5 Ways to Ease Social Media Branding Worries
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.
One way to reassure those with worries that your brand will begin to spiral out of control the moment that first tweet is sent is to go in with a plan. Treat social media strategically, as you would any other aspect of your brand.
Social media strategies that are well-planned and well-executed can elevate your brand, exposing it to a wide audience at little to no monetary cost. It can spread your brand story in new ways and through new mediums that go beyond traditionally advertising, marketing and/or public relations.
What does a good brand social media strategy entail? Here are five key points to include in your plan to help ease the worries when taking your brand into the social media realm:
Find your brand voice.
The best brands on social media have identified their unique brand personality and voice, and incorporated that into all of their messaging. As you prepare your social media strategy, decide where your brand’s personality lies – are you witty and funny, serious and informative or somewhere in the middle? Once you have personified your brand, consistently follow that personality in your social work.
Establish a quality team.
Social media should not be considered a tertiary responsibility, destined to live on the edges of job descriptions and day-to-day priorities. As the brand is being built and the brand strategy developed, consideration should be given to those who will be tasked with social media management. Whether it’s a single person or a team of people, they are the first line of defense when easing social media worries.
Be aware.
At the end of each year, there are countless brand social media “fail” lists that are inevitably populated by brands that were unaware of their surroundings and showing their obliviousness to the world to disastrous results. Don’t find yourself on one of these lists – ensure that those in charge of your social media outlets know what is happening around them – whether it be current events, unexpected tragedies or sensitive topics – and that they know how to keep your messaging tasteful and on brand.
Stay in touch.
Hopefully, your brand will quickly gain or grow fans and followers, some of whom will want to interact. This can be a tenuous line to walk, as your brand must seem accessible and engaging while also knowing when it’s best to step away. This is likely one of the points that come up in the nightmares of brands as they are beginning in social media, but it is one that can be easily managed and have great benefit.
Don’t forget the visuals.
Social media isn’t just a verbal branding opportunity, but one for your visual brand as well. As it is with most verbal brand aspects, consistency is key – logos should be brand standards-compliant across any platforms where your brand has a presence, in addition to any pictures or videos posted. As it is with visual branding overall, it is often the first impression the audience gets of your brand, and this is especially true in the quick-glance world of social media.
Addison Whitney is a global branding firm with a passion for building strong brands.
To learn more about Addison Whitney, visit our website at AddisonWhitney.com, or contact us here.
Live Long and Prosper: The Secret to Brand Longevity
Everyone wants a brand that will live on for many years, basking in long-lasting success. But few brands actually reach old age, and those that do definitely have something going for them.
Recently, Unum, a financial insurance company, put together an infographic of some of the world’s oldest brands, highlighting those who all can boast founding years prior to 1890.
As can be expected, a list of brands from across the industry spectrum seem to have little in common on the surface, but throughout the infographic a common theme emerges. Each of these enduring and successful brands have long-ago identified how they can differentiate themselves from the competition, and put that quality (or qualities) as the centerpiece of their branding.
This is a lesson that can be applied to newly formed startups still finding their way, as well as brands that have an extensive history. In either situation, the key is finding out where you brand will fit into the landscape of your marketplace – for instance, does your brand have a highly recognizable visual branding element like Cadbury’s unique purple color scheme and “glass and a half” logo? Then establish your branding around maximizing this element and connecting the rest of your brand strategy to its focus.
Your unique characteristic doesn’t have to just be a physical part of your brand – it can also emanate from your audiences’ view of what the brand represents. This is especially beneficial for older brands, as they have a wealth of history to search and find their outstanding characteristic.
The oldest brand on this list, the Cambridge University Press, was founded in 1534 (given their charter by Henry VII and holding the title of the world’s oldest publishing house) and is arguably the benchmark for brand longevity.
So what’s their secret? Well, their success can partly be attributed to their gleaming reputation. Know around the world as one of the preeminent publishing brands, they have endured throughout nearly half of a millennium of literary trends and publishing evolution, growing the Press around the world and being the home of some of the greatest titles in history.
