development exercises in how to propel them through this process,
Part 2 (or you will). Building brand culture and what the desired outcomes are.
• How to embed the brand
in your people and their
actions

“ What is exciting in terms of
corporate brand culture is
that unlike product brands
its importance is tangible,
incontrovertible.”2


23

The Internal Brand Journey There is no set timeframe for internal brand
Just as your customers need to travel activation, and how long it will take depends
through the marketing funnel in order to greatly on the size of the company. However,
become loyal advocates for your brand, as a general rule, brand awareness activities
your employees need to undertake a should be given 1-3 months to take root, brand
journey of their own. The four stages of understanding efforts will likely take another
employee brand activation are Awareness, 1-3 months, and brand action and advocacy
Understanding, Action and Advocacy. initiatives should be ongoing.

Awareness Understanding Action Advocacy

Awareness simply means that Understanding means that Action describes the stage Advocacy indicates the stage
your people know that brand is employees comprehend the during which employees grasp at which your people have
valuable, that your organization broader aspects of your brand what they need to actually do, fully internalized the brand
has a brand, and what your such as your vision, your value as part of their day-to-day and have become evangelists
brand promises to customers proposition, and your brand work, to bring the brand to life. within your organization,
at the highest level. personality – and that they see feeding a virtuous cycle of
how the brand fits with their internal brand building.
role in the organization.


24

Activating the Brand Internally When you deploy all three types of
Top-Down Engagement communication together you’ll get
There are three ways to build your
brand within the organization – from employees who understand the
the top down, from the bottom up, and Deeper Immersion
importance of your brand initiative,
with targeted communications that hit are consistently reminded of what it
specific audiences in the middle of your means, and have only the detailed
organization. While each method is best
Bottom-Up Engagement information they need to deliver the brand
used at different stages of the internal appropriately through their part of the
brand journey, all three work together to business.
embed your brand with employees.
By segmenting and prioritizing your higher
value internal audiences, you can invest
in the places that are most critical to
delivering the brand.

Brand Basics Part 3: Bringing YourBrand to Life / /A Cisco Partner Plus Resource

25

Top-Down Engagement Deeper Immersion Bottom-Up Engagement

Top-down communications are messages Use through-the-middle communications Bottom-up communications are company-
that come from your company leadership. to train specific groups within your wide messages that any employee would
Examples could include emails, blog organization on parts of the brand that encounter on a daily basis. Examples
posts, presentations (live or via web), and they are responsible for. Not all audiences of bottom-up communications might
personalized communications to high- need deeper content. Marketing, sales include posters, email blasts, banners
value team members. The role of top- and HR are examples of those who might. on your company intranet or desk drops.
down communications is to get people’s Your marketing team needs to be deeply This is not the place to include deep or
attention, demonstrate the importance of familiar with your brand identity, tone of complex content – it’s a place to quickly
brand to your company, and indicate that voice, and any associated guidelines. Your and efficiently communicate that change
you have executive-level sponsorship to sales team needs to know how to weave is coming (or remind people that a change
increase compliance. the brand promise into their presentations has recently arrived) and reinforce at the
in credible, motivating ways. Deep content highest level what that change is.
can be delivered through meetings,
workshops, and guidelines or training
collateral.


26

Developing Brand Behaviors The best way to develop and train brand UPS instructs its delivery people
One ultimate goal of building a behaviors is to start small and think to walk briskly and purposefully
strong brand culture is to drive brand from the customer’s perspective. What when they are outside of their
behaviors. Brand behaviors are actions actions would be most meaningful to your trucks. Because strolling might
that employees are trained to take, customers, and are relatively easy for imply laziness or a lack of caring, and running might
and eventually take on their own, that your employees to execute and repeat? imply lateness or disorganization, UPS chose a
broadcast and reinforce the brand Examples of basic brand behaviors
third way that perfectly expresses the competence
promise. Achieving this goal can take are scripted phone greetings and pre-
and confidence that their consumer and business
some effort and, in larger organizations, it written tweets. But there are many more
customers rely on.
requires a budget for employee training. examples of more complex – and effective
However, it’s worth discussing in brief – brand behaviors, two of which are
because the cost of training employees presented here.
is far less than the cost of most external Disney theme parks help
What are one or two ways you could
marketing campaigns, and the effects of families believe in magic by
imagine bringing your brand to life through
brand behaviors can be very compelling removing worry. If any child drops a food or drink
action?
for customers. item – for example, an ice cream cone – employees
are instructed to immediately replace the item at no
cost and clean up the mess so parents don’t have
to. This translates into a magical experience for the
entire family, as they remain immersed in the theme
park fantasy.


