Posts Tagged ‘Brand Development’

What’s your Story?

Thursday, April 29th, 2010 by Deb DeFreeuw

I just finished an amazing book.  It really made me think. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life, by Donald Miller. It was about the author working with two men, Ben and Steve, who wanted
to make a movie of Miller’s life.  It was during the discussions of his “real life” he discovered their desire to edit it into what makes a good story. They wanted his life to have punch and meaning. As Don worked with Ben and Steve he came to realize his life was boring. In the course of creating the fictional Don for the movie, he was creating the person he wanted to be, someone worth telling a story about.

Don ended up biking across the US, hiking the Inca trail and searching for and finding the father he had never met. Don made a conscious decision to create a better story from the life he was living. The basic structure for a good story has a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it. He took a look at what he wanted and then went for it!

This book made me think of my own life. While I have some pretty cool chapters in my story — travel, learning how to sail, driving a race car, going 139 mph in a jet boat, owning a business and being with my grandfather when he died. I
look at my life now. What am I NOT doing? What scares me? How have I let obligations and expectations neglect my story? It’s not about making things up to talk about, or doing things because they “sound” good, heck you
don’t have to hike the Inca trail unless you want to… but we should always strive to consciously live an enriched, authentic life.

I think it works the same way with business. The CEO needs to be mindful of the story that is being told about their company. That story changes over time, so being aware of your story, or brand, and what it is saying about your business is critical. There is a great line in the book, “…a story is based on what people think is important, so when we live a story, we are telling people what we think is important.” Your brand tells the story of what your company thinks is important. Is that service, innovation, philanthropy?  Take a look at your brand story, is it reflecting who you are? Have you lost sight of what’s important, what makes your company distinct?

We can help. With two Certified Brand Strategists on staff, we can help your company look inward and review your story. Maybe the brand story that’s being told should change, to reflect the direction the company is taking… Give us a call-and let us help tell your story.

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Its Springtime! – Time to dust off that Brand.

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 by David Morgan

With spring time comes spring cleaning. Dusting off the shelves, cleaning out the garage (still need to do that!…), and just a general wash down and clean up – it’s work, but it really feels good when you are all done!

Spring is a great time of year. Finally, FINALLY, the color green returns, flowers sprout, and everyone has a little more spring in their step as the sun gradually warms up the world.

So how about spring cleaning your brand? In the winter of 09, (actually all last year) many companies “hunkered down” just to make it through the recession. Amidst the layoffs and reduced sales, marketing and promotional activities also took a hit. Even though studies have shown that those who kept up their marketing activities in bad times come out of recessionary periods earlier and faster than those who didn’t –many companies just couldn’t do what they needed to do in regards to Brand building and marketing.

Now’s the time to get started.

Your brand is you life blood, it’s who you are—the soul of your company. EVERY marketing tactic, whether it’s a web site, a business card, or how you answer the phone is part of your brand.

Dusting off your Brand-

Let’s look at some basics to get you started this spring. We ask the question of our clients—Who are you, What do you do, and Why does it matter? These questions seem simple enough—but sometimes hard to answer—especially that last one.
You’ve heard the phrase “elevator speech”. That’s when someone says “Tell me about your company” when at a party, a trade show, or at lunch—or yeah, on the elevator. Do you have a concise statement that can answer all three questions? Do some work this spring on your elevator speech. The process of thinking through this is invaluable. After the elevator speech, you might be asked—“Wow, tell me more…” That’s when you might want to tell your back story…

Back Story-

I really like this concept. Every Brand should have a Back Story. Basically, the premise is that every brand has a story—a story of how they got started, why they do what they do…. Brands don’t start at launch, they’ve been around awhile, and they have a story. And though a brand’s franchise is an important statement that tells us who the brand is, it doesn’t tell how the brand was born, or why it came to be. That’s why every brand needs a back story. Or else, why should anyone trust that brand? After analyzing a few brands’ websites and history, it was easy to see the ingredients in a great brand story: information delivered straight from the source and authentic. With authenticity comes transparency and credibility. The voice of the back story – whether that’s the company president or the employees also lends itself to credibility.

Look at these Stories:
One of my favorite companies is Kashi. Great marketing. Their story is told from both their marketing team and their product developers, inviting consumers to “meet us” on their website. Did you know they only have 70 employees?
Another one is Ocean Spray. Their story is told by a collective of three cranberry growers, citing their history as well as the history of cranberries and grapefruit.