But the job doesn’t stop when the differentiation is identified. What these brands have done, along with many other successful brands, is stick to the script – that is, they take the best aspect(s) of their brand and continue to improve and enhance, instead of consistently changing.
Evolution of a brand isn’t necessarily a path to failure, but instead is dependent on smart evolution. Using keen brand strategy to know when and how much to evolve, in addition to knowing how to keep your core intact during any changes.
While startups and newer brands are devoid of well-established reputations or traditions, they are in the often-enviable position of shaping their original brand strategy around the best characteristics of their brand. Without previous iterations to shape the strategic planning, they are presented with a clean slate of branding directions and areas of potential differentiation that will hopefully land them on a “world’s oldest brands” list a few centuries from now.
So whether you are a founding member of a new and exciting organization, or a part of a brand older than some nations, a clear focus on differentiation and a commitment to put it at the center of your branding will go a long way in extending your brand’s lifespan.
Addison Whitney is a global branding firm with a passion for building strong brands.
To learn more about Addison Whitney, visit our website at AddisonWhitney.com, or contact us here.
3 Ways Building a Brand is Like Working with Legos (Plus 1 Way it’s Not)
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.
Building a brand can produce the same sense of accomplishment as placing the final brick on that perfect Lego creation, and the creation processes included in both are very similar. Here are three ways brand building and brand strategy creation are like working with Legos, plus one important difference:
- Expect (and Appreciate) the Unexpected. Often you find the correct pieces to complete the building in unexpected places – that random red brick that allows for the building to stand falls in line with the unexpected brand element that comes seemingly out of nowhere to fit right in line with the overall brand.
- It Takes a Village to Build the Castle. Brand building is an all-hands-on-deck experience, with vital perspectives necessary from a number of areas of the business. This ensures that all
bases are covered and that the resulting brand is comprehensive and applicable across the board. Anyone who has opened a box of Legos for a pre-designed structure know that each piece, no matter how big or how small, is crucial to complete the overall build. - It’s OK to Go a Little Crazy. Each brand is different, and there is no blueprint for what makes a successful brand that fits with every situation, and therefore it’s encouraged to think outside the box. Sometimes these are the ideas that bring it all together, filling a space that would have gone overlooked if creativity was taken out of the equation, just as it would be if you only followed the printed instructions for Lego building – how much fun is that?
However, the link between these two activities does have one exception:
- Know Where the Build is Taking You. There are times when you just start grabbing Lego bricks and putting them together with no idea what the final result will be. While this is a great creative outlet, it is not a sound brand strategy. Knowing where you want your brand to end up and having at least a general idea of the finished product will drive each action and decision to a common point, eliminating the time (and money) wasting that could derive from an unstructured branding process.
Even with the one exclusion to the list, building a brand and building with Legos should have the same end result – a successful production of something great for you and those around you.
Addison Whitney is a global branding firm with a passion for building strong brands.
To learn more about Addison Whitney, visit our website at AddisonWhitney.com, or contact us here.
Why You Should Never Close the Story on Your Brand
"A great brand is a story that's never completely told." – Scott Bedbury
Adaptability. It’s a word that has been used on this very blog to describe how logo design needs to include versatile elements to adapt to a digitally-focused media world, but the same concept can (and should) be tied back to the entirety of a brand.
To me, there are few things more frustrating than hearing that the reasons something hasn’t changed is because “that’s the way it’s always been done.” Showing a deliberate avoidance of any sense of evolution without true reasoning is a first-class ticket to failure. Industries and marketplaces change constantly – and in order to stay relevant, so must your branding.
The above quote from Scott Bedbury perfectly in line with the concept of brand adaptability. A great brand is one who never really reaches the end of their story – they are an ongoing manuscript, 
adding new pages as the world around them moves forward, shifting their branding strategies not just to fit the new landscape, but to continuously find that area of differentiation that will set them apart from the competition and allow them to rise above the branding fray.
