Archive for August, 2009

08.31.09

The Six Golden Rules to Brand Extension

Building your business through brand extension
During tough market conditions, brand or product line extensions might just be the best way for your business to stay healthy, especially if they’re not something you spend much time thinking about. When done right, brand extensions can either be a positive way to build stronger and more profitable relationships with your clients and customers. When done poorly, brand extensions can be expensive experiments that drain cash flow and confuse your market’s understanding of your business’ proposition.

Loyalty and Trust
One of the greatest benefits of building a strong brand is the loyalty and trust that you build with your clients and customers. As purchasers of products and services, people will always prefer to deal with someone they have a trusted relationship with, over forming a new relationship without established trust. Adding a product or service offering to your brand that is relevant to the needs of your customer can not only have a positive effect on revenue, but also further enhance the relationships your customers have with your brand.

Real estate agents extends themselves
Melbourne real estate agent; Marshall White recently developed a value-add service for clients preparing their homes for sale – huge removal and self storage trailers. Parked out front of a house sporting an ‘upcoming auction’ sign, the over-sized blue and gold trailer not only drew attention to the house on behalf of the vendor, but also provided a high traffic billboard – all for the benefit of Marshall White.

DSCN0592

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08.27.09

Home builders build brand differentiation with Design

Uninspired Living
The home building market in Australia is typified by a bland range of home designs, brought to you by a range of equally undifferentiated businesses. Having worked in the space for a number of clients over the past five years, I would define the market offer as affordable = uninspiring. Whilst there is no cheaper way, and perhaps even no easier way to build your own home,the price you pay is a lack of individuality, and poor and dated design quality. A walk through any display village will reinforce the message, as each house you enter feels almost identical from the one before, down to the last display vase featuring splayed bamboo.

These home builders all have their own brands, we have helped some to define them. But when it comes to product – which is surely one of the most defining expressions of their brand – there is no differentiation or translation of their brand into the homes they build and display. It ‘s as though they’ve all use the same architect to design their homes and the same stylist to prepare them for display.

But times are changing, or at least the industry is catching up with the times.

Inspiration built-in
Recently the offerings of at least two Australian home building companies have begun to deliver on the often heard brand promise of ‘contemporary living’. Working with architects of note and ability, InForm Homes and Intermode Homes have both produced some great looking houses that feel ‘architect designed’ both inside and out, creating a strong sense of differentiation, positioning their new product at the premium end of their market.

The Pod House from InForm

The Pod House from InForm

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08.26.09

Kylie named Australia’s Strongest Personal Brand

Talent Inc!‘s Personal Brand Survey Released.Kylie
Storm and Brand DNA in a Joint venture with entertainment management company Forum5 have developed a new personal branding consultancy; Talent Inc! Recently we combined our forces to put together a report on the strongest Australian personal brands. The report compiles the responses to the question; Which Australian has best developed their brand and their brand awareness?
The result is a list of people who have all been successful in defining who they are and what they stand for. What we discovered reinforced what we already knew to be true; having talent alone provides no guarantee of building a strong personal brand. Those with the strongest personal brands have clearly defined them, consciously built them over time, and consummately leveraged them to achieve the highest return possible for everything they do.

Kylie named at number one
Kylie Minogue came in first on the list with more than double the votes of second place getter Elle Macpherson. The top ten on the list were:
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08.26.09

ABC and Herald Sun cover Personal Brand Report

More media coverage on the Talent Inc! Australia’s strongest personal brand survey. Seems when brand intersects with fame it’s sexier than ever.

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08.26.09

Channel 7 & The Age cover our Personal Brand Report

More coverage in the media of our Talent Inc! Australian personal brand report.

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08.26.09

International Media pick up our Personal Brand Report

It’s going global
The international press are starting to pick up the results of our TalentInc! Australia’s strongest personal brand report.

AsiaOne interviewed Federal Trade Minister, Simon Crean over the results of the report:
‘Trade Minister Simon Crean, who on Wednesday launched a multi-million dollar campaign to give Australia an image makeover, was amused to learn the prime minister had made the top ten. “We don’t even have to pay him (to do the ads),” Crean joked. “That should keep the 20 million (dollar campaign cost) down if we use Kevin.”‘

So far the report has popped-up in India, North Korea, Thailand, the US, France and the UK.

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08.26.09

The Michelin Man – A pumped up brand icon

The Michelin Man

The Michelin Man – Sumo or brand icon
Just recently the Truly Deeply studio invested in some more character (not that we don’t have enough already) for the space we spend more than 9 hours a day in. We purchased an original statue reproduction of Michelin Man,  that used to be attached to a compressor. To be honest at first I thought the statue was ugly, but there was something in the way the icon stood with such confidence and conviction that grabbed me. It felt like we had a new member joining the Truly Deeply family. My thoughts were summed up by Pete, a Brand Scientist, who sits next to me at work;

“It may look like a sumo wrestler, but its a brand logo that has stood the test of time”.