Branding
Tips and Tricks

Branding Tips and Tricks 28

As we’ve seen through the three modules touchpoints are a part of your brand, and
In this section you will of the Brand Basics course, brand can investing in brand will always pay you
learn: be complicated. It has many different dividends.
pieces and parts. But brand can also be
• A FEW BRANDING DOs AND reassuringly simple. Brand is what you The following pages offer some tips that
DON’TS promise, and how you deliver on that will speed you on your journey toward
promise. For some of you, brand might be inventing – or reinventing – your brand. We
• TIPS FOR EXPRESSING YOUR
most present in a sales presentation. For hope that brand believers of all types and
BRAND IN SOCIAL MEDIA
others, it might be in your logo, or in the levels of experience will find something
• HOW TO SAVE - AND WHERE here that will inform or inspire them in
print ad you’re running. And for still others,
TO SPEND - ON BRAND some way.
it might be most present in a job posting
for your next employee. All of these


29

DO take brand seriously.

A half-baked or misunderstood brand is worse than no brand
5 Branding DOs
at all – invest the time in creating a strategic foundation that is
focused, relevant and differentiated.

DO brand internally first, and externally second.

Your employees are primary touchpoints for your brand. Get
them on board first so that they can effectively and consistently
promote your brand and deliver on your promise.

DO look for inspiration from strong brands.

Look to powerful B2B and even B2C brands and do some
research: what do they do right, and how can you learn from
them in ways that are relevant to your own brand?

DO create brand guidelines.

Creating even simple brand guidelines will ensure that your brand
is represented consistently across all touchpoints, whether you
market yourself or use an agency.

DO sweat the small stuff.

Even seemingly insignificant touchpoints can affect the
perception of your brand. Think about how your customer service
representative answers the phone, or the shirt your technician
wears.


30

DON’T confuse “I like it” with “It’s right for the company.”
5 Branding DON’Ts
Let your agreed strategy drive your decisions – not personal taste

DON’T be a perfectionist.

When it comes to brand, everyone has an opinion and the
process can get bogged down. Remember that sometimes, done
is better than perfect.

DON’T spend money without clear goals.

Make sure that you set clear, measurable goals against which you
can evaluate success. That which gets measured, gets done.

DON’T trust your social media strategy to an intern.

It can be tempting to consider your Facebook and Twitter
presence as trivial, when they are in fact anything but. Whoever
crafts your social media strategy should be well versed in your
brand and your business objectives.

DON’T follow the herd.

The IT services category can seem like a sea of sameness – you’ll
need to differentiate if you want to float to the top.


31

Share, don’t sell.
5 Tips for Getting the
Most Out of Social
Social media is for building connections, not conversion. Setting
the wrong expectation will create external disengagement and
internal disappointment.

Develop a rhythm.

Build up a following by posting to your social media outlets with
Media
some regularity. Consider building up a store of posts you can
deploy when needed.

Be personal.

Have an interesting tone – avoid sounding too corporate when
using social media. Engage your followers casually, in a way that
really lets your brand’s personality shine.

Be useful. “ …Social media is a great equalizer:
Have interesting content – nobody wants to retweet a list of your big brands can be outsmarted
product features, but they may be interested in your point of view
on a new technology. without making huge investments,
Use imagery. and small brands can make big
Include images with captions in your tweets and posts to blogs
and Facebook – users tend to skip over blocks of text.
names for themselves.”3


32

Keep it simple.

Don’t create a brand strategy or identity that is too elaborate
5 Tips for Developing
and extensive. Complexity equals cost, and besides, one
of your primary goals is ensuring that your brand is easy for
customers to understand.
Your Brand on a
Keep it focused.

Choose the specific aspects of your brand that you deem
Budget
most important, and spend what you can afford there first.

Listen to your customers.