These brands are self-aware about their place in the market and proactive in anticipating how that place can shift suddenly and without notice – they are the ones who always seem to be ahead of the curve, never caught flat-footed by the winds of change. That’s not an accident. That is the result of creating a brand that can evolve when needed without compromising the overall brand integrity.
But take note that an adaptive brand is not synonymous with multiple total rebrands. In fact, it falls more in line with brand shifts instead of brand refreshes. A rebrand or brand refresh takes time, money, effort both in the branding process and immediately following, when the new brand must be communicated and try to build brand equity.
The equity earned through time on the market can often be the most valuable commodity available to the brand, and to restart this process instead of using it to their advantage is a missed opportunity to ease the burden of adapting their strategy.
For instance, if there is a brand who has been on the market for 40 years with a logo that has become outdated, it would be unwise to group the rest of the brand elements in with an updated logo 
– instead, find the most recognizable and timeless elements of the logo and adapt them to fit your new direction, much like the logos shown to the right. That way, the new logo and any associate branding assets can be bolstered by the foundation laid throughout the brand’s previous history while simultaneously adding to the story as needed.
The brands who have found success in this area don’t rewrite their story, they simply add a new chapter, one connects their past with the needs of their future, and leaves the door open for what comes next.
Addison Whitney is a global branding firm with a passion for building strong brands.
To learn more about Addison Whitney, visit our website at AddisonWhitney.com, or contact us here.
Getting the Thumbs Up: The Importance of Audience Buy-In for Your Brand
For as long as I can remember, my wife and I have a tradition when watching movie previews at the theater. It’s something that is almost an automatic response following each one – we turn into Siskel and Ebert, giving thumbs-up or thumbs-down judgments on whether we’d go see that particular movie based solely on the just-ended preview.
These previews don’t have the time or the ability to tell the whole story for the movie – they are there to tell you how they want you to feel about the movie in a way they think will convince you that it is worthy of your time and (exceedingly increasing amounts of) money. They condense all of the time, money and hard work spent to create the cinematic adventure into a summarized story, which must get you to believe in their brand (the movie) enough to give it the thumbs up.
This is in line with how many consumers interact with a brand – the immense amount of background behind a perfect brand strategy and brand implementation must be pared down into bite-sized pieces for consumption, with the hope that these “brand nuggets” will tell the brand story in a way that the audience buys into your brand as a whole.
But this is where it can get tricky. Just as those working on movie trailers don’t set out to create one that earns an immediate thumbs-down, your branding efforts won’t be created to cause potential branding missteps. The issue lies therein – what you say doesn’t have any impact unless it aligns with how it makes your audience feel.
We’ve all seen the advertisements making big promises and brand statements about a brand. But these can become empty messages if the intended audience doesn’t connect with in a way that allows for them to believe in the brand.
When creating a brand strategy, there must be significant time and effort spent on identifying the correct messaging tactics to carry the brand flag out to the marketplace, gaining that all-important emotional agreement by the audience.
But how is this done? Well, the entire process doesn’t lend itself too well for a blog post, but here are three main guidelines to keep in mind when creating a brand that correctly speaks and connects with your audience:
- Find out who your friends are. In the aforementioned movie trailer example, often a thumbs-up reaction is given to movies that may actually be very good, but that just don’t speak to us – most of the time, this is because we aren’t the intended audience. Every brand has a core market who will understand what the brand is saying, and be more inclined to buy-in.
- Stay true to yourself. What you say about your brand must be in line with who your brand really is. When branding efforts start to go the way of being who they aren’t, they are putting a roadblock in the middle of their path to success. Buy-in comes from the brand-nugget consumption, which must be a scaled down version of the true brand, not a false representation.
- Don’t forget the rest of your brand elements. A good brand isn’t just a strong strategy and on-target messaging. Both the visual branding and verbal branding aspects are important pieces of the brand puzzle, and have their own set of emotional connections that can be made. The all-around consistently great brand will far exceed the success of a brand who can only point to one area of its branding as above average.
