Sample Loyalty Rewards Identity Proposal

Brand Name, Nomenclature & Visual Identity Development Proposal for a New Loyalty Rewards Program on behalf of:

About Brand Acumen 3

Project Scope & Process 9

Project Deliverables 34

CONTENTS

BRAND ACUMEN

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BRAND ACUMEN

Brand Acumen CEO Bill Smith was previously the founder and CEO of Addison Whitney, which today is one of the leading brand consulting firms in the world. Beginning operations in 1991, under Bill’s guidance, Addison Whitney worked with over 800 clients in 27 countries. The firm’s clients included Marriott International, IHG, Carnival, Disney, Caesers, Mandarin Oriental, Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citibank, and Microsoft among others.

Here are a few of our highlights:

Brand Acumen - Credentials

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BRAND ACUMEN

Brand Acumen - Credentials

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BRAND ACUMEN

What We Think“The limits of my language means the limits of my world.”

“… [The] harmony between thought and reality is to be found in the grammar of the language.”

-- Ludwig Wittgenstein

Many great minds and philosophers have commented on the important role language plays in forming our thoughts. Some have even declared that language shapes our thoughts entirely. We at Brand Acumen take these ideas to heart in our belief that a name is the basic unit of you, the truest essence of a thing because it is a necessity required to shape our understanding of the world. We are not just creating letters on a page; we are giving life to ideas and building steps towards new frontiers in thought. We are inspired by those artists, thinkers, and movements with a like-minded mandate, from the Dadaists to William Burroughs, from Duchamp to Wittgenstein, and we apply our rigorous creative thinking and analysis to every project we encounter. We make names. We make impact.

At Brand Acumen, name creation is our form of artistic expression.

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BRAND ACUMEN

Our Creative InspirationInspired by experimental literature and musical composition, we infuse a culture of innovation and creative inquiry into our process. We seek to redefine the fundamentals of using art and language as a guide to develop profound brand identities. Names are just the beginning…

The Science of Language Our team of lexical engineers examines not just the sound, but the look and feel of every letter in every word we create. We scrutinize each word’s structure: from phoneme, to morpheme, to grapheme, to shape. In the search for the perfect name, we leave no stone unturned.

Where to Find UsWe are headquartered in the historic Tribeca with some of the most prominent and provocative art galleries in the world as our neighbors and our inspiration.

& PROCESSPROJECT SCOPE

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It is our understanding that FRHI would like to launch a new multi-brand loyalty rewards program to replace and enhance all of their existing properties’ individual loyalty programs. This program will be a centralized system that will drive growth and provide consistency in how FRHI recognizes and rewards valuable members across geographies and brands. This new program will be used and implemented across all of FRHI’s properties, specifically Swissôtel, Fairmont, and Raffles Hotels & Resorts. As an example of multi-brand approach, points earned from Swissôtel-associated transactions may be redeemed for Raffles benefits.

FRHI would like a nomenclature system that will drive enrollment, brand awareness, and colleague and member engagement. The new loyalty program and its affiliated naming and visual identities, along with an internal/external marketing and communications plan, should help to inspire revenue generation through central campaigns. It should also promote desired behavior, and make the program more rewarding to its most valuable members.

FRHI will require a globally relevant program name and associated program element naming, as well as a globally relevant program identity and design system founded on FRHI’s lookand feel. The goal of these deliverables is to reinvent loyalty member communication channels to increase engagement, drive stays and spend, and reinforce the multi-brand loyalty program.

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Project Scope

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The overall objective of this project is to deliver a name and nomenclature system for FRHI’s intra-corporate Loyalty Rewards program that will convey the following attributes:

Specifically, we understand that we are tasked to create names and a visual identity for the following:

Objectives

Overall Program

Five (5) Program Tiers

"Super Elite Program within the Program”

Program Recognition Benefits

Two (2) Award Types

- “Pinnacle Rewards”

- “Micro Rewards”

Simple

Valuable

Flexible

Differentiated

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Landscape & Strategy

PHASE 1 PHASE 2

PHASE 4

Name & Nomenclature Development

Market Research Validation

Project Process

Visual Identity Development

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PHASE 3

For this initiative, we are proposing a 4-phase approach to develop the Program Master

Brand Name, Nomenclature System, and Visual Identity:

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Final Deliverables

AccuBrand™ Report

Production-Ready Artwork

Brand Identity Guidebook

Utilizing our ScoreCard analysis and market research validation, Brand Acumen

will deliver our final name, nomenclature, and visual identity recommendation(s)

in the form of our AccuBrand™ Report and Brand Identity Guidebook as well as

Production-Ready Artwork.

