The Brand &

The Cow

Brand strategy: a b2b guide

First published in Great Britain in 2007

CASYSTEMS 1 Chase Road, Epsom, Surrey, KT19 8TL

© CASYSTEMS 2007

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in

a retrieval system or transmitted in anyway, or by any means,

electronic, reclaimed, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the

prior written permission of the copyright holder.

A number of brand names, trademarks, and service marks are

mentioned in this book. Their inclusion in this book is for purposes of

illustration, criticism, and analysis only.

The right of Andrew Graham to be identified as author

of this work has been asserted in accordance with the copyright,

designs and patents act 1998.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available

from the British Library

ISBN 978�0�9555482�0�8

contents:

what is a brand?

why brand?

1 Understand brand strategy 8

1 In life it pays to read the signs 10

1 Brands make value visible 11

1 Invest in brand strategy 18

how to make a brand?

1 Choose a brand name 22

1 What’s in a name 23

1 Sponsored 25

1 Authentic 27

1 Appropriated 29

1 Invented 31

1 Acronym 33

1 Choose a brand colour 35

1 Choose a brand symbol 39

1 Choose a brand typeface 42

1 In summary 45

what do you brand?

1 Brand the tangible 47

1 Brand the intangible 50

1 Brand the customer’s context 53

1 Brand the vision, promise and ‘big idea’ 56

1 Brand the values and the way 58

1 Brand the business reputation 63

where do you brand?

1 Context provides relevance 65

when to review your brand?

1 Brand strategy for new company or product 68

1 Brand strategy for brand extension 69

1 Brand strategy for market positioning 69

1 Brand strategy for new leadership and ownership 73

how to control your brand?

1 House of brands or branded house 78

1 The rules and the players 79

5

what is a brand?

“…a brand is a mark

of ownership.”

6

To understand branding in a business context it is useful to use

the Wild West and cattle ranching as the metaphor. In Texas there

are 250,000 registered ‘brands’ and in Texas, as in business, a brand

is a mark ownership – i.e. this cow comes from the ‘Double Bar’

ranch and has these qualities and that one comes from the ‘Triple X’

ranch and has those qualities etc. The distinguishing differences

made visible by the different brands. So, the concept of a brand

strategy is a simple one:

• establish the market context (cattle ranching)

• choose and design your brand (double bar)

• then decide on the things (‘the cows’) 0 you wish to brand.

The aim is to make your ownership visible: the physical things,

and the conceptual things like ideas, values and even music, textures,

and smells too (car manufacturers and supermarkets both brand

smells and scents in order to add differentiation).

To keep things simple it is useful to keep the definition of ‘brand’

as the mark itself and separate from the things that we place the

brand on – the ‘cows.’ This allows us to make our choices and

adjustment to the brand and what we brand independent. This gives

us the greatest degree of flexibility and control. These are the choices

that define your brand strategy.

The difficulty in business is the fact that often we often have

many contexts, different levels of ownership and numerous tangible

and intangible things to brand. The aim is to use brand strategy to

provide clarity and whilst this concept of brand strategy is simple, it

doesn’t make it easy to do well.

7

why brand?

be one of the gang

declare ownership

deceive a predator

get recognised

attract a mate

be visible

8

understanding brand strategy

Intuitively, we are all experts in brand strategy. We all use brand

strategies everyday, to make ourselves visible, to define who we are,

to make our allegiances clear, choose what we eat, where we are

seen and how we dress. Branding is so superficial and yet at the

same time emotionally so deep.

Branding draws together the things we identify with. This defines

our differences as a community or business – one of the most

compelling images of the Twin Towers attack was a picture of a

Coke truck flattened in the ruins. This image was representative of

both the physical attack and the attack on the essence of the US

identity itself by association with this iconic brand.

Brand England is so different to brand Français and yet in

biological and scientific terms we are the same species. Until the

alien invasion, it is our brand rather than our species that we defend.

Homosapiens are in truth very much like one another. It is our brand

that pulls us together into groups and communities and it is our brand

that concocts the difference between them.

In b2b sectors the brand default position seems to be a natural

tendency to identify with the characteristics of our sector; perhaps

due to a primeval urge to gather into tribes. But in doing so, we are

no longer unique in the eyes of the customer. We become an

invisible part of a homogenous group.

Complete sectors align themselves with each other and end up

sharing a similar brand language, behaviour, artefacts etc. While this

perhaps gives an individual business the comfort of being part of a

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group, it is the wrong group! And so this is a false comfort.

In order to achieve differentiation, clearly we have to look and

sound different to our competitors. So where then should we look for

the right cues to follow?

If you brand your customers’ characteristics at an emotional,

subconscious level they are more likely to feel that you have some

understanding of their lives and contexts. In the search for a

company that best suits their needs, the one that already looks and

feels like “one of us” is surely at an advantage from the start. In the

effort to achieve this alignment with our customers we should

examine everything about them 0 rational and emotional, profound

and superficial 0 and brand ourselves to be attractive to them by

exhibiting outward signs, behaviour and understanding that connects

with their particular situation. This helps nurture a relationship of

reciprocity and mutual understanding.

To truly differentiate, we must ACTIVELY seek out and choose

DIFFERENT things from others we compete with in our sector to

define us – different values, signs, artefacts, language, behaviour,

dress, personality – and brand them. This is a golden rule of brand

differentiation.

In our everyday lives, we search out the things that will enhance

and differentiate our brand. In our business lives too, it is through

focussing on the depth, complexity and multiplicity of our brand in

all its facets both superficial and deep that we can give real value to

our brand.

Brand strategy is not only relevant in a consumer context. It can

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bring competitive advantage to b2b companies and increase their

value too.

There are volumes written on brand strategy 0 worthy tomes all 0

but too many perpetrate the myth that it is a black art to be

administered only by the brand magicians! This is not so.

Brand experts can sometimes get tangled up and we think it is

time to redress the balance and give branding back to you, the brand

leader or owner and in the process we hope to make a stand for

simplicity and common sense.

in life: it pays to read the signs

Branding isn’t unique to us humans. Branding is a natural

phenomenon. Nature knows the power of branding using signs to

communicate between members of the same and different species the

common language of sex, danger, deception and attraction. Nature

uses signs to convey messages that say “stay close, leave alone…”

We believe that this natural process is at the centre of even the most

complicated business brand strategy.

Nature is a cornucopia of signs – safe, dangerous, edible,

poisonous, come closer, stay away – the white tail of a rabbit to

distract the hawk or fox, the yellow and black of the wasp warning of

danger. Understanding signs is part of the natural world. It is not

something we humans invented. It is arrogance to think otherwise.

Signs and therefore brands provide a shortcut to recognition and

understanding, speedily accessing memory and experience aiding our

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very survival.

In business, it is advisable not to overcomplicate the concept of

branding 0 reading and making brands comes naturally to us all. We

benefit greatly if we become conscious of their value and power.

When we use nature as our guide, it makes the ambitions of the

politically naïve, who wish to lobby for a brand0less world, seem a

denial of the very essence of our existence. If we are in business we

believe we deny the power of brands at our peril. If we embrace this

power we grow and protect our assets both today and in the future.

brands make value visible

In nature the making and reading of signs is a matter of life and

death, so it is surprising that we spend so little time valuing this in

our b2b life.

