Demand a great brand!

I have been editing the second edition of the seminal book on strategy for strategy professionals, Strategy in the 21st Century, written by my friend and professional colleague Randy Rollinson. It references developing a clear brand as a key driver of strategic success.

Amen! That echoes what I know: Success demands great strategy and a great brand.

Strategy is about doing big things to drive positive change, to push you and your organization to your envisioned future of great success.

Branding, using HubSpot’s definition, is developing the “identity and story of a company that makes it stand out from competitors that sell similar products and services.”

How do strategy and branding intersect and why is this important? Well, as a strategist I know that without a strong brand, marketing and business development efforts will be less effective and competitors will gain market share at your expense. And with paltry sales results, great success will not ensue. The vision will not be reached.

Five strong brands

The following brand descriptions show how strong brands intertwine with company strategy and drive success.

Airbnb. Airbnb’s brand values are expressed in its taglines: “Experiential travel at an affordable cost” and “Don’t Go There. Live There.” The essence of Airbnb’s brand, which aims at millennials who travel, is to provide a human experience with personalized touches, to connect travelers with the community they visit and people of different cultures around the world.

Apple. Apple’s brand celebrates the differentiation of its technology ecosystem and its iconic products and services. Its products are designed, branded, and promoted to boost one another. For example, using the Apple Watch helps justify having an iPhone. Apple Stores further extend the brand through their unique layout and the universal customer experiences they provide. Apple’s brand targets a narrow avatar, but its allure attracts a much broader range of customers.

Deloitte. Deloitte is the 10th-most valuable business-to-business brand in the world, valued at $34.5 billion, and is one of only two B2B brands to earn a AAA+ rating from Brand Finance. According to Amy Fuller, Senior Managing Director, Global Brand, its recent rebranding program aimed to “create a single brand architecture and identity system so that regardless of where a client is geographically, or what business they interact with, or what device they use to reach member firm professionals, they have a consistent and meaningful Deloitte experience. All the core elements that comprise Deloitte’s visual identity—color, fonts, imagery, and the applications in which they reside—have evolved. We’ve built our new identity elements to provide a consistent brand experience whether it is in print, digital, or on a mobile device… Deloitte’s new brand identity goes beyond its visual elements. It also guides the tone of all our communication, including the written and spoken word, and provides us with the ability to authentically express our personality—confident, clear, and human.”

Microsoft. Microsoft has built a strong brand with a recognizable logo and tagline. The company's brand is associated with innovation, reliability, and high-quality products. Microsoft’s brand focuses on a mindset as opposed to a demographic. The people the company serves are people of action compelled to set ideas in motion: They use technology anywhere and everywhere. Microsoft’s brand promise is to empower people to achieve more – from the exceptional to the everyday, from bold goals to the ongoing journey. Unlike Apple, which targets a narrow avatar, Microsoft is branded as available and usable for everyone rather than for a specific group. The Microsoft brand can pivot to new markets. It connects and stretches across a broad portfolio of products and services.

Nike. Nike’s brand is expressed through its Swoosh logo and “Just Do It.” tagline. The company has prospered by attaching unique ideas and images to its brand, for example, by using a silhouette of NBA star Michael Jordan. Nike’s branding has elevated its products to mean something more. Nike’s “Just Do It” tagline stems from Nike’s shoe positioning statement: For serious athletes, Nike gives confidence that provides the perfect shoe for every sport. Individuals can interpret the tag line in whatever way they like, and for whatever hurdles they face.

Success Branding

Across my career I have been privileged to combine my marketing expertise (MBA in marketing management, Marketing Director and VP of Marketing and Research roles) with my strategy expertise. In past decades I have been involved with some significant corporate rebranding efforts (e.g., Continental Bank, United Way of America) involving top branding firms and I have led branding and rebranding initiatives for a number of companies and other organizations.

This led me to develop a branding process - “Success Branding” - for small and medium-sized organizations. It is based on best practices but streamlined and simplified to reduce time and expense. I have helped scores of clients develop and improve their brands using the Success Branding process.

What does Success Branding look like? At the highest level of the process, we:

• Develop the Value Proposition, which is the value you promise to deliver and what the customer expects to experience
• Define the Positioning, which is how target customers/clients perceive you relative to how they perceive competitors in your category
• Create the Brand, which is the personality that identifies your service/product/organization (name, term, sign, symbol, design, slogan, key phrases, etc.), how it relates to key constituencies, and differentiates you from competitors.

With a strong brand in hand, then the task of marketing and sales is to integrate the brand into all communications and activities so that at every brand “touch point” the customer or potential customer experiences the organization and its product/services in the way that best expresses the value it delivers.

Is your brand great?

If not, you are leaving success on the table. Why not rebrand for greater success?