The end of the year is coming up, and looking back at your brand in 2015 you realize that something seems just a little… off. Sales weren’t what you wanted them to be, your brand awareness and public relations wins came few and far between, or maybe you’re seeing competitors in your space start to slowly take away market share.

As you take stock of all of the factors that go into an organization’s success, the strength of your brand may not be at the top of the list. But chances are, it should. Your brand is one of, if not the most powerful asset for your organization when it comes to presenting yourself to the consumer and staking your claim in the marketplace.

Most organizations are looking for their brand to grow throughout its lifetime, and for some, that anticipated (and hoped for) growth includes expanding outside of their home region or country. However, this growth can come with a downside for the brand if certain aspects, specifically the brand name, aren’t suited to travel. Everything is going well – the brand is growing, new markets are identified, the stage is set for an initial foray into the global market – until the brand name falls flat once it leaves the home market.

So how does a brand ensure its success both locally and globally? Here are three areas of consideration to take into account when creating a brand name that will be used on a global scale:

Not only can a strong company brand drive consumer and market success, but it can also have a positive impact from within the office walls. Whether it’s through initial brand development or a rebranding effort, the creation and implementation of a strong brand will have a unifying effect on the organization as a whole.

Although often overlooked, here are three ways a strong brand can serve to make your organization stronger and more successful:

For almost 60 years, Lego bricks have been a favorite toy for millions of kids (and some adults) around the world. In fact, they have been named “Toy of the Century” two times – a feat that’s almost as impressive as the math is mind-blowing.

One of the toy’s most appealing characteristics is the ability it gives users to flex their creative and engineering muscles, creating something out of nothing and ending up with a finished product they can be proud of.

There’s a very good chance that the first (and possibly only) interaction that your audience will have with your brand will come via social media. With the vast majority of consumers spending their time on these platforms, your social media presence could be the difference between becoming a brand that finds success and being just another brand that falls by the wayside.

How branding and social media interact is a topic that covers a number of different perspectives and points of information, but today we’re going to look at how you can impact and improve your brand’s image online.

As with most aspects of business, a successful branding effort starts at the top. The brand must be developed in such a way and with an end product that provides for easy and full buy-in from leadership across the organization.

But what is often overlooked is how the characteristics of the brand are not the only factors involved in leadership’s role with the brand. In fact, it is a two-way street. Leaders who wish to preside over successful brands must also possess certain characteristics in order to utilize their role in the organization to the fullest extent when dealing with the brand.

The research firm Clutch recently interviewed our own Brannon Cashion on the trends and best practices around naming a company. Brannon discussed several topics regarding what businesses should think about when working through the naming process and some trends he’s seen recently in naming.

With Addison Whitney’s long history of naming and branding experience, and his own extensive history in the industry, Brannon was able to offer a unique and informed perspective on the topic.

As with most elements of business, preparation is a key factor to finding success. Sometimes, the work done prior to the project is just as important as the work done during. This same idea is in play during the branding process. Jumping right into a new brand development or a rebrand is akin to jumping in a pool before finding out how deep it is. Those brands who begin their branding journey by following these five steps ensure they’re starting off on the right foot.

Have you ever tried to talk to a group of people who aren’t listening? It’s an exercise in futility and a waste of time. This goes for brands that don’t identify their target audiences early in the branding process. They’re stuck shouting at the masses, hoping a few will actually hear the message. Before you can start determining your messaging, you first must decide who will be most apt to listen and associate with your brand and what your brand has to say.

The question whether or not to have a presence on at least one social media platform has become an easy one for brands – without any social media existence, a brand will be left out of one of the fastest-growing and increasingly vital aspect of a branding experience.

But now that it’s rightfully assumed that your brand will be a player in the social space, it’s also rightfully assumed there will be some trepidation. A brand, especially those newly formed or refreshed, is a delicate entity, still finding its way and looking for anything solid and safe to hold onto – and social media can be anything but those two.

