Some Great Brand Reports

As I am away on vacation this week, with no access to the internet, I wanted to make sure I had a post scheduled to keep the branding juices flowing!

Here are a some branding reports I've enjoyed reading over the last few months, and recommend you read if you have some free time:

First is Saffron's European City Brand Barometer report by Jeremy Hildreth. I really enjoyed reading this report for its discussion on the cities' brand strength paired with how well it is leveraging it's brand assets. Location branding is something that interests me, as it proves that branding & brand strategy are not just for organizations!

Second, I came across a great branding presentation on SlideShare by Idea Couture Inc. I like this presentation as it has a plethora of great quotes, definitions and images that describe/define branding. It's a great source for inspiration.

FEED, by Razorfish, is another report I enjoyed reading recently. I liked how it spoke about how a digital experience can impact a brand! Digital is definitely changing the way brands engage with consumers, as well as how they engage with brands and each other!

And, of course, if you haven't read it yet, I would recommend you read Interbrand's 2009 Best Global Brands report. It's a great report to learns what's going on in the world of branding, how brands are gaining brand value or losing it! In fact, if you go to Interbrand.com you are bound to find plenty of insightful reports on branding!

Products Help Build Brands

A little while ago, I read a great article by Frank Striefler, a principal at Wolff Olins, called 5 Marketing Principles Brands Should Embrace in 2010. And his first principle, Create Better Realities, got me thinking about BrandTags.net.

Striefler noted that to create better realities we need to innovate products to help create real value rather than add to perceived value as products are the most powerful brand-building tool. By innovating products with our brand purpose in mind, we act according to our capabilities, as Striefler mentioned in his 3rd principle, and we either meet or exceed consumer expectations influencing how our brand is perceived in the marketplace!

After reading this, I thought the BrandTags site is a great example of how products shape your external brand perceptions. BrandTags has been able to create comprehensive brand association tag clouds for hundreds of brands by collecting 1.7 million tags and counting!

These brand associations offer us a glimpse of what the market perceptions are for certain brands. All brands, whether consciously influenced by brand strategies or not, have market perceptions tied to them, even if it's a big question mark!

What I've always found interesting about these clouds is that people often associate the brand with the product & founder/leader most prominently, followed by emotional associations. If a brand has done it's job right, these tags will align with the organization's brand purpose (and if you're really good - the organization's internal perceptions will align with the brand purpose as well - but that can't be determined by BrandTags ... yet).

The way I see it, is that the organization's products prove what business the brand is in and how it's trying to accomplish its purpose. A great example is Google, who seems to be a non-stop force of innovation. Currently, they are planning to develop a super-fast broadband connection - 200 times faster that the fastest broadband connection in the US today. This innovation supports and creates further reasons to believe in its brand purpose - to make the world's information universally accessible and useable!

Once consumers engage with an organization's product or service, they begin to form emotional associations with the brand based on if & how their expectations were met (expectations are often created by advertising, messaging and PR). One of my favorite lines in the film Art & Copy was from George Lois, who said something along the lines of, I'm so good at selling products that if your product is crap, I'm going to put you out of business, because no one will buy from you again. Meaning that if your products don't live up to thier promise, you're in trouble!

You can begin to see this with BrandTags. Cirque Du Soleil, whom I've written about before, has incredibly high emotional brand associations, with tags like: amazing, awesome, exciting, weird, unique, etc. This tells me that Cirque Du Soleil delivers on its brand purpose with every experience it creates fostering strongly aligned brand associations. Therefore, brand associations are created through engagement with the organization's products/services - in this case it is performances!

Apple is very similar. First they are strongly aligned with Steven Jobs, the mac, iPhone, iPod and Love, which makes sense knowing the high level of brand affinity felt for Apple. But following the tags based on products and its founder, are the emotions that come from owning or experiencing an Apple product: amazing, awesome, best, clean, cool, creative, design, expensive, hip, innovative, quality, simple, sleek & trendy! I'm sure these were words that even popped into your mind when I first mentioned Apple. This is because Apple consciously innovates products & experiences that only refuel these perfectly aligned perceptions.

But now, lets look at a brand that has done a pitiful job of meeting expectations - GM. A company that has poured billions of dollars into advertising its brands, only to see a resulting brand value of nothing! Clearly their product experiences were not living up to their messaging/promises!

GM's tag cloud is interesting: First some of the largest tags featured were where GM is from (America, Detroit). Then the other most prominent tags were of negative emotions towards the brand (bad, bankrupt, big boring, cheap, crap, dead, dinosaur, junk, old). This clearly indicates that customers were deeply unsatisfied with GM products and they were not innovating to remain relevant to consumers! Lastly, I found the products lists particularly interesting. Unlike Apple, where people thought of their products' brand names as associations, GM had generic labels for its products, such as trucks, cars, motors, with the exception of Chevy. Proving that customers had no meaningful connection with its plethora of products!

So, yes products are the most powerful brand-building tools, as they prove out your brand purpose, and we can look to BrandTags to see if these products are meeting expectations and truly building a strong brand!

Beyond the Logo

Time for a little self-promotion...

Today, I was featured in the Real Style column of the Calgary Herald. I was honored to be profiled by one of Calgary's most stylish men, Lincoln Phillip.

I was pleased with how he captured my passion for branding and some of my breif opinions on fashion & branding.