It is better to embrace brands as part of our business ‘natural

history,’ where to stand out would appear to be the overwhelming

strategy, although by no means the only one. As in nature, we

sometimes turn the duplicity of the chameleon to our advantage, or

use signs of bigger animals to become something that we are not,

like the eyespots on the wings of a moth. Too often small companies

inadvertently communicate their smallness through their brand, when

in fact they can use signs to their advantage to convey an image

many times their actual size. All of these natural strategies are

available to us as brand strategies for our business too. We need to

make an informed choice, whether we wish to stand out or be part of

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the crowd. Often in b2b our brands blend in, when really they need

to stand out or vice versa.

In business terms we are not making danger or sexual attraction

visible but we are making things like ownership, performance and

customer promises visible.

A word of caution here. It is a fact that visibility is a double0

edged sword. Visibility makes you more accountable to customers.

We have always felt that the Scout Movement is a great branding

model:

• they have the promise 0 to do their best; to do their duty to God

and the Queen; to help other people everyday

• the law 0 that guarantees the promises are met

• the signs 0 three fingered salute; symbols; woggle and cool

badges to collect.

The best brands work in this way. They contract their value to the

customer in ‘the law’ of the brand. If the brand breaks their law, then

the customer contract is void and the relationship is broken.

I recently heard a story about a Scout Akela who ‘dinked’ a

parked car in a supermarket car park and made the scouts in the car

with her deny it ever happened.

Oooops. In trying to conceal her guilt, her lie escalated and she

ended up with a suspended prison sentence and fine for perverting

the course of justice.

Not only did she break the law, but she broke The Scout Law.

This instigated a far more painful punishment for her than a mere

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fine 0 ignominious expulsion from the Scout Movement. For

breaking their law total rejection was the only option.

14

“…branding

benefits

the brave!”

15

If you play the brand game, you must make promises that you

intend to keep. When brands break their promises, like the

unfortunate Akela, they are rejected.

A brand shows the customer where to go when all goes wrong, as

much as whom to praise when all goes right. Consumer companies

are willing to trade this perceived risk for the rewards in increased

margin and profitability that come with a well0executed brand

strategy. Far from being airy0fairy or fluffy, adopting a highly visible

brand strategy is not for the fainthearted. On the contrary, branding

benefits the brave!

B2b companies struggle to value this visibility and can’t equate

their small market to consumer markets where brand visibility is

essential to success. The audience may be smaller, but the need for

visibility is no less significant. The aim of b2b brand strategy is to be

visible in the particular business context. It is true these companies

do not need the visibility of Nike or Coke, but in their community

visibility remains a key differentiator and competitive advantage.

The more visible your company the more likely you are to be front

of mind – in preference to your competitor.

The boundaries of the desired visibility are very specific in b2b

and defined by their sector alone and not the general consumer

population. So when looking for examples of successful b2b brands

it is often difficult to see their value, as they do not resonate with the

market you understand and you do not know why, or what they are

branding, or valuable for. This should not be used as an excuse for

denying the effectiveness of brand strategy out of hand.

16

value:

a technology start0up

that invests in a brand

strategy increases its

value 10 fold (true story)

17

18

invest in brand strategy

“I do not know of any valuable b2b brands” does not mean we

can draw the conclusion that “therefore brand strategy is of little

importance or use to a b2b company.” Quite the opposite is true:

because branding is seen functionally rather than strategically in b2b

it makes the rewards from brand strategies much greater for those

that are prepared to invest and adopt them.

The value of investing in brand strategy in a b2b arena is twofold.

Firstly, a consistent brand strategy increases visibility and visibility

leads to favourability – if your brand is seen more than others then

you are more likely to be ‘front of mind’ and receive preference from

your audience

Secondly, a thought through brand strategy makes differentiation

visible by branding both the tangible (products, services, assets,

innovations, people, etc) and the intangible (ideas, values, concepts,

conversations, etc)

The ultimate test of a brand strategy is reflected in the price

customers are prepared to pay for their preferred brand. In consumer

terms this can be as much as double the price of the own label or the

generic product. Whilst the increased margin might not be so

obvious in b2b, there are all the other benefits of investing in a brand

strategy e.g. increased market share, stronger relationships and

ultimately increased shareholder value. B2b boardrooms are still

sceptical of the ‘brand effect’ in their context. Paradoxically this

gives great advantage to those that do invest. A brand strategy will

increase and protect competitiveness, reduce wasted effort and

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duplication and make best use of resources.

We were once doing some research for a specialist precision

engineering oil brand. When we interviewed a distributor he told us a

story of a machine tool, cutting bit that was made by one

manufacturer and sold under four different brand names. Machine

engineers, a rational breed by all accounts, would swear that one bit

out performed the other two and paid a premium price for it. There

was no rational or analytical basis for their buying preference. It was

a matter of belief in the brand only.

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“…a well executed

brand strategy can

increase margin in

even the most

rational of

business to business

sectors.”

21

how to make

a brand?

sponsored 0 Kelloggs

authentic 0 Post0it

invented 0 Accenture

acronym 0 BMW

appropriated 0 Virgin

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The brand mark is made up of four distinct elements: �

the name, the colour, the typeface and the symbol (if you have one).

It is the combination of these elements applied consistently over

time that leads to visibility and brand recognition.

choose a brand name

Brand names are usually single words or acronyms. The name

needs to be short and phonetic in many languages with no obvious

negative associations (different words can be problematic in different

languages like the Vauxhall Nova, which means ‘no go’ in

Spanish!).

Business to business companies are sometimes tempted to use the

complete company name as their brand. This does not increase

visibility and recognition. It hinders it. A brand name must function

physically, it must be visible and it must stand out. In a ranching

context, the brand itself is burnt into the rump of the animal. This is

enough to declare ownership. B2b companies often want to do the

equivalent of brand the whole flank of the animal! They often end up

shouting their ownership at their customers and believe more is more

when we all know the maxim that less is so and in branding terms as

a rule this definitely is the case.

Often the first task is to shorten the company name to create the

brand name. Definitely take off the description of the company and

its limited or plc status – the company name is rarely the brand. At

the beginning of our b2b journey when we won a pitch we were told

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that we could do anything we like with the marketing but “… you

cannot change the name…” and this was the first thing we

recommended and did! To be recognised you need to be seen and

remembered. Brand strategy is often a tool of seduction rather than

domination!

The shorter the word the bigger the cap0height and the more the

brand stands0out. It’s as simple as that. Less is definitely more.

a) SENSOR HYWAY LIMITED

b) Sensa

Which business was more visible, was it ‘a’ or ’b’?

‘b’ 0 This was the same company with a different brand.

One of the most attractive things to human beings is intrigue – It

is what you leave out that is often more interesting then what you put

in.

what’s in a name?

For all the different brand names in the world there are

essentially five different types 0 sponsored, authentic, invented,

acronym, appropriated.

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These definitions are not rigorous. Boundaries blur and there are

numerous hybrid examples like IKEA which is a sponsored brand

(after the founder: Ingvar Kampard; Village and farm name

Elmtaryd & Agunnaryd) reduced to an acronym and which looks like

it is an invented name! However, these distinctions serve to access a

route that is acceptable to you and your board.

The name itself is only one part of the brand and any of the five

routes is equally represented by highly successful or unsuccessful

brand examples. It is not the brand name that defines success or

failure. It is the value of the business or product itself. To blame the

brand is to scapegoat it.

It is most important that the brand functions, is protectable as a

trademark and does not have problematic associations. Often these

criteria are more important than the choice of the brand name itself.

Brand naming is often an emotive subject, so it is advisable to take a

pragmatic approach when choosing one.

