twentyfive Planning

Three reasons not to cut investment in brand during a recession

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 03:06 GMT

Research conducted by MORI, amongst 187 senior board directors of the UK's leading companies, concluded that "94% agree that the asset which offers the greatest protection during an economic downturn is a strong brand".

There are three reasons for this:

Confidence - Loyal customers retain confidence in a strong brand even when the going gets tough. Confident customers are less likely to switch brand.
Risk - potential customers, staff and shareholders are more risk averse during a recession. Strong brand mitigates risk in the mind of the stakeholder.
Value - Company value is more likely to remain buoyant in an economic downturn when it is supported by a strong and profitable brand.

Don’t be tempted to stop investing in strengthening your brand, even when all around are losing their heads. By neglecting your brand, you risk exposing the business at a time when recovery is much more costly and much less certain of success. Brand profitability is the ultimate goal but it takes investment. Short term budget cuts may lead to immediate relief of pressure, but they will surely lead to long term heartache.

Culture: You can plan all you like ...

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 01:05 GMT

It's often said that Values and Vision are the most important elements of a business. Knowing what makes you who you are as a company and having a clear view of where the company is going are indeed vital elements of the mix.

But ... here's the rub. You can spend hours or days brainstorming, workshopping and crafting beautiful statements of your Vision and Values, you can even apply amazing design to the document to make it a thing of beauty I guarantee that if you think you’ve finished there, you'll derive little or no lasting value!

The thing is that Vision statements, Mission statements or Values documents only become worthwhile when they are translated into Culture – Values live when values are lived. So if you want to build for the future, spend at least as much time again defining and planning ways to incorporate your Values and Vision into the Culture of your business, in other words build a brand strategy – and the best place to start? Behaviours – but more of that next time ...

Brand in a nutshell

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 02:57 GMT

Several times over the last few months of networking I have been handed a business card and asked, "Well, what do you think of my brand?" My answer is always the same: "I don't know. All I have seen is your logo". Whilst I’m sure that this is not the kind of response people want to hear, it’s the truth. Within this quick exchange lies the fundamental truth about branding; your logo is not your brand!

Now let me just clear something up before I go any further. Corporate visual identity is vital – and it's not something you should do 'on the cheap'. I don’t want to give the impression that visual identity is unimportant, but the truth is that your logo affects the way people see your letterhead, whilst your brand affects the way people see your company.

Branding is actually an extremely complex activity because it encompasses your entire organisation from HR to Finance, Sales and Marketing to Distribution and all points in between. Any branding exercise should look at four areas:

Product.

Just what is it that we do? This can be a very difficult question to answer – especially in the service sector. At a recent seminar that I ran at the Birmingham NRG lunch, I asked the delegates to consider three questions: Who are we? What do we do? Why does it matter? Call it USP, call it differentiation, it’s something that business leaders should continually review. ‘Who are we’ calls into question all the values that underpin the organisation – why did we start the business in the first place? How do we want to operate and be perceived? 'What do we do' asks us to be crystal clear about our product or set of products, and to ask ourselves do our products still fit with our "who we are"? 'Why does it matter' forces us to be completely honest when answering the question why should people buy from us?

Environment.

How well do you understand your environment? Do you have a thorough knowledge of the sector you operate in? Do you understand your client's view of the world? Qualitative research is vital. Seek feedback from your clients. Ask the people who buy how you could serve them better and above all, don’t be afraid to find the niche that best suits you and stay there.

Communication.

When you speak, what does your audience hear? Any communication from you to any of your stakeholders has the power to strengthen and affirm your brand/reputation or to weaken and negate it. This covers marketing communications – and all marketing pieces should be rigorously checked back against your "Who are we?" values. It also covers letters, emails, phone calls, sales conversations, and presentations etc. etc. Every day you communicate something, it’s impossible to not communicate so the need to manage your communications cannot be overstated.

Behaviour.

How does your organisation behave? Do all your actions back up your brand promise? Does the client have a consistent experience at every point of their relationship with you? Do the promises made in a sales meeting still hold true when the client has been sent an invoice? Behaviour is a key element in building trust in you brand – especially if you have a service-based brand. We all understand that repeat business is cheaper than new business, but how many companies lose potential repeat customers by offering poor after sales service?

Branding - too expensive?

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 03:08 GMT

Branding is often thought of as an expensive exercise, but it doesn't have to be! True, creating a new corporate identity and all the printed material changes that accompany such an exercise probably will be expensive. But brand is not just about the visual elements. Creating your own vision, defining your company values, and enshrining company principles can incur only a cost in time spent. Implementing a positive change to organisational culture can be inexpensive too. These basic elements of a holistic approach to brand strategy will begin to express the differences of your company from your competitors far more efficiently than simply changing your logo.

Brand profitability is not built on a good marketing strategy – brand profit is based on brand reputation. Perceptions and experiences of your brand over-rule any amount of corporate identity. A great brand identity can easily be tarnished by negative customer experiences, but gain positive experiences by your customers each and every time they interact with the brand, at all levels, then your visual identity can be mediocre and still achieve profitable results!

Where does your brand live?

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 03:24 GMT

The traditional view that brand is a graphical representation of a product or company just won’t do any more. Research shows that as little as 15% of any brand is 'visual'. Indeed to take a purely visual approach to branding in the B2B sector would, we suggest, be an expensive waste of time, effort and resources. More importantly it doesn’t offer the edge that is required in an increasingly crowded marketplace. It’s no longer enough to just stand out in the crowd. To succeed in the 21st century, business must build long-term relationships with customers who return time and again. The Brand rubber really hits the road after the first sale is made.

Brand is: "The culmination of a person’s total experience of your organisation, good or bad. It is the effect on your stakeholders of all that your company says and does."

So brand is dynamic. Brand lives in the mind of your customer, your staff member and your shareholder. Brand is only truly yours when you take time to build, develop and manage it. Branding is about spending time below the waterline, positioning and maintaining the culture of a business. Branding is a lifetime activity.

Traditionally, branding has been seen as a marketing function. Because it has been limited to visuals, the focus within most organisations is on the ‘above-the-waterline’ stuff, much of which is strongly linked to strategic marketing activity. Given that 85% of brand is under the water however, there is a strong case for re-evaluating the status quo. Quality, service, efficiency, sales effectiveness et al. are certainly not marketing activities but belong firmly in the boardroom. This is the realm of strategy and long-term thinking.

What many business leaders fail to understand understand is that to build a brand takes perseverance, effort and focus in the boardroom. It’s when the strategy, direction and cultural references are clear that profitable brand-implementation can happen throughout the organisation.