Facing a challenging set of challenges [hows that!] from a challenging client, I produced a document for the client. Ive altered it a bit but since Im in a frustrated mood, Ive decided to rant about brand development to a larger audience and hopefully teach a little. Hopefully. Basic Premises for Conducting and Implementing a Brand Development Program At its core, every business or social organization or social / political movement ––whether it is a For Profit or a Not For Profit; whether it is a government, a revolution, a financial institution, a department store chain, a recycling company, a junk yard, a law firm, a movie studio, a recording studio, an internet company, a website, an educational institution, a fast food chain, a rock & roll band, a one-off gourmet grocery store, or a philanthropically funded foundation that intends to affect certain populations by funding programs and services it offers ––– EVERY ONE OF THEM must have a reason for existing that is firmly established and conveyed in an orderly, consistent and compelling manner through its BRAND EQUATION. It is mandatory that a singular and/or multi-tiered purpose for existing becomes cellular and internalized within those founding, funding and operating the organization. And the purpose and the values, beliefs and framework of the organization’s approach must be conveyed to all of its internal audiences [management, staff, vendors, suppliers] and certainly all of its external audiences whomever might become the interactional and transactional base. In other words, every business organization and every social movement has to be based on SOMETHING real. And in mass, that GROUP OF SOMETHINGS will form the basis for a CULTURE, an interactional culture to be formed so that everyone involved with this organization knows, in context, why the organization exists, what are its core values, beliefs and the driving forces that they must internalize and convey to all those with whom they come into contact for whatever the purpose. At its core, a BRAND is a promise. It is a promise that is not simply the ‘name’ or the ‘words’ or the ‘logo’ or the ‘materials’ used to promote the BRAND. The BRAND is, in a way, the CONSTITUTION, BILL OF RIGHTS, the BIBLE, and the RAND McNALLY ROADMAP that articulates exactly what the organization is all about –– where it is headed –– and why it does what it intends to do in ways that can be embraced and believed by everyone involved. The BRAND EQUATION that is at the ROOT of every successful organization is a fluid, yet consistent set of messages, ideals and behaviors that have to be tattooed onto each person involved in the organization, much like the approaches, values and beliefs of a FAMILY are incorporated into the manner by which a household operates, and that ideally, the parents, children and others come to recognize as the ‘culture’ of the family even if they don’t phrase it that way on a daily basis. Following are some of the basic reasons, benefits and dangers that relate to both a successful brand being developed versus an unsuccessful brand development effort that is based on throwing a lot of crap on a wall and seeing what sticks and then calling it ‘modern art’. That is not art and it is not the way art is created. A well-conceived brand is a work of art. It must be carefully conceived, structured and executed are perfectly as possible to optimize its effectiveness over the long haul. It is as simple and as complex as that. Branding: Sixteen of the Hundreds of Reasons, Benefits and Dangers 1. Every organization must have a set of reasons and purposes that serve as the basis of why it has been conceived and what will help take it to ‘the promised land’, whatever or wherever that might be. Those reasons and purposes must be built into everything about the organization and that are articulated carefully, consistently and in a compelling manner to all key audiences –– whether it is done overtly or more subtly, but more likely, a combination thereof. 2. People ALWAYS have a choice about where and with whom they do business. And a well-conceived and powerfully executed branding program will enable an organization to have an initial strategic edge in helping persuade people to enter into an interactional and transactional relationship with the organization instead of participating with some other business entity that may have equally good intentions, products or services of its own. 3. The BRAND STORY has to provide points of DISTINCTIVE DIFFERENTIATION as to why ‘our brand is the brand to choose. Otherwise the business organization will be throwing financial resources and human intellect and purposefulness into a whirlwind marketplace where the results will be disappointing because the very people that you’d like to be appealing to won’t even know you exist, why you exist, and what the benefits are for them to participate in a relationship with your organization. 4. The client’s organization must create for itself a UNIFIED CULTURE that becomes the bloodline for all thoughts, behavior, processes, strategic approaches and tactical executions. That CULTURE is what a professional, well-conceived branding program will help to begin create –– in other words, taking the founder’s ‘vision’ and putting it into a framework and context that can be understood and embraced and believed as the ‘marching orders’ for all those involved within and outside the entity. The culture that a great branding program can help outline, define, cultivate, and articulate through verbal and visual mechanisms, as well as other mechanisms, becomes the GLUE that holds the organization together and becomes the BRANDING MAGNET for attracting ‘outsiders’ to want to interact and participate with the client’s entity. 5. A brand that is professionally created in every manner will create INDELIBLE IMPRESSIONS upon and within the minds and hearts of all those working within the business entity, and ideally, upon the minds and hearts of those individuals, groups and constituencies that the client’s entity may want to ‘invite’ to attend events, may want to solicit donations, may want to sells its products and services, and even add their networking connections, and so forth. 