Branding

Best practices for creating brand relevancy

Be relevant by being personal

Mass communication is dead. Today’s technology has ushered in a new age where customization and personalization are the defining elements in a customer’s experience with a brand. Smart companies will look to use the knowledge they have about their customers — their interests, preferences and passions — to customize the brand experience and make it relevant and sticky.

Knowing what your customer’s needs are and how you are meeting them is key to delivering a tailored experience that will build brand engagement and strengthen long-term relationships with customers. Customization is already taking place in things like emails, e-commerce and direct marketing, but more and more brands are delivering a tailored experience throughout the entire arc of customer engagement, including in-store coupons and discounts, personalized recommendations and customized web page views.

Be careful though. Don’t over personalize to the extent that customers feel you’ve invaded their privacy, and always ask for permission. We all prefer to control what’s being served
up to us.

Simple is sometimes better.

Every brand has an existing level of brand equity with their customers. Massive, unnecessary overhauls that ignore that equity can be dangerous and could potentially damage the brand to the point of no return. Sometimes, renewal can come with just a few simple changes that reposition the brand, still focusing on the core values while adjusting to the dynamic needs of customers.

When it’s time to change, just do it.

Customers change and markets evolve. Brands must be able to evolve as well. Staying relevant to your customer base means not being afraid to embrace change when it’s appropriate and makes sense. Have the courage to let go of products, services and even customers that no longer make sense. Innovation is critical for growth, but it should be done thoughtfully, in ways that support the core value the brand is delivering, meet the needs of the customer and are consistent with the brand experience.

Don’t try to be everything to everyone.

Brand relevancy is intimately connected to the expectations of your customers and how the brand is meeting those expectations — what is the unmet need you’re addressing? Identify that, carve out your space, and own it. Get very clear about the personality of your customer base and focus on serving each audience’s needs. This is more difficult than it sounds, as many companies try to be all things to all people, which often results in a company delivering a product or service that is too broad to appeal deeply to any one segment, preventing a brand from truly taking root. Build from the core and grow from there.

Control what you can.

Many factors will influence the perception of how relevant a brand is, some of which are controllable and some of which aren’t. Though brands can try to influence what customers hear from their peers, in the market and in the media, the speed with which information is transferred today and the interconnections of people make it impossible to have complete control. Instead, brands should identify and focus on the areas they are able to control such as the brand experience, customer engagement, in-store and online interactions, customer service or the quality of the product or service.

Best practices for building your brand story

The best brand stories come from within. To make the most of your organization’s stories and use them powerfully, strive for support from the top, listen to your organization’s most passionate people, and find your authentic voice. It’s key to get leadership buy-in on the essential role that stories play in building brand culture and personality — and the importance of telling the stories in a strategic, consistent manner.

Find the people who have passion for the stories — that’s who should be in charge of storytelling. Everyone can tell stories, but when it comes to who’s in charge, look for the people who are most passionate. Ask them to participate in developing ways to protect, build and gather the story. There’s no other way to do it. You can’t assign it to someone who doesn’t believe in it. It doesn’t matter if the people with the passion don’t sit in marketing, use them anyway. Most importantly, find an authentic voice that speaks to who the brand is, what it stands for, and what the values are. This should resonate throughout all your storytelling.

“Find an authentic voice that speaks to who the brand is, what it stands for, and what the brand values are.”

Work the core.

Stories can serve many purposes: from inspiring great performance to providing continuity for brand culture to helping to focus research and more. Stories influence brands the same way they influence our lives. When we tell a story, it becomes a part of who we are. It explains something about us that we can share with other people. The same goes for brands. Stories are what makes a brand unique and helps us imagine the traits that set it apart. They bring the brand and its values alive, and so the focus of every story that’s told should be centred around the core values of your organization.

Let the stories blossom.

Be organic in your approach to storytelling and it will naturally be authentic. Start with the brand culture, internally. Give employees the basic story and raw information they need to go out and tell stories in their own way. Giving employees a voice empowers them to help define the brand story, which then makes the
story more honest and truthful in its telling.

“Giving employees a voice empowers them to help define the brand story.”

Encourage sharing.

Provide a central repository where the brand’s stories can reside, give people access to it, and encourage them to make the stories their own. Each department will find different meaning in any one story and each person will add a different perspective that gives a richness and depth the story would not otherwise have.

Encourage employees to share stories in the way that best serves their goals and the needs of their customers. Look for interesting ways to tell stories again and again and ways to relate old stories to new ones. Have the Chairman tell the stories. Have the CFO tell the stories. Have the Chief Maintenance Officer tell the stories. It adds a resonance that strengthens the story and brand.

Be honest.