Addison Whitney is a global branding firm with a passion for building strong brands.
To learn more about Addison Whitney, visit our website at AddisonWhitney.com, or contact us here.
Addison Whitney Brand Fanatics Recap and Analyze Brand Impacts from Super Bowl Ads
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.
Right off the bat, our brand fanatics examined what their pre-conceived notions are for the various brands – what do we feel about the brand prior to seeing the commercials? This brand conception exercise served as the foundation for discussions post-commercial, where we identified four areas of each brand’s perception – target audience, emotional benefits, functional benefits, brand elements and tone.
Once the commercials for the highlighted brands were watched one more time, the discussion switched to how they lined up with the aforementioned brand perspectives. Did they align with how our audience previously saw the brand? Or did they feature a departure, whether intentional or unintentional, that signals a change of how we see and think of the brand?
One of the themes that came out of this year’s Super Bowl advertising was the trend of brands to focus on specific sub-brand within their portfolio instead of the overarching brand story. The Honda commercials for the Ridgeline trucks were cited as a perfect of this, where the Ridgeline brand characteristics were highlighted, overriding previous Honda perceptions.
Those brands who stayed more on-target with their overall brand connotation seemed to show a strong sense of brand awareness and a strategy that has stood the test of time. Bud Light’s brand image has largely gone unchanged in past years, and their advertisements this time around looked to continue and strengthen these perceptions.
They are the brands with a certain comfort level to what their brand perception is, and are using the Super Bowl platform to continue this brand instead of trying to break new ground with their strategy. Especially when their target audience is very well-defined and fits within what their brand represents, these organizations are more likely to use their ads to reinforce their traditional messaging for their audience.
Self-awareness is another desired characteristic when it comes to advertisement strategy and Super Bowl messaging – brands who are comfortable with where they stand in the market. With many advertisements focusing on brands taking a “new direction” with their strategy, those brands who stuck with who they are stood out among the crowd.
These brands were banking on their already established brand equity to carry some of the load in messaging, using their ad time to push a specific narrative that is buoyed by their brand equity that is assumed to be present.
Overall, it was another successful AW Super Bowl Ad recap – now we want to hear your thoughts! Leave a comment or reply to us on our social channels and let us know what your favorite ad was, and how you think the brands involved impacted their branding efforts!
Addison Whitney is a global branding firm with a passion for building strong brands.
To learn more about Addison Whitney, visit our website at AddisonWhitney.com, or contact us here.
How to Keep your Brand Update from Falling Short
A brand refresh or a complete rebrand are events in an organization’s life cycle that call for big investments and big planning, as they can shape an entire brand for many years to come. Not to mention, the amount of money necessary for completing a full implementation of a new brand can greatly impact an organization’s budget, especially for the immediate launch.
The scale of a change like this requires an implementation plan. It is rare that a company has a whole team standing aside with their sole responsibility to implement a brand.
For instance, with the new Alaska Airlines rebranding efforts, the implementation included painting planes, sending out new credit cards to members, updating such brand touch points as signage in airports, plane interiors and uniforms, and much more. This doesn’t even take into account the time and money spent by their marketing and public relations teams in publicizing and notifying
their audience about the changes.
This is one of the (many) reasons why a brand refresh or rebrand shouldn’t be taken lightly, and why it’s often best to leave much of the work to branding professionals, who can align the teams involved while creating a well-rounded strategy that successfully connects the new brand’s vision with the brand elements.
The real purpose of the rebrand can also get lost without a strong change factor to back it up. Alaska Airlines commented on the change by saying, “Our values stay the same, but it’s time for our brand to show up bigger.” They have long since expanded their reach outside of the Pacific Northwest, now reaching as far as Mexico and the east coast of the U.S. Their brand had such strong connotation to their original markets (which their brand name only helped to strengthen) that the organization felt a brand overhaul was necessary to break out of their market “bubble” and represent where they stand currently.
