Develop Brand Identity

There are 173 entries in Wikipedia when you look up the list of Google products. The few that I have experienced are truly amazing. Check out the whole list. You won't believe the breadth of innovative ideas that this one organization has developed and is developing.

How innovative is your organization? How might you nurture more new ideas and become a leader in your industry as Google has done in the world of online tools?

Element Three has developed Brand Chemistry, it's own deep dive tool to help brand managers and marketers to understand the true emotional connections between their brand and its constituents. This is just one of the innovative tools you will experience when you work with the Element Three team of marketing strategy, brand development and creative execution experts.

How often have you been making a list of potential ideas or solutions to a problem and been stuck? Why does this happen? Most likely, you are saying to yourself, "Wow, that last idea was great! I don't need to keep going," or "Gee, these ideas are lousy. I'm no good at this. I better stop."

Generating ideas is a key skill for developing brand communications. So here's a simple tip: don't stop and judge too fast. Come up with lots of ideas first. Work fast. Let yourself come up with as many ideas as possible. Think quantity, not quality. Later, go back over your ideas and judge them. Most of your ideas may not work but you'll have more good ones to choose from, too.

At Element Three, we often work with mid-size organizations to help them develop their brand create and implement marketing strategy and develop creative brand communications. Sometimes, our clients are new to these processes or to working with an Indianapolis marketing firm. Often, moving through the creative process is the most challenging part for those who are new to working with an outside creative resource.

To make things easy, we take a step-by-step approach. Once the key differentiators of the brand are identified, we create a series of potential brand boards that show how your brand might look and sound in type, copy, image and color. Once a directional board is chosen for the brand, everyone feels more confident as we develop brand identity. Next, for instance, many Indianapolis marketing firms may jump right to tight, comprehensive layouts to show creative concepts. We prefer to show several rough sketches so that the client has an early chance to give feedback. Once a rough sketch is selected and feedback is given, the entire team has a plan of attack agreed upon before moving into a tighter executional stage.

Checkpoints are good because they offer a chance for communication and clarity for the marketing partner and for the client. They also make for great creative executions.

We use Compendium for our blogging partner. Of course, the purpose of (most) blogs is to let people know a little bit about the "real" you, whether an individual or company. In many instances, the way bloggers are found is through online search for a particular subject or item. For instance, maybe you're a fan of the "Arizona Cardinals" (hey, why not?) or "Native Americans living in Cleveland", or "talentless unemployed actors" (to save time, one could also type in "Carrot Top").

On to my point: when writing in Compendium, they provide targeted keywords, which help the bloggers (moi) keep on track. The more keywords used, the stronger the post. In true 21st century coolness, there's even a keyword strength indicator, where red means "Steve, stop writing about the Arizona Cardinals" and green indicates "you're the best blogger, ever."

Today, I'm going for the green. This will be the strongest, keyword-heaviest, blog post. Ever... So, if you were looking for any (or all) of the following, sit back and enjoy (alpha order for your viewing pleasure):

Best Marketing Plans, Brand Chemistry, Brand Communication, Brand Consulting Companies, Brand Consulting Group, Brand Development Services, Brand Development Strategies, Brand Identity Development, Brand Marketing Consultants, Brand Positioning Strategy, Brand Strategy Agency, Brand Strategy Company, Brand Strategy Consultants, Brand Strategy Firm, Branding Consultancy, Business Communications Indianapolis, Business Logo Creation, Certified Brand Strategist, Corporate Brand Strategy, Creative Brand Development, Develop Brand Identity, Developing Brand Strategy, Indianapolis Ad Agency, Indianapolis Advertising Marketing, Indianapolis Brand Consultants, Indianapolis Brand Development, Indianapolis Brand Management, Indianapolis Brand Marketing, Indianapolis Business Marketing, Indianapolis Corporate Branding, Indianapolis Marketing Agency, Indianapolis Marketing Communications, Indianapolis Marketing Consultants, Indianapolis Marketing Firms, Indianapolis Marketing Plans, Indianapolis Marketing Strategy, Indianapolis Marketing Tools, Indianapolis Strategic Marketing, Logo Creation Services, Marketing Brand Development, Marketing Integration, Marketing Launch Strategy, Midwest Marketing Partner, Online Brand Strategy, Return on Marketing Investment, Strategic Brand Consulting, Strategic Brand Development, Strategic Marketing Planning, Successful Marketing Plans

There. I've officially made Code Green with the strongest blog post, ever! Call Element Three today if any of that interests you. Or, if you'd rather talk NFL football (especially the Arizona Cardinals) or wish to debate who the best hair metal bands from the eighties are, I'm ready.