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Landscape & Strategy

PHASE 1--

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Project kickoff

Naming strategy development

Defining the Nomenclature System

Tactical competitive review

In order to create an effective loyalty rewards program name, it is imperative to understand the landscape around you. Once the existing landscape is assessed and understood, our team will be able to develop a name strategy and nomenclature development guide that will provide us with a roadmap to create the optimum name and accompanying nomenclature system to satisfy and exceed FRHI’s expectations.

Deliverables Name Landscape Report

Naming Brief

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Project KickoffBrand Acumen proposes to begin this project with a meeting with the key stakeholders of the FRHI team. The primary purpose of the Project Kickoff meeting is to articulate engagement goals, key deliverables, and project timelines. During this meeting, we review our client’s challenges and goals, and examine any existing brand-related documents. As part of this project kickoff meeting, we will seek to quickly and comprehensively understand information and strategy behind the organization of the former loyalty reward programs in FRHI’s portfolio.

We will specifically seek to understand:

Brand Acumen actively engages clients in collaborative, interactive dialogue throughout each and every engagement. We suggest weekly meetings to review and assess the direction and progress of the engagement as a whole. The designated Brand Acumen account manager will oversee the scheduling process of these weekly meetings and provide all correspondence to the FRHI project team.

What are the core values of your corporation? Of your individual brands?

Which brands/loyalty programs were/are strongest in your portfolio? Weakest?

Which make the most revenue? Which have the highest brand equity?

Who are your primary customers? What are their needs and expectations?

Should FRHI be the focus? Does it have high enough brand awareness?

What are your key business challenges?

What is the full strategic intent behind the program?

Any existing strategy or market research that may have a direct effect on name and nomenclature development.

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Naming Strategy DevelopmentAs part of the project kickoff meeting, Brand Acumen will conduct a naming strategy exercise with the key stakeholders from the FRHI project team. This will help inform what is required for the category nomenclature integration as well as a corresponding visual identity.

This naming strategy meeting will consist of in-depth conversations with the project’s stakeholders. Brand Acumen will ask a battery of questions in order to understand how the potential new program name, nomenclature system and visual identity may affect future strategy and how it will align with FRHI’s properties.

Potential items of discussion include:

What types of messages should the new program name and nomenclature system portray to existing and future users and guests?

How is FRHI viewed in the market? Amenities? Customer service? How does this messaging fit into your current strategy?

What types of words are best applicable for the name and nomenclature system (common usage real words, neologisms, etc.)?

Should the name be evocative, benefit-driven, experiential, or functional? How should the nomenclature system complement it?

Should the name and/or nomenclature system make reference to any of the former loyalty programs that it will be replacing?

FuturePresent

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Defining the Nomenclature System In order to create the optimal name for the program and its accompanying nomenclature system, we must first understand what type of nomenclature would fit best for the initiative, with a focus on a system that will drive desired customer behavior and enrollment in the program.

We have identified these Nomenclature Systems as relevant and applicable to the initiative at hand:

Monolithic

Endorsed

Hybrid

Example: IHG Rewards Club; IHG Rewards Club Gold, PlatinumSingle master brand name which everything is unified.One name/One visual identity system.Master brand equity and reputation is a bigger driver than features/benefits of product or service.Client trusts the brand.Extensions built and supported by descriptors.

Example: VIB Rogue, BeautyInsider (Sephora)Parent endorses the product/service.Synergy between parent and product/service name.Benefits from association

Example: Gap Rewards CardCombination – monolithic, endorsed

We will consult and seek guidance from the FRHI team in determining which Nomenclature System would be most appropriate for the goals of the initiative. The selected nomenclature system type will then be articulated in the naming brief.