This is one of the most common reasons for a brand refresh or a rebrand – the old brand simply doesn’t accurately represent what the organization used to offer, and not what they offer now or what they want to stand for. Another brand following this strategy for a rebrand/brand refresh is Google, who created the Alphabet brand to better encompass the wider array of services outside of search that fall under the brand umbrella.
Evaluating Your Brand - Are You Due for a Refresh or a Rebrand?
However, with the Alaska Airlines brand update, the change was disproportional to the stated goal. In other words, the eskimo head did get bigger, but as for the brand itself… not much has really changed. Despite big statements about their brand “overhaul” and a new beginning for a new brand, when mostly the only rebranding that’s been done is kept the same brand image and added a splash of color, their audience may not be as inclined to believe 
their rhetoric.
If the boxes are checked and the time is right, a brand refresh or rebrand could be just what your organization needs. However, the work doesn’t end when the new brand is rolled out. Your new brand elements and your brand story must align, or else it can seem like your big brand announcement is much ado about nothing.
Addison Whitney is a global branding firm with a passion for building strong brands.
To learn more about Addison Whitney, visit our website at AddisonWhitney.com, or contact us here.
Building Your Branding Road Map - The Importance of Finding Your Brand Niche
The Super Bowl will be soon upon us, and with it comes the biggest advertising day of the year. Brands around the world will spend millions of dollars for the chance to showcase themselves to a massive global audience. Some brands are regulars in this space – advertising during the Super Bowl is just another part of their year – while others hope to use the platform as a launching point to put their brand in the national discussion and boost their overall brand awareness.
Given the high prices for these spots and the highly selective process that comes with Super Bowl advertising, many brands are unable (or unwilling) to try and make the jump to this realm of brands – but just because you aren’t playing on the biggest stage, doesn’t mean you can’t be successful.
This is where the importance of finding your brand niche becomes apparent. Chances are, there’s an audience out there who will connect with your brand. But if the brand strategy is either intentionally or unintentionally oblivious of this audience, their efforts to try and settle outside of their ideal spot on the market will be met with failure. Instead, the strategy should center around becoming the biggest dog on your block – putting in the time and effort to identify to whom your brand will be most relevant and how you can efficiently strategize your branding efforts to speak to this audience.
The first step to any good communications strategy is to understand your audience, and this rule applies to branding as well. The previous “shotgun strategy” mentality of branding, where the goal was to cover the most ground with the hope of some level of success in the randomness has gone away, replaced by the mindset that spending the time/effort/money at the very start to define where the brand should live will give it a step ahead when the rest of the branding process begins.
No longer will branding emulate a meandering excursion across the country, where the start point is known but the final destination only relatively set, and therefore journey itself is largely unplanned. Just the opposite – chart your brand course with the end in mind and work backward, taking in each step in careful consideration to ensure that the trip is as much of a success as the destination.
Two key pieces to a successful brand are the verbal and visual aspects, which include the brand name and logo. Tailoring these to your target audiences are especially crucial, as they serve as the first impression many of those potential consumers will have with your brand.
Speak to your audience with your brand name, providing a unique connection with their wants and needs. For instance, if you are branding a new line of automotive parts, look for names that highlight the specialized interests and knowledge of the target audience – which can also extend to the logo, allowing for both the verbal and visual branding pieces you create a built-in audience.
When you know exactly where your brand should end up and live long-term, who your brand should target will also make itself known. To extend the metaphorical connection, the idea of being a big fish in a small pond scares away many organizations, who pine to move to bigger ponds no matter what the outcome.
What they fail to realize is that a “small” pond in branding doesn’t necessarily mean that they are limiting their ceiling of success. In fact, I interpret the phrase to represent being the biggest and best fish in your specific pond – instead of looking for what’s next, focusing on what’s now and where your brand will have its biggest chance to speak to its true audience.
