Who's my competition today?

Note: Image created by Casey Sherstobitoff at Critical Mass

Who would have thought that supermarkets would be competing with banks for financial services, or a computer company would surpass music distributors in sales, or an online video chat organization would encroach on telecommunication companies' turf; and, now we see a computer company, Apple, competing with a search engine organization, Google!

There's the iPhone vs. the Android, iTunes vs. the Android Marketplace and, now, Apple TV vs. Google TV!

Who would have thought these two seemingly different organizations would be producing products and services that place them in the same categories!

However, if you look at the way these two organizations approach each of these similar offerings, you can see they remain focused on delivering their brand promise, further emphasizing their purpose!

For instance, you can see that Google's services are focused on making it easier for people to access and use information with their emphasis on open source Android software. And with Apple, you see their desire to maintain their brand experience (one of the key elements that has led to Apple's 1000% + increase in share price since Steve Jobs return in the 90's) with the app store, where apps have to be approved by Apple before launching.

As we begin to see the blurring & fusing together of marketplaces, due to new entrants, which begin to redefine & change the rules of the game for a particular category, along with the convergence of technology bringing together previously disparate products/services into one (i.e. computing and telecommunications via smartphones), we see the growing importance of defining the brand position beyond your existing products/services & category competitors.

Therefore, it is becoming crucial for brands to take on a position based on their brand purpose (an altruistic, long term direction for the organization) enabling them to take on a leadership role and competitive advantage around their values and/or experience.

This is essential as the brand is a source of value for the organization (i.e. if a person likes/appreciates a brand they don't question its price, which equals higher margins leading to increased revenues). And to stimulate perceived value for a brand, it must position itself in a unique fashion to capture the minds & emotions of its consumers, yet, not limit itself as the markets morph & merge over time.

The brand's purpose must allow for flexibility so it can create new products/services in new, existing or changing marketplaces without jeopardizing what they stand for & what they're trying to contribute to society through their brand purpose!

So, even though Apple & Google may be in new territory, competing with each other, by leveraging their brand purposes in new ways, they are not jeopardizing their positioning by being bogged down with defensive thought on how to beat the other in the short-term.

I feel there is a great quote by Mark Wahlberg's character, in the movie The Italian Job, which exemplifies this:

"That's why you're always second - you think defensively - there's no room for imagination"

So rather than thinking defensively, sacrificing market leadership, Apple & Google are embracing their imagination and finding new & exciting ways to deliver on their brand purposes, which will gain them new customers who share their values for the cool aesthetics or open source development, etc.

So, know that your market, and therefore competitors, is always changing. And rather than defining the brand against these short-term measures, focus the brand on its purpose & how it can continue to deliver on it, considering the inevitable changes, to maintain its positioning & value in the eyes of the consumer.

BP's Brand: Dirty as the Gulf

Note: Image from Fast Company - this image is of a flag activists placed outside of BP's London headquarters.

Yesterday, I read the Fast Company article about the new logos Greenpeace followers have created to provide a more accurate visual representation of the brand, considering how out of place the green and yellow sunburst seems when, as the article puts it, "the defining image of the company is a dark blob spreading across the Gulf".

This article made me immediately think - actions speak louder than words!

On BP's site, they define themselves as:

"Helping the world meet its growing need for heat, light and mobility. And we strive to do that by producing energy that is affordable, secure & doesn't damage the environment"

Unfortunately, the actions associated with BP (i.e. giant plums of oil as big as 10 miles, long 3 miles wide and 300 feet deep, including oiled smeared beaches and pelicans dyed with crude) have gone completely against the image Beyond Petroleum was trying to create for themselves, impacting consumer perceptions leading to new visual cues - like an oil stained logo.
What's more, is this is all consumer generated content. There has even been a fake BP twitter page created: @BPGlobalPR:

This page was created less than a week ago, and it already has almost 40,000 followers, nearly 8 times as many followers as BP's official twitter page. This site is making a farce of the BP brand with tweets like:

"It's official, the phrase 'All the tea in china' has been replaced with 'All the oil in the gulf" - Can't wait for the royalties!#bpcares"

and

"Negative people view the ocean as half empty of oil. We are dedicated to making it half full"

The consumers are beginning to reshape the BP brand - in fact they are making the BP brand as dirty as BP has made the Gulf!

It's like I alluded to in my Semantic Web post - consumers are in control of defining the brand within the marketplace, based on that brand's actions. And here we are seeing this happen to BP - going as far as consumers rebranding the organization with new logos!

55 Posts & 1 Year Later!

Note: Image from flickr

Well, here we are! 55 posts and 1 year later! More Than A Logo has been quite an amazing and rewarding endeavor!