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sponsored

The most common sponsored brand name is a derivative of the

founder’s name itself: Cadbury, Dunlop, Kellogg’s, Dyson, Hewlett

Packard, Ford, and Hutchinson, all use the name of the founder to

add legitimacy, provenance and accountability. The individual who

sponsors the product with their name is the guarantee. It shows that

they personally believe in the product they are endorsing. Their

integrity is made visible through the brand name.

At the turn of the century, before affective trading standards,

many products were often adulterated. At Cadbury World in

Bournville there is an exhibit that explained how the Cadbury brand

guaranteed quality at a time when many chocolate powders were

adulterated with brick dust!

Note. The founder often remains integral to brands even when the

brand does not take the founder’s name, e.g. Branson and Virgin,

Gates and Microsoft, Jobs and Apple, Roddick and Bodyshop –

every self respecting brand should have one! The founder’s name

adds reassurance and legitimacy. Brand marketers know this and

have used this strategy to invent names that have no relationship to

the actual founders’ names at all, such as Haagen0Dazs and Crabtree

& Evelyn.

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Dyson

Cadbury

Kellogg’s

Hewlett Packard

Ford

Dunlop

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authentic

These brands rely on their genuineness and authenticity. The

brand name encapsulates exactly what the product is. Referencing

the features and functionality of the product itself is another effective

way to come up with a brand. In this way the brand declares

ownership of the authentic product features, denying those features

to their competitors. This relies on first mover advantage – Dyson’s

Dual Cyclone technology brand prohibits others from using the name

and therefore takes the authentic position. The competition

technology is always going to be the follower.

Maintaining TM protection for this type of brand name can prove

more challenging if the name itself is also a generic term. The

founder of ‘So Organic’ was recently up in arms with Sainsbury’s

over their use of this name. It will be interesting to see how she fares

when taking on the 800 pound corporate gorilla. Bit of a warning

here. If you are the small guy it is difficult to protect a name that is

in the vernacular, particularly when your competitor has deeper legal

pockets. Frustration and anger does not change your ability to protect

your brand name. However, many brands have successfully achieved

authenticity and TM protection through creative juxtaposition – Post

It, Dual Cyclone, Easyjet, etc. This is a common b2b branding

solution for both products and companies. In the 1950’s NASA was

looking for water dispersant to prevent corrosion on rockets that

were exposed to desert air or cold weather. They were looking for a

fine oil to avoid condensation freezing and adversely affecting the

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rocket launch. Water Dispersant 40 (the 40th prototype) was the

answer – better known to you and me as WD40.

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appropriated

This is another route. All brands are symbolic in some way but

these are more so. These brand names take ownership of a word that

somehow encapsulates the mood and values of the brand –

• Orange 0 optimism

• Nike 0 victory

• Egg 0 security

• Polo 0 sporting

These brands take ownership of the associated and symbolic

values that they represent. Nike is the goddess of victory in Greek

mythology. An image of the goddess was on every medal at the

Sydney Olympics – not a bad piece of appropriation by Nike the

shoe brand! Often these brands tap into a customer zeitgeist

somehow connecting at a deeper subconscious level than their

competitors. A brave approach sometimes used to position a new

brand in a new context like ‘Egg’ in internet banking. It is not

common for b2b companies to take this overly emotional approach,

but it could be highly effective if someone was brave enough to try!

30

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invented

These brand names begin their life with no intrinsic ownership of

provenance, concept, value, feature or benefit. All these associations

have to be made after the birth of the brand. Remembering these

brands is therefore an issue particularly in the early days.

Often this is the preferred solution in markets which are crowded

and where trademark protection is key. Pharmaceuticals and cars are

two such markets. There has also been a corporate fashion for made

up brand names too. Some of these brands have been more

successful than others. Accenture being recognised as a success, the

Consignia name a resounding failure.

The problem with these brands is that they can at first appear

hollow, empty and meaningless – which they are. There are no

collective associations or reference points for these brands and

unless this is assimilated quickly they can flounder.

Sometimes when there is a large corporate merger, acquisition, or

disposal, inventing a new name seems the best way to go, as there

are no founders or geographies to declare ownership of. Features are

unspecific and appropriating a name would seem a step too far. So

the sensible option is to make something up, achieve TM protection

and dot.com status and create visibility from day one. These benefits

outweigh any take0up challenges for many.

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Accenture

Consignia

Lenovo

Viagra

Cyalis

33

acronym

This is an extremely common branding solution. It is part of the

natural process of refinement associated with established brands.

Over time it requires less and less of the original name in order to

make the mental connection in the viewer – the trigger becomes

refined to the acronym or the colour or the symbol alone. Often

customers forget what the acronym stands for and they no longer

need to know the name in order to recognise the brand.

It is the ultimate accolade of a successful brand strategy when a

smallest reference point triggers recognition. This makes these

brands highly competitive based on awareness and recall alone. All

brands should aspire to this reduction and should actively encourage

it. In brand development terms this is an indication of strength, not

weakness – less is more. All b2b brands should aspire to refinement

from the beginning. The reduction of your brand name is part of the

brand’s growth.

This group of brand names can have its roots in any of the

previous name segments:

34

Ingvar Kampard Elmtaryd Agunnaryd

Bayerische Motoren Werke

International Business Machines

British Broadcasting Corporation

International Chemical Industries

Dual Cyclone

35

choose a brand colour

Choosing colours is a natural process i.e. we look to nature for

the values of colour:

• Sunshine warmth, vibrancy yellow

• Life0blood energy, aggression red

• Sea & sky constancy, trust blue

• Earth natural caring green/brown

• Night mystery depth black

• Light clarity, purity, white

• Rare metals precious, special gold/silver

Colours can be chosen to reinforce your values. For example, the

optimism of ‘orange’ and the trust of Amex and IBM ‘blues’ and the

environmental concern of Bodyshop ‘green.’

Different cultures have different meanings for colours. In the

west red is the colour of energy and aggression, (the red of Ferrari or

the Manchester United ‘red devils’). In China it represents good luck

on birthdays and at New Year. On a physiological and psychological

level red stimulates the brain more than other colours. Maybe it is

not surprising then that the teams wearing red football kits have won

the European cup a disproportionate number of times. Many, many

successful brands use red as their colour: HSBC, Coca Cola,

Chevron, Vodaphone, 3M, Ferrari to name a few.

To have red as part of your brand brings energy to it. Not only

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brands, but also many countries use red to communicate their energy

and the blood of conquest and revolution. This is an aside, but if

creating a new brand in a new country it is a good idea to check to

see if you can leverage the national colours for your brand – another

kind of appropriation.

The most common colour for a corporate identity is blue, the

colour of constancy. You know where you are with blue and it’s a

colour you can trust. ICI, BMW, BA and Unilever are good ‘blue’

companies. These solid ‘blue0chips’ are the equities we can always

trust to deliver.

The greens and browns are colours of nature and increasingly

common in an environmentally aware and organic world. Brands like

Bodyshop, Waitrose and bp use green very effectively. Arguably the

M&S colours support their food offer well too. Green and brown

says organic.

Yellow is almost too vibrant to be often used as the primary

brand colour. The notable exception is in the contracting machinery

sector where to stand out is not only communicating high energy, but

is safer too. CAT and JCB are two brands that come to mind using a

predominance of yellow. Yellow is often used as a secondary colour

to add an accent of zing. Yellow is uplifting.

Mystery, depth and the aesthetic are communicated with black. It

is often used by premium consumer brands such as jewellery,

watches, perfume, etc. These brands are intriguing because of their

absence of colour – Sony, Nike, Orange, and NatWest all use the

depth of black for their brand. Black communicates premium in b2b

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too and is an underused colour in the b2b colour palette.