For fun, I've posted the article with the text typed below:

For marketer and blogger Nicole Armstrong, branding is more than just a logo: it's a person's reputation - meaning that you'd better act on who you say you are.

Armstrong is particularly well versed in helping companies find the purpose of their business and driving the brand toward its goal.

"I like to help companies make meaning and live it every day," says the marketing whiz kid.

Armstrong works as an associate planner in insight & planning for marketing agency Critical Mass.

"Our group helps the company understand the consumer and the brand, which aids in developing consumer-centric experiences," she says, adding that most companies' actions speak louder that their messaging and advertising.

After work, Armstrong continues her passion on her personal blog, morethanalogo.blogspot.com. And this marketing-savvy diva also fuels her passion for fashion at cardisbowspearls.blogspot.com, which she created with friends for real girls with real budgets who love fashion.

Style Type:

A boyish femininity without being androgynous. "I like clean lines and classic looks with a little contradiction. If I'm doing something feminine, I like to pair it with something masculine."

Branding and Fashion:

"Valentino is interesting, becuase he was his brand. He loved beauty and avoided devaluing his brand by not mass-marketing her product. Louis Vuitton is also doing a good job by refocusing on the luxury of travel, which you can see in their campaigns. Fashion is interesting, because so much of it is brand and always evolving."

Style Sparks:

Armstrong says her knack for style comes from her parents, both former models. Her mom is also a fashion designer. "My outfits were always co-ordinated and she taught me the right style elements when I was growing up."

Steal of a Deal:

Costume jewelry from Forever 21. "Fun necklaces can stretch your wardrobe by giving your existing pieces a new look and feel."

Never Again:

Impulse buys and fashion love affairs are the bane of Armstrong's style existence. "I recently cleared out my and realized that the clothing I fell in love with or bought without thinking doesn't look good on my body and goes with nothing in my wardrobe."

Budget-Boosting Tip:

The clothing that Armstrong purged from her closet will be "up for adoption" for her co-workers. "I think it's a fun way to pass on the clothing that you loved and hardly worn."

Desired Item:

A red Hermes Birkin bag is her career achievement purchase.

Guilty Pleasure:

Handbags. Last year was Armstrong's biggest hangbag handbag spree, on which she confesses to purchasing three designer bags. "It's expensive and doesn't happen too often!"

Signature Accessory:

A handbag and something in red. "I was once told that red is good luck."

Style Influences:

Fashion blog sites like The Sartorialist, Sea of Shoes and What I Wore. "Prior to blogs I used to buy Vogue and have every issue since November 1999, but I've cut back on that now."

Style Icon:

Armstrong does not have a true icon, but appreciates Coco Chanel's outlook on fashion and making it simple, classic and attainable. "I think she is the inventor of how...I described my style as boyish femininity."

Signature Fragrance:

Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel

Favorite Shops:

American Apparel, Club Monaco, Gravity Pope, Purr, ModCloth.com and Anthropologie.com.

Make it Go Away:

Low-rise jeans.

Bring it Back:

The confidence to be feminine. "To show that we can wear bows and...and still be a strong woman."

Favoite Labels:

Club Monaco, Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton handbags.

Fashion Statement:

Armstrong always feels the need to add something quirky, like a toy Stegosaurus necklace.

Look for Spring:

Armstrong plans to wear neutrals and pretty palettes for the warm weather.

Style Cop:

Wearing tights as pants.

Vision Dissemination

I’m a fan of David Armano’s infographics, as they do a great job of visually explaining complex concepts. You can find these images here, or on David’s blog, Logic + Emotion.

This week, I found a couple of Armano’s infographics on Flickr that I felt communicated the essence of branding.

I particularly enjoy the above image because it illustrates how an organization’s vision is spread throughout the company, and how the products & services then reflect and influence the vision.

Often, I refer to the vision as the brand purpose, which is the reason the organization is in business. For a brand to be successful, this purpose must be more than aiming for high earnings. Rather, it’s an altruistic goal, which in turn motivates the organization and focuses its direction, values & culture. This then translates into consistent brand actions, which stimulates consumer trust (i.e. they know what to expect from the brand) creating loyalty and sustained demand! Therefore, earnings are an outcome of the brand purpose - not the primary focus of it.

When I saw this image, I thought it perfectly reflected my thinking on how the brand purpose works within an organization.

The purpose starts at the top, which influences the organization’s values (aka beliefs). These values are instilled within each and every member of the organization, creating a purpose infused culture. This ensures the actions taken by employees, whether through customer interactions or product innovation, brings the brand purpose to life. After all, the purpose is just words until acted upon.

The relationship between the vision and the products & services is cyclical. The vision focuses the direction of innovation for products & services ensuring they help accomplish the organization’s purpose. In addition, the products & services not only influence the market’s perceptions of the brand, but they also influence the organization’s perceptions of its purpose. Therefore, it’s essential to maintain a focused vision to create consistent brand perceptions!

An organization that does this extremely well is USAA.

USAA is a bank, investment & insurance company whose purpose is to serve those who have honorably served in the US military. They are a client of Critical Mass’, and we have the privilege to see how devoted they are to their purpose. They are truly dedicated to serving their members, and this is seen through their award-winning customer service.

But I recently came across this YouTube video, featuring three USAA employees who created a rap about their company’s mission for a recent Employee Meeting. If this doesn’t prove the astounding ability of USAA to disseminate their purpose throughout the organization and have it ingrained into the culture, I don’t know what would!

Enjoy!