Bits and Bytes Build the Brand

As I’ve blogged before, branding is the compilation of all the little things about you and your product. The making of a brand makes for fascinating study and considerable debate. Yesterday’s Brand You Summit offered an outstanding collection of experts on Branding. This morning, I opened Change This and discovered “Build Your Brand in Bits and Bytes,”a manifesto by brand strategist, public speaker and author, Willian Arruda. Arruda founded Reach, the global leader in personal branding.

Download your copy of the manifesto, Build Your Brand in Bits and Bytes.

In 15 succinct pages, Arruda gives instructions for gauging your personal brand effectiveness on the web. “You’re being googled,” he writes and offers an online tool to evaluate just how your personal brand effectiveness stacks up.

A simple table demonstrates where your brand ranks on the digital scale; answer five questions and Arruda’s easy-to-use tool calculates the answer for you. Even better, he explains how to implement a plan to develop the online brand you want to portray. I encourage you to take the test. Are you digitally disguised, dissed, disastrous, dabbling, or distinct?

Once again William Arruda has provided high content, easy-to-understand branding information that can take you to the next level in your ongoing quest to a positive web presence.

Customer Communication: Walk the Talk

At last week’s Economic Summit trade show I saw Quality New Mexico in action. Their purpose at the show: outreach to communities and companies about Quality New Mexico and discussion of how the NM Quality Awards program can support organizations in achieving the next level.

Calwyn Gullick, Business Unit Owner Advertising & Public Relations introduced herself to me with a comment about my website. Calwyn had been researching sites mentioned in an e-blast; naturally, I was pleased to be on the radar and impressed with the fact that she was prepared for a decision.

The Quality booth featured client giveaways such as a unique highlighter from The Gap as well as a promotion product (a tiny radio) touting Director Julia Gabeldon’s Radio Show, 5:00 – 6:00pm Sundays on KKOB 770 AM. Both were appropriate giveaways.

Members of the Quality NM contingency commented about John Vinyard, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of GENITECT, LLC; Vinyard addresses “Creating an Environment for Peak Performance using the Malcolm Baldridge Model” at the upcoming annual conference event for the local chapter of American Society of Training and Development (ASTD-NM).

This experience illustrates the power of connection, the importance of finding commonalities with potential customers, and the experience of brand. I say experience of brand because it’s the compilation of all that you do to promote your product or service. The nuances carry far more importance that one might expect. I suspect for Quality New Mexico, it’s one more way to walk the talk.

Branding: How hard can it be?

Herding cats can be easier than getting your branding in line. Just ask Jill Duval of New Mexico WOMAN. Jill and her staff took time this week to take a look at an ongoing process: bringing a new look and tagline to life.

New Mexico WOMAN, an independent magazine of 19 years, encompasses three other events and a directory. Like any small business, the operation involves more ambition than people to fulfill it, implying a constant juggle of time and money.

After a decision to cohesively brand all elements of the operation, Jill and company began implementing the pieces. It’s a major project for an existing operation. Here’s a sample checklist:

1. All materials carry the look
   Letterhead, postcards, magnetic signs, nametags, internal communication, products, collateral pieces, external communications like advertising, website, customer service communications, co-branding communications, direct sales communications
2. A digital file exists for all collateral materials
3. All employees can access all materials
4. The website mirrors the look
5. The brand message is clear
6. The communication of the message to clients is consistent
7. The communication of the message by employees is consistent
8. There are product mix/service innovations in place that enhance the brand
9. There is a plan for focused communication of the message
10. There is a formal checklist in place internally to insure continued improvement

Brand is everything you do. Hence, my original premise: for an existing organization, transforming brand is akin to herding cats.

Taglines: Brand Focus or Brand Detraction?

Brandweek Magazine keeps me abreast of advertising news and offers food for thought. The Top of Mind Perspectives and Commentary frequently catches my attention. Last week, September 10, 2007, the “Got Tagline?” commentary from Mike McGinty, creative director at Groove 11, caught my attention.

McGinty commented: “Too many companies approach taglines without thinking…. …”if any of these outfits did actually stop for even a second and analyze their own taglines, they’d see just how insipid, inappropriate or indistinctive so many of them truly are.”