White is the leader of the colour pack. When it snows the colours

of our world are obfuscated and all colours of the rainbow are

contained within white light. White is the colour of purity,

simplicity, calm and spirituality. From the white robes of the Celtic

druid, to the white coat of the medical surgeon and dog collar of a

priest, white commands attention. It is no surprise that white is a

common colour in the corporate palette, particularly in

pharmaceutical and medical sectors.

There is something about gleaming metals that appeals to our

shared consciousness. For millennia, pure metal must have been

exceedingly rare, desirable and valued both as jewellery and

weapons. It is not surprising that these colours appeal to us deeply.

These metals often had highly cultural meanings and were revered.

Therefore, silver and gold are colours of premium and status.

Silver is often used in technology and car sectors. Silver can be

quite a masculine colour.

Gold on the other hand is more alluring, more feminine (more

expensive!). Gold is often used on premium consumer brands from

beers to chocolates 0 the gold top, gold crest, etc. Tescos uses gold

on its Finest brand. The ultimate premium colour selection is a

combination of gold, black, white and red.

Communication is not limited to the colour itself. We can also

choose tones and shades too. Deep colours denote premium value.

Bright colours appeal to children and are used by budget brands.

Pastel colours are softer and more feminine.

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We have so many colour combinations to choose from. Using

colour we can choose to stand together or we can choose to stand

apart from our customers and competitors. Your choice of colours is

a considered one and is a fun thing to do. Ultimately, after years of

consistent application, the sight of the colour alone in a given context

can represent the brand.

• Soft drink red Coke

• Mobile telephones orange Orange

• Computers blue IBM

• Petrol green bp

A word of caution. Obviously the more colours you choose to be

part of your brand the more expensive it is to maintain consistency

and reproduce the brand when applying it to things. It is wise to

choose a primary colour, accent colour and complementary palette.

Many highly successful brands just use black or a single colour in

their mark and allow additional colours to come from the things that

they choose to brand. This is part of the confidence that comes when

a brand is established and reduced. The BBC is a great example of a

brand that moved from the multiple colours of broadcasting in their

brand, to the simplicity and quality of just black and white. Sony is

another quality brand that just uses black in the brand.

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choose a brand symbol

Not every brand needs the additional symbol. Often the name,

typography or the colours alone are symbolic enough. But sometimes

a symbol can really add to the visibility of a brand. Nature exhibits a

natural symbolism, read by animals at a subconscious level. In nature

signs mean things 0 when to mate, whom to mate with, what to eat,

where to find food, who are your friends and who to avoid in the

forest. It seems only natural for human beings to take this to the

conscious level and to adopt these natural symbols to mean cultural

things to themselves and others 0 friend or enemy, freeman or slave,

priest or farmer, trendy, boring. In society everything is symbolised

as it is in nature.

In Texas recently we noticed the symbols on a number plate and

we were struck how the Texas brand reinforces its identity through

the appropriation of signs. We had a debate concerning the state’s

existence – one side of the argument was that the state only really

exists because of the definition it is given by the signs – the cowboy

– the moon – the space shuttle – oil wells and its chosen uber sign –

the lone star (chosen to represent the fight for independence from

Mexico and then as a symbol of the Texan republic), which all

appear on this number plate. Take the signs away and the brand of

Texas is diminished. The signs define the conceptual boundaries of

the state.

The counter argument claims that without the signs the state still

exists 0 the people – the land – the boundaries.

It is possible to harmonize these two positions. In physical terms

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the state physically exists but psychologically if we have no signs we

have no orientation to say whether we are emotionally in the state or

somewhere else – anywhere else.

We need to appropriate the signs of our environment to help us to

identify with our group. Signs and their symbolism help us to stand

together or stand apart.

If you desire to choose a symbol for your brand then it helps if

you know your deepest values so you can mirror them with

something from your world 0 either natural or man made 0 that share

these values. This creates a powerful connection with the members

of the group who share the knowledge of the sign and what it

symbolises.

All societies appropriate items from their surroundings and make

them symbolic to their own group. In nature these symbols are

intrinsic to different species. In humans we create this species0like

differentiation by codifying things for our ‘tribe.’ Almost anything

can be made symbolic. Take the symbol used by the Rolling Stones

based on Mick Jagger’s lips!

Over the millennia human beings acquired the ability to adopt,

adapt and manipulate symbols mirroring the natural world. For all

the complexity of our human societies, paradoxically it is often the

natural world that becomes symbolic in them.

Often it is the things that are closest to us whose significance we

understand intuitively that the group chooses to make symbolic 0 the

stars of the US flag, the cedar tree of Lebanon, the Southern Cross of

Australia. It is as if their natural boundaries mirror our own0shared

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consciousness – events, nature, geography, race and environment.

All are acquired and made symbolic of the group that we belong too.

Symbols range from:

• the super valued symbols of culture and religious faith

• the symbols of politics (the ‘elephant’ of the republicans and

the ‘rose’ of New Labour)

• the symbols of business (the bull and the bear of the stock

exchange, the Nike tick. It’s worth noting here that the symbol

is next to valueless until it is imbued with meaning and shared

memory. The designer who came up with the Nike tic design

was a student Carolyn Davidson who was paid $35.

Interesting to speculate how much this symbol is worth now?)

• the prosaic symbols of the football club mascot (the Chicago

Bears, the Manchester United red devils, etc)

This symbol was synonymous with CND in the 50’s and 60’s and

with the peace movement in the US during the Vietnam War. With

all our current anxieties 0 the threat of nuclear terrorism, nuclear

proliferation, Iran, Trident and the revisiting of the nuclear energy

programme in the UK 0 it is set for a refresh.

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The combination of the rational and the emotional are striking

within the symbol. The sign combines the semaphore symbols for

N(uclear) and D(isarmament) and the impeaching figure with open

arms imploring, ‘why?’

Symbols are made more powerful by their simplicity. The orange

square of orange, the candle and barbed wire of Amnesty

International, the poppy of Armistice Day, the maple leaf of Canada,

the propeller of BMW, the Helios of bp (this is a cautionary tale, as I

heard the other day that Friends of the Earth have appropriated the

bp Helios and represented it as the burning planet!). These symbols

connect us with the point, the purpose and the relevance.

Many brands do perfectly well without a symbol and if you are

going to choose to have one, make it simple, make it intuitive, make

it reflect the moment and make sure it is easily applied. And another

thing 0 make sure everyone can see it. As a matter of interest the

Peace symbol has no copyright and we can all use it.

choose brand typefaces

Another key component of your brand is the typeface. When

choosing a typeface there are some fundamental decisions to be

made 0 is it to be serif, sans serif, script, condensed, bold, light,

extended, italic, capitals, lower case, etc. There are literally

thousands of combinations to choose from and these choices say

something about your brand. Type is encoded with meaning not

unlike colour.

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Type can indicate the brands nationality, cultural roots and

historical period.

Often type is used by consumer brands to reinforce provenance

either perceived or real. The Perrier logotype is so – ‘je ne c’est

quoi?’ – French. The traditional type face of Crabtree & Evelyn

communicates a quintessential Englishness, when in fact it is an

American creation. Type is fashionable and defines and resonates

with different periods – art deco; World War II; the swinging sixties.