By all means, tell the truth. Don’t make things up to polish the brand or fit some pre-determined company line. The best stories are real stories. Tell a story about how your company f*&%^* up and lived to tell about it. This is the drama that life is made of — and it’s what makes your brand interesting and the stories engaging.

You can always change the names later if you want to go public. Be interesting. Don’t underestimate the power of good storytelling and good writing. Seek out the best writers and then let them do what they’re best at. Give your writers clear guidance but also the freedom and flexibility to be creative and most importantly, to make the stories interesting.

Best practices for determining if celebrity endorsement for your brand is the road to fame.

Authenticity trumps celebrity. Celebrity can certainly amplify a brand, but using celebrity simply for the sake of their fame is not going to give your brand long-term value. Collaboration with a celebrity should to be viewed as a strategic partnership where the association between the brand and the celebrity is authentic and relevant. That authenticity will be truer when the brand appeals to a celebrity’s passions. Your customers aren’t stupid. So don’t treat them like they are. They will see through anything that’s un-authentic.

The success of celebrity collaboration also depends heavily on the compatibility between the brand and the celebrity in terms of identity, personality, positioning in the market (of the brand and its competitors) and lifestyle. Will the relationship make sense in the consumer’s mind? The best collaborations are symbiotic, providing value to both parties. This builds relevancy and ultimately long-term value. It’s a tool but not the only tool. The more narrowly you get associated with a single celebrity, the more you put the brand at risk if something goes wrong. Celebrity endorsement is not a panacea. It’s one branding tool and it should be treated as such.

More Brand Best Practices

You’re buying their whole life, not a moment in time. The fireball that was Tiger Woods’ career post-exposure of his affairs shows that when it comes to celebrity, you have to look at the whole picture. Famous or not, they are just people and
that means celebrities can misbehave. When you align your brand with a celebrity, you’re aligning with the entire person and connecting your brand to their whole life, not just where they are in the moment of signing the endorsement.

Expand your mind.

Traditional means of branding with celebrity have gone out the window along with Madison Avenue-style advertising. The ubiquitous nature of digital content and the fact that brands are having to generate their own content online and on mobile means that companies should be thinking beyond plain vanilla endorsement deals. Throw out pre-conceived notions about how the relationship should or can work and by all means don’t lock into one concept. If you do, you could be missing out on other potential channels or unique content arrangements that could be very successful in amplifying the brand.Think about the ways you can leverage your celebrity relationship to extend content ideas. Things like YouTube videos and documentaries that suggest a celebrity’s relationship to a brand ring more authentic than a direct endorsement.

Take Flight on Twitter, Face-Off on Facebook.

The growth of social media has dramatically changed how celebrities interact with their fans. Data from Nielsen Media Research indicates that it’s not only the celebrities themselves that are valuable to campaigns, their online fans and followers are significant assets as well: 64 percent of adult U.S. internet users who follow a celebrity also follow a brand. Celebrity fans are also more likely to offer advice and opinion to fellow online consumers and fans, and were significantly more likely to comment and post on social networking sites (86 percent more) and view consumer-generated video. This is a rich audience that, if ignited by celebrity engagement, can quickly amplify your brand message.

Lawyer up.

It goes without saying: When you’re making the deal, get the agents and lawyers in the room. This is absolutely essential to protecting the relationship and the brand against negative publicity should the celebrity’s conduct or public image turn sour. Draft effective, air-tight endorsement contracts, keeping in mind the possibility for any unforeseeable negative events. And set the tone of negotiations from the beginning: We will give money for charity but not cash, for example.

Brand 1 + Brand 2 = What?

Plan your work; work your plan. It’s been said that of all the assets exchanged during a merger or acquisition, the most important is that of the brand and culture, yet most companies underestimate the challenges involved in capturing the value of these things for each organization involved in a brand integration. It’s no surprise then that research shows only one in every five mergers and acquisitions actually succeeds.

The few that do say a key factor of the success is having had a clear brand integration strategy ahead of time that outlines expectations and guidelines and has leadership sign-off. In addition, the CMO, CEO and other executives need to create and support a clear organizational structure and system of brand management that shores up the strategy and brings all the stakeholders in line with the objective of fostering long-term brand building for the newly formed entity.

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The type of merger does matter.

The complexity of the brand integration process depends on the type of merger that takes place. Was this the acquisition of a startup, where the acquisition was part of the business plan and employees benefit financially? Will the new owner make major changes to the organizational structure or leave it alone? Or, is the merger comprised of two well-established companies that could result in culture wars and power struggles within the organization?

Each of these scenarios will require a different strategy and approach to integrating the brands, and organizations should consider seeking outside resources and experts to help their teams define the appropriate strategy for integrating corporate cultures and communicating internally about the changes taking place.