It's easiest for us to think about brand touchpoints like logos, stationery, advertising, brochures and Web sites. These are the controllable things. Many organizations do a great job developing brand identity. And their brand consulting groups typically advise them (as we do) to create a set of foundational rules for the use of these tools so that they are used consistently.

Yet the most influential and memorable brand touchpoints of all is your people.

A recent airport experience highlighted this for me. I arrived at the gate of a well known airline that touts its friendliness and warmth. My colleague and I came up to the gate agent with our boarding passes. She said, "What do you want?", in a less than warm and friendly way. Taken aback, we said we wanted to check into the flight. She said, "Sit down. I'm not ready for you yet." in a brusque voice, thus undoing all the brand's communications to date.

In summary, make sure you train your people in the way you want your brand to be delivered so that what you SAY aligns with what you DO.

Min Basadur, author of The Power of Innovation and founder of Applied Creativity, has created the Min Basadur Creative Problem Solving Profile. In it, you rate a number of descriptors about yourself. The results help you to chart out your strengths and weaknesses as they relate to the four parts of the creative process (discover the problem/develop ideas/optimize solutions/implement solutions). If you think you're not a creative thinker, think again. There are parts of the creative process that require rational, critical thinking. As part of an Indianapolis ad agency, I can vouch for that. When we develop brand communications for our clients, we need the foundational elements of the marketing plan and brand brief to keep us on track. The sexy part of the process, developing ideas and optimizing solutions, is just the part that gets all the press.

At Element Three, we welcome all creative thinkers, whether they are discoverers, developers, optimizers or implementors. If you want to learn more about the Min Basadur Profile, go to http://www.basadurprofile.com/

Business Weeks' August 12 story, "Artists and designers are turning to data visualization to interpret the deluge of information around us, often with unexpected results", by Maria Popova, states: "Today algorithmically inspired artists are re-imagining the art-science continuum through work that frames the left-brain analysis of data in a right-brain creative story. Some use data visualization as a bridge between alienating information and its emotional impact—see Chris Jordan's portraits of global mass culture. Others take a more technological angle and focus on cultural utility—the Zoetrope project offers a temporal and historical visualization of the ephemeral Web. Still others are pure artistic indulgence—like Koblin's own Flight Patterns project, a visualization of air traffic over North America. Here, see a slideshow of works by 21 current pioneers of the discipline."

As brand communicators, we may sometimes overlook the power of the information our clients have at their fingertips. Bringing new light to it and sharing it, in context, can be valuable to our clients' customers. Next time you're developing brand communications, don't forget the data!

In consulting with our clients specific to their brand and identity, I'll often tell them to take some risks in an effort to stand apart. A clearly defined brand strategy shoould allow some creative flexibility in terms of our ability to develop brand visuals that are on target from a brand stance, yet aren't so vanilla that they go unnoticed.

Of course, there are always those that will push the bounds of creativity... Different is good, I believe. But sometimes being different is simply stupid (albeit quite funny). Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the idea whose time may never come: a business card made of meat:


You can learn more from their website at (where else?):  www.meatcards.com

My inbox features a daily e-newsletter, SmartBrief from AAAA.  It always contains subject matter that is relevant to the marketing and advertising communications industry. Today's article, Zappos Review Ignites Agency Ire, touched on the often sticky subject of RFPs.

Apparently, Zappos, posted its request for proposal on Adweek.com and 104 agencies responded to the opportunity to participate in the agency review process with the hopes of landing (or at least making the first cut) a $7 million account. For some, that meant two weeks of intensive effort on creating spec work. Keep in mind Zappo's original list contained 16 agencies; companies they pre-defined as qualified.  The posting process added another 6 to the list. In all, 22 agencies will have the opportunity to pitch for the business.  Can you imagine how exhausted the client will be after that exercise? I can see heads spinning now.  I only hope they have a detailed set of selection criteria pre-established before embarking on the daunting task of sitting through a 22-participant agency review process.

From Element Three's perspective, we are not a big fan of RFP process.  We are a strategic marketing firm that specializes in brand development, marketing strategy and creative execution. To fully understand a current or future client's needs, we believe in the importance of developing a relationship and fully understanding a client's business objectives BEFORE we get involved in pitching ideas.  To do our best work, the creative design and execution needs to be grounded in solid strategy. As strategy consultants, we owe it to our clients to have that understanding before we begin to do the work. Equally as important, we get paid for our thinking and to give it away freely through the RFP process is less than desirable.