Pizza Express still retains that flower power look. Type tells the

viewer so much. Type helps to position the brand in the sector. A

typeface can be used to align your brand to a sector or stand out from

the crowd, e.g. Virgin’s use of the scripted ‘V’ visually reinforces the

brand’s differentiation from the traditional corporation. Similarly a

typeface can be adopted to signify belonging. In this case being

different is not an advantage. For example, all US sports teams are

signified by their use of bold slab serif faces. The pharmaceutical

and technology sectors have similar preferences for clean, modern

styles. It would seem inevitable that Dyson chose a sans serif face to

position their reputation for technological innovation, design and

performance. These choices are part of developing your brand

strategy and quickly connect you with the values of your customers.

Often it pays to make your logotype unique to reinforce

differentiation, your sense of ownership and aid registration and

trademark protection.

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Warm

TOUGH

intellectual

modern

old fashioned

45

in summary:

c + a = vf α value

It is the consistency (c) and application (a) of the brand elements over time (t) that delivers visibility (v) and

favourability (f). Visibility and favourability is proportionate to value (v).

t

46

what do you brand?

“…first impressions are memorable, use the brand

to make them so.”

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brand the tangible

Earlier we defined the difference between ‘the brand’ and ‘the

cows.’ The ‘cows’ are split into two groups the tangible and the

intangible and we wish to create visibility and reinforce

differentiation by branding both.

Visibility in context is essential. As a rule of brand if customers

can’t see you, they can’t find you! If you are not seen consistently

the customer gets confused.

The jury is out on a leading budget airline and car hire company

in our family. The airline – douze points (plane on time, plane brand

new, pilot competent – staff friendly and efficient…it’s all you need)

Car hire from the same company 0 nil points (brand invisible at Pisa

airport, no signs, no guidance, no staff…!) The car hire franchise had

been given to a local car company. This lack of brand visibility

meant we had to work it all out for ourselves, contributing to overall

negative brand perceptions for both parts of their business – negative

brand perception in one area affects the positive brand reputation in

another.

If you desire to stand out, the first task is to choose the tangible /

physical objects of your business that you intend to brand and make

your ownership of them visible.

First you need to audit all internal and external, tangible branding

opportunities:

• buildings

• products

• receptions & meeting rooms

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• offices

• vehicles

• communications

• literature

• people

• websites

• stationery, etc.

If our aim is to be visible then the brand must be discreetly or

blatantly present on everything. Look at your building, your car park,

your people and particularly your reception area. Does your brand

surround your customer and embrace them in a differentiated

experience? If your brand environment is uninspiring or the same as

others then you are selling yourself short, keeping your value hidden,

not visible. You do not stand out. Your own physical environment is

not the only place to make your brand visible.

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I came across this great piece of branding whilst I was waiting for

the 7am Intercity from Swindon to Paddington. The Hornby brand

has had resurgence in recent years and with brand placement like this

it is hardly surprising! What a catch for all the baby boomer dads as

they trudge to work. Any excuse to buy that train set the second time

around.

Make the brand visible on partners’ products too if you can and

if it is relevant. (I was recently in a Hamley’s toyshop and saw that

the staff sweatshirts were dual branded with Hamley’s and Ever

Ready, making the relevant association between toys and long life

batteries).

Finding additional tangible branding opportunities is a creative

challenge. Using sponsorship and events is a common way of

tangibly extending brand visibility – the opportunity is to find

relevant connections between your customer, your product and the

chosen branding opportunity. Consumer companies have done this

for years – Marlboro branding motor racing and snooker, Land

Rover sponsoring horse trials.

B2b companies use industry events, golf days, rugby and football

matches for relationship building but sometimes do not maximise the

brand visibility. If the brand is as visible as possible it is more likely

that the investment in the event will be much longer lasting than the

day itself as memories of the event will always be linked with your

brand.

It is also desirable to brand physical items that customers will

take into other areas of their life. It is possible to get your brand into

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their office, or even into their home. Seeing the trigger will stimulate

a continuous reminder of the brand. This is the physical side of

branding. This is the brand that we can see in the world.

The ultimate branding coup must surely be Coca Cola’s branding

of Father Christmas in the 1940’s and 50’s which was symptomatic

of the increasing commercialisation of Christmas for the consumer

age.

brand the intangible

To be competitive we must brand more than the tangible things

we own. When branding the intangible the aim is to get inside the

customers’ heads. If possible, we wish to brand their subconscious.

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This means branding the customers’ fears, desires, memories and

beliefs, whereupon the brand becomes the trigger for their recall.

For the duration of England’s World Cup campaign Mars literally

replaced its brand with the England supporters’ psyche. I can only

BELIEVE that this campaign was an inspired success for Mars,

sadly not for England though – Ronaldo put a stop to that!

It is desirable to brand the things we cannot see – the things that

exist in the mind of the customer. We heard a funny story at a

seminar recently. We were discussing the justifications for the

elevated price point of Heinz beans over their own0label rivals, and

as usual the 'Heinz beans tastes better' brigade was winning. Then

one of the delegates, who up until then had been quiet all morning,

piped up with an amusing story of his personal brand deception.

Some years earlier his girlfriend had bought home 'stripey

Tesco value’ beans in the weekly shopping. Seeing them was

an affront to his status and sensibilities, so he made it clear

that "...there would only be Heinz beans in his kitchen

cupboard!"

Subsequently, he was pleased to see that his instructions

had been carried out to the letter and for the next couple of

years he was pleasantly reassured every time he opened the

kitchen cupboard to see his precious Heinz beans proudly

standing to attention on the shelf. Unbeknown to him his

girlfriend had been buying Tesco’s value beans for ages and

hiding them at the back of the cupboard. He had been eating

the Tesco's brand beans for years. Being deceived by what he

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saw in the cupboard he was convinced that the beans on his

plate were his beloved Heinz. The emotional reassurance

provided by the sight of the brand was enough to modify the

perceived taste of the beans. In truth they weren't Heinz, they

were inferior and he fooled himself every time he ate them.

I think this goes to prove that when we buy Heinz we are

buying into much more than taste alone. We are paying for

other emotional reassurances as well and we justify and

rationalise this as taste. To do otherwise would be admitting

our irrational judgement.

Filling up with petrol recently I noticed that Esso has

developed a fuel brand called ‘Energy.’ This is a perfect

example of branding the intangible benefit as well as the

tangible product. As a car driving customer, of course we don’t

value petrol, we value ‘energy’. In b2b terms how often do we

promote the product rather than the customer benefit? Too

often. It feels counter intuitive to promote the customer’s need

0 the desire for energy 0 rather than the business aim to sell us

petrol. This Esso branding reminds the driver of the intangible

value of the fuel every time they fill up the car. This is timely,

with fuel prices at the pump nudging a pound a litre. Two

years ago we had fuel riots and blockades over the price of

petrol, at this time we are more resigned to the value of energy

it seems. And the uncertain future of energy is packed with

emotional content

When bp first ran their ‘beyond petroleum’ campaign, they were

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ridiculed. Being first with the idea has resulted in them emerging as

the leader of the pack. No one is making fun now, as their profits rise

exponentially. On the one hand, oil is a finite resource and will

eventually run out. On the other hand, our need for energy never

will. We can take some heart from the fact that oil companies are

rebranding as energy companies and reinvesting some of their profits

in our future need for energy, not petrol. Let us hope this sign from

Esso is more than just a cynical marketing ploy and is part of a

broader understanding of our future needs. Your brand being top of

the customers’ mind should be your goal. Being remembered first is

a great advantage as it is very difficult for a competitor to usurp your

brand from the customer's mind if it is your brand that is associated

with the intangible thing first. This makes Volvo’s desire to change

their perceived value from safety to lifestyle an uphill challenge for

them.

