Brand Builder

• What constitutes your brand
• What an effective brand
• Why branding is important
• What causes brand damage
• What we do to effectively develop and promote your brand
• Communication channels 

With measurable marketing and ROI now taking center stage more than ever, it begs the question — is traditional branding dead? Branding is more important than ever. There are more channels to define the brand, and more clutter to drown out its message. That requires a focused brand, and a brand identity and strategy that works across all platforms and all media, traditional and new. And it requires a well thought out and executed marketing strategy.

 

With measurable marketing and ROI now taking center stage more than ever, it begs the question — is traditional branding dead? Branding is more important than ever. There are more channels to define the brand, and more clutter to drown out its message. That requires a focused brand, and a brand identity and strategy that works across all platforms and all media, traditional and new. And it requires a well thought out and executed marketing strategy.

 

Marketing Strategy 

Introduction 

The development of any marketing or communications program requires a solid foundation. Without foundation, messaging becomes inconsistent with the brand, and the inconsistency breeds confusion and inefficiency.

 

With a foundation, the brand and its marketing and messaging is consistent and cumulative. It is strategic. It recognizes the environment messaging environment is rife with competing messages and indirect and uncontrollable influencing factors. In the greater NYC metro area, for example, the average consumer is exposed to more than 4,000 marketing messages each day. Messaging needs to be precise and capable of having a cumulative impact to succeed.

 

No single formula for designing the foundation of such campaigns exists. Our design process has evolved over our more than 15 years of work on brand strategies and messaging, but the basic philosophy remains the same: Ensure the brand is properly positioned and optimize messaging for its medium.

 

Positioning is the key to brand success. “Positioning” refers to a company’s, product’s or service’s place in the customer’s mind. Perhaps the most common branding failure among companies is that companies do not position themselves properly in the minds of their customers and prospects. Positioning isn’t simply a matter of ranking, of being #1. Coke and Pepsi have distinctly different brands, though both can claim leadership in their category by various metrics. The same applies to UPS and FedEx.

 

A reexamination of a company’s Strategy document is our recommended first step. It should be reaffirmed or adjusted as necessary, laying the foundation for

translating the strategy and messaging for all media. To ensure minimal fragmentation, businesses and their divisions need a wider body of work that examines the brand from all aspects, both positive and negative, and exposes deficiencies and deals with them forthrightly.

 

Brand foundation is a beneficial asset for any organization, but constructing one is not easy. Given the competing voices and different vision of many constituencies, all too often it results in weak, short-lived or insufficient structure that cannot support the stresses and demands it must support. Premiere Creative can work with you through a four step proven process to achieve a living and breathing document to sustain your brand for today and well into the future.

 

1. Investigation Round Table 

Upon being retained, Premiere Creative and you the client will set up an initial meeting should include all thought-leaders who are responsible for the achievement of the stated goals. Back-up reference materials and research (demographics, zip codes, etc.), as well as results from previous efforts, both recent and distant, should be brought to this meeting. Documentation of benchmark scenarios or organizations (e.g. similar successes) should also be provided to uncover the company/division’s unique aspects and its goals.

 

2. Facets & Elevator Defined 

After the initial round table, we identify the main facets of the brand – usually this ranges from 4 to 6 facets. These are described using words, supporting words and images. What “leadership” means to one brand, and what examples of leadership are relevant varies from brand to brand varies (George Washington, Martin Luther King, Jack Welch are all great leaders but had very different styles). However in this stage, Premiere Creative’s process defines this with precision and results in deeper, more meaningful delineation. The primary purpose is to elucidate the primary factors underpinning the brand. While this is a reductionist exercise, we then will further condense this with the creation of the Elevator Statement, the second part of this stage.

 

The Elevator Statement is a 25-word sentence or two that clearly describes the

corporation/division, its value proposition and unique place in the market. While some of what we do herein is background, this is intended to be used by those who need to describe what the corporation/division actually is and does. So all employees, managers and executives would use this to describe the corporation/division. The consistency alone will help develop viral streams as well as support and work with other messaging across all media.

 

3. Litmus, Nucleus & Desired Perception Statement 

The next stage will put the Facets and Elevator Statement through a litmus test that looks at how vibrant the brand is today, how vibrant it will be in the foreseeable future (accounting for competitive and environmental elements) and how that vibrancy can withstand cataclysmic changes in the brand or it its environment. This is a necessary step to ensure and assure the performance of the brand and its messaging over time.

 

The Nucleus is an ordering and refinement of the preceding Facets. It looks at the core characteristics and then the layers – in perceived order – that surround it. It is  important, we have discovered, to take this step so that the depictions of the brand are reporting back to this center. It is not enough to have the colors and logos consistent – those should be representative of a holistic consistency.

 

The Desired Perception Statement describes what we want people to think and feel about the corporation/division – after we have gone through the foregoing steps, which, in no small way, expose the brand to its harshest factors once in the market.

 

4. Tag Line & Touch points 

The existing tag line will be tested against all of the corporation/division elements. It should be the centerpiece of all messaging – both inside and outside the corporation/division. It needs to reflect the unique qualities in just a few words, remain relevant and at the same time command attention. If the existing tagline does not measure up after the foregoing exercises, Premiere Creative will work with you to compose a new one that does.

 

Finally, we will investigate the media that will deliver all of the various messages. Media may include the web site, direct mailers, press releases, and brochure/collateral and much more. However, it also includes the people who work at the corporation/division, the phone messages they leave, signage in the building and so on. This does not need to happen all at once, but by listing all media and then creating a benchmark, the corporation/division will have an objective device to measure its deployment.

 

Conclusion 

This will provide a firm and defined foundation that the corporation/division can return to again and again in developing marketing strategies and executions. This document containing visual references, and multiple views on the brand’s facets, their prioritization and justification, and rationale will be the guiding force for the corporation/division. It will unify the messaging for maximum efficiency and value. It will reduce fragmentation, waste and increase the effectiveness of the messaging components, giving the corporation/division a more resilient and robust marketing program for years to come.