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Tactical Competitive ReviewIn order to develop a master brand name and accompanying nomenclature for FRHI’s loyalty rewards program that is well positioned, Brand Acumen will conduct a thorough landscape analysis of competing organizations. Brand Acumen may inquire who FRHI views as their primary competitors in the space and the pros and cons of each organization’s portfolio.

Based on these internal conversations and our own market research, our team will identify the most effective brand names in the category. In this competitive brand analysis, we will review how other such companies’ brands are presented, viewed, named, and accepted in the market. Our linguistic team will assess naming standards across competing products in regard to structural make-up (letter count, syllable count, initial letter usage), communication system, and messaging strategy. We will also review loyalty programs outside of hospitality category as well as direct competitors in the luxury hospitality category that do not use loyalty reward programs (Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula, Four Seasons) to gain further strategic insight.

Brand Acumen will seek guidance from the FRHI project team in identifying these primary competitors, as we will conduct our own primary and secondary research.

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Name Landscape ReportWe will present our analysis in the form of a Name Landscape Report that will holistically portray the name landscape of the hospitality and adjacent industries’ loyalty programs. The report will highlight current and evolving trends, norms, and tactics in loyalty program naming that will enable our team to define white space opportunities, unmet needs, and competitive strengths and weaknesses.

The report will also provide a taxonomy that will segment competitor names across different naming categories, and rank them based on linguistic viability and commercial effectiveness. This will provide a view in which we can determine where FRHI’s name and nomenclature system will fit best into the landscape.

Naming BriefSynthesizing all of the internal input we receive from the FRHI project team and the external information provided by our own research and assessment, we will develop a 2 – 4 page Naming Brief that will serve as a guide for developing the ideal brand name and nomenclature system for the loyalty rewards program.The brief should be viewed as a fluid document so as not to limit our internal creative thinking. The naming brief will be able to provide a framework for developing brand name candidates aligned with the objectives for the project. Our naming brief will be broken out into several different “naming categories” based on our Naming Strategy Session with the FRHI project team. We will utilize this naming brief to create all brand names and nomenclature systems that will be presented to FRHI in Phase II of the process.

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PHASE 2

Name & Nomenclature Development

At Brand Acumen, we believe that a single name can hold incredible meaning and tell a powerful, vivid story. But in order for a name to do this successfully, it must be structurally sound and intuitive to pronounce, interpret, and recall.In Phase II, we will focus our efforts on the master brand name and nomenclature development process. We will utilize the information collected in Phase I to create the most effective name candidates and nomenclature system explorations that fit FRHI’s requirements for the new loyalty rewards program.

We propose to first develop the master program name and then the surrounding names for the tiers and separate user groups. It is our understanding that the master brand name will have the most exposure in marketing and collateral materials, and would therefore be the most common touch-point for the program. In this way, the master program will conceptually guide the development the related nomenclature system.

Using a combination of deep inquiry pursuits and ideation exercises, we will seed and harvest a comprehensive list of name candidates. These candidates will express the identity’s essence and agreed upon attributes across a comprehensive range of associations, connotations and evocations, in line with conceptual target we have established.

➢ Master Program Name Development

➢ Nomenclature System Development

Trademark Pre-Screening

➢ Refinements

Deliverables➢ Presentation(s) of Master Program Names (90+ names across

3 iterations)

➢ Presentation of Nomenclature System Explorations (15 – 30)

➢ Final Name and Nomencla-ture System Candidates (10 – 12)

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Master Brand Name Development ProcessUpon completion of the Naming Brief, we will begin developing potential master brand names for the loyalty rewards program. Name development will be performed through an iterative process with the FRHI project team. Our process is participatory by nature because it will ultimately be the FRHI team that lives with the name, making their feedback crucial.

Identifying words or styles we may want to expound upon, our creative team will present names to the FRHI project team in successive steps. The first iteration will contain thirty to thirty-five (30–35) brand name candidates. The names in the first iteration should be viewed as a platform for determining overall direction for the successive iterations. We will perform multiple iterations, generating 30-35 new candidates in each round, and providing strategic rationale behind our candidates for each list.