Consumer brands have known this for years, and this is where

b2b brands can achieve outstanding results, because b2b companies

are locked into the tangibility of their fixed assets, products, and

services. Too often they do not spend the thinking time to evaluate

the intangible things that can be branded in the mind.

All companies, customers, people, products and services have

intangible attributes that can increase their value if made visible with

branding.

We desire to brand these intangible things.

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brand the customers’ contexts

The first intangible we have an opportunity to brand is the

customer context itself. The customer context is the stimulus for the

customers’ anxieties and desires. Branding these things gets you and

the customer onto the same page.

B2b marketing can learn from its consumer cousins. Consumer

markets are by necessity much more focussed on the customer, not

the products, first. Consumer companies hold up a mirror to the

customer. The customers see themselves as if in a mirror and in this

image products and services are positioned. A recent television

advert by a well known washing powder promotes the idea that

getting dirty is a worthwhile consequence of the customer’s aim to

have fun, (play rugby, dig the garden, climb trees, etc) – this

represents the customer’s image and the customer’s desire. The

washing powder actually promotes getting dirty. This is counter

intuitive 0 promoting what is wrong doesn’t feel right. From the

product position, getting dirty is bad, being clean good!

Championing the customers desire to get dirty doing the things they

love gives this product an edge. B2b does not invest the time or

creativity to differentiate their understanding of the customer context

and is very rarely brave enough to promote the story from the

customer’s point of view. This is one of the reasons why b2b

marketing is often undistinguished and whole sectors

undistinguishable.

The fact that in consumer markets choice is almost infinite for

like products – cosmetics, mobile phones, cars, fashion,

Context & memory

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confectionery, insurance 0 means that the context of the customer

often provides the only basis for differentiation and not the product

per se. For example one car is packaged to multiple customer groups.

The jaguar X type and the Ford Mondeo share the same chassis

platform. The Royal Bank Of Scotland packages insurance products

to different customer segments such as Directline, Privilege and

Churchill. The customer makes the difference not the product. At a

more ‘everyday’ level the publishers of Harry Potter have used the

customer to differentiate the story since the first book when the

children’s cover version was priced at £4.99 and the adult packaged

cover priced at £6.99. Not a single muggle difference and yet an

additional two pounds for the privilege.

In consumer marketing, differentiation is not defined by the

product. It is defined by the customer context. Our argument is that

this is increasingly the case in b2b too.

In the desire to ‘close’ the deal b2b companies too often go

straight to branding the product and miss out the customers’ story

completely. A consumer business would never do this as they realise

that to brand the customer context delivers greater levels of empathy

and rapport and ultimately value. This is branding the ‘open.’

Making the customer’s story visible and branding it is a highly

competitive opportunity that needs to be addressed with care and

attention. The customers’ context holds up a mirror to the customer

and provides the ‘WHY’ question. It is very advantageous to brand

them.

Orange has done a spectacular job of branding specific customer

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contexts, taking relevant and different imagery from particular

customer groups and imbuing it with the black, white and orange

pallet of the brand. The quirky illustration of Dracula for 16 year

olds, the sponsorship of the Baftas for the 40 plus AB’s, orange

pinstripe suit for business customers. Orange gains by successfully

declaring a deep level of understanding to every customer segment.

The maxim here is ‘one brand many contexts’ rather than many

brands many contexts – that is unless you can support this multiple

brand strategy, like a Unilever or P&G does.

brand the vision, promise and the ‘big’ idea

If you can express what is wrong, you can position yourself to

make it right!’ This is the big idea at the centre of a leading brand

strategy.

Every company should have a promise that they can brand. The

promise represents the customer’s desire. A clear promise always

puts the customer first. The promise is attractive because it always

provides customers with a vision that distances their anxieties and

invites their desires. A promise affects people emotionally. A

promise gives the customer a vision of the future that they can

believe in. If the customer believes in the promise then the promise

maker achieves greater control.

A promise defines what you stand for. This is the “I have a

dream…” passion that drives successful companies.

Companies cannot be driven by the profit and loss alone – they

need to have the emotional fuel to improve something, put

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something back and make the world a better place. Then they need to

brand it. Volvo has branded ‘safety’, Cat has branded ‘toughness’,

BMW brands ‘status’, Orange has branded ‘optimism.’ All these

promises are denied from the competition because these brands

branded them first – it is not only first to market, it is first to

mind too.

This is where a company needs to show leadership to its target

customer group. The best brands lead us by engaging actively with

the future. Leading companies literally brand the customers’ vision

for them.

We do not invest enough time in thinking – strategic thinking.

Too often we think only about how to act, not ‘why’ to act. Leaders

in the boardroom need to spend more time thinking beyond the

boundaries of their operational business to look at the market

environment and think about their responses to trends as they

emerge. It is not uncommon to find businesses that have a business

model that evolved in a previous time. That is out of step with the

current conditions – sometimes by years.

Ideas should not be preserved in aspic, revered but irrelevant.

Ideas need to move on.

Running out of ideas comes slightly before running out of

business road. Just ask Golden Wonder. Thinking is good corporate

governance; could Golden Wonder have thought their way out of

trouble? It’s too late, so we’ll never know.

Thinking about the future protects it.

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Bp’s ‘beyond petroleum campaign’ has secured their position as

the most environmentally conscious oil company, or IBM’s ‘on

demand business campaign’ makes them the on0demand leader. Both

these ‘philosophies’ were introduced in opposition to the established

view of the day. ‘Beyond Petroleum’ was launched with the oilfield

in recession and oil at $20 a barrel and IBM launched the ‘e0business

on demand’ campaign at the height of the dot com crash. Brave. In

business it pays to have a counter intuitive idea that ‘zigs’ when the

competition ‘zags.’

Get in touch with your philosophical side – you know it makes

good business sense.

brand the values and the way

So many values to choose from when preparing a brand strategy

and yet so few b2b companies bother or make an effort to choose

unique values to brand. Not many b2b companies think about the

values that are really attractive to their customers. Surprising really

as these are the values that reinforce differentiation. Values are

derived from the promise. The values are the way to deliver what is

promised.

At the end of the day one latte is very like another isn’t it? – the

product is not the differentiator. Costa Coffee differentiates ‘the

way’ they make their coffee. Costa goes further to explain to

customers their particular values and behaviours. This is the Costa

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way that defines the criteria on which the brand is judged.

• The Costa PASSION for coffee which means their beans

are roasted for 18 minutes compared to the competitors 7

or 8

• Costa coffee is AUTHENTIC Italian, a blend of 6 Arabica

beans to 1 Robusta

• Costa OWNS THE PROCESS from factory to store

These are the rules that make Costa Coffee the best!

Often in business our products are the same and it is only the way

that we conceptualise them that makes the difference. It is worth

making an effort to think about ‘your way’ so you can tell a story

that sets you apart. The product is the same (in this case coffee) but

the Costa way is different.

In consumer marketing this is a common ploy. B2b is missing a

trick with undifferentiated offerings all telling the same story. The

spoils go to the company that makes the effort to tell a customer

centric story that increases the customers’ desires and sets doubts in

their minds about the competitors.

Values should be used to set the criteria on which your

competitors are judged and set the criteria for all your competition.

In this way you can brand your strengths and expose the

competitors’ weaknesses.

Too often b2b companies often make a couple of fundamental

mistakes:

Firstly, they brainstorm a random list of disconnected values

that articulate their own rather than the customers’ values. They

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may then feel good but these values will rarely engage the

customer.

