The Essentials of Branding from the Big Book of Marketing Mcgraw-Hill, 2010 Contents

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The essentials of branding from The Big Book of Marketing McGraw-Hill, 2010 contents

Introduction 1 The difference between a brand and branding 2

Starting a branding project 4 Start with the right reason 4 Start with the right commitment 4 Start with the right business strategy 5 Start with the right focus: Customers 5 Analyze the brand’s equity 6 Uncover insights and identify opportunities 7

The brand strategy 8 Defining the brand idea 8 Defining the brand architecture 9 Defining the brand personality 11 Producing the creative brief 12

Creating the brand experience 13 Crafting the verbal identity 13 Designing the visual and sensory identities 15 Testing verbal and visual identities 22

Delivering the brand experience 23

Managing a brand 24

Measuring the performance of a brand 26 Tracking brand strength 26 Measuring brand value 27 This PDF is designed to be printed double-sided to help you conserve paper.

Landor Associates is one of the world’s leading strategic brand consulting and design ﬁrms. Landor is part of WPP, one of the largest global communications services companies. Visit us at landor.com. The essentials of branding

Introduction branding is to ensure that your product or service This article was frst published as Chapter 4 is the preferred choice in the minds of your key in The Big Book of Marketing: Lessons and It is incredibly rare for a product or organization audiences (whether customers, consumers, Best Practices from the World’s Greatest to be without a brand. There are museum brands employees, prospective employees, fans, donors, Companies, edited by Anthony G. Bennett (Guggenheim, Smithsonian), people brands (Martha or voters). The way in which the brand affects (McGraw-Hill, 2010). Stewart, David Beckham), political brands (Obama business performance is illustrated in fgure 1. versus McCain, Labour versus Conservatives), Sarah Wealleans is a consultant destination brands (Australia, Hong Kong), sport Business performance is based on the behavior and former senior client director with brands (Manchester United, New York Yankees, of customers, whether they choose to buy Landor Associates. Additional input from Super Bowl), nonproft brands (Red Cross, Oxfam, a particular product or service. And that behavior Trevor Wade, Hayes Roth, Susan Nelson, RED), branded associations (YMCA, PGA, Association is based a great deal on the perception customers Mich Bergesen, and Charlie Wrench. of Zoos and Aquariums), along with the product, have of the brand: how relevant it is to them and service, and corporate brands with which we are how differentiated it is from the other brands in the all familiar. Many old marketing textbooks talk about same category. In turn, customers derive their brands versus commodities (no-name products), perceptions of a brand from the interactions they but in today’s world very few true commodities have with it. Finally, that customer experience, are left. Even basic foodstuffs have some sort of ideally, is informed by a brand idea — what the identifier on them, whether it is a private-label brand stands for: the promise it is willing to make store brand such as Walmart’s Great Value salt and keep in the marketplace. If the frst part of this or a major brand such as Morton Salt. chain of cause and effect is indistinct or irrelevant to customers, there is little chance the rest of the Brands help people make a choice, a choice among chain will work, and the brand will not affect the salts, financial institutions, political parties, and so business’ bottom line. Yet, despite the proliferation on, and the choices are increasing. The number of of brands and their inextricable link to business brands on grocery store shelves, for example, tripled performance, it is not easy to define what a brand in the 1990s from 15,000 to 45,000.1 The purpose of is, along with how to create, manage, and value it. 1 McKinsey & Company, “Strike Up the Brands” (2003).

Landor Associates 1 Figure 1: Brand Affects Business Performance

Brand Customer Brand Customer Business idea experience perception behavior performance

The difference between a brand and branding personal Coke brand associations are neither positive nor negative, they just come to mind. Most experts define what a brand is in one of two Coke has worked incredibly hard at implanting ways. The first set of defnitions focuses on some some of these brand associations in our minds: of the elements that make up a brand: The idea and delivery of refreshment (and the supply management and distribution that are behind this), • “The intangible sum of a product’s attributes: product placement, the color red, the association its name, packaging, and price, its history, its with a popular TV program, and the advertising all reputation, and the way it’s advertised.”2 make us feel good about the brand. Coke has not • “A name, sign, or symbol used to identify items controlled the buildup of these associations, but it or services of the seller(s) and to differentiate has tried, at every stage of our experience with the them from goods of competitors.”3 brand, to positively influence them.

The second set of definitions describes the Accepting the second set of definitions poses more associations that come to mind when people of a challenge. The first definition suggests that the think about a brand: brand is the purview of the marketing department — just get the name, logo, design, and advertising right • “Products are made in the factory, but brands and you have your brand. The second shows how the are created in the mind.”4 brand is inextricably linked to the business. The • “A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, creation of the brand may begin in the marketing service, or company.… It’s a person’s gut feeling, department, but the experience of the brand has because in the end the brand is defined by to be driven through all parts of the organization. individuals, not by companies, markets, or the Every interaction, or touchpoint, in a customer’s so-called general public. Each person creates experience of a brand makes a difference. his or her own version of it.5 If you consider Apple, the quintessential brand What do we mean by “created in the mind”? When success story, the most powerful parts of the we think of Coke, we may think of the time we went customers’ experience of the brand are not confined to Disney World years ago. It was an incredibly hot to traditional brand elements, such as the logo, the day, and we drank an ice-cold Coke from the iconic name, or the advertising. It is the environment of 2 David Ogilvy, primary.co.uk/viewpoints (accessed glass Coke bottle and there was nothing more the Apple stores that encourages you to stay and 12 May 2009). refreshing. When we think about the can, we might explore (and upgrade) and interact with its products 3 Dictionary of Business and Management (Oxford think red. Today perhaps we think of American Idol and its Genius Bar. It is iTunes as much as the iPod, University Press, 2006). (and wonder whether they are really drinking Coke the applications as much as the iPhone. It is Apple’s in those plastic cups). We think of how that customer service and tone of voice that are seamless, 4 Walter Landor, founder of Landor Associates. Christmas polar bear ad made us smile. Those of from the instruction manuals to the real-time chat in 5 Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap: How to Bridge the us who are old enough may remember the “I’d like the support section of the online store. The brand is Distance between Business Strategy and Design (AIGA New Riders, 2006). to teach the world to sing” commercial. These driven throughout this whole experience, throughout every interaction.

2 Essentials of branding But if a brand exists in an individual’s mind, and if The identity of the pga communicates the it is delivered by the business, what is the role of organization’s preeminent status as well branding? Branding cannot control what people as the rich cultural heritage of the sport. think of a brand, it can only inﬂuence. A brand can put some of the elements in place that will help people understand why they should choose or prefer a particular good, service, organization, or idea over another. Branding and related marketing disciplines can help inﬂuence and explain how many of these associations in our minds have been built, and whether they were built through advertising, PR, employee behavior, supply chain management, and so on.

Branding is about signals — the signals people use to determine what you stand for as a brand. Signals create associations. — Allen Adamson, BrandSimple6

The bulk of this chapter will explain the process that determines the foundational signals of a brand: what a brand stands for (the brand idea); the attitude it projects (the brand personality); its name and how it talks (the verbal identity); what it looks like (the visual identity); and what it feels and sounds like (the sensory identity). Creating these foundational signals is the core business of a branding agency.

Before foundational signals are created, however, a certain amount of groundwork needs to be done to ensure that the best conditions for success are in place. The ﬁrst two sections explain this essential preparation. The third describes the creation of the foundational signals. The ﬁnal sections focus on what to do next with these foundational signals once they have been created, looking at delivery of the brand experience, managing the brand, and 6 Allen Adamson, BrandSimple: How the Best Brands Keep measuring the performance and value of brands. It Simple and Succeed (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).

Landor Associates 3 Starting a branding project

Starting a branding project includes finding the right The areas of the business that interact with reason, commitment, and strategy; analyzing brand the target audience need to be represented on the equity; and uncovering insights and opportunities. brand steering committee to ensure that the brand idea will be delivered. If this means that the steering Start with the right reason committee increases to more than eight to ten people, then “buy-in” stages are needed in the Take care to get born well. process to keep decision making manageable — George Bernard Shaw, playwright while ensuring that the areas of the business responsible for living up to the brand are committed Fundamentally, there are two reasons a business to the process. needs branding. Either a new product or company has been created or there is a desire to change Finally, experts in the field of branding will also be an existing brand to better reflect new business essential partners in the process. Branding agencies objectives (most often called a “rebrand”). There are usually hired as partners and guides in the must be a solid business reason to change, or process, since they are in the business of helping refresh, a brand and a brand idea. Without a solid to create and manage this kind of change. The business objective and brand idea, the judging of best agencies show strong strategic and creative brand change becomes purely subjective. Suffice thinking and output and have relevant expertise it to say, when you embark on a rebrand it is critical (not necessarily expertise in the same industry to ensure that you are rebranding for the right or product category, but experience in handling business reason, and if there is a desire to alter similar problems for similarly sized organizations some visual or verbal elements, a clearly defined and products, or with similar target audiences). brand idea is essential for guiding this change. The foundational signals of a brand need to last Start with the right commitment at least a decade, and creating them is costly, so investing in the right advice is important at both the It is critical to have the right steering committee macro level (“How do we align our business with before starting a branding process. Because the the brand idea?”) and the micro level (“What should brand idea reflects what a company says it stands we do about our printers to ensure the new brand for and its vision for the future, the CEO must be color reproduces well around the world?”). Because 100 percent in agreement with it. And because creating a new brand or undertaking a rebrand a brand is inextricably linked to the business, all requires significant investment and signals change, branding initiatives need to involve the business there is really only one opportunity to do it; so it leaders, not at every stage of managing the project, must be done right. but at every stage that a significant decision needs to be made, particularly in the early stages when the brand idea and personality are being defined.