Our creative team will continue to develop lists of potential brand names until we generate a finalized candidate list of the ten to twelve (10 – 12) mutually agreed-upon brand name candidates. We keenly understand the delicate nature of this project and will be hypersensitive throughout our process to pre-screen for legal availability.

90+

10-12

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Nomenclature Development ProcessBased around the names we move forward with from the master brand name development process, we will develop a series of nomenclature systems that will encompass the tiers, award types, benefits and separate user groups that align around the concept of the master program name. Specifically, we will create a nomenclature system for the following:

The master program name will act as a conceptual guide. Based on our previous defining of the nomenclature system and the FRHI team’s input, we will determine the underlying relationship between the name and the nomenclature system and the level of reference, associations, and connections that is necessary.

We will present 15 – 30 nomenclature systems to the FRHI team and gather feedback for adjustments, additional directions, and refinements. We will present our refinements to the FRHI Project team and determine 10 – 12 nomenclature systems that will move forward into validation.

For all names presented, we will perform rigorous linguistic analysis to ensure that the names are structurally viable and present no conflicting themes or messages in any foreign languages. This is a vital part of creative development.

Five (5) Program Tiers

“Super Elite Program within the Program”

Program Recognition Benefits

Two Award Types

-“Pinnacle Rewards”

-“Micro Rewards”

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Trademark Checks & Clearance StrategyAll names presented through our three iterations will be pre-screened and checked for trademark availability. Trademark searches and common law screening are performed in-house by seasoned trademark researchers who have unique methods to not only uncover registered marks, but also brands in use that may reside under the radar screen of the traditional trademark search channels.

Our screening is comprehensive and it is designed to eradicate conflict with identical or similar marks and phonetic variations in relevant trademark classes, based on checks within the USPTO, European Community, and WIPO trademark databases. Our team also has expertise in Boolean, Truncation, and Wildcard search techniques to supplement the trademark clearance checks performed through our online database inspection.

We tilt towards conservatism when it comes to appetite for risk, to ensure maximum legal defensibility. We are hyper-vigilant in our trademark pre-screening, and we will work directly with your legal counsel until we find a name that is available, appropriate, and free from confusion and conflict here and abroad. The 10 – 12 master program names and program element names that will move forward to Phase III and Phase IV will have passed our legal pre-screening tests and will have the lowest risk profiles.

USPTO

EC

Name™Name WIPO

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PHASE 3

Once the final master program name and nomenclature system candidates are established, we will begin our visual identity exploration and development.

The visual identity becomes the most iconic and singular representation of a brand. It has the ability to influence customer perceptions and behavior often beyond what they themselves can rationalize. We approach our visual identity development with the same creative fervor that we approach naming, creating powerful visual identities that aspire to turn the graphic into the iconographic.

During this initiative, our graphic design team will be presented with all of the information around the name and nomenclature system that has been devised. Remaining close to the name and identity development process at all times, our logo design team will make sure to distill the brand ethos into a visual representation that is aligned with the conceptual target upon which the FRHI team has agreed.

Visual Identity Strategy Assessment

Visual Identity Competitive Review


Refinements

Deliverables Visual Creative Brief

Presentation of Competitive Visual Norms and Analysis

Creative Concept Presentation (minimum of 16 concepts)

Final Visual Identity Concept Candidates (2)

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Visual Identity StrategyWe will engage with the FRHI team to create our visual creative brief, asking critical questions to understand the visual alignments and standards across the brand. Specifically, we will seek to understand brand identity components regarding creative palette, visual language, and other creative concepts.

Examples of what we might ask:

How might the current FRHI architecture and visual identity inform logo/colors for the program and its levels?

What attributes should the visual aspects evoke? Should they align or complement those of the name?

What visual motifs or symbols would you like to see based on the name?

What are the core visual concepts?

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Visual Identity Competitive ReviewIn order to develop the optimum visual identity for FRHI’s loyalty rewards program, Brand Acumen will conduct a thorough landscape analysis of competitor programs’ visual identities. We will perform a comprehensive audit of current and evolving visual systems, tactics, and trends.

