How to locate, differentiate and communicatethe power of ...

1 Chuck Kent | creativeoncallSTEP BRANDINGPROCESS & WORKSHOP3 How to locate , differentiate and communicatethe power of your brand s simple truth. INTRODUCTION PREPARATION PROCESSSTEP 1: Discover Research and review External discovery Internal discovery and branding workshop STEP 2: Define Brand elements, essence, benefits & personality STEP 3: Develop Brand-positioning statement Master creative strategyFIRST PRODUCTS Brand identityBrand voice THE SELL-IN Presenting to the organizationADDENDUM: TEMPLATES Leadership interviewPre-workshop questionnaire Workshop outline Brand map Master creative strategyA WORD ABOUT THE AUTHOR Chuck Kent is a freelance branding strategist and writer who has worked with clients from A (American Girl) to Z (Zurich), and for marketers and their agencies of all sizes.

2 He is the creator and moderator of The Branding Roundtable for Branding Magazine, for which is also a Contributing Editor. Find him on Twitter, LinkedIn and his own company website and blog, KENT of contentsText Creative on Call, be used and shared with s the most important thing you can learn from this ebook : branding is not about your brand. It s about your customers, prospects and employees and what your product or service in fact, your whole company can honestly do and be for them. As such, branding isn t about positioning in the sense of posturing; it s the task of locating the simple truth about your brand. This search requires taking three steps: 1. DIscover the needs and attitudes of all Define the brand essence: its rational and emotional Develop a differentiating positioning statement and master creative strategy.

3 Identifying what your brand can honestly do and be requires complete honesty with yourself in the process, a need that may be best served by hiring an independent consultant or branding firm (says the experienced consultant writing this). But even if you decide to pursue branding or rebranding internally, this ebook will help you discover, define and develop the essential elements ofa strong, meaningful, is it s notabout you.(It s about her.)3 There are two critical reasons to involve your people at all levels: Leadership needs to be invested in the branding process if they are going to champion (and fund) the outcome Employees deliver the brand experience, good or bad, planned or not; they must have and feel ownershipOf course, investing people requires educating them to Explain Branding to Your Leadership1.

4 Tell them what a brand is. Even experienced business people often misunderstand what a brand really is, thinking it s just a logo or an image. There are many definitions; my favorite states that a brand is a promise made and Explain the ROI of branding. Familiarize yourself with the research that explains the bottom line benefit of having a clear, strong brand. One report, for instance, states that Strong brands have been shown to be effective strategies for achiev-ing sustainable profits and returns. Furthermore, strong brands also demonstrably enhance shareholder wealth via higher firm stock [prices]. 3. Describe the organizational benefits. Well-defined and differentiated brands help attract, retain and, best of all, inspire employees. Conversely, a recent study noted that A weak lead to poorer candidates, disengaged and resentful employees, higher turnover and ultimately reduced organizational you do it one-to-one or in more formal meetings, it pays to explain up front how branding profits everyone.

5 Before you take that first step bring your people company is a stock as these people, so no brand positioning can rely on stock answers. You need to listen closely to your organization at all levels if you want to hear what really makes your brand experience quickest route to ineffective branding is for a marketer to insist that they already thoroughly understand and can articulate exactly what their customers want and need and that they are ready to simply jump to creating branding statements. This can be done, but all it produces is a formalization of preconceived notions and political biases in short, the problems you re trying to overcome only get more entrenched. Useful insight requires in-depth listening and learning, fresh perspectives and, as emphasized before, complete honesty. Whomever is leading your branding effort should be expected (and allowed) to:1.

6 Review current client materials and plans Provide your project leader with your latest business plans (redact as you must, but let them in on the basics) along with key marketing/communications materials, plus whatever competitor materials and information you Review existing industry research and social signals Hopefully your company conducts on-going research on con-sumer and customer attitudes, needs and trends, and rou-tinely whittles your own Big Data down to manageable size. Equip your project leader with that information, as well as any related industry studies. If you do not have any current propri-etary research, seriously consider investing the time and money to conduct new research (many new marketing research tools make this a faster, more affordable endeavor than ever).3. Interview the executive team one-on-one Once the project leader has digested all of the above, he or she should interview the executive project owners to focus your discovery and challenge assumptions.

7 (See the Leadership Discussion Guide example in the Addendum.)4. Interview clients one-on-one If you have no current information and feel you can t afford to do even the slightest bit of new research, at least do this: identify 10-12 representative customers who would be willing to do a 30 minute phone interview with your project leader. These should definitely be recorded as the verbatim remarks, even the inflection of the comments, can be very revealing, factually and emotionally. STEP 1:Discover5A well-executed discovery phase gathers and prioritizes the data you need but there s still a huge gap between raw information and real insight. In the definition phase you must pare away all non-essentials until you are left with nothing but your brand s simple truth (again, we are about positioning here, not posturing).

8 At this point, your branding consultant or internal project leader must take a strong lead in defining: 1. Brand elements What are your products, organizational structure, personality and symbols?2. Brand essence How do the above net out as the core of what you are and do?3. Brand benefits What difference rationally and emotionally does that essence make to customers (and all stakeholders)?4. Brand personality How is your brand most accurately personified as part of that all-important customer relationship? STEP 2:DefineThe Branding Workshop Begins Experience shows that, while your consultant needs to craft initial definitions of the above using a Brand Map (see the template in the Addendum), once those are complete it s time to involve your larger leadership team in the branding process.

9 Schedule a half-day, off-site session during which the consultant can guide a group of 10-12 key internal decision makers and influencers through the Brand Map, soliciting their input and challenges, and challenging their assumptions and biases in return (see the Workshop Outline). This teamwork not only adds valuable organizational insight it also invests your leaders in the outcome of the branding process, giving them both ownership in, and responsibility for, its Special Note About Discerning Your Brand s PersonalityAn effective brand personality is not a fictional character contrived to attract, but, rather, it is your brand s true internal character revealed.

10 As such, it can t be a mask, it must be a a Mirror Up to Your Organization There are many ways to get your organization to see, and say, what it is. One of the best is the photo sort, an exercise that invariably engages and enlivens the leadership team more than any other single exercise in the half-day branding workshop. If your consultant isn t familiar with the photo sort, here s how it works:1. Assemble a wide range of portraits The objective is to compile a deck of 20 or so photos of well-known personalities (famous people or archetypes). On the one hand, you should be mindful of personality types that represent known qualities, or aspirations, of your organ-ization. On the other hand, it s wise to throw in a few wild cards, simply to see what reactions they Divide your workshop group into teams Provide a complete deck of 5x7 photos for teams of 3-4 workshop participants each (ideally a total of 3 teams).