4 Essentials of branding The foundational signals of a brand need to last at least a decade.

Start with the right business strategy to focus on a single audience; at a minimum, both customers and employees need to be considered. Good branding cannot save a poor product But for both product and corporate brands, it or business. In fact, the desire to rebrand can is important to understand insights into these sometimes mask a fundamental business problem audiences to ensure that the brand idea resonates. and can distract managers from actually addressing it. Before you brand anything, it is important to have What is the benefit to customers? A company a strong, clear answer to three simple questions: should be able to articulate clearly, in a few words, (1) What are we selling? (2) Who is it intended for? the unique aspect that differentiates its product and (3) What is the benefit to customers? from the competition and provides a benefit to its customers. This is called the “unique selling What are we selling? In a very practical sense, proposition,” the “dominant selling idea,” the selling involves making tough decisions about “unique value proposition,” or the “universal the market you are in, such as Intel’s decision to guarantor of performance.” abandon manufacturing computer memory chips and focus on microprocessors. Or it can be about Start with the right focus: Customers deciding how you intend to describe the product or service being offered. InWelcome to the Creative One of the most important first steps in a branding Age, Mark Earls tells the story of working for Clarks, project is to create a framework that identifies one of the leading shoe companies in the United and compares all possible interaction points where Kingdom, and spending time in focus groups. His a customer experiences the brand. This is often agency hit on an idea that resonated well: not called a “customer journey,” and the interactions a reexpression of the brand but a reevaluation of are sometimes referred to as “touchpoints.” These what Clarks was selling. Clarks had defned the interactions can be physical, such as in a super- business of selling shoes as a “replacement market, at an airline check-in desk, or in a show- business” — replacing shoes that were worn out. room. They can be digital, such as through The new model was about selling pleasure — a download from a company website or on social buying new shoes that give you a lift. media sites like Twitter or YouTube. Interactions can be analog, such as on the phone, via advertising on Who is it intended for? The more specific and TV, or through promotional events. targeted the answer to this question, the better. For example, rather than focusing on “moms,” The important thing is to create the framework target “moms who put their careers on hold and from the customers’ point of view and not simply are now back in the workforce trying to juggle career compile a list of all things currently being executed advancement with guilt about not having the time to build the brand. Doing only the latter will not help or energy to puree homemade baby food every you discover a new interaction that could better evening.” For corporate brands, it is more difficult connect the customer to your brand. Creating the

Landor Associates 5 Equity research conducted for Gatorade full framework, however, will foster understanding to truly understand where real equity lies and found that the lightning bolt (depicted here of where you are delivering the brand promise, whether it remains relevant moving forward. on bottles circa 2002–05) was the most where you are failing to keep it, where you need to distinctive element of its brand. innovate to improve the experience, and where you For the redesign of the Gatorade packaging in 2002, should spend your marketing dollars to generate the PepsiCo and Landor conducted equity research most impact. with customers who were asked to draw the bottle. This was a simple exercise, but one that resulted in Analyze the brand’s equity a marked consistency of output. The lightning bolt seemed to be the most important and distinctive When a rebrand is undertaken, or if a new brand has design element associated with the brand; it was another brand attached to it (for example, through recalled and drawn many times, and consumers a parent brand endorsement), it is important to associated it with a “spark of energy.” Other understand where current brand equity lies to avoid aspects (orange cap, brand colors, bottle shape) inadvertently losing key elements that are actively also had strong recall, but did not evoke the same building consumer recognition and relevant brand emotional responses. associations. To be clear, we are not talking about the broadest definition of “equity” — the accumu- But equity is not simply about awareness — it is lated value of a company’s brand assets, both also about relevance. The reason that Gatorade financially and strategically, which comprises increasingly focused on the bolt in subsequent the overall market strength of a brand. Rather, we package designs and other marketing communica- are talking about the equity inherent in the brand tions was not simply because people recalled it, signals to help answer questions such as “Should but because they associated it with the difference we keep the logo?” “Should the brand still be red?” Gatorade made to their athletic performance. “Should we continue to use the same brandline?” In 2009, however, facing increasing pressure from Coke’s Vitaminwater and other competitors like When embarking on a rebrand, provided it is not Powerade, PepsiCo instituted a dramatic redesign occurring for a predominantly negative reason, for Gatorade that minimized the bolt and empha- you will often hear people within a company speak sized a collegiate-looking serif-type letter G as about the strong equity inherent in the current brand the prominent label graphic. Apparently, PepsiCo signals. “We can’t get rid of the tagline. We’ve had made this decision without conducting extensive it for five years. It has a lot of equity.” “People love packaging research and, at this writing, the results the logo. It’s who we are. You can’t change that.” at point of sale have been mixed. It will be interest- “Don’t get rid of ‘green.’ It’s a core brand color.” ing to see whether this dramatic rebranding helps Employees are likely to have some emotional turn the brand’s fortunes around. attachment to certain brand signals. But often, impartial brand equity research must be conducted

6 Essentials of branding Consider also the spate of brands such as Atari A rebrand is a marker of change. It should be The Xbox 360, with its integrated online and Mini that have recently returned from the dead undertaken for a business reason. gaming and multimedia capabilities, to take up residence at retail once more. Part of completely sold out when it was released a phenomenon dubbed “dormandise” by consumer Uncover insights and identify opportunities in 2005. trend spotters at trendwatching.com, these brands hope to capitalize on residual brand equity to From an agency’s point of view, the process of leapfrog competitors. Of course these revived creating a new brand or a rebrand usually starts brands get a head start on awareness, but with with a “situation analysis,” often called an “audit,” brands such as Atari, much more work needed to or what Scott Bedbury calls a “big dig.”8 Even in the be done to bring the brand out of eight-bit graphics creation of a new brand you are never starting with and give it relevance in the world of PlayStation and a completely clean slate. This big dig can be as small Xbox. As Steven Mallas wrote, “Atari’s brand equity or as large as you want to make it, and there are doesn’t have that differentiated, maverick feel of various models and ways to structure it. It often yesteryear when it was always associated with the involves consumer and/or customer research, cutting edge of video game technology and was whether primary or secondary. worshipped by hardcore players at the forefront of the video game revolution. Nowadays, it is an The most important thing to keep in mind about all-purpose distributor that finds intense competition a situation analysis, however, is that the ultimate in the likes of Electronic Arts and Activision.”7 Atari’s purpose is not to gather information. Its purpose is fiscal losses ($38.6 million in 2004, a significant to assemble insights about customers, the category, reversal of $17.4 million profit in 2003) seem to affirm competitors, or the brand itself in order to identify the point. Just because people recognize a brand an opportunity that will shape the brand idea. does not mean they have positive impressions about it or that they will purchase it. What is an insight? Professor Mohanbir Sawhney describes it as “a not yet obvious understanding Overemphasizing recognition in the brand equity that can be the basis of a competitive advantage.”9 equation is a quick way to get an immensely Insights can be about a business, brand, category, distorted picture of a brand’s value. Ultimately, or customer. These insights come from interpreting it can have the effect of making a company think information available in a creative and analytical that everything is so good there is no need to way, often using a framework, model, or map. 7 Steven Mallas, “Atari’s Challenging Level,” The Motley Fool change anything. Yet if people know about the And opportunities are usually identified through (7 May 2004). brand, but it does not reflect what you want it to a combination of insights that connect multiple 8 Scott Bedbury with Stephen Fenichell, A New Brand World: stand for in their minds, then it is not relevant areas such as competition; category; customers; Eight Principles for Achieving Brand Leadership in the to keep. GE walked away from the ubiquitous tagline product or organization; heritage, ambition, and Twenty-First Century (Penguin Putnam, 2002). We bring good things to life because it no longer stories; and brand architecture. 9 Mohanbir Sawhney, “Insights into Customer Insights,” encapsulated what it stood for as a business. Defying the Limits, vol. 5, 6 (October 2004), defyingthelimits.com (accessed 23 March 2006).

