AASCIF - oct-nov-dec03

Gina Simons
Advertising and Promotions Manager
California State Compensation Fund

One of the most important activities an organization can undertake is the development of its brand. A brand defines your organization or product. It tells your customers what to think about it, how to feel about it, why to use your product. It communicates all the things your customers rely on your product to deliver.

A brand, then, is a promise to your customers.

Since the brand sets expectations for customers, it must be derived from traits of the organization.

Creating an idealized image for your company and then trying to make the product live up to this contrived standard would be a grave error. If your product fails even once, you’ve lost your customers’ trust and it is difficult to win them back. A brand centered on product benefits and organizational characteristics is going to communicate ideas that the product can deliver.

The chicken or the egg?
Does the brand drive the company, or does the company drive the brand? When the brand is derived from organizational characteristics, product benefits and corporate culture, it becomes indistinguishable from the product and from the company itself. Whether the brand drives the company or vice verse is no longer discernable or important. The product is the brand.

So, you want to brand your company. Where do you start? At the beginning, of course, by looking inward.

Step 1: Taking stock
Invest in research and analysis to get to the root of your organization to define who you are as a company. Then ask the tough questions:

Does the public have a clear idea of who you are and what you stand for? Is the promise you make to your customers one you can keep? Is it a promise your customers actually want? Who are your targets and what do they think of you? Which of these perceptions help your business and which ones hinder you? What self-perceptions hamper your business?

At this stage, you should also take the time to review previous market research, customer satisfaction studies, response to your advertising campaigns, and the like. Consider conducting interviews and focus groups with key individuals in your organization. Talk to your customers and partners. Find out what these groups “know” about your organization, and compare their responses. How does the internal perception of the organization’s image compare with that of your strategic partners and your customers?

This exercise can be time-consuming and costly, but it will net you a clear understanding of your organization and help you craft a brand that is true.

Step 2: Strategic analysis
Review industry research, perform a competitive analysis, and most importantly, talk to your constituencies. Listen to their opinions and analyze their perceptions.

What are they looking for? What do they think of your company? How does this compare with what you expect they would say?

Step 3: Brand identity
The brand identity is the true essence of the brand, the core idea about your product that you want to communicate to your customers.

Utilize research data and analysis to help you identify a set of individual characteristics that comprise your brand. These characteristics represent what the brand stands for—the ideals that your customer will believe about your organization and will come to expect from your product.

The brand identity, then, is a covenant of sorts, a promise to your customers and employees. Select characteristics that make your organization unique and that can form the strongest foundation for your brand.

Step 4: Brand personality
If your organization were a person, what would she or he be like?

Anthropomorphizing the brand adds tone, texture and color to an intangible. Try to define your organization as if it were a real person. What personality traits best define your organization? Your product?

Step 5: Value propositions
Head, heart, and gut.
A brand’s value proposition is a statement of the functional and emotional benefits delivered by the brand that provide value to the customer.
There are three types of benefits that drive purchase decisions: functional, emotional and self-expressive.

Functional benefits are based on product attributes that provide functional utility to the customer. These benefits appeal to the customer’s head.

Emotional benefits provide a positive feeling and appeal to the heart.

Self-expressive benefits appeal to the gut and communicate one’s self-image.

Use your research and analysis to determine the benefits your product delivers, and don’t ignore the head, heart, and gut.

Step 6: The brand statement
This is the definition or articulation of the brand itself.

The brand statement is focused on a single aspect that can be communicated crisply and effectively to all targets. It reflects the brand identity and value proposition and usually demonstrates an advantage over competing brands.

Step 7: Develop marketing strategies
Construct a marketing plan with forethought and balance. Where are you today? Where will you be in 12 months? In 24 months? In 36 months?

Design your strategies and tactics around the needs of your target market and all your constituencies. The result will be a plan that will allow your positioning to evolve while it is still firmly grounded in the brand.

Step 8: Explore your logo
Your logo tells a story. It is an integral part of the visual elements configured to communicate your brand positioning.

Assess its readability, ease-of-use, and consistency of application. Consider the color palette, typography format, and style.

Evaluate whether the logo is aligned with your new brand. Does it still convey the brand personality, brand identity, and value propositions you have set forth? Don’t be afraid to fine-tune it.

Step 9: Develop a brand book
The vehicle that communicates the brand clearly and consistently to everyone in your organization is the brand book. This is where the brand is set forth with guidelines for staff to help them represent the brand in every customer encounter. The brand book ensures that your staff speaks in a single voice about your organization.

Step 10: Get out there!
Now that you’ve established your brand, take it out and show it to the world.

Encourage your employees to live up to the brand promise in everything they do. Create awareness with revamped advertising, public relations, and sales material that represents the new, REAL you. Employ the brand book to communicate the brand identity to staff and constituencies.

Consider whether it may have other audiences or uses. Does it make sense to distribute the brand book to your customers as part of your brand launch? Might there be some political benefit to sharing the brand book with your investors or regulators?

Finally, feel good about what you have done: You’ve made an impact on your business that will last years into the future.

Branding does more than just help sell your product; it helps communicate a unified corporate direction to the organization. It gives real meaning to the work your staff does and instills pride and sense of purpose. It ensures that the people in your company speak in one voice and that they believe in that voice.

Gina Simons can be reached at (415) 565-1768 or gmsimons@scif.com.

Branding 10 steps to branding your organization and services

Branding
10 steps to branding your organization and services