We will specifically seek to understand:

How the logo speaks across different products

Use of the “unique selling proposition” (USP)

Use of the master brand name

Use of the master brand differentiator and/or key benefit

Range structure (if applicable)

Color schemes

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Visual Identity Landscape AssessmentOnce we gather all of the competitive insight we will review and assess our findings in order to understand how other identities are successful regarding category forces, design strategies, and communication systems. This will enable our team to establish a top-level view of the competitive visual identity landscape. We will present our Visual Identity Landscape Assessment that will outline category norms, potential design opportunities, and any current and emerging visual identity trends that pertain to the loyalty rewards program.

Visual Creative BriefCollecting the FRHI team’s input and all of own our external research, we synthesize our engagement goals into a Visual Creative Brief.

The visual creative brief will serve as a guide for developing the logos and overall program design for all collateral and visual touch-points as well as detail the numerous design elements that will be necessary for FRHI to differentiate itself in the market. The creative brief will include the following items:

Collateral types (cards, brochures, digital media)

Creative Brief

Logo development strategy

Brand equity elements

Communication hierarchy

Level structure

Use of color (pantones)

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Visual Identity Development Process: Step OneUpon completion of the Visual Creative Brief, we will begin the Visual Identity Devel-opment process with logo development. The newly developed logo will apply to all existing brand wording(s) but will also be adaptable to three (3) different solutions:

Brand Acumen will create a minimum of sixteen (16) logos for the FRHI project team to review. FRHI and Brand Acumen will seek to select/agree on two (2) logos for future revisions and refinements.

Collateral Design will include the logo, communication hierarchy, and color/pantone creation across a sample of five (5) pieces/assets of collateral material. Brand Acumen will create a minimum of sixteen (16) design structures. FRHI and Brand Acumen will seek to select/agree on two (2) designs for future revisions and refinements.

Level Architecture will be developed for each product criteria. Brand Acumen will create a minimum of sixteen (16) level architecture propositions. FRHI and Brand Acu-men will seek to select/agree on two (2) level architectures for future revisions and refinements.

Our team will present the benefits of each logo, design, and range architecture. The purpose of this presentation is to mutually agree on the correct layouts and messaging.

3Solutions

Same wording for all products

Initial wording with an additional word

Initial wording modified with/without an additional word

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Visual Identity Development Process: Step Two: RefinementsBased on the feedback from the FRHI project team on our pre-sentation in Step 1, we will then take the two (2) mutually agreed upon logos, designs, and range structure concepts and refine each one.

Brand Acumen will perform our visual development refinement in an iterative process with FRHI. We will then present the two (2) logos, designs, and level architectures for the mutually agreed upon visual identity concepts. These logos, designs, and level architectures may be an assimilation of two or more previously presented deliverables.

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Market Research Validation

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PHASE 4

QualiQuantitative Questionnaire Development

QualiQuantitative Interviews

Market Research Data Collection & Assessment

Deliverables QualiQuantitative Questionnaire

Market Research Data

After we have completed the creative development for the master program name, nomenclature system, and visual identity as illustrated in Phases II and III, we will take the final candidates into our validation phase to ensure not only legal availability, but commercial efficacy and consumer accessibility.

Brand Acumen creates and validates brand names and visual concepts on behalf of our clients in-house. Collectively, our team has specialized market research acumen and expertise to ensure that the process is seamless.

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QualiQuantitative QuestionnairePrior to taking the brand name candidates into the field for validation, our team will construct a project-specific questionnaire that will seek to uncover thoughts, opinions, likes, and dislikes regarding each naming and accompanying visual concept. Brand Acumen will use this questionnaire as a QualiQuantitative platform with key individuals, decision makers, and customers.

All interviews will be conducted by a member of the Brand Acumen market research team. We will create questionnaires utilizing parameters identified during our screening process. We will consult with your team to settle upon an appropriate design and methodology.

Questionnaire AccuBrand™ Report

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QualiQuantitative Interviews, Part I: Master Brand NameIn this initiative, we will first validate the final ten to twelve (10-12) master brand names through the use of QualiQuantitative interviews with FRHI’s Key Decision Makers & Customers. We will recruit a panel of approximately 200 respondents on a global basis for the most robust results.