Last year, at the beginning of May, I was asked to create a presentation for a group of senior executives for one of our (Critical Mass') clients on how to create brands people care about utilizing the digital environment.

I was honored by the request, as I was the most junior person on the team being asked to join a group of very smart and senior presenters. But they were able to see my passion and knowledge for the topic (come to think of it, I'm sure my passion was like a flashing neon sign that was hard to miss), and they were convinced I would be able to inspire and evoke thought from our clients around leveraging their brand digitally! So, I took on the challenge and proved them right!

During this process, I realized I had a lot to say about branding. At which point, my former colleague, Scott Weisbrod, suggested I start a blog. I was hesitant about the idea, at first, because I thought, "Hmmm...I know I have stuff to say, but do I have that much stuff??" As it turns out, I'm continuously inspired to write about brands & branding, and I can't thank Scott enough for the idea!

This has been an amazing outlet to share my passion with others stimulating exciting dialogues on and off the blog, inspiring people with their personal brands, contributing to other blogs, and even helping a member of a non-governmental organization in Romania with a presentation on branding!

This has been quite a journey, and I don't wish it to stop any time soon!

So, thank you very much for reading More Than A Logo, which encourages and challenges me to think about my favorite topic everyday in new and ever evolving ways. Please keep up the comments, tweets and emails as I greatly enjoy hearing from and being inspired by you, my readers and fellow bloggers!

Let's keep helping organizations make meaning, through brand purpose, and live it everyday by creating reasons to believe!

Leveraging Purpose to Improve Lives

People often ask me why I love branding so much, and my response is that I believe branding enables organizations to deliver on its promise & motivate the people in and around the organization to do something meaningful!

When I hear of figures like only 13% of the US population trusts organizations & 95% of employees don't know their company's goals and/or vision, it tells me that not enough organizations are focused on their brand. Because if they were focused on their brand, organizations would not be cutting corners for short-term gains sacrificing its long-term brand affinity & trust. And the employees of brand-centric organizations know their company's goals and are motivated to deliver on its promise daily.

But, what I love most about branding is that it all starts with a meaningful purpose! And when brands have a strong purpose the options are limitless on how you can deliver on it, often going beyond the brand's products and services and becoming something that adds value to people's lives!

Jamie Oliver, and his personal brand, are doing just that!

I saw Jamie's TED talk on teaching every child about food and seeing the passion he has for his purpose, I just had to write a post on him!

Jamie Oliver's brand purpose has always been to make "simple, unpretentious food that invites everyone to get busy in the kitchen". He has been delivering on this purpose for years through his books, TV shows, cookware and overall enthusiasm & passion for cooking.

Now he has taken his brand purpose to the next level & created a movement to use cooking to improve people's lives. Including Jamie's social enterprise restaurant, Fifteen, which I had the pleasure to experience while I was in London.

Fifiteen was established "to inspire young people – homeless, unemployed, overcoming drug or alcohol problems - to believe that they can create for themselves great careers in the restaurant industry". And it has seen so much success that it's going global by opening more Fifteen restaurants in places like Amsterdam, Cornwall & Melbourne.

Note: Me sitting in Fifteen waiting for it to officially open - so nice they let me wait while they had a team dinner - great experience!!

Jamie's purpose has also translated into his undying passion "to help create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity." This mission has translated into $1 Billion for improved school lunches in the UK, the 2010 TED prize for vision to change the way we eat, he was ranked #3 on the PSFK Good Brands Report after Google and Apple - not bad for the 1st time being on the list, and now he takes on the USA with his Food Revolution featured on prime time television!

The knowledge Jamie shares & the communities he has fostered, in an effort to pursue his passion, has given consumers many reasons to believe in his purpose and select his brand over other celebrity chefs. Jamie stands for something more than tasty recipes - he represents a relevant movement that people can incorporate into their everyday lives.

Buying in or subscribing to the Jamie Oliver brand gives customers a story to share with friends and family - aka bragging rights on how they, too, are contributing to something meaningful.

So, Jamie Oliver is an excellent example of how a brand, with a strong purpose, isn't limited to its products and/or services, rather it can leverage itself to do more and improve the people's lives with the added benefit of creating positive long-term value for the brand.

Branding Starts with a Purpose

Note: Image of me in London on Millennium Bridge with St. Paul's Cathedral in the background

In true Canadian fashion, I would like to apologize for absence! I was in London for the past 2 weeks, and I thought I would have time to write a few posts, but I was surprisingly busy! I'm back now, and blogging shall return to normal!