Why did we do this?

To get employees and stakeholders behind a brand integration, management must help them understand the reasons for the merger or acquisition and the value it represents. Will the integration result in better technology, more talent or more customers? Will it block competition, enable expansion, or create more brand equity for the overall business? How does the integration solve their problems and what are the benefits to each of the key stakeholder groups?

Communicate. Communicate.

Talk to employees and other stakeholders and let them know what to expect and what is expected of them. Avoid surprises at all cost. Make sure everyone understands the strengths, weaknesses and differences of each brand and how they work together to create a stronger, more powerful organization. Clearly communicate the new brand architecture, showing how all the pieces fit together: the master brand, sub-brand, and associated product and services.

Respect the culture.

It’s important to understand and communicate the compatibility, differences and similarities of the individual brand cultures involved in the merger or acquisition — where they naturally align and where there may be issues. New processes may be instituted on a schedule, but attitudes and behavoural norms will not change overnight.

Think of your customers first.

When companies get involved in a merger or acquisition, the employees can get so caught up in the complexities of the event that they forget about the customer. To avoid this, brand managers should keep their focus on the needs and expectations of the customer above those of the brand itself.

As early as possible, combine customer databases and conduct the necessary research to gain a comprehensive understanding of what the new customer segments are and how each brand and the overall brand portfolio can deliver value to them.

Top best practices for branding with innovation

When innovation is part of a company’s DNA, it naturally drives branding. Innovation should start from within and be powered by the leadership in a company. Management must understand what it takes to support innovation activities and be whole-hearted champions for the value of design and outside-the-box thinking. As importantly, they should understand that it’s a hard business to be innovative…and a very long haul.

Companies that have successfully sustained innovation have done so by creating an atmosphere and culture throughout the organization that supports experimentation and doesn’t punish failure. This can only come about when it’s understood from top-down that innovation is a core driver of the brand. When this happens, the brand becomes deeply connected to innovation and this connection is externalized in all other interactions inside and outside the company.

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Think “hybrid.”

Establish a way of thinking that permeates beyond one particular department in your organization. Cross-fertilize ideas from different fields and minds. Today’s innovative design is a hybrid of the traditional silos of industrial, interactive and brand design, such as when designers and engineers pair together and become aware of the power of a physical object to influence the function of the technology and how the product is perceived.

Be persistent. Thomas Edison said, “Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” The same could be said for the genius of innovation. It doesn’t come easily. The people who push for it face internal and external challenges throughout the entire process of moving their ideas forward: time and budget constraints, logistical problems, priority shifts, management that’s risk averse and more. Companies need talent that can spark ideas and also be tenacious in driving innovative thinking through to the end of the design process and all the way into the brand’s position in the market.

Create compelling stories to drive the process.

The process of innovation is long and as companies go deeper into it, people tend to loose steam. Organizations need to clearly define a strategy from the beginning: Why are we doing this?

Those driving the processes also need to find ways of supporting that strategy along the path. Do this by creating compelling stories that reinforce the reasoning and help build on incremental successes along the way. Those stories can also be used down the road to connect the brand back to innovation.

Define innovation according your culture.

Innovation means different things to different people. If you are defining your brand by innovation, then do it according to your own terms — what does innovation look like for your company? Its meaning to a furniture maker will not be the same as for a mobile phone manufacturer.

This relates back to the idea of innovation being part of a brand’s DNA. When the process of innovating is organic, it spreads naturally throughout the culture and there is more flexibility in the areas where the brand can compromise on certain aspects of the design and still remain on the right path.

Top Best Practices for knowing your customer

Walk a mile in their shoes. Before a company can understand what its customer needs, it must understand the customer’s experience with its product or service, and that includes their experience along all the brand touch points.

Employees and executives alike should talk to customers on the ground, and more importantly, use their own products. Understanding how a customer engages with the brand throughout the arc of their customer experience — not just one moment in time — is essential to building strong, long–term relationships with customers.

The insight you can gain in the trenches will help you to think about ways to deepen the connections with your core audience and look for new customers that you might not currently serve. It also improves employee–customer interaction and creates better products and services that meet future customer needs, wants and desires.

Realize their expectations of you. Every customer has expectations of the brands they engage with, whether it’s for operational excellence, customer intimacy, or product leadership. To understand your customer base, identify what your customers’ fundamental expectations are and how you are filling their unmet needs. Those expectations may be very different than the company perceived them to be. Making an assessment helps brands to identify and better deliver their core value to the customer.

Listening like never before.

Like it or not, your customers are talking about your brand in chat rooms, on review sites like Yelp, and through Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks. The good news is that word–of–mouth and social media have made listening easier than ever before. Brands can spend a ton of money on focus groups, surveys and expensive research, but why not take advantage of existing conversations in the market or stimulate new conversation that spark feedback and engagement?