Key Individuals will include:

Hotel/Hospitality Industry Experts

Key Stakeholders from FHRI

Current Loyalty Program Members

QualiQuantitative Interviews, Part II: Nomenclature Systems & Visual IdentitiesOnce we have a new validated master brand name in place, we will validate the final ten to twelve (10-12) nomenclature systems with the two (2) accompanying visual identities, as well as each of their program element names, through the use of QualiQuantitative interviews with FRHI’s Key Decision Makers & Customers. We will recruit a panel of approximately 200 respondents on a global basis for the most robust results.

Key Individuals will include:

Hotel/Hospitality Industry Experts

Key Stakeholders from FHRI

Current Loyalty Program Members

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Linguistic ScoreCard AnalysisFrom the perspectives of acoustic phonetics, phonology, and morphology in particular, our lexical theorists pay extraordinary attention to all facets of linguistic nuance. Looking at the phonemic structure, or the breakdown of distinct sounds in a given word, our team assesses the acoustic and articulatory properties of all adjacent phones and consonant clusters.

Once we affirm that no harsh sounds are found at phonemic joints or intra-syllabically, we consider the semantic qualities and evocations of all morphemes, or units of meaning. We base this assessment on common thematic properties of English, as well as those of many foreign languages, paying close attention to the Romance language schema, as well as Greek and Latin etymological features.

Each of the 10-12 brand names created will be subjected to our ScoreCard* analysis, based on the following categories:

Our ScoreCard Analysis will provide a quantitative “score” for each of the created brand names. An example of our ScoreCard analysis can be found in the case study on the following pages.

ScoreCard Categories

Scriptability

Visual Aesthetics

Phonetic Viability

Aural Comprehensibility

Syllabic Balance

Evocative Semantics

Durability & Longevity

Ease of Pronunciation

Gender Properties

Phonemic Simplicity

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PROJECT DELIVER

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PROJECT DELIVER

AccuBrand™ Report Based on our creative process and collaboration with the FRHI project team, we will present our final recommendations for the master loyalty brand and accompanying nomenclature system in the form of our AccuBrand™ Report. The AccuBrand™ Report will include all qualitative and quantitative information that has been assimilated throughout the course of the engagement.

The AccuBrand™ Report will provide a stack ranking, from most viable to least viable, of the final master brand names candidates and all names in the final accompanying nomenclature.

We will combine our Linguistic ScoreCard Analysis data with the qualitative feedback we will have received from the QualiQuantitative interviews in order to develop our stack ranking of recommendations, as well as an internal assessment of the name candidates based on our own insights and considerations.

Each name will be supported by in-depth Linguistic Analysis, Market Research data, full strategic rationale, and inference assessment.

Occupational Breakdown

Wall Street Analysts/In�uencers

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Plastic Surgeons

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Nurses

18Surgeons

36

Hospital Procurement Executives

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Production-Ready ArtworkBrand Acumen will deliver production-ready files to the FRHI team and their production partners to ensure the successful implementation of the new visual identity and collateral design system for the new loyalty rewards programs.

Working from the final approved artwork files, Brand Acumen’s graphic design team will create high-resolution, production-ready files for TBD number of collateral formats with copy and context on technical drawings.

Brand Identity GuidebookIn addition to the finalized logos, designs, and range architecture, we will also provide a specific Brand Identity Guidebook that will holistically articulate the visual branding experience and how the brand should be consistently messaged across all touch-points for the new loyalty program.

The guidelines will serve as brand standards for FRHI to implement the visual identity for its loyalty rewards program and all visual marketing moving forward. The Brand Identity Guidelines will include:

Pattern & Color Standards

Collateral Design

Information Hierarchy

Iconography

Symbology

Identification Elements

Typography

Identity Usage and Applications

Trademarks

Contact Us

Bill Smith - Chief Executive Officer

Address:

Website:

Email: [email protected] Phone: 704.906.3402

19 Leonard Street1WNew York, NY 10013

www.brandacumenstudios.com

Date post:	18-Jan-2017
Category:	Presentations & Public Speaking
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Sample Loyalty Rewards Identity Proposal

Presentations & Public Speaking