Secondly, they choose the basic off the shelf values like quality,

service and innovation. Too often these are the old favourites. This

list no longer provides differentiation unless you are possibly Rolls

Royce, Claridges or 3M, when branding these values can still be

differentiating and defining. In b2b it pays to try harder.

These days the basic values are now the ‘get to game’ rather

than the ‘win the game.’ The company values we choose must be

meaningful and together with our customers we must be able to

believe in them. If we do then this will increase our relevance to

them and encourage engagement with the business.

When we make a stand for certain values they keep our attitudes

and behaviours on track. If we stray it becomes obvious. That’s

why the values must be thought through and meaningful. If they are

not then in the mind of the customer we appear just like every other

company in our sector.

Values are best expressed in threes and this makes them

memorable. For the Celts, three was a magic number. Three is a

powerful conceptual construct. In a geometrical sense the triangle is

the strongest shape and a stool can only stand when it has a

minimum of three legs. Three is an economical solution. A set of

three branded values is very memorable. Invest in the time to:

• explore the values you share with your customers;

• boil them down into a set of three that you are prepared to be

accountable for and measured by

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• promote them consistently to your staff and customers

• use repeatedly to establish ownership to deny your

competitors the ability to claim them.

If you live by the values you brand you will increase your

differentiation and strengthen your competitive advantage. Words

of caution if you promote these values but do not live by them, then

you are breaking the promises to your customers. There is no doubt

and Branson has admitted that difficulties with Virgin rail, which

were largely beyond his control, have had a negative affect on the

brand in the UK. He has stuck stoically to the task to turn his

company and its performance around. But if you are the

‘consumers’ champion’ then this does not sit well with the fact that

Virgin trains are consistently late. A poor product will always

reduce the value of the brand that makes it visible.

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faith, hope and charity

equality, fraternity,

liberty

God, queen and

country

third time lucky

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brand the business reputation

Positive and negative brand perceptions operate a bit like a bank

account and memories and experiences are the currency on deposit.

When in credit your brand gains interest, when overdrawn expect

your customers to close your account. Your brand can cope with one

or two bad experiences and these events keep you sharp, as

imperfection has a purpose – it’s natural. However, treat your

reputation with disrespect and expect customers to leave in droves.

In the late eighties Gerald Ratner made the biggest marketing

gaffe of all time – whilst referring to a sherry decanter from one of

his stores at a dinner speech he told the collected business audience

that it was crap. When reported in the Sun the next day it sparked

one of the biggest corporate crashes of the yuppie era. Ratners had

just posted a profit of 110 million pounds and this comment stuck the

boot into the very customers that had fuelled the profits.

Not surprisingly the customers dropped the brand overnight. He

became a scapegoat for the masses. The papers had a field day.

Gerald was sent to corporate purgatory and the story became part of

marketing folk law. Customer trust takes years to earn and can be

lost in an instant.

There is a moral for us all here. Profit isn’t a corporate birthright

(FD’s please take note). The customer permits organisations to make

a profit. Upset the customer and that permission is quickly rescinded.

Beware customer abuse. Customers are amazingly patient, but they

are not stupid. Profit is the reward for giving the customer value. If

you mine their value rather than farm it, they will punish you.

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where do you

brand?

“… every brand

competes against

other brands in

generic market

contexts.”

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context provides relevance

Brands give customers signposts that help them to find what they

want to buy. In a context with competing products and services it is

the brand that communicates the difference.

The context provides boundaries for the customer to make their

brand assessments and choices. For example, when out shopping we

can choose brands in many contexts, and even within one market,

say ‘sports,’ there are many contexts and many brand choices:

Context: Brand:

Channel:

ebay

John Lewis

Runners’ World

Shoe manufacturer:

Nike

Asics

Puma

Product:

Nike Air Structure

Asics Gel

NB RX Terrain

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So many brands, so many contexts and so many choices – it’s no

wonder brands need to be visible. Brands are positioned in every

context to aid customer choices on the purchasing journey either

outside in, from the channel to the product, or inside out from the

product to the channel.

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when to review

your brand?

“…it is the quality of

the things you brand

that creates value.

The brand makes

this value visible.”

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Reviewing the brand strategy should be a continuous task, but

there are times of particular focus. Principally there are three times to

consider the brand strategy –

• when introducing a new company, product, service

• when the market shifts and customers or competitors

change

• when there is new ownership or leadership

brand strategy for new company or product

Much of this book discusses the creation of a new brand – the

reasons why we do it; choosing name, colour and symbol and how,

where and when to apply it. Before we embark on the investment of

brand creation we must always ask ourselves, is our new product,

service or company worthy of the investment it takes to create a new

brand? Too often we are tempted to dive straight in and brief the

design and creative professionals. It pays to stop and think. A brand

is for life not just for Christmas. Sometimes we feel the need to

brand things when in fact we just need to market the current brand

better. This is particularly so when the parent is weakened by

acquisition, poor decisions or poor leadership. Sometimes it is better

to come up with a new product name rather than a brand. To get a

new brand launched is like launching a rocket into orbit. It takes a lot

of energy to escape gravity but without this impetus a new brand

may never fly.

If you do decide to launch something new remember to choose

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strategically whether you wish to stand out from the crowd or look

like your competitors.

brand strategy for brand extension

Extending the brand is best done from a strong conceptual

position. If a brand is known for standing for highly customer centric

values then it is feasible to leap into parallel markets with some ease.

Even though in truth, from a manufacturing point of view, the

experience is not always legitimate. Caterpillar, the famous plant

machinery brand had always marketed the reputation for rugged and

hard working machinery and since 1999 has used these values to

legitimise its outdoor and work wear clothing brand – the idea of

‘hardworking’ appears to be very transferable. In truth it is unlikely

that an intimate knowledge of plant machinery has any relevance at

all for the intricacies of clothing manufacture and marketing.

Apparently the punters do not question this lack of experience.

Similarly, Porsche the German sports car brand markets values of

performance and design for household appliances from kettles to

corkscrews.

brand strategy for market positioning

A fundamental shift in position will also lead to a review of the

brand – for example when bp moved to position ‘Beyond

Petroleum,’ or when Lucozade became an energy drink.

A new brand alone will not change a company’s fortunes 0

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Abbey, BA, Post Office (Consignia) and M&S all undertook

expensive re0branding exercises without effect, because there was

something fundamentally wrong with the position of their businesses

at the time. The brand change is usually made the scapegoat (much

to the delight of the press) when in fact it is the business position that

has the problem. This is a convenient slight of hand.

When re0positioning things – like your company – we can make a

slight linguistic adjustment and change the positioning significantly.

Positioning can be a subtle affair and two examples come to mind

recently – Prince Charles and Pluto the planet.

Prince Charles now wishes, should he ever become king, to

reposition the Monarch as ‘Defender of Faith’ rather than ‘Defender

of THE Faith’ – not withstanding Henry VIII spinning in his regal

tomb and the Archbishop of Canterbury raising one of his

considerable eyebrows. It’s a good example of the subtlety of

repositioning and how one small word can change the position

completely.

The second example is the galactic re0positioning that took place

recently, much to the solar chagrin of the planet Pluto. After 76 years

masquerading as a planet, Pluto has been found out. The poor thing

is not a planet after all. It is now repositioned as a ‘dwarf planet.’

This fundamental repositioning decision took the combined

intellectual power of 2,500 gathered astronomers to conclude.

