brand strategy consultants

« February 2005 | March 2005 | April 2005 »

Whisper Washington

Our Whisper office in Washington is now open. Pat Mitchell is our man on the ground. Welcome!

Branding in the new world economy

Effective branding is about being smarter with what you have.

The beauty of world class branding is the best answers are often the most simple and least expensive, IF working with brand strategists who truly understand the human mind.

This understanding is critical for countries with emerging economies intent on gaining share of market. Effective brand strategy, by creating competitive advantage, drives economic growth as recognized in three reports from Turkey, China, and Malaysia.

Republic of Turkey officials understand the importance of effective brand strategy in attracting foreign investment, as reported in the Turkish Daily News:

Industry and Trade Minister Ali Coskun…noted the reality of globalization and said the only way for Turkey to survive in today’s world was to increase the country’s competitive advantage by creating new brands through the innovation and designs of Turkish entrepreneurs.

“We have undertaken initiatives to open the way for investors by fostering a modern environment. Efforts to heighten awareness of the importance of brands have also intensified,” [said Minister Coskun].

China intends to increase exports and attract foreign investment through use of brand strategy, according to the China 2005 Draft Plan for National Economic Development as reported by the People’s Daily Online:

Striving to raise the quality and level of opening up and making better use of both domestic and international markets and resources…[w]e will implement a name-brand strategy and support and increase the export of products and services…bearing our own brand names….

We will encourage foreign investors to invest in new and high technology industries, advanced manufacturing industries, modern services, modern agriculture and environment-friendly industries and to participate in the reorganization and technological upgrading of state-owned enterprises. We will encourage and attract multinational corporations to set up R&D and purchasing centers, regional headquarters and advanced manufacturing bases in China…

And in Malaysia, the Prime Minister personally encourages businesses to develop brand strategies–with government funding to assist–as detailed in this story from the Daily Express:

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has called on companies to seriously consider brand development in their overall business strategies and make use of the RM200 million brand promotion grant.

The Prime Minister said…the grant was made available in 2003….

The Prime Minister said brand development and brand building were investment intensive and for that reason the government had decided to allocate the amount for the grant….

The Prime Minister said…both [the private and public sectors] can work together to make Malaysia a truly competitive nation.

These governments each recognize that for their developing economies, one of the smartest means of developing competitive advantage and encouraging capital investment is by becoming smart through use of effective brand strategy.

As the world becomes more connected and layered with multiple communications channels, owning mental real estate in the mind of the market is vital to attracting investment and driving growth.

Otherwise, whatever a country or organization may say about itself or its product runs the risk of never rising above the white noise of global contemporary, even global, culture.

When a brand becomes the first thought within the mind of the market for any industry or category, that single brand owns valuable mental real estate, and thus secures for itself enormous competitive advantage.

And, first-rate brand strategy need NOT be investment intensive. One powerful benefit that comes with the intelligent use of brand strategy is the potential to decrease, and even eliminate, advertising expense. For any entrepreneurial CEO, or even Prime Minister, this benefit carries with it the ability to materially accelerate the growth cycle as precious early-stage cash may be diverted to other pressing needs, such as infrastructure development, rather than advertising.

Very smart.

Martha Stewart’s brand research

The release of Martha Stewart from the United States federal prison system prompted a number of news reports about how her experience will affect Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia [MSO].

Here’s how Ms. Stewart’s experience will affect her company. Although certainly not how she would have preferred it, by serving her time in a federal prison Martha Stewart was tendered a gift — a five-month gift of intense market research — learning how a broad cross section of women lived, and hope to live, their lives.

This research will lead to a repositioning of the Martha Stewart brand — one driven to further build the brand through emotional connections with the market. As reported by the Associated Press in the New York Times:

With barely a break since she was released from a federal women’s prison…on Friday, a beaming [Martha] Stewart told several hundred employees Monday that she’s learned a lot about the country through the cross section of people she met in prison. That’s made her realize that the company she founded…focused too much on the technical aspects of entertaining or cooking in its editorial content, and not enough on why people need to take care of each other.

Noting a growing need to “preserve meaningful traditions” in a rapidly changing world, Stewart pledged…the company is going to deepen its bond “with the millions who read our publications and watch our television programs. And we’re going to engage and inspire new readers and new viewers for whom these topics may have seemed alien, unfamiliar or even — believe it or not — superficial.”

…Where Martha Stewart Living once focused on functional benefits in its editorial, it is now becoming more aware of the “emotional power of the brand.”

For her company this is powerful brand strategy. The emotional power of a brand is unlocked by identifying how a consumer feels and acts when using or affiliating with a brand, and WHY she feels and acts in that way. These emotional benefits, when connected up with the brand’s key point of difference, lie at the heart of any great brand strategy. This connection elevates a brand to one of contemporary relevance, and separates a brand from those of competitors.