That is not to say we do not do it. As a rule, we shy away from RFPs. If we do decide to participate, it is because the proposal is clearly written to a specific strength such as brand development or developing brand identity. We always follow up with a phone call and ask key questions before making the decision to go through the response process. Our goal is to gather as much information as possible using the proposal to guide our questions. We also like to know if an incumbent agency is participating in the process. Armed with this key information, we then decide if we will respond.

Sometimes the RFP process works, but I wouldn't build my relationship development strategy on the odds of winning, which are usually less than favorable.

What the world does this mean; "Are you a fat trainer?"

It means, are you doing for yourself what you tell your clients to do. If you sell windows, do you have great windows in your home and office building? If you service air-conditioners for a living, do you change your filter once a month?

Ad agencies and marketing firms in Indianapolis and beyond are notoriously horrible at this. They take the time to write successful marketing plans, create marketing communications tools, develop brand strategy and scorecards to measure return on marketing investment for clients... but not for themselves.

If you don't practice what you preach - can you really be taken seriously? As brand marketing consultants and an Indianapolis marketing agency, we have started being really hard on ourselves about this.

If we don't make the time to blog, how can we ask our clients to do it? If we don't have a strong online brand strategy and sharp looking materials - isn't it hypocritical to tell clients they need to?

We're not perfect, but we're making good progress. If you see us, an Indianapolis marketing agency, practicing what we preach - let us know!

When we are not busy developing brand strategy, brainstorming ideas for clients, designing logos and corporate identities or writing creative briefs, our team will engage in spontaneous fun by creating caption contests.  It usually starts with someone finding a picture and sending it out through email with a comment or better yet, an invitation to comment.

Within the marketing communications and advertising realm, we spend a lot of time thinking along with our doing, so an occasional break that invites creative thinking just for fun is welcome. Laughter and yes, a little competition usually ensues, and before too long we find ourselves re-energized by a good laugh and some pretty creative ideas. 

Here is the most recent image we used. Care to add your creativity to the caption fun? Leave us a comment.

Recently I've been working on audience dossiers, part of our our brand development strategies. When developing brand strategy for our clients we create a character that represents a composite or an average of the target audience and bring him to life. Based on primary and secondary market research, we name the character, apply age and other basic demographics. We talk about his daily life or work (or both) and even attempt to describe what is going on inside of his mind. We’ll even find a picture to put on the profile.

Time for a little side story: One time we found what we thought was a great head and shoulders picture for a character, a woman in her late 50s with a bright smile and attention to her hair and makeup. I even remember her name. Linda. It wasn’t until we had her in the presentation that we realized Linda wasn’t wearing anything, at least not on her shoulders. Yikes! We all had a very nice laugh and editorialized what Linda’s closet behaviors might be. (Ah, working with a bunch of creative people and fun clients is good.)

Anyway, I’d say that writing audience dossiers is one of the most fun things I do in my own work. And, fortunately for our clients and me, it’s also a useful exercise. When marketers describe their audiences in dry bullet point demographics alone, they have a hard time imagining their relationships with them. Once you meet the ideal client and can bring him to life, you more clearly imagine your conversations and thus create better marketing, sales messages and brand communications.

All the big brand identity agencies must be shouting "hallelujah!" It seems like a parade of major consumer brands has been getting some kind of face lift. By now, surely everyone has noticed the new Pepsi "smile" that I've been none too kind toward. Now Kraft is getting in on the come-on-everyone-let's-get-happy act. In this case, they've unveiled an identity treatment that will be used at the corporate level only. This one won't make it to the packages on the shelf, so they say.

To me, the logo looks like a big red smile under the word "foods" in Kraft Foods and ends with a sort of flowery color burst. And it comes with the tagline "Make today delicious."

From the outside looking in, it seems Kraft set out to develop brand identity aimed at their own employees and channel partners. And, honestly, I like the direction. Those groups carry the enthusiasm to deliver on the overall brand promise to the consumers. I frequently advise that you can make things as pretty as you want and promise the moon and the stars, but if you can't deliver on it, the money won't follow.

I wonder what big brand will be the next to unveil some new brand element.

I hear and see people saying that “brand” is dead. I think they mean “branding” is dead, branding being the practice of pushing out advertising and direct mail with the sole purpose of creating brand awareness. But brand itself is alive and well if you consider what it is – your evidence of distinction, a set of facts and emotions all rolled up into an essence that is represented when you develop brand identity (logos, taglines, colors, etc.) and other factors like product features, special language, etc. Don't make the mistake of thinking that brand positioning strategy isn't important to your success. Being clear about who you are and what you stand for is a critical starting point in your strategic marketing planning process.