Landor Associates 7 The brand strategy

Creating the brand signals includes defning The more visionary this idea, the more it can inspire the brand idea, brand architecture, and brand the people who are tasked to deliver it. And the personality, and producing the creative brief. more relevant and differentiated it is, the better the outcome. This idea of having a noble purpose above Defining the brand idea and beyond the commercial or product equation seems to be gaining more traction in the Internet A good situation analysis leads to insights and age. Consider Dove’s Campaign for real beauty, or identifies areas of opportunity for a brand, but Ikea’s purpose being defined as Creating a better a stake must then be placed in the ground to everyday life for the many. Brands that claim a higher defne the brand idea: what you want the brand purpose in their brand ideas, and those that do it to stand for. There is no magic formula or model earlier than their competitors may connect better for this. It takes smart people, clarity, and creativity with consumers in the long run. of thought, debate, and sometimes more research to determine the right brand idea. However, the limits of differentiation are important to note. The brand idea does not have to be, nor The most important thing about your brand idea is it likely to be, different from any other idea that is that it is differentiated from the competition and has ever been expressed by a brand before. relevant to your target audience. It is essential to Difference is a relative term and is proportional give the target audience a reason to choose your to a brand’s competition: other brands the target brand over all others. If there is nothing different audience might choose instead of yours. For about your brand, there is no reason to purchase example, if the proposed brand idea for a child’s it; if you are different but that difference is not new toy is “stimulating imagination,” this should important or meaningful to consumers, it is equally not be disregarded because GE also stands for unlikely your brand will be purchased. “imagination at work.” The child or parent is not going to be making a choice between the toy Creating the brand idea also requires a leap of and a GE steam-assisted gravity drainage faith to articulate something that captures the good produced water evaporator. about the present state of the brand, and, more importantly, a vision for its future. Mark Earls talks Similarly, you want the brand idea to be ownable; about the brand idea having to create “a longer-term not in the sense of patenting the idea or the words, trajectory for your business and your working life. but rather in the sense of delivering the idea, It is rooted in a dream of the world as it should be. relentlessly and with commitment. This way, the A dream that you feel and believe in with your whole idea becomes so well associated with a given brand being, rather than the small part of yourself that that any competitor would be foolish to invest time 10 Mark Earls, Welcome to the Creative Age: Bananas, business normally connects with.”10 and money claiming it stands for the same thing. Business, and the Death of Marketing (John Wiley & Sons, 2002).

8 Essentials of branding Many models can be used to help encapsulate from it will be even weaker. Content will be spun p&g’s brand architecture employs the brand idea. Consumer goods companies with off (PR messages, ad copy, websites, leadership a multibrand strategy, managing large marketing departments usually have their speeches, recruitment specs, blogs), and without its many global brands without own models; branding agencies have theirs. a clear idea to link back to, the brand will quickly a parent endorsement. Companies often want to incorporate a vision become disparate, hard to manage, and not statement, mission statement, and sometimes associated with anything distinct in the consumer’s add a brand positioning statement. mind. The brand idea acts as a strategic flter for the future; it is a waste of time to fill in models or The most valuable piece of any of these models is craft mission statements without spending time getting to a short, memorable phrase that encapsu- clarifying the brand idea first. lates the core of what the brand is about. This is not a brandline or tagline, although it could become one. Defining the brand architecture Rather, the brand idea defnes what the brand is about at its most basic level. For example: One component of developing a brand strategy requires establishing a clear structure and relation- • GE is about imagination at work. ship among brands in a portfolio. This process is • Nike is about authentic athletic performance. usually called “brand architecture.” Fundamentally, • eBay aspires to be the global online marketplace. brand architecture is about deciding what you • Ikea seeks to create a better everyday life for want to show as your face to the market and how the many. to present your goods and services to your target audience. Many models and a great deal of These simple articulations can be feshed out into marketing terminology are used to describe a paragraph, a positioning statement, a mission different approaches to brand architecture. statement, or a vision statement, but if the core brand idea is not clear, then all elements emanating

Landor Associates 9 Figure 2: Popular Branding Words

Company description Purpose Superior Trusted Enhance Progress Leading Innovative Improve Quality Pace setting Inspirational Grow Value Number one Creative Success Peace World class Passionate Performance Harmony Customer-focused

But all fall somewhere among three strategies: the maximum number of market opportunities, while clearly differentiating among brands. Not only 1. A monobrand strategy (sometimes called will good brand architecture reﬂect the strategic a “branded house”), in which one brand is vision of the frm, but it should also improve applied across everything. Examples are GE, fnancial performance by helping organizations Virgin, and IBM. direct resources to the best bets for future growth 2. An endorsed or subbrand strategy, in which by minimizing redundancy among brands and the organization owns a variety of brands that cutting underperforming brands. include the parent name in some way. Examples are Nestlé, Cadbury, and Marriott. Brand architecture should not just rationalize an 3. A multibrand strategy (or house of brands), in existing portfolio and stretch the remaining brands which a company uses many different brands into new areas, as tempting as that may be. It is with no parent endorsement. Examples are important to be careful with assumptions about how Procter & Gamble (P&G), Diageo, and far current brands can stretch to cover future growth GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). areas by understanding what each brand stands for in customers’ minds. For example, when Polaroid Almost all brands, particularly those that have been began selling conventional camera ﬁlm under the around for a while and have gone through various Polaroid label, this brand extension did not work mergers and acquisitions, sit somewhere in the because in the minds of consumers Polaroid stood messy, real-life middle with a hybrid strategy. For for instant photography, not generic photography. example, Starwood Hotels has a Sheraton brand The consumer’s idea of Polaroid would not stretch that itself endorses Four Points by Sheraton. It owns enough to accommodate the new meaning. standalone hotel brands, such as W Hotels, Westin, and St. Regis, and yet shows its face to the market In contrast, because Virgin stands for something as Starwood in its loyalty program that spans all its so broad (essentially the idea of challenging hotels. Toyota endorses the Prius, Corolla, Tacoma, convention), and because Virgin delivers its and RAV4 brands (along with others) but not its promise so relentlessly, the company has extended luxury brand, the Lexus. successfully into categories as diverse as fnancial services, mobile phones, airlines, beauty products, As these examples show, determining the best beverages, and space travel. portfolio strategy is often difficult and rife with trade-offs. It is important to remember that brand Although a very rational and analytical process, architecture is not about internal organizational brand architecture often becomes an emotional structure. Well-designed architecture will be topic for a company because it is mistaken for an consumer-oriented and help customers make attempt to change the organizational structure. choices between one product or brand and another. For example, when a company decides not to create It will use the minimum number of brands to cover a subbrand for a business unit and instead uses the

10 Essentials of branding master brand (for example, going to market as organizations and express authentic personalities The yellow beam of the Ernst & Young “Deloitte” rather than as “Deloitte Tax”), employees in order to thrive in the social media era. Given that identity symbolizes a brand personality can feel that their role is being downplayed, or even functional attributes and benefits are not unique that is dynamic, optimistic, and always in jeopardy. Such strategic decisions must therefore or long lasting enough to build a brand around, striving forward. be carefully and clearly managed to help employees and that beneft areas are not infnite in number, understand that brand architecture is not about defning the personality and expressing it across restructuring the internal organizational chart (which all interactions with customers is an important addresses optimizing delivery and costs), but rather way to differentiate a brand and build relevance about the company’s face to its markets (which with customers. But a discussion around brand concerns maximizing revenue). One is not a mirror personality can be a difficult one to have in a image of the other. boardroom. Brand personality is usually seen as an accepted part of what helps to differentiate Defining the brand personality a smoothie or chips brand. But a financial institu- tion? A petroleum company? A parcel delivery firm? Many brand strategists may be uncomfortable with Not so acceptable. Yet often it is these types of the following statement: “There are not an infinite companies that could beneft most by appearing number of brand ideas in the world, and many more human. brands occupy very similar territories.” If you look across the list of global Fortune 500 companies, Bhargava describes personality as “the unique, the statements about what the organizations stand authentic, and talkable soul of your brand that for generally use some combination of words similar people can get passionate about.”12 Defining to those in fgure 2. company values is often the way large corporations try to articulate this. But when working on the We need not be downhearted by this. If, as creation of a brand idea, agencies are often told: Christopher Booker says, there are only “seven “Don’t touch the values.” This may be because the stories in the world,”11 yet tens of millions of books, client has already gone through a huge program flms, and plays tell these stories differently, the internally to defne them (or, just as likely, a group opportunity for relevant differentiation remains of senior executives crafted a values statement strong. BP and Toyota both focus their ideas on in a board meeting years ago) or the values have a sense of progress. However, nobody would say been in place since the founding of the frm and these brands are the same. One way they differ is are an inextricable piece of “who we are.” But when through personality, and defining this is the next we look at values across an industry they are often important element in building a brand. remarkably similar. Consider the big four accoun- 11 Christopher Booker, The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell tancy firms: If we take out integrity, respect, Stories (Continuum, 2006). The premise behind Rohit Bhargava’s book collaboration, and leadership (since at least three 12 Rohit Bhargava, Personality Not Included: Why Companies Personality Not Included illustrates how critical it of the big four share these values, which do nothing Lose Their Authenticity and How Great Brands Get It Back is for companies to move beyond being faceless to help differentiate the firms), we are left with (McGraw-Hill, 2008).

Landor Associates 11 One way of building internal passion for brands is through the creation of stories.

very little: some energy and enthusiasm from by including a section with things to avoid such Ernst & Young; seeking facts and providing insight as a color that a competitor uses consistently). from KPMG; and getting strength from cultural Obtaining client sign-off on the brief is a critical diversity from Deloitte. Not exactly the foundations part of managing expectations when it comes to of a brand personality to get passionate about. reviewing work. Client sign-off should help to guide discussions around the work at every stage. One way of building internal passion for brands is through the creation of stories. For example, Along with the brief, the meeting itself is very James Dyson’s inventiveness and tenaciousness important. This is often the ﬁrst time a creative are hallmarks of the Dyson brand personality. When team will come into contact with a business or BP deﬁned its Beyond Petroleum strategy in 2000, product and its challenges. It pays to take time one of the frst activities it undertook was to conduct to inspire and educate team members and involve hundreds of interviews with employees within the them in discussions about the business challenges organization to get at these stories. The output was and the brand idea. Most brand signals need to last something called the “BP scroll” that was literally at least a decade, so bringing the team charged with rolled out in a board meeting to help demonstrate creating them into the process early, and agreeing that the audacious brand idea and personality being on the brief together rather than simply handing it proposed for the brand had roots in the passion and to the agency team, will provide the best, most actions of employees. Along with the brand idea of engaged start. going beyond, BP has four values — performance, progressive, innovation, and green — and people inside the company truly embrace them; they can be expressed authentically in communications.

