Whisper | A Brand Demonstration
We are often asked of the origin of our name.
Whisper is our brand name, the name of our company, a reflection of our brand promise and a demonstration of effective branding.
The story behind the creation of our own brand demonstrates how we think of brand opportunities faced by most any organization and more importantly how, by turning to us, an organization may solve them.
Whisper was created to assist and guide companies through what are often complex issues of brand evaluation, brand creation and brand deployment.
In addition to the usual struggles of getting the positioning pitch perfect—the marketing industry is so large and the lines between advertising, public relations, graphic design, and branding are so often blurred, we knew finding a “between-the-eyes” audience connection would be vexing.
We relied upon storytelling.
The 5-Second Story
The key was to develop an entry point into the minds of those we seek to attract and influence—an effective 5-second story—to prompt a mental stop allowing further engagement in a real conversation about their needs and how we would address them.
Our 5-second story had to instantly induce our audience to pause and internalize the story, prompting a desire to “pay” to hear more—literally “paying” when they pay attention, paying with their time and mental effort.
Whatever our 5-second story might be, it had to offer something new and authentic, a never heard before narrative. Ours had to offer the equivalent of electric shock therapy to snap preconceptions about the discipline of branding, providing a now we’re paying attention moment for our firm to frame itself. Because such preconceptions are strong and not easily brushed aside, the audience needs to come away questioning their assumptions, their stereotypes, as if to say, “THIS is branding? Wow, I had no idea.”
Playing By The Rules
Our story had to demonstrate how to successfully play by the rules.
World class brand strategy honors certain inalienable rules. These rules, or Laws of Branding, cannot be ignored or dismissed IF a brand creation exercise is to be successful.
Ignore the Laws of Branding, and any so-called “branding effort” devolves into a far more expensive advertising campaign of little long term effect.
It is one thing to advocate certain laws, and not follow them. Our brand had to demonstrate how an adherence to the rules, through an effective process discipline, creates a successful brand.
Positioning, Positioning, Positioning
Whether creating a new brand or rebranding an established one, a branding project is really a positioning project—first develop the brand positioning, then name that positioning. Since branding is about demonstrating ideas and advertising is about explaining them, we needed a market position that demonstrated rather than explained the Why of our firm. The brand name also had to work on a multinational, cross-cultural basis.
The best means of engaging a consumer is through a one-on-one communication. It’s intimate. It’s personal.
Getting inside the head of your consumer is the objective. This personalized intimacy is far more credible and effective than any mass media in building a long-term relationship.
To drive this engagement, great brand positioning results in a tip-of-the-spear name and often tagline, the crucial first point of audience contact for any organization, product, or place.
Smarter than Advertising
Our business objective was to develop a brand position leading to a name and tagline driving awareness—without the support of advertising dollars. We were, after all, a start-up business. As with any entrepreneurial venture, we had to make every dollar count.
Our brand had to open a window into the minds of organization decision-makers we seek to influence, who when finding us on the Internet or by word-of-mouth are moved to ask for more about us and how we work.
A brand position demonstrating an intuitive reason to learn more about us would tap into stories and layers of imagery existing within the human mind.
Branding Is Competitive Sport
We developed a competitive analysis, necessary to understand the competitive context of any brand. What names and key messages are owned by competitors, and how effective are they?
While many firms say they offer branding services, their brand names and key messages do not demonstrate storytelling expertise.
For example, consider firms with names such as Wolff Olins, Landor, Prophet, MarketShare Partners, Brandtrust, GSD&M, Interbrand, or FutureBrand. What do those names convey? Is it:
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• A law firm?
• Cigarette?
• Venture capital group?
• Alphabet soup?
• Trucking company?
• An indefinite time forever unreachable, a promise forever unfulfilled?
Each name misses the tip-of-the-spear opportunity to demonstrate competitive difference, and must be explained before understanding the “why” of the organization the name represents.
None map back into the fundamental basis for the existence of the branding discipline—communication.
Naming Narcissism
There is another, often counterintuitive, consideration. A brand name should turn the focus away from the organization or product it represents, and instead serve as an introduction to the benefit a customer may receive.
Rather than a chest thumping brand name blaring “Me, Me, Me”—for example, a founder’s last name, or a presumptively self-flattering capability such as Prophet—a name should intuitively tap into a benefit of significance to the intended audience.
The principle is basic to human behavior and response. For example, at a social gathering one creates far more goodwill by speaking in terms of interest to others, rather than the tiresome bore who speaks constantly of himself.
Building the Customer Relationship
As our competitive analysis revealed, no brand consultancy had yet developed a self-propelling evocative brand name. This result pointed to our market opportunity, further defined as assisting clients in thinking of brand as an asset rather than expense, and brand development as a powerful and cost-efficient customer relationship tool.
