Knowledge Base - Branding
Keeping the Brand Healthy: The Annual Brand Checkup
One of the keys and biggest challenges with building premium brands is maintaining a healthy balance between growing the business and maintaining consistency in your brand communications program. That's because premium brands, by their very nature, have a way of taking on a life of their own.
Keeping the Brand Healthy: The Annual Brand Checkup
A brand is what a brand does
A clever - and not simplistic - Forrest Gump-style view of brand marketing in the UK today: what works, what doesn't work, and why...
A brand is what a brand does
Brand Trends. Brand Threats. - The View From Here.
Editor’s Note: I popped into the Robbins Brandt Richter offices in Newton to interview General Manager Rod Strother and Creative Director Matthew Masters about their views on leadership, NZ and life in general.
Brand Trends. Brand Threats. - The View From Here.
Adopting a personal brand for success
Helen Clark, Richard Branson, Tony Blair and Madonna apparently have it, while Don Brash and Bill Gates are improving. It's strong personal branding - the ability to sell yourself and your ideas so you are heard and people know what you stand for.
Adopting a personal brand for success
Why Rebranding Often Fails
As competition heats up and sales start to stagnate, companies often seek to breathe new life into the brand through rebranding. In all too many cases, however, those expensive rebranding efforts fail to yield the desired business results.
Why Rebranding Often Fails
The 10 Cs of Branding
The 10 Cs of Branding
Strong Brands Always Have More Brand Credits Than Debits: A Starbucks Lesson
When faced with determining the appropriateness of marketing activities such as a promotion, sponsorship, program, or special event, the marketing department first determines whether the activity is a brand credit or debit.
Strong Brands Always Have More Brand Credits Than Debits: A Starbucks Lesson
Knight Time for the JUST Marketing Team
The success of any brand is wholly and totally contingent on one thing and one thing only - the product delivery.
Knight Time for the JUST Marketing Team
Please Release Me, Let Me Go
Ever get the feeling that your FMCG brand is caught between a rock and a hard place? Freedom can come but only if you change the rules of engagement.
Please Release Me, Let Me Go
How Far Will Brand Extensions Stretch?
Brand extensions offer one way of leveraging a brand's assets and equity to market new products, increase sales, and (hopefully) produce profits. While there can be significant benefits in brand extension strategies, there can also be significant risks, resulting in a diluted or severely damaged brand.
How Far Will Brand Extensions Stretch?
Evaluating your sponsorships
When it started, SR was just 'lets support something' or it happened because a charity came knocking on the door and the company decided to say yes without really thinking about its relevance to the brand - they just saw 'good cause' and went for it.
Evaluating your sponsorships
Will social responsibility really replace marketing?
How could social responsibility (SR) possibly replace marketing – or why does it need to?
Will social responsibility really replace marketing?
How much do consumers trust big brands?
Consumers now think that the most credible source of information about commercial organisations is "a person like me", according to the seventh annual Edelman Trust Barometer.
How much do consumers trust big brands?
Trends brand marketers can expect in 2006
Increasing consumer expectations and high demand across all categories are causing a lag in brand image, and the answer to the problem lies in predictive loyalty metrics that measure the direction and speed of change in consumer values, according to loyalty research agency Brand Keys, which predicts five key brand and marketing trends for 2006.
Trends brand marketers can expect in 2006
How consumer insight makes or breaks a new brand
When developing and launching a new product, the brand marketer needs consumer insight to get the market positioning right. So how do you begin the process, and how have others succeeded in the past?
How consumer insight makes or breaks a new brand
Brand Value and the User Experience
What do companies like Nordstrom, Jet Blue, Amazon and Dell have in common? They have built their brand value on providing a positive experience for their customers, online and offline.
Brand Value and the User Experience
It’s the journey, not the destination
In 2015, what will you be doing to limit the amount of information you need to pay attention to?
It’s the journey, not the destination
Brand standing - The secret to branding success is simplicity
How to stop branding going pear-shaped (the secret is simplicity)
Brand standing - The secret to branding success is simplicity
Brand Blindness: what is it, and how do you cure it?
Direct marketing needs clear brand thinking, yet this is strangely often overlooked, according to David Batten, who examines the pitfalls of 'brand blindness' and how to avoid possible brand damage...
Brand Blindness: what is it, and how do you cure it?
Powerful Brand Alliances
Is co-branding hype, or can it forge a path to brand stardom?
Powerful Brand Alliances
The Problem with Viral Branding
Want to build a long-lasting brand? A viral strategy is too short-lived to get the job done, Douglas Holt argues in this excerpt from a new book, How Brands Become Icons.