In an article that made me laugh out loud, McGinty hammered about what works and what doesn’t. Some of his picks for what works include:

Every kiss begins with Kay – Kay Jewelers; this advertiser marries the brand name with the product benefits and the emotion behind it.

OR, You are now free to move about the country – Southwest Airlines; Here’s a tagline that offers a relevant twist on a familiar phrase.

AND, Get the door. It’s Domino’s; As McGinty points out, this is a pure, simple experience-driven tagline.

The laughing part came as McGinty discussed fast food taglines. He pointed out that Church’s Chicken uses: Gotta love it; McDonald’s I’m loving it, and suggested that you check competitor taglines before you finalize yours.

I find most taglines to be vague and non-descriptive; here are some such samples from local publications:

Compass Bank, Just a little better
Martha’s Body Bueno, THE place to shop
Casa de Rosa Assisted Living, This is living
Dillard’s, The style of your life
Bank of Albuquerque, The banker makes the bank

Here is a list of the Top 100 Taglines of all time. Taglines clearly say what you do and should tell users why they care. Check yours. My rule is, if you can substitute your competitor’s name for yours and the statement is true, then you have a problem.

Authenticity: Branding at the Cellular Level

Recently a speaker from the League of Women Voters discussed authenticity and stated that was the one quality she wanted to see in political candidates. I found myself thinking about authenticity in marketing and business.

Authenticity requires vulnerability, the willingness to be open, truthful and sincere. Genuine. Authenticity in marketing requires truth in advertising and presentation. A number of recent posts from consultants in organizational development discussed authenticity. The Free Management Library offered additional insight on the subject.

Social media and its transparency supports truth. Companies and people find it difficult to “pull one over” on consumers in today’s world. Yet, authenticity is lacking. More than ever authenticity is cited as the catalyst for customer loyalty.

Not surprisingly, books are written on the subject. Beyond-Branding: How the values of transparency and integrity are changing the world of brands, is a compilation by 14 authors. Read more and download your free chapter here.

Authentic branding strikes a chord, causes a response from the target audience, and resonates at the cellular level.

Ultimately, a quote from Barbara De Angelis, Internationally recognized expert on human relations, sums up authenticity: "We need to find the courage to say NO to the things and people that are not serving us if we want to rediscover ourselves and live our lives with authenticity."

How Target Markets Impact Brand and Other Musings

I’m speaking to the Women’s Regional Publishers of America this week and in preparing for that event, I’ve looked specifically at branding. It’s a favorite topic and one that must be communicated with every one of the critical audiences. In publishing, there are two primary customers – readers and advertisers. Recognizing that, I still found myself thinking that there’s one way to talk about brand.

Brand. Unlike a tag line or a logo, you don’t just build brand and quit. Branding involves the totality of what you do. It’s a process, not a one-time thing or event. Building your brand involves grappling with the essence of what you do and how it’s conveyed.

As magazine publishers, your publication is one piece – the most visible one, of course – of your brand. So too is the collateral in your media kit, your offices, your sales representatives and their presentations. Brand is pervasive in that it is everything. What does your brand say about you?

Step one is to identify your publishing segment – or the segment you want to own. Who is your customer? What do they want? Most of the answers to this begin at the superficial level. “Oh, we appeal to all women,” is the answer I might expect to get. Go deeper. Today’s boomer woman is dramatically different from today’s young professional. And the business owner has little in common with the call center employee.

Rachelle published a motivational ezine and had been in the business with it since 1998. Her list had grown to several hundred subscribers. The problem was turnover. Nearly 40% of her list turned every year. When we started working on the problem, Rachelle couldn’t describe her average customer to me. Together we decided to create Martha.

Martha was the fictional name that she used to describe her audience. What did she read? Where did she shop? Was she married? Where did she live? Was she concerned with politics? Did she care about what was happening in the world? You get the idea. Rachelle found a picture that represented Martha and began to assemble the parts of her world. A pet. A home. She used a process called a visual board to get clear about her target and begin to build brand.

Target marketing describes the process of focusing on the segment that is your customer. We use target to describe the center, the central point of an effort. Typically it is pictured as a red dot in the middle of several related circles. This is because you drill down to the target. It may not be the first answer as you begin to narrow your efforts. Instead of "ready, fire, aim" think "aim!" Think target.