Brand is not a four letter word

A discussion on our experiences in brand building for local government BR@#D! is not a fouR letteR woRD

If a brand is a customer’s understanding of your products and services. Do you know what your audience understands about you?

So what is a brand?

What have you created? - Every organisation has a brand whether they have carefully constructed it, or allowed it to grow on its own - It’s more than a logo - It’s your reputation - It’s what people say about you when you’re not around - Your brand is generated by what you say and what you do as well as by how you present yourself to the world - All successful brands have a central idea that guides the energy and provides a self belief system for the people in your organisation - A brand is not something that sits in a report, it’s something you need to be obsessive about

Woody Allen once said: “90% of success is turning up on time...”

The magic for brands is in the other 10% woody! Image and perception are value drivers for every organisation; Without an image there is no perception. - Your brand image is a key communicator of what you stand for - When you’re asleep at night, your image continues to ‘talk about’ your brand - We call your logo, corporate colours and typefaces as they appear on signage, publications, vehicles, events, etc. your visual language - We call the visual language that makes up your image your Brand Identity

Logo + Visual Language = Brand Identity

Your logo is the point of entry to your brand - Your logo (or brand mark) is the cornerstone of your brand identity, it is the foundation upon which you build consistent and meaningful visual language for your brand communications - Visual language includes; typefaces and type styles, brand colours, photographic or illustrative imagery, and associated visual elements such as patterns and textures - It is our role as Brand Image experts to create unique brand properties for our clients, distinctive visual language they can own and that provides a stand-out presence in their market

The best brand identities are memorable. Recognition is immediate, across cultures and customs.

Sub-branding, Co-branding, Schmo-branding

Sub-branding Co-branding - Brand Architecture is the way your brand, sub-brands and the brands of your products, services, departments and events relate to each other - More importantly how they communicate this relationship to their audiences. Do the people who live and work in your cities understand the relationship between Council and your events, facilities, parks maintenance contractors, local laws officers, etc. ? - A unique element of local government is the complexity of brand architecture. Typically we find a web of sub-brands and brand relationships with facilities, events, services, contractor relationships - All the pieces are part of the picture that make’s up your brand

You have to manage your Corporate Templates/ Forms Presentations HR/Trainin Programs Annual Corporate Report Plan Corporate Stationery Faxes / Memos Corporate Environment Corporate Signage Streetscape/ Boundary Environment Bra Signage Facility Sub-brand Retail Precinct Ser Facility Sub Signage Facility Serv Collateral Colla B2B Comms/ Programs

brands from the inside out Promotional Items HR/Training Advertising Programs Styles Publications/ Brochures Website Brand Corporate Rituals Stationery Identity Guidelines Newsletter Co-branding Central Idea Signage Co-branding Guidelines Staﬀ Brand Identity Uniforms Co-branding Collateral Event Vehicle nd Sub-brand Livery Service Sub-brand Event Image Signage Library Service Event Collateral Collateral Bold s/ Gestures

Building a brand sounds like a really painful process... Why would we bother?

The value of brand to local government organisations - As many of you would know, the Municipal Association of Victoria met in February this year to discuss the development of a campaign strategy to enhance community understanding of the importance of Councils in the provision of local leadership, infrastructure, services and advocacy. - When it comes to a compelling rationale for developing your brand image, the initial conclusions from the MAV campaign strategy reinforce what we’ve been talking about with our clients for years; - Image and perception are value drivers for every organisation; Without an image there is no perception.

You get the picture

We certainly weren’t surprised that a number of the key objectives set by the workshop were directly brand related: - Raise awareness of Council’s role in providing leadership for local communities - Increase understanding of the importance of community infrastructure and Council’s significant role as guardians of that infrastructure - Strengthen Council’s branding - Increase visibility of small scale capital works/asset maintenance and we’d add to that visibility of contractors working on behalf of Council - Raise awareness of Council’s role in providing valued community services. - Use emotional imagery and language to connect Council with valued services - Strengthen council’s branding at service points - To raise awareness of the excellent employment and career opportunities on offer in local government - Evoke personal relevance to messages about local government’s roles and functions. - Use inclusive language that helps communities ‘own’ their council ie ‘your council’, ‘our community’ - Use emotional imagery to depict the roles of councils