And the back story isn’t just a timeline and history of when Grandpa started the company, it’s the story of why.
What our brand samples are doing is a key example of a brand connecting with consumers on their level—a personal level. They’re not talking down to consumers – they’re talking with consumers. And with that approach, it opens up dialogue between the brand and the consumer.

So, as part of your spring cleaning, do you have a concise elevator speech and brand back story? Sit out on the porch, watch the season come alive, and dust off your brand. Happy Spring from Force 5!

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Generating creative ideas for your brand or company

Monday, April 5th, 2010 by Force 5

Lately, we’ve been busy – busy ideating that is.

Ideating – which is a fancier term for brainstorming – is a core necessity or foundational step within an advertising and marketing agency’s process of generating creative ideas.

In almost every case, these creative ideas deliver a need or provide a solution to a client problem.  However, good ideas don’t have to be limited to only serving clients (although being paid for good ideas is crucially important).  Reinventing the company website, modifying new business collateral materials or working on a pro-bono campaign can be extremely empowering and beneficial in boosting morale.  Simply put, creative ideation is an enjoyable way to get lots of fresh ideas out on the table and get everyone thinking and pulling together!

Where do you start?  What are best practices?  Sounds like a perfect opportunity for another Force 5 – Top 5 list.  Without further ado, the following rules serve as our guiding light to productive ideating:

  1. Come prepared to participate
    • The meeting requester should provide a pre-reading assignment (like an initial creative brief or client contact report) so everyone knows the key objective(s) in advance
    • Do some preliminary research.  Consider the basics like the brand or the company and their competition– but dig deeper
    • Independently ideate and bring at least one, well thought-out idea to the meeting
  2. The moderator is the captain
    • Arrange for 75-90 minutes of discussion.  I find that one hour is often not enough, but participant’s schedules may dictate the desired duration
    • Have a plan!  Think about what you must take away from the meeting by scripting key questions in advance
    • Keep it moving.  Don’t interrupt or cutoff a speaker, but after a specific idea or topic has been exhausted transition to the next discussion point
  3. All ideas are good ideas
    • Withhold criticism.  Someone else’s idea may spark a separate idea later in the process – so don’t automatically discard an idea because you don’t think it has merit
    • Specifically avoid saying “no” and “we can’t” – these words can derail the session because the people being told no will often shut down and stop contributing to the discussion
    • Instead, build on the idea by implementing the “yes, but…” scenario – “Yes (I hear what you’re saying, even though I might not agree) but perhaps we could consider…”
  4. Capture as many ideas as possible
    • Use large post-it notes or a white board to capture all of the ideas in writing, so everyone can see what is being encapsulated and can build on the ideas later in the process
    • Try to organize ideas by category but remember the most important thing is to capture as much info as possible – if you can’t easily categorize simply jot-down in chronological order
    • If need be, politely stop the person speaking and ask them to succinctly restate their idea to make certain  you’ve accurately depicted all of their key points
  5. You’re done, now what?  (post-ideation)
    • Immediately following, write up all of the ideas and distribute to everyone who participated.  Ask them again to confirm that you’ve accurately captured all of their ideas
    • Time permitting, leave the ideas up on the wall – this allows people to come back and build on all of the ideas afterwards (because sometimes it’s good to step away, then come back)
    • Determine if another ideation meeting should be scheduled.  Perhaps you didn’t’ get as far as you would have liked, or maybe you’d like to drill down even further

Need help generating creative ideas for your brand or company?  Let Force 5 play a role in assisting you and your organization in meeting and exceeding your marketing objectives.  We’ve love to ideate a solution for you!

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Okay…It’s Finally 2010…Now What?

Thursday, February 25th, 2010 by David Morgan

Unfortunately last year many business’s pulled back on their marketing and advertising efforts. “Well, something had to give”, a business owner told me. Unfortunately, marketing initiatives may have been the last thing he wanted to pull in a bad economy. Study after study has shown that during down times, the companies that continued marketing came back to “the black” quicker and stronger than those who pulled the blanket over their heads and waited for the storm to pass. However, money is money….and when you don’t have it….or want to keep what you have as much as possible, you try to focus on the most effective method for creating ‘awareness’ without breaking the bank. Many of our clients are saying their objective this year is to create awareness of their company and product and grow the business.