Pete’s words stuck with me and I found myself asking, what is it in Michelin’s history that has allowed the Michelin Man brandmark to be so enduring? History is not my strong suit, but I was sufficiently stimulated to do a little digging.

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08.24.09

Ecological Intelligence Impact on Brand Preference

Daniel ColemanDaniel Goleman’s new book Ecological Intelligence
tackles the task of providing consumers with a simple but comprehensive process for understanding the environmental and social impacts of the goods we consume. He advocates ‘radical transparency’. A system whereby all the right technical boffins are harnessed to rate the environmental and social impact of a product at every stage of its life from raw materials to waste disposal. Once rated, product packaging can carry a relevant rating device communicating to the world its virtues or otherwise. In addition web sites like www.goodguide.com will play a critical role in communicating to consumers the merits of one product compared with another.

Goleman makes the assumption that once informed consumers will make purchase decisions that are in this planet and society’s best interests. Unfortunately, this where things get a little more complicated (yes even more complicated than actually rating all the products and services). Just about every category that we get to work in on in a branding sense we encounter the same feedback – consumers are interested in environmental issues, but for the majority only if it does not cost them in some way. Give me more environmentally friendly housing options, but don’t charge me more. Give me a more environmentally friendly car, but please don’t make it look daggy or reduce its performance. In consumer land best interests so often boil down to self interest. In a marketing sense it is important that brand custodians understand the environmental band width of their customers, as for many it is very very narrow. It is gradually widening but it is a slow journey.

In B2B markets there is a more urgent push. Business self interest is starting to play out with the growing focus on carbon emissions. Some of the heavy weights like Wal-Mart are also pursuing a stronger environmental pathway, stating in July this year that it wished to create environmental ratings for everything it sells. However, if they have success in introducing their own rating system we run the risk of multiple rating systems and a diluted consumer outcome in terms of understanding and buy-in.

Certainly Daniel Goleman had a best seller and a winning concept with his book on Emotional Intelligence. However, it is also a great example of ‘self interest’ at play. How does one get on in this relationship driven world….yes some degree of emotional intelligence helps. Take two tablets a day (just kidding)! But ecological intelligence that may take a little longer to have its moment in the sun, certainly from a consumer perspective.

Pete

08.23.09

When Brand Association Goes Wrong

During the recent unrest in Iran, the Adidas brand got caught-up in the violence when this image was published all-around the globeWhen brands appear in mainstream media associated with an individual or an event, it can take the brand into new territory they’d never anticipated.
I’ve never agreed with the old adage; ‘there’s no such thing as bad publicity.’ All brand expressions have the potential to enhance or detract from a brand’s reputation. The higher the profile of the brand expression, the more powerful its ability to have a positive or negative impact.

When the mainstream media captures events, Crime matriarch; Judy Moran sports Dolce & Gabbana shades in the National press as she's arrested for being an accessory to the murder of her brother-in-law Desmond Tuppence Moransometimes brands are unintentionally caught-up at the same time by association with the people involved in those events. Brand owners themselves have no control over either the situation or the association it creates with their valuable brands.

During the recent unrest in Iran, the Adidas brand got caught-up in the violence when this image was published all-around the globe. And recently, Melbourne crime matriarch; Judy Moran sported Dolce & Gabbana shades on the front pages of the national press as she was arrested for being an accessory to the murder of her brother-in-law Desmond Tuppence Moran

When brands become ‘iconic’, they begin to pervade our lives to such an extent that it’ only a matter of time until they appear in the mass-media in an association that’s not to their making. Whilst they are powerless to influence this manner of brand association, the way brand owners choose to manage negative associations is entirely within their control .

If you’d like to discuss how to manage positive brand associations for your business, drop us a line.

Dave.

08.18.09

Personal Brand – What is your brand worth?

On a recent trip to NYC I came across a guy who had decided that instead of begging for small change that he would be better off delivering customer value. For an investment of one dollar you had some one you could curse, someone devoted to your every desire to get what ever you needed of your chest. And if you were feeling particularly angry with the world, you could invest $50 and have the privilege of kicking this guy in the nuts, and he promised not to kick back. It was a very interesting value proposition, but what appealed to me most was the fact hat he actually had a value proposition, he had put a dollar figure to it and he had developed a communication strategy with his signs to communicate it.

NY VP

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