Brand Architecture
If you have more than one brand in the portfolio, you need a brand architecture to make sure you're taking full advantage of the potential value that could be leveraged through the optimal associations across brands. What used to be a simple consideration of "House of Brands" versus "Branded House" is now more complex and nuanced. Mergers and acquisitions, product proliferation, versioning, open source, co-opetition, ingredients, partner brands--these are just a few of the dynamics that can make architecture tricky and vexing. But the benefits far outweigh the effort. For architecture puts the might of the portfolio to work for the value of all brands, while providing guidance for efficient management and a strategic pathway for dealing with future brands.
Core Foundational Principles
Mission, Vision, and Values work can be vital to organizational alignment. At its best, it can be inspiring; at its worst, it can be an eye-roller. What makes the difference? In a word, authenticity. What the organization stands for, why it exists, and what it most values, must be true to the core of the enterprise. If well captured and crafted, foundational principles can serve as the heart and soul of the brand.
Brand measurement and scorecard
Every category of business is driven by product or service attributes that largely influence brand preference. A brand's success in creating strong association with this set of attributes determines brand health. Brand measurement is an ongoing process of monitoring brand health, providing leading and lagging indicators of how the brand is helping to drive business performance through brand preference.
Naming and Naming Systems
We humans are good at naming. We have no problem naming children, pets, even our favorite mode of transportation. But naming brands is a whole different matter. First, there are trademark issues and digital presence and SEO considerations. Then there are competitive assessment and category dynamics to think through. Oh, and budget! How much is the organization willing to invest in turning an arbitrary or fanciful name into a easily recalled category leader? Naming systems come into play--often in concert with brand architecture--to sort out current names of offerings that interrelate and to provide a roadmap for future names.
Positioning
Brand positioning acknowledges that you have competitors. And because you have competitors, you must commit and communicate a point of difference to the marketplace. There's a catch, however. That point of difference must be compelling to your target customer, consistently deliverable by your organization, and credible coming from you. What really separates great from good positioning is follow-through, delivering on that positioning throughout the entirety of the brand experience.
Brand personality
Tone, style and manner is how a brand expresses itself to the marketplace. Tone is a set of principles and examples that describe how a brand verbally communicates. Style is the visual expression, directed through typography, palette, graphic elements, photography, iconography, shape, texture, etc.. Finally, manner prescribes how the brand moves and the energy level and intensity with which it acts.
Brand Research
Research should never begin with a methodology, but rather with a question. What do you want to know about your customer? What do you already know? Or think you know? How sure are you? What are you going to do with the research findings and insights? Only until you answer the many questions demanded by a thorough pre-research analysis should you embark on a research program. But then once you do, you can be confident your budget will be well spent, delivering actionable insights that really help to solve your marketing problem.
Value Proposition and Messaging
Not every customer is the same, which is why marketers perform segmentation to cluster their customers into meaningful groups. Each of these groups need a value proposition (what is the best aspect of the offer given the group's unique profile) and messaging that really speaks to what they most value. Such a framework not only helps to assure you go to market with compelling benefits, but also gives the organization ready-for-market copy that is strategically on point and consistent.
Brand narrative and copywriting
Everyone loves a good story. And good stories are good for long established reasons. They follow a certain progression, they are interesting, and they are well crafted. No customer will find a strategy document compelling, regardless of the clearly articulated benefits it describes. Brand storytelling, through narrative and copywriting, takes the brand's offer and translates it into something someone will read, value, and at its best, actually enjoy.