Based on a presentation TeamWorks Media's Katie Fetting gave to the NCAA and NFL, these slides break down how to evaluate your brand promise, experience and product pay-off.

1. BRANDING 101:
ELEMENTARY BUT NOT EASY
PRESENTED BY
KATIE FETTING OF TEAMWORKS MEDIA

2. But first…

3. Who is Katie Fetting?
• The Director of Client Partnerships for TWM
• Someone obsessed with branding
• The person giving this presentation

4. As Director of Client Partnerships I provide:
• Strategic guidance
• A daily point of contact
• A fall-guy for anything that goes wrong

5. Background
• I’m a marketer by way of moviemaking
– In Hollywood, I sold a number of scripts, two of
which were produced into movies starring the
famous actresses Elizabeth Hurley and Mischa
Barton – unfortunately they aren’t famous for
acting
• Worked on brands like Autoweek, David’s
Bridal and Zillow

6. But enough about me

7. Let’s talk about branding

8. What does this animal
make you think of?

9. This font?

10. This pattern?

11. This mustache?

12. Branding is the reason you can
identify these things

13. But why should you care?

14. Branding is everywhere
in our lives…
From the reason you choose one TV provider over another to
why you’ll buy Advil over generic ibuprofen.

15. We all have a brand
(whether we know it or not)

16. Leonardo
DiCaprio
has a
brand

18. He’s handsome, tortured, talented…
He made his brand on Titanic, so whether or not he
likes it, he’s a heart-throb…
This image is why they pay him the millions.
It’s what the people want.
What they don’t want is…

20. That isn’t the suave, hot Leo we know
and love. This is a bizarre man-boy who
isn’t living up to his pin-up promise.
People aren’t throwing down cash to see
this version of Leo – at least his core
fan-girls aren’t because…

21. A brand is a promise
of an experience
And it’s repeatable.
When you buy a Coke you expect a certain experience –
brown in color, a familiar taste, a familiar smell, carbonation.

22. The brand experience is the
payoff of that promise
If my Coke comes out green – even if every other
factor is the same – we have a problem.
Because…

23. When the promise and experience
don’t match, your brand suffers
≠

24. Let’s look at someone like Cate Blanchett.
Her brand is associated with:
Good acting
Quality filmmaking
Engaging stories
High-level directors and castmates

25. Benjamin Button,
Blue Jasmine, Elizabeth…
So why do we get so annoyed when she makes Indiana Jones
and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull?
Her brand promise doesn’t match that particular brand
experience.
We expect the film to be good. We expect her to be good
in it. When it’s not and she’s not, we’re disappointed.

26. So why don’t we care when Adam
Sandler makes a crap movie?

27. Because we expect it to be bad.

28. Applying this TO YOU
aka Steps You Can Take

29. Step 1: Identify…
• Constituencies / stakeholders
• Communication touchpoints
• Competitors in space

30. Step 2: Discover your brand
• Not what you think it is, but
what it actually is

31. You do that by…
• Interviews with stakeholders
• Interviews with strangers
• A Google search
• Looking at social media & press
coverage

32. Step 3: ID your ‘vision state’
• In a perfect world, what do you
want people to say, feel, think
about you?

33. Does your actual brand match your
perfect brand?
?

34. If not, the gap between the two
shows you where the branding
work needs to be done.

35. That work could be…
• Targeted content
• A new ‘look’
• Better message articulation
• Increased public presence

36. Targeted content
Look at what influencers and participants
are hearing from you and see if you need to
adjust or create original content to directly
appeal to those constituencies.

37. A new ‘look’
This is where visuals come into play… brand
is not all about a logo, but how people feel
about your visuals matters – are they clear?
Are they unique? Do they feel current? Are
they consistent?

38. Better message articulation
Does everyone internally and externally
know what you’re about?

39. Increased public presence
Maybe you’re doing all of this right but
dropping the ball at the 1 yard line when it
comes to promotion. If a tree falls in the
woods…? Who cares if you can’t hear it.

40. And ask yourself another question

41. Does your actual product or
service experience pay off your
brand promise?
?

42. No? Then you need to evaluate
where your system is breaking
down between the actual and the
promise

43. To borrow the parlance of the last presidential
election, don’t put lipstick on a pig.
If your core offering is bad – and if it doesn’t
match up with your brand’s promise – none of
this will matter.
Marketing can get anyone to try something
once… but if what they buy – or buy into – is
bad, that’s not a branding problem.
That’s an offering problem.

44. Don’t pretend you’re
Cate Blanchett and pay off like
Adam Sandler.

45. But what if I don’t have
a brand at all?
How do I get one????
What if no one knows anything about me at all?

46. Exercise 1: Personality

47. This is a design questionnaire that has
disparate values on a continuum… use this
as an exercise in how you want to be
perceived.
(This one is actually filled out for my
company, TeamWorks.)

48. Exercise 2: Point of differentiation
We all think we’re special, but
what makes you special to people
who aren’t your mom?

49. Insider bias: we all have it, but we need to break out of
it. We live this stuff every day so we tend to think it’s
more intuitive and interesting to the common person
than it actually is.
To get to your point of differentiation, you need to
think about what your target would find best about you
– not what you do.
And don’t say your point of differentiation is something
everyone claims like “good service.”

50. Exercise 3: Competition
Do it different and / or do it better

51. Key takeaways

52. 1. Brand is more than a logo
2. Think holistically
3. Be patient – building a brand
takes time

53. Thank you for listening
Questions?
Learn more at
www.teamworksmedia.com