When struggling to agree your company position spare a thought

for Pluto. Still it could have been worse for the diminutive body,

because somebody suggested that Pluto wasn’t even a dwarf planet

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but really just a piece of random space rubble left over from the birth

of our solar system!

Lucozade originally branded its position as a recuperative health

drink with the strap0line ‘Lucozade Aids Recovery.’ When the Aids

pandemic struck in the 80’s Lucozade changed the position to

‘Energy’ without changing the brand. Paradoxically, branding this

changed position, using sports stars such as Daley Thompson

(sponsored brand) at the time, allowed Lucozade to retain the health

reputation whilst at the same time entering new sports and recreation

markets.

The British Queen’s 80th birthday recently reminded us of a great

piece of re0branding. All is not what it seems in the world.

In 1917 at the height of the WW1 anti0German feeling was acute

with the bombing of cities with zeppelins and slaughter in the

Western Front. At the time the royal family was branded with the

name Sax0Coburg0Gotha, a bit on the German side, which reminded

the populous of their very un0british heritage. It was time for a brand

renaming and George V acted as impromptu image and branding

consultant. He came up with the idea of the House of Windsor after

Windsor Castle, built by a French King. The name was adopted and

has stuck. This just shows us how fickle brand naming really is. If

the very UK Royal family can re0brand and remain essentially the

same then all the brouhaha associated with many corporate re0brands

is just macho egotism. This supports the view that it is what is

branded that creates the value, not the brand itself.

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Anderson, the highly successful accounting and consulting firm,

retained the same position but successfully changed the brand to

Accenture. This shows that the brand and the positions you brand

can change independently. This is an important distinction. The

brand and the positioning are not necessarily intrinsically linked –

one can change without the other and changing one does not

automatically require changing the other either.

The truth is that a new brand without new value will change

nothing. Similarly, if the value of the products increase but the brand

is positioned as low value or poor quality then achieving the right

reputation is challenging but not impossible – VW’s work

repositioning Skoda has turned this brand challenge into a

spectacular success story,

It is really important to remember that it is the quality of the

things you brand, not the brand itself that creates the value. The

brand makes the value visible. This is the purpose of brand strategy.

Beware the brand agency baring excessive promises. A re0branding

will not increase the value unless the thing that is branded is of

value. In ranching terms, a poor quality steer is thin and feeble no

matter how fancy the brand!

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brand strategy for new leadership or

ownership

Brands are a mark of ownership, so it follows that when this

changes it is time to visit the brand strategy.

Often the acquirer will impose their brand on the company

acquired, sometimes without appropriate communication and

therefore damaging consequences. Employees and customers are

loyal to the original owner 0 if ownership changes it follows that

there needs to be respect shown to the original brand. Replacing one

brand with another without communication is discourteous and

confusing. This doesn’t mean that the original brand needs to be over

indulged either. Being decisive and communicating well is often the

best policy. Some highly acquisitive companies like GE have

developed this process into a fine art.

Sometimes companies will not only merge the business but will

merge the brands themselves e.g. LloydsTSB. This is the least

satisfactory solution as it is unclear who the true owner is 0 brand

compromises are rarely the best solution.

Without new ownership, new product, or new position there is

rarely a reason to dramatically change the brand. When ownership is

consistent the brand needs only to be refreshed to keep pace with

contemporary style and design. Shell, IBM, Barclays, 3M all have

had many iterations in their lifetimes. It is advisable to refresh the

brand every five years.

We have said that a brand strategy is based on choices: about the

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brand itself (name, colour, typeface symbol) and the things we

choose to brand (the steers – the tangible and intangible things).

There are reasons why we would choose to brand something and

there are choices we can make as to which contexts we place the

brand in.

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control your brand?

“… direct the

brand from the

boardroom.”

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In b2b, brand strategy is often not directed from the boardroom.

This would never be the case in a consumer business 0 brand strategy

is most definitely on the board’s agenda. In b2b a brand strategy

vacuum sometimes exists. Branding is sometimes misunderstood and

not deemed relevant – after all …”we don’t have thousands of

customers… ” This may be true but does not justify reducing the

importance of the brand strategy in the competitive advantage mix.

Doing so reduces visibility and furnishes competitive advantage to

the opposition.

Relying on the products to be the brands can weaken rather than

strengthen the value of the brand owner. In the b2b boardroom there

is a problem with definition and there is a tendency to call everything

a brand. This can be very misleading and confusing.

This has two serious consequences:

• the brand is not viewed as an asset and therefore neglected

allowing competitors the potential to take a competitive

opportunity. Paradoxically, this lack of interest in the brand and

branding in the boardroom in others provides the first mover

with considerable advantage in a b2b context – a well executed

brand strategy can release as much as 25 or 30% increased

shareholder value

• forceful product teams in b2b companies create a branded

approach for their area often out of frustration and a correct

belief in the power of brand strategy to create value. However,

because this is reactive rather than strategic it can divert

precious resources in the process. Rather than increasing brand

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value this can often serve to confuse customers and weaken the

strength of the parent brand. The product begins to usurp the

owner 0 this would not be allowed to happen in the consumer

arena. It may look like the consumer facing product brands are

in the driving seat 0 but this is an illusion. The brand owner is

very much in control 0 making highly considered strategic brand

strategy choices.

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house of brands or branded house

In business there are many things we wish to use brands to make

more visible and you need to develop a strategy that encourages the

recognition that you desire.

There are fundamentally two approaches:

• choosing to use many brands in many contexts, the house of

brands like Unilever, Kraft, and P&G

• or one brand in many contexts, the branded house like bp,

BMW, ICI and DHL.

More often than not the distinction is less clear0cut and in reality

many consumer companies are a hybrid. We know that the ipod is

brought to us by Apple, KitKat is brought to us by Nestle, BMW

brings us the M series. Knowing where the product comes from is

very important 0 the brand owner ultimately delivers and protects the

customer’s value.

There is a word of caution here for b2b brand strategists.

Consumer companies have the resources and expertise to support

and market multiple brands. They can afford a creative approach.

B2b needs to be selective about how many brands they support.

Too many can weaken the visibility of the parent, or ultimate brand

owner. Many times we have been required to consolidate product

names for b2b companies and make the principle brand more visible.

Brand culling can be a very liberating experience for b2b companies.

This is not only a b2b phenomenon, both Unilever and 3M have

recently culled numerous brands to strengthen and consolidate and

strengthen their overall brand visibility.

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the rules and the players

When considering the implementation of a brand strategy it is

useful to consider boundaries of responsibility. Football is a helpful

analogy. In football there are the players who play the game on the

pitch – these are like the sales and implementing marketing teams

within an organisation – and then there is FIFA which is the body

that writes the rules. This is like the management team that writes the

rules of the brand strategy. Ideally we need a great set of rules that

keeps the game fair and enhances the play and the spectacle. The

rules need to give the players the space to play creatively and safely

on the pitch. Everyone needs to understand the rules. There is a

balance between the rules and the play. It's that simple.

Sometimes in business the lines between the brand rules and the

brand play get blurred and in the absence of clear strategy the players

have a tendency to get creative! Imagine if the players wrote the

rules of football… mayhem. In business as in football it is usually

pointless to move the game from the pitch to the car park. This is

what happens when there is weak direction of the brand strategy 0

people start playing in all the wrong areas. This can lead to a waste

of resources at one level and more significantly the creation of

multiple brands that compete with each other and reduce the value of

the parent brand itself.

We believe that organisations need to be very clear what the

brand rules are and encourage the players to play creatively on the

right brand pitch.