Nobody’s opinion matters more than those who exchange
money for your products and services – and listening to them
is free. Heed their feedback and reactions, and watch out for
the common trap of “talking to yourselves” or “believing your
own press.”

The web is full of information.

The Internet is awash with blogs and resources for DIY
branding. Take advantage of them.

Digital and social are your friends.

These are cost-effective channels through which to reach
your target audience.


33

A one-day brand workshop. 5 Areas to Invest in
Hire a consultant to run a workshop with key internal stakeholders
so that everyone feels like they were part of the process in
developing the brand and establishing its values.
Brand
A designer for your logo.

There are options to fit every budget, from branding agencies to
websites like 99designs.com or elancer.com that can help you
find a freelance designer – remember, this will be the symbol for
your brand for years to come!

A basic identity package.

A set of essential professional brand touchpoints like a business
card, email signature, letterhead, and presentation template will
go a long way toward elevating your business presence.

Templates.

Rather than having an agency design a one-off ad for you, have
them create simple templates for a few digital banner ad sizes, a
few print ad sizes, and an information sheet. Then you can reuse
these by changing the content.

Your website.

Often the first point of contact for your customers – remember
you never get a second chance to make a first impression.


In
Conclusion

Conclusion 35

Through the three parts of this Brand We hope you’ll review the links and
Basics course you’ve learned what suggestions on the Additional Resources
brand is, why it’s valuable, how to create pages of all three of the Brand Basics This course has given you
your own brand promise, and how to workbooks, and that you’ll follow up with the basic tools you need
express that promise through design, a Cisco Partner Plus resource if you’d like to begin to cultivate your
voice and culture. Of course, brand is a to talk more specifically about options for brand on your own, and
big topic, and we would never claim to building your brand. we hope it’s also excited
have covered every inch of it in this quick a heightened level of
survey course. Your brand is a living thing – it already interest in the potential
exists, and it’s growing. The question is – of brand to build your
is it growing in the direction you want it to? business. Because brand
is valuable, brand is
powerful, and today more
than ever, brand is not
optional.


Additional Resources 36

Brand on Wikipedia Brand Identity Essentials
A basic catalog of information on A book by Kevin Budelmann, Yang Kim
brand, its components and prevalent and Curt Wozniak that provides a solid
branding strategies. foundation for the visual design elements
of branding using real-world examples.
Identity Works
A blog focusing on corporate brand Tomorrow Starts Here
identities with regular contributions from A site that brings Cisco’s Brand Vision and
experienced designers and strategists. Brand Promise to life.

Processed Identity Cisco Partner Plus
A blog with examples of strong visual Collected information and resources for
identities and tips for how to develop one. Cisco Partner Plus partners.

socialmouths
A blog with insightful, honest tips and
tricks for small businesses looking to
leverage social media.


References 37

1
Budelmann, Kevin, Yang Kim, and Curt Wozniak. Brand Identity Essentials: 100 Principles for Designing
Logos and Building Brands. Rockport Publishers, 2010. 7.

2
Schroeder, Jonathan E., Miriam Salzer-Mörling, and Søren Askegaard. Brand Culture. London:
Routledge, 2006. 35.
3
Zarrella, Dan. The Social Media Marketing Book. Sebastapol, CA: O’Reilly, 2009. 7.


38

Third party company names, trademarks, logos and
quotations referenced in these materials are the
property of their respective owners and their use does
not constitute or imply an endorsement, sponsorship,
affiliation, association or approval by the third parties
of these materials or with Cisco Systems, Inc. and/
or its affiliates (“Cisco”). The information contained in
these materials are the opinions of Publicis BOS Group.
Cisco disclaims all warranties as to the accuracies,
completeness or adequacy of such information and shall
have no liability for omission or inadequacies in such
information.


39

Presented by

Publicis Brand Optimization Systems (BOS) Group develops
brand strategies for clients and brings them to life through
brand identity, employee education and experience design.
BOS Group is part of Publicis Worldwide.


Partner Plus Brand Basics Session 3 Workbook

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (9)

Similar to Partner Plus Brand Basics Session 3 Workbook

Similar to Partner Plus Brand Basics Session 3 Workbook (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Partner Plus Brand Basics Session 3 Workbook