The Problem with Viral Branding
Branding: It's All About Focus
Branding is all about focus. The most important points are your focus on a specific audience, on a specific value, and on a specific tone of voice.
Branding: It's All About Focus
The poor old 30-second TV commercial is under siege again
Product Placement & Branded Entertainment are here to stay!
The poor old 30-second TV commercial is under siege again
Branding through sales promotion – how to have your cake and eat it too
The demarcation between these two disciplines is fast disappearing and the results are spectacular
Branding through sales promotion – how to have your cake and eat it too
BREEDING LIKE A PLAGUE!
As long as you don't believe in boring consumers, you too could generate buzz for your company
BREEDING LIKE A PLAGUE!
BUZZ: LIGHT YEARS AHEAD FOR MARKETERS
How the age-old custom of 'word of mouth' has morphed into a powerful marketing tool.
BUZZ: LIGHT YEARS AHEAD FOR MARKETERS
A True Brand Secret You've NEVER Heard About!
Given their potency, should blogs be adopted by brands as communication tools?
A True Brand Secret You've NEVER Heard About!
Sensory branding
Advertising ain't what it used to be. Something new is required.
Sensory branding
See Your Brand Vision?
Martin examines who a vision expresses a brand's place in its world.
See Your Brand Vision?
The power of a good brand story
Ultimately, it is your brand story that helps you answer that most fundamental
of all questions: Why?
The power of a good brand story
To live the brand: work in process
Smart companies, it seems, know that superior brand experiences are not only delivered by staff who want to help: they are delivered by a company that does everything it can to help its staff help its customers.
To live the brand: work in process
Mystery, Model, Method, Madness: The Realities of Brand Evolution
Since the beginning of business, successful brands have gone through three phases of evolution: mystery, model and method.
Mystery, Model, Method, Madness: The Realities of Brand Evolution
Building a Unique Brand
A customer can be loyal to any company with a reputation for quality work and good customer service.
Building a Unique Brand
SHEER GENIUS OR EXPENSIVE JOKE? Naming a Company or Product Poses Dicey Challenges
Whether a new name will work or not depends on the merits of the business or product, not the name itself.
SHEER GENIUS OR EXPENSIVE JOKE? Naming a Company or Product Poses Dicey Challenges
Is Your Brand in Danger? Phishing for Brand Value
Phishing is the fastest-growing scam in the world. It's made possible because we've taught consumers to evaluate brands simply on looks alone, the superficial image.
Is Your Brand in Danger? Phishing for Brand Value
The Information Marketplace
Alan Mitchell warns brand owners to consider the importance of quality information.
The Information Marketplace
Non-Bland Brand Building
If you don't dare to be provocative, direct, funny, and even ironic, you can't make a brand anything other than bland.
Non-Bland Brand Building
Cost-effective marketing for emerging brands
In today's unpredictable markets, the best way to control costs is to be in the best position to adapt to changing circumstances.
Cost-effective marketing for emerging brands
Bank on Knowledge
Martin looks at why you need to establish a brand bank - a bank of internal brand knowledge.
Bank on Knowledge
Brand and branding - revisited yet one more time again
What does "brand" mean in the 21st Century?
Brand and branding - revisited yet one more time again
Money rich, time poor: how can brands help us?
Working hours have risen again and labour-saving devices seem to have hit a plateau, but companies can make us streamline our lives.
Money rich, time poor: how can brands help us?
The Real Reason Brand Revival Works
"Old" has become "classic," and classic has become cool. Unless hundreds of different marketers are all wrong, the conclusion must be that brand revival works. The question therefore becomes, why?
The Real Reason Brand Revival Works
The leaders of the pack
Morag talks to eight of the world's most respected brand experts, to discover if there is a secret formula to long-term brand success.
The leaders of the pack
CEO: The Soul of Today's Brands
CEOs must now worry most about the thing that is the least tangible, least black and white, and most vulnerable to any misstep on their part: the brand.
CEO: The Soul of Today's Brands
My biggest brand mistake ever
Have you ever managed to upset thousands and thousands of people, all at the same time? Martin has. But he did learn a brand lesson from the experience and shares it here!
My biggest brand mistake ever
Kill a Brand, Keep a Customer
Smart companies regularly rationalise brand portfolios to maximise profits. If you do the job well, you can serve customers better at the same time.
Kill a Brand, Keep a Customer
Propose a Brand Marriage
Forming brand alliances will change the way we build brands.
Propose a Brand Marriage
What is Your Brand Up to After Hours?
Could you confidently claim that each and every one of your colleagues represents your brand in an optimal way?
What is Your Brand Up to After Hours?
Exploring the Territory Known as No Brand's Land
To successfully cross No Brand's Land, marketers need to start by adapting brand message creation and delivery to today's strategic sales processes.