Producing the creative brief

Once a brand idea and personality are in place, the core visual and verbal symbols can be developed. They are usually encapsulated in a “creative brief,” literally a short document that a creative team will work from as it designs and generates names, brandlines, and visual and sensory identities. A good brief is succinct (often only one page), uses words and pictures to help stimulate creativity, and has the brand idea and personality at its core. It also reﬂects learning about competitors and market categories from the situation analysis (for example,

12 Essentials of branding Creating the brand experience

Creating the brand experience involves crafting • Be ownable and protectable as a trademark in the verbal identity, designing the visual and all countries in which you want to operate sensory identities, and testing the verbal and • Have an available domain name visual identities. This criteria is often given to an agency before it Crafting the verbal identity begins to generate names. But how many brand names can you think of that actually live up to all Naming A new brand needs a name whereas this criteria? Coke? BlackBerry? Facebook? Audi? a rebrand rarely has a name change. Indeed, Google? CNN? Target? changing a name signals that something significant has happened in the business, through forced Name creation is an incredibly difficult business. circumstances, through a merger and acquisition, It demands an immense amount of creativity, or through a negative event. A company that coupled with a heavy dose of practicality since changes its name is expected to change the way most of the names created will not be legally it does business, too, so a name change should available. In fact, almost 90 percent of names never be undertaken lightly. created will have to be rejected due to copyright considerations. And this is the most important Names can take many forms. They can be acronyms: thing to understand: A name is only one small part IBM, BP, NBC. They can take the form of existing of a brand. Its power to build positive associations words or phrases: Shell, Apple, Twitter. They can is limited when it is viewed in isolation. It only really be names constructed from other words: Spudulike, gains meaning over time and in combination with Kwik Save, Accenture. They can be coined: Avensis, all other brand signals. Aventis, Avertis. And they can derive from the names of specific people or families: Ferrari, Hershey, Some brands create more than a name. They create Mercedes-Benz. See fgure 3 for more examples. a naming device that allows them to link a series of products together under a similar naming conven- Ideally, a name should be the pure encapsulation of tion. The iMac spawned the iPod, iPhone, and iTunes. the brand idea and, along with this audacious goal, The iPod spawned the podcast. People tweet on should meet other key criteria: Twitter and use devices such as Power Twitter to improve their brand experience. A good name will • Be easy to pronounce in every language likely meet some of the criteria above, though not • Be memorable (being brief also helps) all; fortunately, there are many other brand signals • Help people understand what the business to work with to help build a more complete picture is about of what you want your brand to stand for. It is • Be able to stretch into other categories and areas most critical to make sure that the name is legally in the future protected and that due diligence has been applied to • Have no negative connotations in other languages check for negative connotations in other languages.

Landor Associates 13 Figure 3: Names of Brands

Name types Real Coined Abstract Apple Google Twitter Kodak Egg Avaya Associative Lucent Agilent Oracle Clarica Sprint Visteon Descriptive British Airways FedEx America Online Microsoft Computer Associates Wikipedia

Furthermore, prepare to develop a hard skin at the what the frm wants to be about as a brand — launch of your new name. The media like nothing going beyond. GE’s Imagination at work captures more than a name change they can react to, and the driving mission of the company. The brand their reaction is almost never positive. A name overhaul of Citroën saw an end to the tagline Just only becomes imbued with true meaning postlaunch. imagine what Citroën can do for you and replaced it So as long as the homework has been completed up with a brandline that captures its business strategy: front, it pays to be patient and focus on constructing Créative technologie. all of the many other signals that will help to support and give weight to this meaning. Creating a brandline presents many of the same challenges as creating a name (for example, it Brandline Because names can only do so much, needs to be legally protectable and often needs brandlines are often developed in conjunction to work in different countries), which may be why with the name to help signal what the brand stands so many brands eschew a brandline altogether. for. Brandlines are often called “taglines”; however, Other brands seem to feel that a brandline is taglines suggest a sign-off at the bottom of a piece mandatory but create something that does not of communication, and they can change as different work hard enough to help to differentiate them. marketing campaigns change. A brandline is Look at PwC’s competitors: KPMG locks up three developed as a permanent brand element to be words with its logo: Audit. Tax. Advisory. It tells used across different channels, often everywhere people what the ﬁrm does but nothing about why the logo appears. For example, FedEx’s brandline it is different from its competitors (who are already is The world on time. It appears consistently on perceived as very similar). There is already very FedEx trucks, planes, and packaging and has been little differentiation in this category, and KPMG’s in place since 1995. Since then, however, FedEx brandline does nothing to help. Ernst & Young has had many advertising campaigns that have is stuck with a legacy line from the immediate featured different taglines, such asWhen it post-Enron days, Quality in everything we do; surely absolutely, positively has to be there overnight a given for one of the most regulated industries in and Relax, it’s FedEx. the world. It focuses on an unspecifc parity point (quality) with Ernst & Young’s competitors rather Taglines can change (they are tactical), but than something that differentiates the organization. brandlines remain the same unless a signifcant Deloitte has chosen not to use one, which, accord- rebrand occurs. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ ing to Brandweek, is an increasing trend.13 Perhaps brandline, Connected thinking, is at the heart some companies are ﬁnding that if you cannot of what the company says it stands for as an have a good one (that is, one that focuses on your organization. Beyond Petroleum works cleverly to differentiation and relevance), it is better not to 13 T.L. Stanley, “Taglines Lose Their Starring Role in Ads” change associations with the name of the company have one at all. (26 November 2007) brandweek.com/bw/esearch/ from British Petroleum to something that implies article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003677226 (accessed 12 May 2009).

14 Essentials of branding Tone of voice Tone of voice is another means of Although we cannot predict what external, Good Co. Coffee’s brand voice uses clever, conveying what a brand stands for. Tone of voice uncontrollable events might transpire during lighthearted parody to brighten the day of is not messaging or writing; it is about how you 2003, we can forecast with considerable the overstressed corporate coffee drinker. say things rather than what you say. For example, certainty that our valorous, caring, nimble, a brand’s voice can be friendly, informative, precise, good-hearted, and resilient people will ensure grounded, real, honest, daring, playful, irreverent, that Southwest ends 2003 just the way it ended emotional, or witty. The brand voice can express 2002 — at the forefront of our industry. the personality of a friend or teacher, a geek or — Southwest Airlines 2002 Annual Report gamer, a leader or an advocate, a visionary or a knowledge seeker, a magician or an engineer. To help an organization understand tone of voice When tone of voice is consistent, it gives the and its implications for business communications, consumer another means of recognizing the a common step is to take some current pieces of brand and its promise. communication and rewrite them in the new tone. It is better to show than to tell, and focusing on When you consider how many people within high-profile, visible pieces of communication a company use words to communicate with a helps ensure that the new brand voice is noticed. target audience on a daily basis, tone of voice Getting people to act on tone of voice is more would appear to be an incredibly important part difficult, however. of branding. Yet, compared with the development of a visual identity, creating tone of voice is less Designing the visual and sensory identities common. Whatever the reason, many brands do not have a consistent tone of voice, or their tone Great design gives people the shorthand markers of voice is not considered when creating the of identifcation and engagement with a product, foundational signals for a brand. Even brands service, or organization. It stops us in our tracks that have crafted a tone of voice often do very to think again about our usual choices. It helps us little to train people on how and where to use it, find coffee, aids us in sending urgent documents or to promote its use on an ongoing basis. in an unfamiliar city, or can make us feel part of a smarter or more stylish community. As we sit at A few brands are known for their tone of voice, the neighborhood Starbucks, typing on a MacBook, and they deliver it consistently and memorably. wearing Uggs or Adidas, minding a baby asleep in For example, tone of voice helps differentiate a Bugaboo stroller, we may suddenly realize that all maverick brands such as Virgin, as well as staid these brands stand for something singular, that all brands such as the BBC and the Economist. of them have a personality, and that all of them use Southwest Airlines has a tone of voice that links their visual and sensory identities to create powerful strongly to its brand personality. The Southwest associations that we connect with. style is fresh and immediate, expressing respect and warm regard for people in general:

Landor Associates 15 Some of the most memorable logos Logo There is something revered about the logo, brand. It is notably progressive and innovative — communicate multiple meanings. The and it is probably the ﬁrst thing that comes to mind no other petroleum brand had done anything like Amazon.com logo forms a smile and when we think about branding. It can mistakenly be the sunfower symbol at the time it was created — also suggests an a to z product range. where the desire to rebrand begins (“The new CEO and it successfully represents BP’s brand idea of The FedEx logo incorporates an arrow, doesn’t like our logo”) and is often where emotions going beyond to become an environmental leader implying speed and precision. can ride high in a branding project. It may have to and a truly great company. Incorporating green, do with the fact that the logo becomes personal a heritage color for BP, the symbol captures the on our business cards, or perhaps it has acquired feeling of pure energy, and its solar power initiative such hallowed status that its role in branding is represented in the sunburst fame evokes broader often overemphasized. environmental meanings for BP’s future.