While Martha Stewart cannot rewind the events of the recent past and start over, she can begin anew. With five months of introspection and the equivalent of intense market research into human thoughts and feelings, the company will benefit from Ms. Stewart’s heightened self-awareness of the emotional drivers behind the businesses of MSO.

For Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, and for Martha Stewart, it’s a good thing.

The brand audit: university branding in China

Vanderbilt University, an internationally recognized research university in the United States, attracts a high percentage of student enrollment from Asia. A number of students attend Vanderbilt from China and Taiwan.

An MBA student conducting the equivalent of a brand audit discovered over a dozen Chinese translations for the term Vanderbilt University. Here’s what happened as a result, as reported in the Nashville Business Journal:

Vanderbilt University is honing its identify in China through creation of a single brand name that will identify the school in different Chinese dialects.

Shih-Ping (Nancy) Wang, a Taiwan native and second-year [MBA] student…initiated the move…and suggested administrators standardize a name.

‘Fandebao,’ a Mandarin word that translates to ‘place of academic excellence’ or ‘academic center of virtue,’ will be registered with educational ministries and trademark offices to represent Vanderbilt.

The close phonetic match of ‘Fandebao’ to ‘Vanderbilt’ should ease the association process, say school administrators. And Mandarin is the main official language of China and Taiwan.

A brand audit frames a point-in-time snapshot of brand effectiveness within a competitive market. Expertly performed, a brand audit reveals whether the brand is working as intended for both owner and consumer, identifies brand opportunity within an industry or market niche, and often reveals gaps between actual performance and expectation. The brand audit is a tool serving as a reset device for any good brand.

As with Vanderbilt University, a simple brand audit can often expose significant market opportunity.

We recommend Brand Audits be performed at least annually.

And the benefits? Just ask Vanderbilt University.

India brand summit: branding vs. advertising

A recent presentation in Chennai, India is the topic of this report in agencyfaqs!, an advertising and media news website produced in India:

It was a full house that Eric Joachimsthaler, founder and CEO, Vivaldi Partners, USA…addressed in the first session of the CII Brand Summit in Chennai….

For all those obsessed with the idea of brand stewardship, Joachimsthaler…trashed the concept. “You have to link your brand to [a] business strategy and economic growth drivers, it’s not just an image to nurture. Value creation is all important.”

[H]e also pointed out that there is more to brand building than advertising alone…”[b]rands can be built without any advertising whatsoever.”

We agree, and could not have said it better although, as some suggest, we have. Here’s a sample.

Just wait’ll we get our brand on you

Hanes, the venerable underwear retailer, has decided to revive their classic brand positioning from the 1990s and put it back to work. The question is why did they ever ditch this strategy? As reported in the New York Times:

FOR those who have been waiting for Hanes to revive “Just wait’ll we get our Hanes on you,” the wait is over - kinda sorta.

In a campaign…which is being billed as the largest in years for the Hanes apparel brand, the “Just wait’ll” theme, so successful in the 1990s, returns with a bit of tailoring as “Look who we’ve got our Hanes on now.”

Also being revived is the idea of using a roster of celebrities to sell Hanes underwear, sleepwear, socks and other clothing, rather than the single-star approach the brand has recently taken in featuring Michael Jordan. Mr. Jordan remains, joined initially by Damon Wayans, Matthew Perry and [actress] Marisa Tomei….

Brands “have to keep themselves fresh with consumers to be relevant,” said Sidney Falken….Hanes brand champion at Sara Lee Branded Apparel…a division of the Sara Lee Corporation.

Because “consumers know this brand really well,” Ms. Falken said, the idea of using celebrities they may not expect to see endorsing Hanes is meant to convey that the Hanes name can be found on apparel that is more stylish, colorful and comfortable than they may expect.

This updating of the brand would be compelling if the new messaging were left unchanged from the original Just wait’ll we get our Hanes on you.

Just wait’ll is a powerful position, a valuable piece of mental real estate, creating an evocative mental connection. One quality of the Just wait’ll positioning is how it leaves room for continual updating of the brand through the use of multiple contemporary endorsers.

In contrast, Look who we’ve got our Hanes on now is all about self-laudatory Hanes talking about themselves (”look at us”) rather than talking about the consumer. The original ’90s campaign talks about and to the consumer (”our product on you”), which made the positioning so effective.

Look who we’ve got our Hanes on now also assumes a top-of-mind audience recall of the successful ’90s campaign, an extra mental processing step forcing the consumer to devote more time and work even harder to connect up brand relevance today.

Simple is hard. In branding, often the best answers are those demonstrating a brand promise through compelling simplicity. Resisting the temptation to gussy up an already powerful brand position is often the hardest task of all.


« February 2005 | Home | April 2005 »