Like many others in our business, the intellectually lazy way out of naming ourselves would have been to use the last names of our founding partners — Cranford, Manning & Jurisch — or by an acronym such as CMJ. However, founder-based brand names are chosen primarily to stroke the egos of the founders, and demonstrate a complete lack of strategic thought.
We might also have chosen a functional name such as BusinessBrand, invented name such BrandFly, non-English name such as Sermo (Latin for conversation), or an experiential name such as CompetitiveAdvantage Partners. However, whether a functional, invented or experiential brand name, none offer the self-propelling emotional imagery and narrative creating natural, and inevitable, human engagement.
When the human mind discovers an instinctive solution properly labeled, the discovery serves as a prompt for the mind to stop, lean forward, examine closely, and seek more information. Accomplish this, and a brand name shows up daily and goes to work without advertising.
Breakthrough
Rather than positioning our brand with a built-in need to explain our relevancy, we zeroed in on this thought, “The key to any effective marketing or branding effort is to change and take ownership of the conversation.”
Marketing today is often little more than the equivalent of shouting on a street corner, with the shouters believing the loudest win. When you shout, people tune you out.
In a culture saturated with messages being screamed at consumers from every direction, employing superlatives like “best”, “number one”, “leading”, “favorite”, “great”, “unique”, and so on, it’s no wonder that people have evolved highly sensitive and effective BS indicators.
When you whisper, on the other hand, people are forced to pay attention, to lean forward, to become engaged. To whisper is to exchange valuable, privileged information, to communicate intimately, emotionally and strategically, and to make yourself heard as human rather than as a product, all without yelling yourself hoarse.
Competitive Separation
Branding must create long-term competitive advantage to increase market share. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Our process pointed to a brand position that could get us inside the mind of our target audience and keep us there. This position would demonstrate a different mindset and approach, and tap into a wealth of existing imagery. It would penetrate the human mind by successfully navigating the white noise of marketing industry self-promotion, and frame the answer to “Why we exist” as one of personal one-on-one immediacy.
Following the same process we use with clients, we had no choice but to name our company Whisper. The name moves across borders easily, creating engagement whether in the United Arab Emirates, or the United States. And because our positioning is all about looking at branding as balance sheet asset creation, by changing and taking ownership of the market conversation to grow market share, it became obvious our tagline should be Own The Conversation.
One of the most important accomplishments of the best brands is being thought of as greater than the functional goods and services offered. “Nike - Just Do It” helps the company rise above selling sneakers. “Apple - Think Different” taps into far more than computers. “Las Vegas - What Happens Here, Stays Here” is bigger than a vacation destination.
These breakthroughs lead to a transactional narrative where the organization, product, or place speaks for itself.
As for Whisper, we don’t think there’s a better name out there demonstrating branding thought leadership.
And that’s our story.
It’s a strategy validated many times since by, among others, this futurist and author.
Turning To You
You should always have the highest expectations for your brand, and the story you share.
When looking for a partner to assist in developing your own brand, and the best means to attract the audience you seek to engage, ask yourself:
How did the firm I am considering brand themselves?
The insight gained from the answer will prove invaluable, IF you are unwilling to settle for incrementalism for building the reputation of your organization, and if you seek the fullest development of your brand assets and the opportunity to grow market share.
Let’s talk about your story, and how to own the conversation within your industry.
[More posts about Professional Services Branding | More posts about Brand Naming | More posts about Brand Promise | More posts about Brand Positioning | More posts about Brand Strategy | More posts about Own The Conversation® Strategy | More blogs about Brand Naming]
Saturday, June 14th, 2008 - 2:15am |
Brand Grad School + Brand Naming + Brand Positioning + Brand Promise + Professional Services |
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If an interview in 
Among the better reads on the topic appeared in the 
It is particularly interesting that this brand has been added to the collection of positive words that describe Brazil, because when I was a child, in São Paulo, one of the worst things that could happen to you in terms of popularity was to be seen in Havaianas. Wearing Havaianas was a sign your family was a victim of the recession or the mass layoffs happening in the industry at that time – you were officially typecast as “poor.” Only financially challenged children would use these 5-dollar flip-flops launched in 1962, that yes, were extremely comfortable, but also completely un-cool.
What seemed at first aspirational became the Havaianas brand strategy. A brand for all. Comfortable meeting cool. An instant benefit by haloing the wearer as upscale and chic. And, according to the company’s 
Soho in New York City 
One method is to understand and tap into the use of 
Sadly, last year’s attempt at designing a logo and strapline based on speech bubbles to reflect the many facets of Czech life, is typical of many misplaced place branding efforts - trying to satisfy all stakeholders but failing to capture and dominate a single market segment.
For the responsible organization, blogs and other forms of social media can be made to work for you if your organization understands the benefits of transparency. To be successful at it requires a greater emphasis on finding your brand, truly understanding it, and delivering on the promise of your brand every day. 