A logo becomes a visual shorthand for the meanings Some logos add essential communication that is people attach to a brand, but it is not the only strong missing from the name alone. For instance, a literal visual symbolism. As with a name, a logo will play visualization of the word “Amazon” would take you up some aspects of the brand but will not be able to rainforests or Greek mythology. But instead, to communicate others. However, it is also often Amazon.com’s logo helps suggest the range of undervalued, and stories about logos being “drawn products available (the arrow points from a to z) on a napkin over a pint” abound, suggesting there and forms a smile to communicate a sense of the is nothing difﬁcult about their creation. welcoming, helpful, customer-friendly nature of the brand. The FedEx logo incorporates a hidden Most logos (also called “brandmarks,” “brand (negative space) arrow to subtly imply its speed identities,” or “corporate identities”) are made up and guarantee that packages will always get there of several components: the wordmark (usually the on time. Evoking a story within the brand symbol name of the company), a symbol (a graphic device presents not only a visual metaphor for the brand, placed within, adjacent to, or around the logo), and but also a word-of-mouth communication campaign. the colors chosen to reﬂect the brand. Some logos Over the years, many people have recounted the comprise only a wordmark (such as Kiehl’s, Virgin, story of discovering the arrow in the FedEx logo as Google, FedEx, IBM); a few use just a symbol (Nike, an amusing “aha” moment. Apple, Prince); and others combine a symbol and a wordmark (The Body Shop, UBS, BP). While virtually no brand identity can convey everything about a product, service, or company, Some of the most memorable logos communicate a logo must be evaluated on its ability to communi- myriad meanings, breaking new ground while cate at least one or two important concepts about respecting heritage. For example, the BP sunfower the brand. The brief should incorporate these symbol (officially called the Helios mark) is a highly concepts, guiding both the creative team and the effective encapsulation of the core values of the client in appraising the recommended designs.

16 Essentials of branding Logos were once designed as purely static, This kind of “open branding” is not appropriate The Worldeka identity system encourages two-dimensional devices with strict rules around for all brands, but what these examples highlight myriad design executions. usage that no one could distort or change in any is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to logo way, on any application. This is still the case in usage, and tools like animation, customization, and many instances, but there are some logos that are flexibility need to be considered along with colors, designed to be more fluid. This trend started with fonts, and symbols. the MTV logo in 1981, but it can also be seen with brands such as Google, which creates new designs Color Logos are not designed in black and white. within its wordmark and encourages its audiences The creation of a logo always introduces other core to engage in the practice as well. The RED logo aspects of the brand. For some brands, color is builds the brand by associations with others one of the most important associations they have: (iPod, Bono) and was created to work with brands for example, the Tiffany robin’s-egg blue box, ING’s as diverse as Dell, American Express, Gap, Hallmark, orange versus the blue and red of other financial Converse, and Emporio Armani. institutions, and Coca-Cola’s red.

The Olympic 2012 logo created a negative media There is much written about color theory and the frenzy when launched in the United Kingdom. Its meaning of color in different societies. While white purpose was to be used in conjunction with other is traditionally the color of death or mourning in Asia, brands, allowing partners to adapt the logo to their yellow means caution in the United States, and red own brand colors. But even this ﬂexibility did not is the color the eye is drawn to most — differing go far enough for some who felt that the logo had meanings of color should not be the overriding been “foisted on” the United Kingdom without reason to either choose or discount these colors properly involving members of the community for a given brand. It is more important to go back it would represent. to the brand idea and personality, and the situation analysis, to ensure that a color palette is chosen By contrast, in creating the branding for Worldeka that ﬁrst and foremost differentiates the brand from (a social-networking platform that brings together the competition and is relevant to what it is trying citizens who aim to change the world), Landor to stand for. Without doing this, designers face the provided some brand structure — including the inevitable risk of designing a logo and then being simplifcation of Worldeka to WE, the key insight asked, “Can we just see it in red/blue/yellow/pink/ that encapsulates the brand’s collective voice — aqua?” This exercise should rarely be necessary. If but decided along with the client to let the online you plot your competitors on a color wheel and are community own the logo and the brandline. This clear about how color theory relates to your brand encouraged a multitude of design executions that idea, the choice of colors will be limited. expanded the visual and verbal language (such as allowing various interpretations of WE: Wrestling Evil, Working Effectively, or World Engaged).

Landor Associates 17 Crest Vivid White differentiates its whitening Look and feel, or “house style” Other graphic to long and extensive awareness-building efforts toothpaste by using the visual cues of the elements that make up the visual identity can help (and expenditures) while technically having little, cosmetics category to position it as part create something that becomes differentiated and if anything, to do with the original brand idea or of a beauty regimen. communicates the right associations about the personality of MetLife. Rather, Snoopy’s relationship brand. Some agencies call this collection of to MetLife began as an advertising idea, intended elements the “look and feel,” others the “house to add warmth and borrowed interest to an style.” They consist of the color palette (main and otherwise somber and impersonal industry. supporting colors), fonts, photography, imagery style, and any other graphic element. Packaging A package may have only half a second to engage with a consumer, yet it has A successful rebrand can occur without ever a laundry list of functions to fulfll. For example, touching the logo, name, or brandline. Ernst & the structure needs to respect shelf space, Young’s rebrand is a case in point. Its brand idea sustainability, and safety considerations; the is about achieving potential, implying a personality graphics need to include legal information such that is dynamic, optimistic, and always striving as weight, nutritional facts, and bar codes, along to move forward. The yellow beam powerfully with names (parent brand, subbrand, favor names, translates this brand idea and personality into unique ingredient names), illustrations, photography, a graphic element that allows an organization icons, logos, and the list goes on. Great package of more than 130,000 people to create diverse design manages to serve the brand frst and communications that nonetheless look and feel foremost, while working within the mandatory like they came from one brand — Ernst & Young. limits of legal and structural constraints. Absolut used a graphic element derived from its unique bottle shape as a symbol that became far It is important to understand what the brand idea more important than the actual logo in identifying and personality are and project these associations its brand. Target’s use of the bull’s-eye makes its onto the packaging. Innocent smoothies are a communications so distinctive that the name Target much-cited case of packaging success in the is unnecessary. These graphic elements are all part United Kingdom. Every aspect of Innocent packaging of a visual toolbox that help these brands become gets across its brand, from tone of voice and copy, differentiated and memorable. to its recycling efforts, to its name and logo design. Moreover, Innocent packaging does not follow Occasionally, however, the use of another graphic category conventions. Its labels do not show element can detract from your brand idea. Snoopy, photographs or illustrations of cranberries or although now associated with MetLife insurance, raspberries — these images are not a means is an icon created independently of this organization of differentiation. Breaking traditional category and one also used by other, albeit nonﬁnancial conventions is a simple way to stand apart, but products. Yet the Peanuts canine character has few brands have the courage to do it. become virtually synonymous with MetLife owing

18 Essentials of branding Another way of differentiating packaging is by temperatures have reduced cleaning power. The Ariel Cool Clean detergent turned its pack taking cues from innovation and design in other idea was to make the promotion the actual pack into a promotion by depicting the physical categories. When Landor designed the packaging design. The “Turn to 30°C” message is reinforced act of turning the dial down to 30°C. for Crest Vivid White toothpaste, it took inspiration visually by placing the Ariel logo on a washing from the cosmetic category. The package’s vertical machine dial that mirrors the act of physically orientation, sans serif font, embossing, and clean turning the dial down. This concept maintains side panel clearly define a cosmetic product, Ariel brand equities while pushing the boundaries appealing to consumers who consider oral care of promotional packaging. Following the launch, part of their beauty regimen. But the design speaks Ariel became the market leader. just as loudly to consumers more focused on health care. In the first three months following its launch, As noted, package design is connected to both Crest Vivid White exceeded sales forecasts by nearly graphics and structure. Branding has usually been 300 percent, and Vivid White was the top-selling reserved for the former, while packaging structure oral care item in Target stores in the United States and materials are often unfortunately designed during the first quarter of 2006. According to Mary before the brand idea and personality have been Zalla, managing director of both the Cincinnati and defined. A missed opportunity, but one some iconic Chicago offices of Landor Associates, “Just because brands have fully grasped. Martin Lindstrom calls no company had ever designed a cosmetic-looking this the “smash your brand” principle, explaining, oral care package didn’t mean it should never be “Nearly a century ago, when the frst-ever Coca-Cola done. What has been done will only get you so far. bottle was in the planning stages, the designer Great design is about what can be done.”14 received his marching orders. Company executives wanted him to develop a bottle so distinctive that if Packaging is usually created before all other you smashed it against a wall, you would still be able marketing communications, which may be why, to recognize the pieces as part of a Coke bottle. The when there is something new to say, a branding designer obviously lived up to the requirement, and violator is added to the front of a pack to link it to to this day it works.”15 But how many brands could a current promotion or ad campaign. Why not use you smash today and still identify — Coke, Heinz the pack more creatively to link better to these other Tomato Ketchup, Marmite in the United Kingdom, brand associations that consumers are picking up Gatorade, Absolut? And then it gets harder. elsewhere? When U.K. laundry detergent brand Ariel launched Ariel Cool Clean, it was the second The deliberate use of structure to build brand in a series of innovative brand-led approaches to differentiation varies even within product categories. on-pack promotion. The goal was to advocate Perrier, Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, and other drink 14 Mary Zalla, “Creating Great Design Takes Guts: Daring to Ariel’s effectiveness at 30°C and its inherent brands use bottle shape as a distinctive brand Be Different Can Give Instant Boost to Market Share,” Package Design (April 2009). energy cost savings to consumers by washing element, while graphics in the canned-drinks at a lower temperature. One of Ariel Cool Clean’s market are generally the only differentiator. In 15 Martin Lindstrom, “Smashing Your Brand,” martinlindstrom.com/pdf/articles/ challenges was to overcome perceptions that lower another sector, Ferrero Rocher chocolates’ gold Smashing%20your%20brand.pdf (accessed 12 May 2009).

