Build and Maintain a Great Brand
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A brand is a promise that communicates a company's message to attract prospects and drive growth. Objectives of a great brand are to clearly deliver the corporate message, confirm credibility, motivate buyers, emotionally connect to audiences, and build customer loyalty. To define a great brand, companies should begin with research on their core values, mission, specializations, and unique value propositions. A great brand is consistent, connects with employees, customers, media and the public, has an attractive visual identity, and is respected over time through responsible management and monitoring.
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Build and Maintain a Great Brand
- 2. Your brand is a promise. Its the message you share that will get your prospects to see you as the ideal company to deliver solutions to their challenges. Honoring the brand throughout all levels of the organization helps drive companies to grow and prosper.
- 6. Emotionally connect to your target audience
- 9. Take note of the company's core values
- 10. What is the mission of the company?
- 11. What do you specialize in?
- 13. A Great brand is clear & consistent • Understands the needs and wants of customers and prospects. • It's the same message at every point of public contact. • Integrates brand strategies throughout company.
- 15. Customers
- 16. The media
- 20. Correspondence & Promotion Materials
- 21. Web site & Web marketing
- 22. Tchotchkes
- 23. Signage & Vehicle Lettering
- 26. Logo & tagline
- 27. Application (web, print, etc.)
- 29. Subscribe to Google Alerts
- 30. Blog Comments
- 31. Social Mention
- 32. Twitter
- 34. Friendfeed.com
- 35. Yacktrack
- 36. And so many more...
- 38. Be authentic & unique
- 39. Connect to all
- 40. Offer value & innovation
- 43. Be clear & consistent
- 44. Respect it & be responsible
Editor's Notes
- Now if you ran into Floriza at Meijer and she was sporting a blond mohawk, tattoos, and face piercings you would feel like maybe you don't really know the brand - trust be lost. Same with a corporate brand – If you say you have the quickest turn around you need to deliver it. If your value is actually detail work and it takes more time – your true core value is- quality – not fast turnaround. Each project will be a struggle for the entire company to meet the impossible if you try and be something you are not. Be authentic, and walk your talk.
- The brand message and symbol are easily recognizable. Professionally designed logo and marketing materials show customers you are committed to quality. A message that clearly explains the value of your unique product or service and consistently delivers on that promise will answer the customers need and you will be the first that comes to mind when they are ready to buy again..
- So how do you define your brand? Or redefine your brand if it doesn't fit currently? - key in on the core value of the company - identify the true corporate culture – Are you trustworthy. Innovative, classic, reliable, competitively priced, fun, quick, etc. What do you want to be known for? Determine those values, develop images and practices that communicate these principles. Then stay consistent. It solidifies your message to your customer... they know they can count on you to deliver on your promise
- A good example is McNaughon and Gunn, a book printer in Ann Arbor. M&G is an established business of over 50 years and used a range of logos in their marketing - depending on who was developing it. They called on us to help build a brand that would present them as a professional, book printing firm that is a steward for the environment, the print industry, its' worker, and the community. The tagline “Your signature printer” is directing ownership to the customer, signature indicates “quality”, “best” & it is a recognized printing term. M&G brought their staff together for the launch of their new brand. T-shirts with the logo were distributed that were shaped like a book and guidelines were shared - the communications director was identified as the source to run materials thru prior to publishing.
- Just as M&Gs brand launch demonstrates – your corporate brand is not just to attract prospects and your customers. Your brand must be clear to your employees –They are the face and voice of your company - they need to believe in it and live it. UAW – the customers are the members. They need to have a buy in to what the brand is saying. The media and the public look to the UAW (in Michigan especially) to explain their stance on policy and directives –clear communication is key. If your brand projects your organization as one which supports its employees and then reneges on that promise, your brand (and sales) will suffer. Case in point: Wal-Mart. The company says, “We believe that one of the keys to our success is our people and how we treat them.” However, the retail chain has been the subject of unfair employee wage practice lawsuits.
- Here is an example of a company who has identified the qualities that stand out to their customers most. Lambs Gates is a whimsical Antique shop, owned by Carol Lams, that specializes in finding unique and nostalgic items that make people smile and remenice about their childhood. The graphics and colors we chose depicts the fun and lightheartedness of the brick and mortar store – The colors are fun and charming as is the use of old photographs and vintage fabric on all their marketing pieces. The staff and vendors have fun with the brand and it shows in all they do.
- Images that are easily recognized as your company symbol communicates instantly to your customer. A graphic that depicts the service or product you sell has the added bonus of being instantly understood by international corporations. Vehicle signage is mobile advertising and gives instant credibility to a customers. “fleet of trucks' (cimala) The Woldumar sample shows consistency with logo use, ink colors, layout and photo and illustration style - identify the brand wherever they see it. From print, web, billboards, t-shirts, event signage, vehicles, Tchotchkes, etc. the brand attracts interest.
- I've taken the WISE logo to demonstrate what happens too often with digital files with staff, vendors, and others that have not been trained. All of us have seen a logo stretched out of proportion to fit a space – nothing screams amateur more than this technique – unless maybe the blurry pixelated one. – the logo has been taken from the Website and has been stretched almost to lack of legibility. Notice how just two of these images handled poorly ruin the whole image? Clean, crisp logos in yur materials command respect for your brand. I have included a brief list in your program of items to to include in your Branding guidelines packet.
- All of the following resources are free I have provided URLs in your program. A feed reader like Google reader is free and helps you organize all your RSS feeds. Google Alerts – track blog posts, news articles, videos and even groups based on your choice or query or topic. Free Backtype is a tool for monitoring blog comments. Yacktrack lets you search for comments on your content from various sources, such as Blogger, Digg, FriendFeed, Stumbleupon, and Wordpress blogs. Twitter Search allows you to locate any instances of your name and decide whether you want to tweet back or ignore them.
- Conduct a search for your name, your company’s name, or various topics you’re interested in and then subscribe via RSS. Twilert and TweetBeep Twilert is suspended right now updating functions - check back FriendFeed is a social aggregator. You can conduct searches on your brand throughout all social networks at once using this search engine. Social MENTION - searches user-generated content such as blogs, comments, bookmarks, events, news, videos, and microblogging services. It allows you to track mentions of your brand across all of these areas. Interactive Search While all theser tools listed are pretty rudimentary, Filtrbox is smart and only delivers the most relevant, credible mentions of things you need to track /www.interactiveinsightsgroup.com – give an idea Social Media measurement (ROI)
- Connection Graphics – our name defines the importance we place of practicing consistency in company marketing. Although we were established prior to the emergence of corporate Websites – the term Connection Graphics also means images for online use. Our tagline – Success in business starts with connections. Demonstrates our philosophy that all are connected – and the more people you know the more opportunity for success – and of course the more you do business with Connection Graphics the more success you achieve! Stay connected. samples@connectiongraphics.com