It was a great trip, and as an aside, I saw Jamie Oliver outside his restaurant 15, which I found ironic because I'm in the midst of putting together a blog post on him! And I had just read that PSFK ranked him 3rd after Google (#1) and Apple (#2) in its Good Brands Report! 15 was amazing by the way - fabulous food. So stay tuned for a post on him in the next week or so!

Also, a few months ago, Steve Zelle asked me to contribute an article for Processed Identity, which went live on the Tuesday I was away! So far it has been well received and even re-tweeted by Smashing Magazine! So, I would love to share the article with you here (it can also be found on Processed Identity here):

Branding Starts with a Purpose Informing its Logo:

Hello, my name is Nicole and I’ve dedicated my career to helping organizations make meaning and live it everyday. Officially, I’m a planner for Critical Mass, a digital marketing agency, where we bring our clients’ brands to life through digital initiatives.

I was thrilled when Steve asked me to write something for Processed Identity, as I strongly believe in its purpose: To highlight the benefit of a structured creative process over stock solutions when developing brand identities. After all, a brand’s logo/identity is the visual representation of who you are as an organization!

A logo becomes the visual cue for an organization, and this will remain a part of your organization throughout the course of its history. Yes, it may be spruced up over the years to remain stylistically relevant — case in point UPS and AT&T:

Note: UPS logo, left to right: Paul Rand, FutureBrand and AT&T logo, left to right: Saul Bass, Interbrand

But, your logo is not something you change over night. If it does change, there needs to be some pretty strong rationale behind it — like the organization is repositioning itself in the marketplace and is launching new innovations to back up the change.

So, my point is, a logo is something that should be well thought through and reflective of your organization’s brand essence.

Here are some of my thoughts around branding and how the logo fits in:

I’m continually amazed by how many people and/or organizations refer to their brand as a logo, when this is not the case! As I mentioned above, a logo is the visual representation of a brand.

In essence, a brand is the reputation of an organization/product/etc. It’s the emotions we feel towards the organization based on what we’ve heard about it, what we have experienced while engaging with it, and so on. A brand is our gut feeling about the organization, and the logo is our reference point for that feeling. I’m sure just looking at the UPS and AT&T logos, above, evoked some kind of thought or emotion.

To create a successful brand, which evokes consumer emotions parallel to how the organization wants to be perceived, it must be consistent in its actions, whether that be through product innovations, customer service, advertising, visual identity, etc., because the brand is not defined by the organization. Rather, the brand is defined by its consumers. Marty Neumeier said it best in his book The Brand Gap:

It’s not what you say it is.

It’s what they say it is.However, the organization can influence its brand through consistency – if you say you’re going to do something, DO IT! If you say you’re going to be something, ACT LIKE IT!

I like to use this diagram, which I’ve named the Ripple Effect, to illustrate how great brands activate consistency:

All great brands are centered on a guiding purpose. This purpose is why you are in business — it is some crazy, hairy, audacious idea/dream/goal an organization is set on accomplishing. Often, organizations believe their purpose is to make money, however, that is not enough. Making money is what allows you to STAY in business — it’s not WHY you are in business!

Stemming from the organization’s purpose is its value proposition, or as I like to call it, the brand promise. This denotes how consumers will benefit from the organization’s crazy, hairy, audacious idea/dream/goal.

Then there are the reasons to believe. These are the actions an organization takes to deliver its promise. This may come in the form of products, services, employee actions, etc. It is through these actions that the perceptions of the brand begin to solidify.

Lastly, there is the brand’s personality. This is where the logo and visual identity live! These are the elements that give the organization/product/etc. a face ensuring a consistent presentation of the brand! The logo and visual identity tie all the before mentioned elements together stimulating sensory cues for the brand.

So, I recommend considering the ripple effect prior to developing a brand’s visual identity, and ask yourself:

1. What’s the organization’s purpose — why are they in business? This allows us to understand the underlying essence of the organization that will transcend throughout its history.
2. What is the brand promising its customers? From here we have an understanding of the brand’s industry and competitive set.
3. How is the brand delivering on its promise & satisfying its audacious idea/dream/goal? This gives us an idea of what the business is and is not in the eyes of the consumer.
4. Lastly, how does this brand look, feel & sound when being presented to customers, employees, etc.? At this point we have collected all the needed data to grasp what the brand is about to be able to interpret it visually.

When it’s all said and done, these 4 layers of the ripple effect work together to form a consistent brand execution, which influences the perceptions of the organization creating a strong brand within the marketplace.

Thanks Processed Identity for asking me to contribute! It was a lot of fun!