“All I need is a new brochure!” my business friend cries. But that approach is tactical. A new web site, a couple of print pieces, maybe a new logo—those are only tactics that need to be driven by a strategy—a marketing plan—and that plan HAS to be driven by brand. Without brand strategy, his brochure is just a waste of a good tree.

It’s all about the brand. At Force 5, we believe that to increase awareness and business, it’s essential to establish a powerful and consistent brand image.

So why is brand development so important, and why now? Brand development is an investment – a proven investment. A good brand sets you apart from the crowd. Your brand is your evidence of distinction, what makes you different and unique from your competitors. Without distinction, you’re just another vendor, brand X. Without distinction, you could be just a commodity. And we all know how commodities are traded—price-the lowest price. When price is the only measurement of value of your company or product-you lose. If you are fighting in the trenches with only the lowest price, you are fighting everyone in the marketplace. And in today’s economy, when everyone is looking to get back on track—the low price game is being played hard.

However, when you have distinction, a proven and defensible brand, you rise above the fray. You can command higher prices, you are a leader.

A good brand means equity –true value to the company. There are examples of proven brand equity on a national and local scale. Coca Cola is ranked number one on Interbrands top 100 global brands of 2009, a spot they’ve held for nine consecutive years, and their brand alone accounts for 51% of the company’s stock market value. That’s millions and millions of dollars. What would it cost you to buy the name Coca Cola—not the plants, not the product—just the name??…That’s brand equity.

Your brand differentiation carries more weight today than ever before.

Fortunately, no matter how young or old your business is, you can still bring your brand to life. You can help an existing brand evolve or you can develop strategies to re-establish your brand.

At Force 5, we ask our clients—Who are you, What do you do, and Why does it matter? On the surface, these are easy questions, but sometimes tough to answer…

Our brand discovery process, called “Soul Searching,” provides the perfect insight into a company’s distinction. When we facilitate a session, we recruit the CEO, VP marketing, marketing managers, sales managers, folks from operations and sales people with the clear pulse on the buyer. We spend hours in a process of distilling information. From simple facts, to identifying unique value propositions, we build in a delivery mechanism by empowerment and incentives like training, technology or new customer service guidelines to assure that the newly created brand distinction is delivered constantly and consistently. The outcome is the foundation for the new or revisited brand strategy and a crystal clear and memorable internal and external brand communication. Why involve the CEO? Because brand development is not a marketing initiative, it is a corporate initiative. It must start at the top, and permeate from the President down to each and every worker. When everyone has shared in the authorship of your brand’s unique distinction, then it becomes the foundation of all production, marketing and sales initiatives.

So, It’s 2010—What’s your brand?

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Brand vs. Commodity

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 by David Morgan

 

(What you really need to know and understand about brand development)

There’s a lot of talk about Brand, Branding, and Brand Development. Its all important, and its all straightforward. The problem with most companies in regards to branding is that they haven’t taken time to understand the differences and more importantly, why they need to develop their brand.

Defining Brand:

Here’s what Webster’s says about the definition of a Brand: A Claim of distinction.

You see, without distinction, you’re brand “X”, or generic, or worse, a commodity. And we all know how commodities are traded – price. And when price becomes our only measurement of value, you loose – big time. Are you the low price leader? If so, you are fighting everyone in the marketplace. But if you have a claim of distinction then you rise above the fray. However, as Brand Strategists at Force 5, we have a problem with the word “Claim”.. It’s problematic in that anyone can make a claim. Given this, a more inarguable definition of a brand would be Evidence of Distinction. We work with our clients to find that evidence of distinction that makes them unique.

Brand development VS: Branding

There is a huge difference between branding and brand development. Brand development is the discovery process we go through to unearth our “Evidence of distinction,” and the development of communications of that differentiation. Branding is then, the tactical application of that distinction in all our communications materials. Branding might be a year long campaign using several tactics (broadcast, web, direct mail).

Brand development is not a marketing initiative.

Brand development is a corporate initiative. At Force 5 we believe that in order for a distinctive brand to be deliverable, it must be discovered and adopted at the very top echelon – the CEO, COO, President, VP of Marketing/Marketing director, etc. Once the discovery process is completed, and all of us have shared in the authorship of a brands unique distinction, then we’ll hand it off to marketing for advancement.

What’s your brand?

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