6. Far from creating a propaganda doctrine that is nothing more than insidious marketing pablum, a well-devised strategic brand marketing plan, is a ROADMAP of honest, believable and compelling attributes of the organization. It can absolutely become a RALLYING POINT for internal and external audiences. 7. By creating a solid foundation for the brand to use as the basis for all exposures, messaging and operational behavior, the client’s brand will have the durability, flexibility and intellectual creativity to outlive its founders, survive inevitable changes in the management and staff, adjust successfully to changing regulatory, social and marketplace conditions, and even the mindset of the branding consultants who have created the ‘roadmap’ for visual, verbal and intellectual communications. 8. In other words, the brand is PRICELESS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY as well as a tangible ‘thing’. A business organization is more than its name, more than its logo, more than flyers and brochures, more than its products and services, and even more than special events. Those are simply the set of tools that need to be used effectively to help elevate the brand above and away from all the clutter of brands that litter the marketplace every second of our lives. 9. Creating a BRAND FRANCHISE is crucial. At this point, the client’s concept of the ‘brand’ may simply be the good intentions of someone. It is an idea. Nothing more; nothing less. It has no teeth yet with which it can sink itself into the fabric of the marketplace, or can be a ‘brand of interest’ to the selective audiences, including the media, that will need to be stimulated and motivated and INFORMED to pay attention and hopefully to follow. 10. An experienced professional brand and corporate identity consultant typically has the tools and experience to assist the founders of the brand concept take their initial ‘idea’ and transform it from an ‘air drawing’ into a functional, fully operational business organization that will operate itself based on certain core beliefs, values and premises so that consistency leads to the ability of the business entity to DELIVER ON ITS BRAND PROMISE at every juncture ––– whether it is to internal audiences within the entity –– or to all those the entity hopes to appeal to when it comes time for transactional opportunities, donations, support for events, and even for providing additional brain power for a stronger brain trust through recruiting and hiring of better personnel that has a greater collective ability to succeed in the mission that the founders embrace. 11. By exploring the thoughts, ideas and impressions of the founders / leaders, we, as brand developers, can incorporate into the BRAND EQUATION, those elements that are most essential for the organization to have a CULTURAL INTEGRITY and a consistent manner in the way it approaches its existence. Without following a well-conceived brand development process, every new ‘brand’ is on the precipice of a cliff and risks falling into a dark cavern of disparity, disorganization and chaos that will make it impossible for rescue. 12. An organization has ONE and ONLY ONE real opportunity to LAUNCH ITS BRAND SUCCESSFULLY so that all the relevant, tangible, intellectual and moral elements that are the bloodline of the organization are conveyed, believed, and embraced. If the launch is simply seen as an amateur ‘event’ without substance or purpose or direction, the business entity’s ‘brand’ could end up being a chaotic mess that has no direction from which ‘marching orders’ and the ‘brass ring’ of objectives can never be understood and/or embraced by anyone inside or outside the organization. 13. A brand is not a name. It is not a logo. It is not a color palette. It is not a list of key words to blend into every press release or brochure. It is not a sign on a building. It is not a watermark on a logo. It is not a t-shirt at a concert. It is not a raffle ticket. A BRAND IS THE SUM TOTAL OF EVERY KEY ELEMENT AND REASON FOR EXISTING IN THE FIRST PLACE and IS THE EMOTIONAL CONNECTING POINT THAT THE FOUNDERS & MANAGEMENT & OPERATORS HOPE TO USE AS A CENTRAL THEME AND RALLYING POINT FOR ALL AUDIENCES. The brand is a promise. It is a set of expectations rooted in a fundamental ideology that forms the framework for everything. Everything. And based on all these ‘real’ things in the bloodline of the client’s organization, all the design elements, languaging and intellectual elements can be used by the brand development team most effectively as the team creates effective mission and vision statements, brand strategies, and the various naming and visual iterations that are used to communicate to key audiences. 14. BRAND DEVELOPMENT is an organic process that evolves over time; it has to. It must adapt to whatever comes in its path as opportunities, challenges or problems. But the BRAND must be created with a specific intention and a structure that is executed perfectly or close to perfectly so that there is always a basic SET OF DIRECTIONS that serve as the business entity’s BRAND OPERATORS MANUAL –– both in tangible executions, but even more importantly –– in the way the organizational family and team looks at itself in relation to the goals it is intending to set for itself. 15. The dangers that come from an unorganized, chaotic and ill-conceived brand development master plan and erratic implementational steps are numerous. But BRAND UNAWARENESS and the subsequent issue of BRAND DISPARITY beginning on day one will create bruises, lacerations and serious internal injuries that can not be healed or overcome with ‘after the fact’ medications that are applied randomly like a crazed shopper in the pharmacy trying multiple OTC products to heal his /her cold ––– when it’s actually a broken leg that has occurred. 16. Taking the time and putting in the effort to create an appealing, believable and tangible branding structure that is intended to last a lifetime should be every business organization’s goal. Anything less than a long-term approach done professionally and consistently is simply a waste of everyone’s time, including the founders. And I don’t know anyone who is willing to consciously waste his or her time and consider it a good thing.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 18:41:55 +0000
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