How much is your brand worth?

Have you ever thought how much brand is actually worth? Just because it is not listed on your balance sheet along with your building, stock, cash and fixtures and fittings doesn't mean that it  isn't one of your organisations most valuable assets. But how can you get your brand to deliver even greater value?

First of all you cannot not communicate. If you have been trading for any length of time your business means something to somebody be they clients, customers or service users - in other words you have a brand. You either ignore your brand  and let your audiences reach their own perceptions, outside of your control, or you manage your brand and all its elements to improve perceptions, build your business and improve your bottom line.

Businesses are sometimes reactive and operationally focused. Those at the top often think they don't have time to build their brands because they are too busy meeting the needs of their customers and growing their business. We believe this is the essence of building a brand.

Your brand is much more than your logo. It's the way you do business. It's the tangible and intangible assets that your audience attributes to your business. It's the factors that make your service offer, product lines, culture, language and appearance more desirable than your competition.

Even if you have given time and effort to developing your brand, continuity is required as over time incremental changes to collateral can lead to your brand expression becoming fragmented. The most successful brands also evolve. They must be thought of less as a set of fixed rules and more as a platform from which an organisation can communicate. 

Can you afford to invest in your brand? The question should be - can you afford not to?

Show me the pictures!

I have lost count of the number of times when either pitching for new business or meeting a prospective new client we are asked "Show me the pictures!" or, to put in another way, "Let's see your creative solutions now."

Whatever my professional opinion on the subject of creative pitches (free or not) it is my belief that producing creative solutions too early in the project is simply the wrong thing to do. No matter how talented the design team or how much a client 'likes' what he or she sees. Without a realisitic period of research, discovery and understanding. Without time to properly question and (sometimes re-write) the brief. Without a meeting of minds and collaboration between client and design team. Any solution will be mere styling and if it is chosen it will be for the wrong reasons.

I have a saying "We build the road before we drive it". Meaning we need to know where we are going before we set off. Every project has an objective - so what are we trying to achieve? Who is the audience? What else is out there? And what does success look like?

In Japan when they undertake a large civil engineering project like a tunnel or a bridge, for example, they spend 80% of the time planning the project and 20% building it - but in the UK it's the other way around!  Perhaps that's why so many UK projects are late and are invariably over budget.

Successful projects require a sound strategy. Do this first and the right creative solution will follow.

What's your story?

Positioning is about creating clear space between you and your competitors. It's about understanding the truths of what makes your brand different. It's having a clear strategy and a set of tactics that will constantly reiterate these truths and build brand loyalty in the minds of your audiences.

But how, when most markets are saturated, can you claim to be truly different? Marketeers often talk about a unique selling proposition (USP). In todays business landscape conventional points of difference such as  price, quality, choice, and customer service have become mere hygiene factors not differentiators. Your competitor's proposition and your own may be so similar it's difficult to know what distinguishes your brand from theirs. The differences can often be more subtle and intangible. They may be cultural or be about your customers emotional attachment to your brand.

Sometimes you can look too closely at your competitors, what they are doing and saying and the successes they are having. Monitoring your competition is fine but not if it leads to you emulating them. If your current strategy is to copy their best ideas, redress them and put them in front of your audience as if they are your own you will ultimately fail or at least come second. Your customers are not stupid. They know the difference between a brand that leads and one that follows. They know which brands truly innovate and which simply say 'me too'.

So what's your story? What is it that you do that is innovative and different? What can you say that your competitors can't? What is it about your products, service or culture that you can truly own? Once you begin to articulate and agree these truths you will gain a better understanding of what makes you - you. It's then easier to build a solid platform from which your brand can communicate and ensure there is a common thread running through every communication whatever channel or tactics you use.

Get off the stage and into the crowd

There has been a fundamental shift in marketing. We are all watching less television and reading fewer newspapers; combine this with the fact that as consumers we have become less trusting of advertising, direct mail and PR and its easy to see why traditional channels are no longer delivering the results they once did.

Word of mouth is still the most powerful of motivators with 71% of consumers saying they are more comfortable with a product or service if it has been recommended by a friend than compared to their own past experience (63%) or the influence of advertising (15%)*

Social Media is seemingly ubiquitous with companies scrambling to open Twitter accounts and Facebook pages in order to ‘connect’ with their audiences. The reality is, however, that many don’t understand how to successfully harness these channels let alone measure their effectiveness - so their efforts can be disappointing or, in the worst cases, damaging to their brand.

Organisations enter into Social Media because they feel “It’s so big we need to do something” but responsibility is often delegated down to junior members of staff who don’t have the authority or brand awareness to fully develop these channels. A Social Media programme is an important brand touchpoint and must support your marketing, PR, customer service and sales activity. Success should be measured not only in social media metrics (likes/fans/subscribers/followers) but in real business benefits.

So how do you get it right? Like most things success comes from the result of good planning. First you must decide what your goals are.

Do you need to:
– Generate sales/leads
– Reduce spending
– Increase awareness
– Offer added value
– Drive web traffic
– Extend your reach
– or anything else?

Once you have decided upon your goals these can then drive your activity and content. Be aware that social media users are savvy. This is not a place for direct selling. This is a place to connect and engage. You’re not on stage anymore, you are in the crowd. As people connect with you directly so it is up to you to respond in an appropriate manner. Handling all comments, positive and negative, in the same way with a tone of voice that is right for your brand.

There are three typical levels of engagement:
– Listen (Learn from your customers and adapt accordingly)
– Engage (Enter into a dialogue and grow your own community)
– Optimize (Deliver innovation and build loyalty)

Leading companies like Dell Computers have moved on from the hype of the individual Social Media tools to focus on the behaviors of their customers. This means they can drive innovation in order to generate revenue growth. See video.

Whatever your thoughts on Social Media it is fair to say the time for waiting is over, you need to figure out where these channels fit into your organisation, now. The rate of change and adoption by consumers, buyers and the competition is happening so fast, that coming into the world of Social Media late, could put you at a disadvantage.

*Source Media Lab

The pressure to be 'business-like'

These days the pressures on the not-for-profit sector are enormous. In the current economic climate income from voluntary donations are dropping as levels of individual incomes fall. The coalition government are tightening the purse strings while looking to charities and voluntary organisations to tender for the delivery of key public services.

In this environment, how charities differentiate themselves is vital in keeping their aims and needs in people’s minds. Some larger charities have become more professional not only in the way they operate but in the way they utilise their brand. They understand that their brand is more than a logo it’s a platform from which to communicate to their different audiences. A well managed brand ensures messages are consistent across all channels including internal, stakeholder and fundraising communications.

However there is a difference between being ‘professional’ and being ‘businesslike’. In her article Be professional always, and businesslike in some ways, Third Sector, 20 June 2011, Valerie Mortens says “Charities must cherrypick the ways in which they behave like businesses. The private sector is characterised by an overriding profit motive and cultural attributes that reflect this, but neither of these sit well in the voluntary sector, where the relationships between stakeholders and the charity are dramatically more complex and emotional”.

The danger is that charities can become too much like business and move away from their original ethos and culture. When developing a brand it’s worth remembering that it is not only the hard, rational factors that are important. Effective differentiators can also be softer and stem from deeply held organisational values. Consultation is also important during the  development stage as it retains a sense of ownership from staff, volunteers and wider stakeholders.

As charities change to meet today’s challenges they, of course, can learn a lot from the corporate world, but they also have the opportunity to develop new kinds of brands – brands that connect to people in an truly personal and emotional way.