Exploring the Territory Known as No Brand's Land
Brand Checkup: Where's the human in your brand?
I'll introduce you to my last test for assessing the quality of your brand's online presence. How human is your brand?
Brand Checkup: Where's the human in your brand?
Brand Heaven - You're Nearly There
This article focuses on how you can analyze every aspect of your online brand and optimize its performance.
Brand Heaven - You're Nearly There
Brand Check-Up
I'm checking out how well you're handling your online brand presence. The thing is, if you're stuck with something all day, every day, you tend not to notice the most obvious things.
Brand Check-Up
Trust me, there's more at stake than cash flows
Once, all consumers wanted from a brand was for it to 'do what is says on the tin'. Not any more: trust is marketers' biggest challenge yet.
Trust me, there's more at stake than cash flows
Behind-the-Line Marketing
Let's review a basic premise here - just what is a brand promise?
Behind-the-Line Marketing
Direct Branding
Read how establishing a mutually beneficial relationship between branding and DM can substantiate your brand image.
Direct Branding
Online Branding - The goose that laid the golden egg
The myths and realities of developing an online brand are explored.
Online Branding - The goose that laid the golden egg
Branding the Relationship
Now, more than ever, marketers need to think beyond the offer. Brand is now where relationships are made or lost.
Branding the Relationship
Promises Promises
Why over-promising can damage your brand!
Promises Promises
Brand Passion and Visionless Visions
The word 'passion' is being appropriated by brands everywhere. But what is passion without vision or values?
Brand Passion and Visionless Visions
Marketer: Market Thyself
Today, as marketing professionals in the new world of work, we need to manage our own careers. And we must do so in the midst of budget cuts, layoffs and restructuring.
Marketer: Market Thyself
Spice Up Your Brand
Maybe brands are about the short-term... at least some of the time.
Spice Up Your Brand
Is Branding Dead?
Branding will never die - it's the tools and the means by which we typically use them to achieve the goal of branding that are, in fact, obsolete.
Is Branding Dead?
Want to Land Your Brand? Deliver a Great Experience
A brand experience is the journey, the adventure, the trip you send your customers on when they decide to check you out and or do business with you. And it also includes the experience after they buy.
Want to Land Your Brand? Deliver a Great Experience
Think Short! Short-Term Brands Revolutionize Branding
Brand loyalty is giving way to brand variety. Here's how to win by it rather than lose!
Think Short! Short-Term Brands Revolutionize Branding
Some (branding) relationship tips from 'Dr' Christine
When Christine Arden, of DNA Design, came to speak at the September DMA luncheon, branding was her avowed topic, but that was only the beginning...
Some (branding) relationship tips from 'Dr' Christine
Mona Lisa Your Branding
Are you inadvertantly training your brand to play dead?
Mona Lisa Your Branding
Branding in the Fourth Dimension
Branding is so much more than logo and letterhead...
Branding in the Fourth Dimension
When Brands Become Invisible
Since brands have traditionally been built on high visibility, what will happen when they become invisible?
When Brands Become Invisible
9-11: The Impact on Brand America
One year on, how has the world's best-known brand survived it's worst hour?
9-11: The Impact on Brand America
Making Brand Promises You Can't Keep
Although it may be tempting to make claims of greatness or leadership to stand out in a cluttered marketplace, it will not lead to long-term success and customer loyalty if you can't deliver.
Making Brand Promises You Can't Keep
Internal Branding: Take a Close Look at Your Performance
The concept of internal branding is not necessarily new. Clarity of the brand's meaning and definition is essential so that every employee can 'live' the brand.
Internal Branding: Take a Close Look at Your Performance
Do Your Employees Understand Your Brand?
Your most important customers may be the ones who work for you.
Do Your Employees Understand Your Brand?
Your Brand, Your Success, Market Your Money
The importance of your corporate brand.
Your Brand, Your Success, Market Your Money
If You Can See It, You Can Brand It
If you are a financial services organization, following these guidelines will
ensure that your customers correctly understand your brands' value.
If You Can See It, You Can Brand It
Branding the Non-Profit
Here's what non-profits need to know (and what for-profits can learn) about branding.
Branding the Non-Profit
1-2-3 Success! Build Your Personal Brand and Expand Your Success
In today's environment, you need to build your own personal brand to achieve professional success.
1-2-3 Success! Build Your Personal Brand and Expand Your Success
Beacons in the Mist
The importance of good brand architecture.
Beacons in the Mist
Brand as Metaphor
Essential lessons from looking at a brand as a person.
Brand as Metaphor
Fundamental Branding
If successfully executed, branding can transform a basic product beyond purely functional requirements.
Fundamental Branding