Does Your Company Brand Need a Tune-Up? © Lida Citroën, November 4, 2009

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Signs Your Brand Needs a Tune-up

As we move into the New Year, many of you are wondering if you’ll be competitive, relevant and sustainable in 2010. Many of you are asking: How do I know if it’s time to revisit my company’s brand?

Successful businesses consider the importance of brand – the reputation, values and emotional connection your business is making with clients, partners, staff and the market – in creating sustainable and integrated marketing programs and business ventures. They recognize the need to clearly understand and articulate what you stand for, who should care and where they are. Successful businesses are conducting brand introspection often and intensely. They are ensuring consistency across all communications and touch points to reinforce their promise to clients.

Here are a few signs to look for in assessing the impact, relevancy and effectiveness of your brand in meeting your business goals:

1. Your staff doesn’t know why they work there. If your front line staff and boardroom leaders can’t adequately articulate the reason the company exists, the vision with which it was created, or the desired reputation of the company in the marketplace, how can you expect them to perform up to your brand standards? From the customer service employee, to the corporate spokesperson, to the CEO, everyone must be on board with key messaging, values and vision in order for a brand to be authentic and thrive.
2. Google has never heard of you. If I’m a prospective client, vendor, employee or strategic partner and I can’t find anything on your company online, do you exist? Having a presence through social media marketing not only gives you credibility in the minds of those searching for you, but it provides opportunities to humanize your brand beyond the company website.
3. Sales and Marketing aren’t talking to each other. When Sales and Marketing are not playing nice, brands can’t thrive. Marketing needs to effectively promote core values and offers, as well as highlight the vision of the company in tangible ways for sales to act upon. When the two groups aren’t in sync, we often see sales bring in deals that cannot be fulfilled, marketing efforts that falls on deaf ears and business processes that fall apart on the balance sheet.
4. Every department uses a different version of the logo. With the advent of desktop publishing, we all became instant graphic artists! This is a real problem for brand consistency (never mind the headache trademark attorneys feel!) A strong brand is consistent, recognizable and has value because what stands behind the logo is more important than the font and color. The logo builds visibility and must remain in tact with design guidelines to be effective and memorable.
5. You’re hitting the road. A location change requires reprinting and updating all marketing collateral. What a great time to assess marketing and branding! Why not examine whether the current brand marketing materials are still relevant and compelling to your target audience? A move could be a great time to revisit your branding and freshen messaging and graphics.
6. No new clients lined up outside the door. This is typically when businesses go into reactive-mode and quickly begin changing up marketing to try to grab audience attention and market share. A word to the wise: While it might be an indicator that your brand is in need of a tune up, tread carefully. Instead of re-doing the logo or adding a snazzy banner to the website, look at the company’s values – are you in alignment with the expectation of the experience your brand is setting for clients and potential clients? Are you living the values you set forth? Have your target clients changed? Are there opportunities to engage your clients in new ways that you’ve not pursued? Those questions (and many others) can reveal brand problems and business issues. Branding is sustainable and effective if done properly. A solid brand will provide a filter through which critical decisions can be made, such as: hiring, firing, strategic alliances, marketing opportunities, promotions and more.

Investing in quality brand development motivates staff and aligns them around a set of principals they can live with and promote, or not (and they move on). A solid, relevant and authentic brand makes it easy to answer the question, “What do you do here?” -- from both a client and a staff perspective.

If we can be of assistance to your business as you navigate the brand development process, please contact us at 720.840.3388 or info@LIDA360.com