Landor Associates 19 The Greenest Brands in 2008 u.s. u.k.

1 Whole Foods The Body Shop 2 Burt’s Bees Marks & Spencer 3 Trader Joe’s Waitrose 4 Tom’s of Maine Tesco and Sainsbury’s (tie) 5 Toyota ASDA 6 Seventh Generation Dove and Google (tie) 7 Honda and GE (tie) The Co-operative Bank 8 Whirlpool e-on 9 Aveda Morrisons 10 Method Toyota and Nivea (tie)

The ImagePower Green Brands Survey wrapping and clear container are essential parts 10,000 odors. According to the Sense of Smell is conducted annually by Landor and WPP of the brand experience, while a low-cost chocolate Institute, 75 percent of all emotions we generate partners to gauge consumer perceptions product’s propylene fow wrap is designed purely are due to what we smell.16 of the “green market” around the world. to grab attention at the point of sale. Apple is expert at designing packaging that engages us even after Some brands are synonymous with a smell. we have penetrated the first layer, as anyone who Johnson’s has become the baby smell. The smell has opened an iPod Nano box will attest. of Crayola crayons is instantly recognizable and can take most of us on a nostalgic trip back to childhood. Great package design will only become more In fact, Crayola’s smell is ranked 18 among the important as differentiation on-shelf gets harder. 20 most recognizable smells in the United States. Couple this with the increasing consumer interest Kentucky Fried Chicken now regards its signature in ecofriendly options and better functionality, aroma as one of its key “brand ambassadors.”17 and the stakes rise dramatically. In the 2008 ImagePower® Green Brands Survey, one of the Scent branding is a relatively new field, but more most notable trends that surfaced is the attention and more companies are realizing the power of consumers are giving to sustainable packaging. scent to build brand experiences. In 2003, about In 2008, Amazon launched a Frustration-Free $30 million was spent on aroma marketing around Packaging initiative to make it easier for customers the world; in 2010, that figure is set to reach to liberate products from their packages, focusing $220 million.18 on two kinds of items: those enclosed in hard plastic cases known as “clamshells” (said to cause “wrap Some brands, such as Victoria’s Secret and rage,” as anyone who has tried to open one will Starbucks, have used scents to connect with their attest), and those secured with plastic-coated wire consumers for years. Singapore Airlines, which ties, commonly used in toy packaging. These types regularly achieves top ranking as the world’s most of packaging pose a challenge for brick-and-mortar preferred airline, incorporates the Stefan Floridian retailers attempting to prevent incidents of theft. Waters scent in perfume worn by its fight atten- Green and frustration-free are two other aspects dants, on hot towels, and in numerous other to juggle in the development of future packaging elements of service. that can create positive brand associations. Besides food, fashion retailers, and the occasional Smell Smell is one of the most powerful senses. airline, scent has been underused as a branding 16 Linda Tischler, “Smells Like Brand Spirit,” Fast Company Memories, imagination, old sentiments, and symbol. Things are changing, however: Breathe (19 December 2007). associations are more readily reached through in Westin Hotels’ white tea signature fragrance or 17 Reena Amos Dyes, “Brands Target Sense of Smell,” the sense of smell than through any other channel. the mandarin orange and vanilla scent in the Sony Emirates Business 24/7 (20 June 2008). In humans there are four genes for vision, whereas Style stores. Furthermore, scent branding does not there are 1,000 allocated to scent, which means need to be limited to a retail, service, or product 18 See note 17. we have the ability to differentiate more than experience. Most corporations have office spaces

20 Essentials of branding and lobbies into which prospective clients walk, associations (United Airlines uses Gershwin’s KFC regards its signature aroma as a core and where events, meetings, and interviews are Rhapsody in Blue). These identifying sounds have brand equity. held. The effective use of a positive scent could been a prominent signal of brand experience since have a potentially dramatic impact on employees the invention of radio (such as the NBC chimes), but and customers alike. in today’s cluttered, multimedium, audiovisual, and online world, sonic branding has evolved into an Choosing the right scent for your brand should link increasingly serious business. back to the brand idea and personality attributes. Alex Moskvin, director of BrandEmotions at Originally used as a one-off piece of music for International Flavors & Fragrances, says he studies a British Airways ad, Leó Delibes’ “The Flower Duet” the DNA of the brand and its relationship to from the opera Lakmé became so connected to its consumers to ﬁgure out what resonates olfactorily. brand that when the airline dropped the music in In designing a hotel fragrance, for example, Moskvin 2000, it received such a volume of complaints that wants to know if the chain is trying to stand for it was reinstated. Today British Airways nurtures its family-friendly hostelry (think chocolate chip accidental sonic brand: even Dave Stewart from cookies) or a haute couture Zen-like retreat (think the Eurythmics has worked on one of the many sandalwood or hinoki). “We want to capture a smell British Airways–commissioned versions of the song. that makes people feel part of the club,” he says.19 However, trying to appropriate a famous song for your brand, rather than composing something Sound Sonic brand identity, like its visual counter- original, is costly and often unsuccessful. In France part, has many components. Sound can be used some years ago, a David Bowie song was used to as an identiﬁer of a brand, the equivalent of a sonic dramatize the Vittel brand. After a few months, logo (like the Intel chime, McDonald’s “I’m lovin’ it,” consumers remembered David Bowie but forgot Nokia’s ring tone, or Yahoo’s yodel), or on the device Vittel. In essence, Vittel was asking consumers to itself to accompany certain actions (such as the remember two brands, David Bowie and Vittel, but always-welcome sound of Microsoft Windows and the connection was strictly promotional and the Apple operating systems booting up). A longer piece stronger brand dominated recall. 19 See note 16. of music can also be used to create positive brand

Landor Associates 21 Consumers derive their perception of a brand from the sum of interactions they have with it.

Although it may take time to build recall, composing • Research should be designed to inform a sonic identity or longer piece of music based your decisions. Do not aim to pick winners and around a brand idea is a very efficient way to create losers from brand signal research. Use it instead differentiation and identifiable associations with to understand attributes people associate with your brand. Sounds are less likely to exacerbate the signals and assess how well they match what cultural differences than words and images, you intend to communicate in your brand idea particularly in a short sonic identity, and most and personality. Do not expect every signal to contain only a few notes that can become relevant communicate everything equally well. Understand across most of the world. strengths and weaknesses and make decisions with the whole picture in mind. Testing verbal and visual identities • Think laterally and metaphorically. Our brains are programmed this way. Use images, metaphors, Once you have established a direction for a brand’s and cross-category analogies to help consumers verbal, visual, and sensory identities, the next step help you. If you want to communicate a sense of is to test leading concepts on targeted consumers indulgence for a chocolate bar name, ask about to learn whether the brand signals effectively the name’s appropriateness in another indulgent communicate the intended idea and have the category, such as spas or retail stores specializing desired impact. Research can be used in two main in cashmere. ways to inform and optimize the design process: • Consumers are not namers or designers. insight and equity understanding before design Consumers live in the real world, not the concep- and postdesign validation. Preferably, both should tual world. Put the names and designs in as real be incorporated into a branding project because a context as possible. Let the designers do the you learn different things at each stage. designing and the consumers the reacting. • Familiarity is a powerful force. New designs Many different methodologies for testing brand are usually less fndable on a shelf than ones with signals are appropriate, depending on your goals, which people are already familiar. Because of this, the category, geography, and whether you are the strength of a new design must be evaluated on introducing a new brand or a rebrand. Here are more than just “shelf pop.” And new designs often some lessons and principles to remember when underperform current ones in research; consum- undertaking a design or naming a research project: ers often need time to adjust to new strategies and may not immediately like a new design. • People are skeptical about things that are • Place more importance on emotional rather different. Brand signals are designed to be than rational responses. Use the research to different. Skepticism is magnifed in a group help you understand them. Do not underestimate situation. Focus groups are therefore not the emotional identification that cannot be rationalized. right choice for design research. Be creative. Try harder to understand it. Talk to individuals; find them where they shop.