One of the natural laws of business is that in lieu of any structured brand identity every otherwise intelligent employee becomes a designer. - The number of hours we witness spent across our client’s organisations on the constant re-creation of presentations, templates, letters, brochures, flyers, newsletters and internal communications is astounding - This activity not only diffuses the professional presentation of an organisation’s image, but costs thousands of hours and tens of thousands of dollars each year in lost productivity - A well executed brand not only creates more productive and profitable organisations, but the consistency of brand message and visual language absolutely maximise the return on your communications investment

So what do we know? Since 1995 we have developed a particularly affinity with, and understanding of Local Government through our work with; The City of Dandenong, The City of Glen Eira, The City of Melbourne, The City of Port Phillip, The City of Stonnington, The City of Whitehorse, The City of Whittlesea, and The City of Yarra, We spend a lot of our lives working with organisations on their brands. As a group our Local Government clients are faced with a particularly unique set of challenges; - Non-corporate organisational cultures that is resistant to the types of changes that are part and parcel of branding projects - A complex web of stakeholders - Confusing brand architecture relationships, often with an additional layer of contractual complexities relating to service providing contractors - The natural tension of Community involvement - The impact this has on rationalising non-essential spending for projects such as branding - Challenging project budgets

The greatest roadblock to brand-building is getting a complex organisation to execute a simple idea.

There’s more than one way to skin a cat

Best Practice is only best practice when it gets results. – The process of branding needs to be pragmatic. If we don’t engage the right stakeholders at the right times, the whole project can end up a waste of time and energy. Often in Local Government, the idea of creating a Brand seems too huge a task to contemplate. Who in their right minds would embark on a process that would require corporate and Councillor approval of such substantial change? – In our experience, a flexible approach to building a brand piece- by-piece has proven to be a methodology that suits the nature of Local Government organisations.

Ten Tips for building Local Government brands

01. Get on the Same Page 05. Characteristics suited to The earlier in the process key stakeholders develop successfully steering a branding project a shared understanding of the brand and a central (without losing your marbles) thought for its expression the better. - Focus As part of our branding process we run client workshops - Discipline that pinpoint an over-arching idea that guides the energy of the organisation and provides staff with a - Strong Communication Skills shared self belief system. - Empathy When we fail to think strategically about our brand - Effective Management Skills messages, we create a brand that will fail to achieve its - Flexibility goals. - Creative Problem-solving - Insight 02. Never Blame your Tools Organisational tools save time, energy and are the key 06. Consistency driver of a consistent and professional brand image; One Look - One Feel - One Voice Templates and guidelines -easier, time saving, cost saving. 07. Get Runs on the Board 03. Blocks aint Blocks The road to hell is paved with good strategy. - Strategically select your brand building blocks Important to build momentum. As consistent applications of a new brand image appears, acceptance - What will provide easy wins? and enthusiasm follow. - Which are the most popular communications tools? If nothing changes, nothing changes. - Which are the pet projects for key stakeholders? 08. Demand Focus - Which are the pivotal expressions of the brand? ie. a swim centre sign rather than a garbage You can’t be everything to everyone. collection flyer. A brand that tries to be a little bit of everything ends up being a lot of nothing. 04. Maximise return on investment. All brand Comms aren’t Born Equal 09. Crack that Whip Select key statement documents On brand! / Off brand! Do you know the difference? - Already budgeted for All brands require constant steering. - Define the key theme through an agreed central Have you committed the resources to maximise the thought return on your branding investment? - Provide the opportunity to speak in the visual 10. FYI language of your brand Branding is at its best an inclusive process. Be strategic Work out which actions provide your brand about how and when you engage those people who will most leverage - Apply the 80:20 rule and leverage like be responsible for bringing your brand to life. hell. When you find your central idea, ask people how they’ll help execute it. You’ll be surprised by the amount of energy you release.

Bottom line; Good brands build organisations. Ineffective brands undermine success.

Brand is not a four letter word

by Dominic Guthrie on Jan 12, 2010

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Brand is not a four letter word — Document Transcript