“If, in the business of communication, image is king, the essence of this image, the logo, is the jewel in its crown”. – Paul Rand

As the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. For brands, that first impression often comes when the audience initially sees its logo. Without a strong visual brand representation, any following movement toward branding success can be doomed to be an uphill climb. As Paul Rand points out, your brand’s image is a massive aspect of its brand, and your logo is the centerpiece.

Today we are excited to have a guest blog from our Director of Visual Branding, Cathleen Foley!

“What’s your favorite color?” is a common question I get asked as a graphic designer. I usually respond with, “Well, what is the color being applied to?”

What if I told you that organizations and products across the marketplace could take branding advice from a collection of neighborhoods in Nashville?

After the confused looks and wondering if I’ve lost my mind, I’d tell you that these neighborhoods have identified two of the main tenants in branding, and have put the full force of their efforts behind raising the bar within their market.

Developing a brand is not a knee-jerk process; moving too quickly and looking to take shortcuts will produce a brand that is incomplete and behind the game even before its launch. However, the amount of time spent on the brand development is not alone enough to ensure whether it will find success.

No, it doesn’t matter as much HOW much time you spend, but WHAT you do in that time. The old business adage, “action always trumps activity” can also be applied to branding. Monitoring and making sure that your brand development is heavy on the action and light on activity, you can point the brand in the direction of efficiency from the very beginning. Here are a few ways to ensure this happens:

The Super Bowl. Not only the biggest football game of the year, it’s also the biggest game in the advertising world. Many millions of dollars are spent on the annual event, which puts even more pressure on the created ads to push the needle for their brands.

And with a night full of high-profile brand decisions, we knew that time needed to be spent analyzing the commercials and the brands behind them – so on the Monday following the big game, our Addison Whitney brand fanatics gathered to do just that.

Addison Whitney Health Senior Vice President Vince Budd is featured in the latest issue of PM360 Magazine, with another edition of the “Brand Slam” series.

This month’s “Brand Slam” article is titled “Get to Know More About Brand Naming.” It focuses on the importance of partnering with branding and naming agencies who have an in-depth and extensive knowledge of the latest in branding regulations and trends.

Addison Whitney’s Global President Brannon Cashion is featured in the December edition of PM360 Magazine, with the final 2015 edition of his of his series of “Brand Slam” articles.

This month’s edition of the “Brand Slam” article series is titled “Seize the Innovative Moments – Branding Today”

Has your company recently experienced change or growth? As companies and products evolve, your name, visual identity and positioning need to evolve as well.

Join Addison Whitney for a informative webinar on Wednesday, November 18th entitled: “Evaluating Your Brand: Are You Due for a Refresh?

This past week, members of the Addison Whitney Charlotte office, as a part of the “AW Helping Hands” philanthropy efforts, volunteered their time with Operation Christmas Child, helping sort, inspect, pack and ship thousands of shoe boxes filled with toys and gifts for children in need around the world.

Their efforts helped Operation Christmas Child move closer to their goal of sending out 2.4 million shoe boxes from just the Charlotte center alone, and made a dent in the 11.2 million shoe boxes that will be shipped from around the world, with processing centers across the United States and Canada, in addition to locations in Europe and Australia. The boxes packed by the AW teams were then sent to children in Ghana, the Bahamas and Haiti.

There are few things worse for a company’s image than to be seen as one that believes they can connect with today’s consumers, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Misguided efforts to force their out-of-touch branding onto current audiences can come off as forced and counter-productive.

But on the other end of the spectrum, when these established brands, made up of some of the oldest and longest-lasting brands on the market, are successfully able to connect with the wants and needs of today’s consumers, they can reinvigorate the brand, potentially introducing it to an entirely new audience.

At Addison Whitney, our people are our most valuable resource. We are lucky to have such a talented group working throughout our offices, and in our AW Spotlight series we wanted to spotlight our employees, finding out more about who they are, and their thoughts on working at Addison Whitney.

In this edition of the AW Spotlight, we wanted to get the insights of four of our amazing team members from our visual branding and verbal branding teams, finding out what gets their creative juices flowing, and asked them their thoughts on the question: Where do you find inspiration when starting your creative process?