22 Essentials of branding Delivering the brand experience

It is important to stress that only in combination In a world that gets noisier and more complex Adopting a female-focused strategy, do brand signals make an impact on a customer’s by the day, a company can design a relevant and Preem’s petrol and convenience stores experience of a brand. And only when they are differentiated brand andstill not cut through the added more relevant merchandise and deployed boldly, with courage and single-minded- clutter to capture public imagination. If you can turned its toilet facilities into a genuine ness, will they create impact in the cluttered world add a single catalyst, or power application, to the point of differentiation, giving women of brands we live in. You might notice the logo of an mix and ignite consumer excitement, the entire something to tell their friends about. airline first, but it is your experience buying a ticket, brand will be elevated by it. Finding this powerful waiting in line, flying in the cabin, and interacting interaction with customers can significantly stretch with service people that will form your opinion of your marketing dollars and the impact of your brand. that airline brand. Red Bull may have a distinctive can, but its sponsorship and events probably imprint the idea of the Red Bull brand most firmly in our minds. Consumers derive their perception of a brand from the sum of interactions they have with it. And delivering the promise of that idea is the work of an entire organization, not just the marketing department.

Only through a deep understanding of its customers can airlines, soft drink companies, or ﬁnancial institutions deliver a brand promise that lives up to the brand idea. Occasionally, the brand idea will be so well understood that an organization can hit on something that has the power to generate viral communications and amplify the brand idea. For example, Virgin Atlantic’s head massage service got everyone talking about how amazing the Virgin experience was. In truth, it was one of the smallest parts of a holistic brand experience, but it generated buzz and marked the Virgin experience as remarkable.

Landor Associates 23 Managing a brand

Once the foundational signals are in place for a new This process is typically seen as a key part of or refreshed brand, the next step is to begin the brand management, which is generally interpreted process of codifying and communicating these to as the means of controlling your brand and keeping all the people who will use them. This very involved its expression consistent. It jars significantly with process takes a long time. You may read about a some of the other key aspects of branding: the firm undertaking a rebrand in July of one year, but two-way interactions with customers on their not actually see it until a year later. It is not usually journey, the continually evolving impressions of the production of the visual identity elements that a brand in people’s minds, and the use of social generally takes the most time (and money) but the media channels to develop a dialogue with implementation. This can include media testing, the customers rather than push out a stock message. creation of templates (for specific applications such as presentations, business cards, stationery suites, Brand management used to be about limiting brochures, internal websites, country-specifc external influences. Rigidity was the means to homepages), the design of packaging mechanicals consistency, and consistency emphasized scale (printer-ready fles created to printer’s specifca- and professionalism. But the Internet and the tions), and so on. Implementing a brand requires democratization of image creation have made developing a plan for every touchpoint on the everything public property. (Is there really such customer journey. It inevitably means creating a thing as internal and external communications guidelines: visual identity guidelines, verbal identity today?) Today we create brand ideas that transcend guidelines, digital guidelines, and print guidelines. the need to impose discipline by inviting partner- Often these are translated into other languages for ships with people, inside and outside an organization, online accessibility. who want to be part of the idea. Brands are no longer about one-way communication; they are An implementation process might involve updating about dialogue between the brand and its customers. training modules and brand resource centers. Indeed, brand implementation can often incorporate Some organizations develop help centers, particu- cocreation with the consumer; the MyStarbucksIdea larly in the months pre- and postlaunch, and create website and Dell’s IdeaStorm are examples of this. brand modules for new recruits to educate them on exactly what the brand stands for and how to Brand management today should be about use and “live” it. The implementation process also determining what cannot change and what must needs to factor in all the other communications change. Advertising agency DDB talks about the partners and their work (advertising, marketing, 70/30 rule: 70 percent consistency but 30 percent Facebook sites, screen savers, press releases, fexibility. The 30 percent portion relates to language leadership speeches, conferences, events, exhibi- and cultural differences, buying behavior nuances, tions, offices, chairs, pens). insights into the target market and its preferences

24 Essentials of branding for media consumption, and so on. For example, It can take more than a year for this understanding of the balance of consistency a well-managed brand like Citroën and ﬂexibility allows McDonald’s to offer a teriyaki to implement a refreshed brand across burger in Japan and porridge in the United Kingdom, all customer touchpoints. yet still deliver a consistent set of expectations for the familiar golden arches.20

Consider the role of the brand launch. Rather than seeing it as the way to push out tools and information, brand managers should make sure that it fully engages employees with the brand idea so that they are inspired to be part of delivering a customer experience that expresses the brand. Brand management in the future should not be about policing standards but rather about nurturing and developing the ongoing brand experience.

20 DDB, “Brand Consistency Redefned: Achieving Constancy of Purpose and the 70/30 Rule,” Ddb.com/ yellowpapers/2007/10 (accessed 12 May 2009).

Landor Associates 25 Measuring the performance of a brand

Tracking brand strength BAV posits a proven model on how brands are built that is based on the interrelationship of four brand Building a brand based on differentiation and dimensions, known as the four pillars: relevancy is not simply common sense; its success can be proven. In the mid-1980s it was recognized 1. Differentiation: What makes your brand that all brands, regardless of category, country, stand apart or target, seemed to live by certain rules. To 2. Relevance: How appropriate this difference understand those rules and describe the strongest is to the audience you want to reach brands, Landor Associates developed ImagePower®, 3. Esteem: How well regarded your brand is in the frst cross-category, multicountry study of the marketplace brands. In the early 1990s, the ImagePower study 4. Knowledge: How well consumers know and was expanded from a few key measures of brand understand your brand stature to the largest study of brands in the world, the BrandAsset® Valuator (BAV). This model shows how brands are built one pillar at a time, with differentiation being the frst, most BAV stands apart from other brand studies because critical step. A strong brand has high levels of it is predictive, highlighting leading indicators differentiation and relevance. The healthiest brands of brand strength. Moreover, it is an incredible have greater differentiation than relevance, which diagnostic tool, illustrating how a brand is gives them room to grow. When a brand has a higher performing against not only direct competitors degree of relevance to differentiation it is in danger but also against all other major brands in different of being seen as a commodity; Energizer, Bic, and categories. In this way it replicates a consumer’s Saran Wrap are examples of this. real experience of brands in the very cluttered brandscape. (You wake up to a Sony alarm clock, Esteem and knowledge, the other two pillars, make eat Kellogg’s cereal for breakfast, watch the CNN up a brand’s stature. A brand with a higher level of morning news, turn on your iPhone, and get in esteem than level of knowledge is a brand that has a Toyota car to drive to a Safeway supermarket a good reputation, although people may not know to use the HSBC ATM inside.) much about it. This puts a brand in a great position to convince consumers to get to know it better. To date, BAV has been felded in 48 countries, covers Brands such as Coach and Movado ﬁt this mold. some 30,000 brands, has conducted interviews with Too much knowledge and not enough esteem is more than 500,000 consumers, and includes dozens an uncomfortable place to be, however. of brand metrics and attitudinal questions. BAV is currently run by Young & Rubicam Brands, In the case of leadership brands, such as Disney, a consortium of companies that includes Landor. Coca-Cola, Sony, and IBM, all four pillars are strong. A successful new brand, or a successfully relaunched brand, will demonstrate a desirable

26 Essentials of branding Brand Strength as Measured by BAV in 2009 Disney  Ikea

Energized Relevance Esteem Knowledge Energized Relevance Esteem Knowledge Energized Relevance Esteem Knowledge differentiation differentiation differentiation Coke JetBlue Starbucks

Energized Relevance Esteem Knowledge Energized Relevance Esteem Knowledge Energized Relevance Esteem Knowledge differentiation differentiation differentiation step-down pattern of pillars, from differentiation as generally differ in two areas: their structural the highest to knowledge as the lowest, indicating approach to valuation and the degree of subjectivity that the brand has found a meaningful way to used in determining their primary inputs. On one differentiate itself in people’s minds. It is ready to hand, several models employ expert judgment to intensify its marketing efforts in order to expand assess structural factors such as the role of brand its knowledge base. JetBlue and Ikea were in this in driving business results, and the brand risk that situation early on and only grew stronger from there. is refected in the rate used to discount a business’ In the early 1990s Starbucks had this profile, moved branded cash fows to determine value. In many to a balanced pillar leadership profile, and now is people’s minds, this subjectivity casts doubt on beginning to show slight declines in differentiation. the reliability of the valuations such models produce. On the other hand, more rigorous approaches use Measuring brand value statistical models built on objective market data for brand strength and financial performance to assess There is a natural desire to understand how much the value contribution of a brand to a company’s a brand is worth — to have a tangible means to financial success. measure what is fundamentally an intangible asset. However, just as absolute control in brand manage- For example, significant progress has been made ment is not an achievable goal, neither is there with BAV, the research database that employs a widely accepted, definitive way to accord value a well-established approach to measuring brand to a brand in financial terms. strength. In one study, partnering with Stern Stewart, a financial consulting firm, BAV was used to show Nonetheless, several approaches and models have a correlation between brand differentiation and been developed to create estimates for brand value. operating margins. The study found that those firms The application of these numbers falls broadly into whose brand differentiation grew tended to have two categories: “brand rankings” published in the an operating margin of 10.5 percent, while those business press and “brand valuations” that provide that saw differentiation decline had an average more serious support for business decisions. operating margin of 7 percent.21 Longer term, BAV has been used to track how declines in differentia- The lack of consensus over valuation techniques tion often set a precedent for a long-term decline is most clearly seen in the widely divergent value in business performance. estimates for brands in published rankings and, for many people, calls into question the usefulness Another brand strength methodology, Millward of such estimates for more serious purposes. Brown Optimor’s BrandZ, is as expansive as BAV (more than 23,000 brands across 31 countries). However, there is good academic and practical BrandZ uses a pyramid model that plots increasing evidence that certain approaches provide more levels of rational and emotional engagement of 21 Jon Miller and David Muir, The Business of Brands robust results than others. Brand value models consumers over six levels. The top of the pyramid, (John Wiley & Sons, 2004).