Listen to your customers through the channels they’re already on. Develop “listening” programs that help your organization to follow what customers are saying online. In addition, provide employees with the opportunity to listen to customer feedback through offline channels such as customer service calls routed from a call centre.

Do something with what you’ve heard.

Be willing to adjust strategy based on feedback from the market. This may also mean finding ways of “selling” a particular course of action to the executives. Set up specific processes that allow you to pull out trends and useful data from the conversations that are taking place in the market as well as processes that empower managers to take action and actually do something with the feedback and information they receive.

Be passionate on both ends of the spectrum.

Think about this: On average, customers are twice as likely to talk about a bad experience as they are to share a positive one. Listening to the good and the bad gives brands greater insight into how customers are using their products and services and where they can be improved.

This has been part 2 of the Brand Summit, from Marty Neumeier

Naming your business, and deciding on the perfect name is one of the most difficult things to accomplish. Far more nerve racking than deciding on your location or price strategy because it’s permanent…at least it should be. On top of that, your name must be unique, and stand out amongst your competition.

Now you have your “perfect name” and can’t wait to tell the world — but wait, is your name taken or trademarked? Is someone else using the URL you so desire? These are all things you must consider when choosing your name in order to save yourself tears later when you are forced to change your name because of legal issues.

The good news is there are a few resources where you can do a lot of the up-front research. Straydog Marketing + Design can assist you in developing and searching your brand name, additionally if you wish to incorporate your company you should seek the advise of a lawyer as well. There are numerous lawyers that specialize in trademarking because once you’ve established a potential brand name, you’ll want to protect it.

You may consider seeking advise when choosing your brand name, as there are a lot of rules at play, and they’re not always crystal clear.

Canadabusiness. ca, has many resources on what’s allowed, what isn’t, what might get you in trouble and where you can go to search your brand name ideas. The government has also put together a “Name Granting Compendium,” which is a collection of all the rules in a single document.

The Government Naming Rules in 4 principles:

Your name must be distinctive
Your name must not cause confusion with any existing name or trademark
Your name must include a legal element
Your name must avoid certain words.

I suggest a bit of common sense is most of what you need to stay out of trouble.

Branding is all about being distinctive, and One of the easiest is to come up with a name that describes exactly what you do. For example, a business called “Roberto’s Granville St. Italian Cuisine,” …it certainly won’t be imaginative. But you don’t want to be too generic as you could risk getting into trouble with something like, “Italian Cuisine.”

At Straydog we recommend a more extensive list of Brand Naming Attributes

Distinctive
Memorable
Engages your audience
Supports your positioning
Establishes your business’ personality
Aids recall of your product or service

To avoid existing trademarks, we recommend using NUANS Name Search System. This search compares your name with a federal database of trademarks, and existing federal and provincial company names, excluding Quebec.

This NUANS search is a requirement if you wish to incorporate and the registry office won’t accept your forms unless you also submit results of a NUANS search. NUANS searches can be done online, but you should be aware that the NUANS is a federal search from Industry Canada, which is only going to compare your name with the federal list.

We advise using a third-party search provider who can help you broaden your search to include provincial databases or to limit your search to the province or territory in whish you want to incorporate.

Every small business person considers whether or not to incorporate his or her business at some point, and whether to add; Incorporated, Limited, Corporation, or any of the acronyms for those: Ltd., Inc. or Corp. These titles are important because they tell the world that your business is a distinct legal entity.

When choosing your name you may decide that you don’t see a need to be an incorporated so there is no need to do a name search, however, a common scenario is for small businesses to start out as sole proprietorships or partnerships and become incorporated at some later date when the business has grown, meaning you may have to change your name at that point if it is legally taken — giving up all the brand equity you built up over the years!

Brand Naming F.A.Q

What is a Trademark?

A trademark (sometimes called simply a “mark”) is any word, phrase, design, or symbol used to market a product or service. Technically, a mark used to market a service, rather than a product, is called a service mark, though the term “trademark” is commonly used for both types of marks because they refer to the same group of legal protections. Learn more on Trademarks

What is a business’ Legal Name?

The legal name of a business is the official name of the person or entity that owns a business. If you are the only owner of your business, then its legal name is simply your full name. Your business’s legal name will be required on all government forms and applications, and is particularly important to use on your application for a federal employer identification number.

How do I get a NUANS Report?

To get a NUANS report, you have the option of ordering your own NUANS report in real-time from the NUANS Real-Time System for federal incorporations, or, with the assistance of a NUANS Registered Member of your choice, to incorporate federally and to incorporate in other jurisdictions.