Landor Associates 27 The 2009 Breakaway Brands®

brands 2005 2008 growth listed alphabetically percentile percentile in brand rank rank strength

Apple 83 96 45% Google 99 100 26% Häagen-Dazs 84 95 35% Hallmark 99 100 25% National Geographic TV 99 100 20% Payless ShoeSource 39 78 58% PayPal 75 92 40% Special K 60 87 48% Super Bowl 94 99 41% Trader Joe’s 93 98 29%

Methodology: Landor studied approxi- the level called bonding (where, on average, It also includes a range of inputs such as mately 2,500 brands in BrandAsset 8 percent of customers sit), contributes, along analysts’ projections, companies’ fnancial Valuator’s U.S. database, identifying with claimed purchasing data, to a Voltage score, reports, and Interbrand’s own qualitative and those brands that exhibited the greatest a one-number summary of the growth potential of quantitative analysis. increases in brand strength from a brand. Millward Brown Optimor has mapped this 2005–2008. score against market share and has proved that Millward Brown Optimor first launched its list of top brands with strong Voltage scores are more likely 100 global brands in 2005, establishing a methodol- to grow market share. Ogilvy and Mather and ogy based purely on market data that looks both at consultant A.T. Kearney have done further work financials (a brand’s reported earnings and assets) with these Voltage scores in the United States and and the results of surveys that assess consumers’ the United Kingdom, linking them not only to market perceptions of the brands versus their competition. share growth but also to proft, total shareholder returns, and levels of business risk.22 Another approach, used by U.K. consultancy Brand Finance, aims to forecast the top 500 global brands Three companies publish annual rankings of and focuses its reporting on a number that is said brand value. The longest-running global study is to signify future brand earnings. Interbrand’s Global Brand Scorecard, published annually in conjunction with BusinessWeek. It Unsurprisingly, there are differences in these assigns a brand value, measured in billions of rankings. In 2008, Interbrand identified Coca-Cola, U.S. dollars, to the world’s top 100 brands and IBM, Microsoft, GE, Nokia, Toyota, Intel, McDonald’s, plots this against past-year results to show the Disney, and Google in its top 10. Millward Brown year-on-year change in brand value. Arguably Optimor’s BrandZ included Google, GE, Microsoft, the best-known and most publicized approach, Coca-Cola, China Mobile, IBM, Apple, McDonald’s, the scorecard includes qualitative judgments Nokia, and Marlboro. Brand Finance selected 22 See note 21. to assign relative weight to contributing factors. Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Google, Walmart, IBM, GE,

28 Essentials of branding BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands 2010 brand brand value % brand value brand brand value % brand value brand brand value % brand value 2010 ($m) Change ’10 vs. ’09 2010 ($m) Change ’10 vs. ’09 2010 ($m) Change ’10 vs. ’09 1 Google 114,260 14% 35 Cisco 16,719 -7% 69 Telcel 10,850 N/A

2 IBM 86,383 30% 36 RBC 16,608 12% 70 O2 10,593 23% 3 Apple 83,153 32% 37 Bank of America 16,393 6% 71 TD 10,274 -7% 4 Microsoft 76,344 0% 38 Budweiser3 15,991 20% 72 MTS 9,723 6% 5 Coca-Cola1 67,983 1% 39 Exxon Mobil 15,476 N/A 73 Petrobras 9,675 N/A 6 McDonald’s 66,005 -1% 40 Shell 15,112 N/A 74 FedEx 9,418 -1% 7 Marlboro 57,047 15% 41 Disney 15,000 -35% 75 Baidu 9,356 62% 8 China Mobile 52,616 -14% 42 Carrefour 14,980 0% 76 eBay 9,328 -28% 9 GE 45,054 -25% 43 Nokia 14,866 -58% 77 Siemens 9,293 -31% 10 Vodafone 44,404 -17% 44 Accenture 14,734 -2% 78 Goldman Sachs 9,283 25% 11 ICBC 43,927 15% 45 ICICI Bank 14,454 N/A 79 Wrigley’s 9,201 -15% 12 HP 39,717 48% 46 Honda 14,303 -2% 80 Zara 8,986 4% 13 Walmart 39,421 -4% 47 Colgate 14,224 15% 81 The Home Depot 8,971 -3% 14 BlackBerry 30,708 12% 48 Intel 14,210 -38% 82 Red Bull5 8,917 9% 15 Amazon.com 27,459 29% 49 L’Oréal 14,129 -6% 83 ALDI 8,747 1% 16 UPS 26,492 -5% 50 Orange 14,018 6% 84 Nissan 8,607 -16% 17 Tesco 25,741 12% 51 PetroChina 13,935 N/A 85 Starbucks6 8,490 17% 18 Visa 24,883 52% 52 American Express 13,912 -7% 86 Hermès 8,457 8% 19 Oracle 24,817 16% 53 Mercedes-Benz 13,736 -11% 87 Barclays 8,383 20% 20 Verizon 24,675 39% 54 Citi 13,403 -8% 88 US Bank 8,377 N/A 21 SAP 24,291 3% 55 T-Mobile 13,010 20% 89 Standard Chartered 8,327 1% 22 AT&T 23,714 18% 56 BBVA 12,977 3% 90 China Mercantile Bank 8,236 2% 23 HSBC 23,408 23% 57 NTT DoCoMo 12,969 -18% 91 State Farm Insurance 8,214 19% 24 Bank of China 21,960 4% 58 Pepsi4 12,752 -15% 92 Beeline 8,160 -8% 25 BMW 21,816 -9% 59 Nike 12,597 5% 93 J.P. Morgan 8,159 4% 26 Toyota 21,769 -27% 60 Movistar 12,434 14% 94 Sony7 8,147 30% 27 China Construction Bank 20,929 -8% 61 Chase 12,426 17% 95 Morgan Stanley 8,003 18% 28 Gillette 20,663 -10% 62 Target 12,148 -1% 96 Auchan 7,848 N/A 29 Louis Vuitton 19,781 2% 63 H&M 12,131 1% 97 Gucci 7,588 2% 30 Wells Fargo 18,746 16% 64 Subway 12,032 9% 98 Bradesco 7,450 13% 31 Santander 18,012 12% 65 Porsche 12,021 -31% 99 Avon 7,293 -16% 32 Nintendo2 17,834 -2% 66 Dell 11,938 -23% 100 TIM 7,280 14% 33 Pampers 17,434 -8% 67 MasterCard 11,659 57% 34 BP 17,283 N/A 68 Samsung 11,351 80% 5 The Brand Value of Red Bull includes sugar-free and Cola 6 The Brand Value of Starbucks includes stores as well as coffee 1 The Brand Value of Coca-Cola includes Lites, Diets and Zero 3 The Brand Value of Budweiser includes Bud Light sold at the supermarket 2 The Brand Value of Nintendo includes Wii and Nintendo DS 4 The Brand Value of Pepsi includes Lites, Diets and Zero 7 Brand Value includes PlayStation 2 and 3, as well as PSP

HSBC, HP, Nokia, and Citi. More significant, as Although measuring the ultimate worth of a brand is well as differing top 10 lists, the single-number still evolving as a discipline, what is firmly accepted evaluations of brand worth also diverge considerably. is the importance of brands to business perfor- For example, in the 2008 studies, Millward Brown mance the world over. Creating a strong brand is Optimor suggested that the Google brand is worth an even more complicated task than valuing one, more than three times what Interbrand reported and it is never actually complete. The stronger the ($86.1 billion versus $25.6 billion). foundation, however, the more chance there is that all the “scraps and straws” that consumers pick up Clearly, brand valuation scores are not as definitive along the way will accumulate into strong preference as other measures of fnancial performance, but and long-term affinity for a brand. ■ the better models going forward will be those that take into account objective measures of brand strength based on consumer perception. After all, if we go back to what a brand is, and if we believe it is ultimately held in the minds of consumers, brand valuation models that do not factor consumer perceptions into their results may be seriously flawed.

Brand value is perhaps still best understood in hindsight, by looking at the price that companies are prepared to pay for brands. P&G bought Gillette in 2005 for $57 billion, and the value that P&G put on the Gillette brand was 17 percent higher than its stock market value.

Landor Associates 29 Landor Associates created many of the brands and designs pictured in this article.

PGA identity, p. 3 Gatorade packaging, p. 6 Xbox packaging, p. 7 Downy packaging, p. 9 Crest Glide packaging, p. 9 Puffs packaging, p. 9 Fairy packaging, p. 9 Daz packaging, p. 9 NyQuil packaging, p. 9 Always packaging, p. 9 P&G identity, p. 9 Alldays packaging, p. 9 Tide packaging, p. 9 Ariel packaging, p. 9 Febreze packaging, p. 9 Blend-a-med packaging, p. 9 Secret packaging, p. 9 Ernst & Young identity, p. 11 Good Co. Coffee identity and packaging, p. 15 FedEx identity, p. 16 Worldeka identity, p. 17 Crest Vivid White packaging, p. 18 Ariel packaging, p. 19 KFC identity and packaging, p. 21 Preem identity and environments, p. 23 Citroën identity and environments, p. 25

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