Image Sources:
http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2013/03/content-marketing-riches-niches/
http://www.chrisducker.com/profitable-niche-affiliate-marketing/
Addison Whitney is a global branding firm with a passion for building strong brands.
To learn more about Addison Whitney, visit our website at AddisonWhitney.com, or contact us here.
Branding Lessons from Brand Giants
Two of the leading brands on the marketplace today – Apple and Starbucks – didn’t get to where they are by chance. Building (and maybe more important, maintaining) brands with their level of success requires firing on all brand cylinders and recognizing the importance of nailing the visual, verbal, research and strategy aspects of the brand.
In a recent article for Fast Company, brand and marketing specialist Alessandra Ghini shared a pair of branding lessons she learned during her time with both Starbucks and Apple. These two pieces of advice provide both insight and a hint of explanation to the successes of these brands.
Apple: “A product is a story, not a list of features.”
Ghini drives this point home while discussing how the advertising strategies for Apple essentially constricted what they could do within the ads, and pushed the branding to think outside of a fairly restrictive box in order to communicate their brand messaging. This is where the focus shifted from listing the features of a product and centered the content on the emotional aspect of both the individual product and the Apple brand. The iconic iPod commercials with the dancing silhouettes didn’t speak much to the “what” the iPod was, but more to the “how” in how it made the audience feel in its interactions.
Emotional branding, where a brand conjures a certain emotive feeling within the user, is something most brands strive to achieve. If you can establish your brand as one that not only has positive interaction but also a positive reaction, you have gained a leg up on the competition.
For the most part, purchasing decisions are emotionally driven, and consumers look for brands that make them feel a certain way or that they feel an emotional association with. Apple has become one of those brands – arguably, they have become THE emotional brand out there today. And it all starts with the brand stories they tell for each of their products.
Starbucks: “Big brands can shift fast, if the leader cedes power.”
Static thinking can doom a brand. The phrase “that’s how we’ve always done it” can spell the end of relevance for even the best branding efforts. Markets change, consumer wants and needs evolve, media and advertising continuously update – the world is moving fast, and the brands who refuse to get on the train are going to be left behind.
Even the most iconic, long-lasting brands need to adopt a culture of evolution, and this starts at the top – for Starbucks, that adoption began when founder Howard Schultz returned to the company and allowed for much of the brand refresh work to be completed by those within the organization. His openness to change allowed the teams to strategize to develop what they felt was best for the brand moving forward – from an updated logo done mostly in-house to the overall brand strategy.
Starbucks was able to position itself to take advantage of the changing marketplace in its industry – it strengthened its core by improving the coffee aspect of its business while expanding into a variety of spaces, including increasing food options and adjusting the customer experience. Some brands connect evolution with total overhauls, and fear the loss of their core brand – this isn’t the case. If you have a piece of your brand that has carried you for years, an updated brand strategy can help bring your entire brand up to the same level.
Addison Whitney is a global branding firm with a passion for building strong brands.
To learn more about Addison Whitney, visit our website at AddisonWhitney.com, or contact us here.
Keeping your Brand Consistently Consistent
Brand consistency is exactly what it implies – constant and unchanging branding throughout your brand’s reach. Your brand can be top of the line, but if nobody knows exactly what it is or how it looks/sounds, then your efforts to promote the brand are facing an uphill battle. Getting your brand in front of your crucial audiences is the only way to continue to grow, and guaranteeing that each exposure reinforces the single brand is the best way to do this.
Consistent branding encompasses and is driven by all other brand building efforts, and holds a vital place in the success of your brand. As John Williams wrote in Entrepreneur magazine about being consistent with your brand, “If you can't do this, your attempts at establishing a brand will fail.”
Need a little more direction? Here are some tips on keeping your brand consistently consistent.
- Consistency starts at the top… You’ve just spent a good amount of time, effort and money to create and establish an outstanding brand – your logo looks great, the brand name stands out and your brand strategy is rock solid. Things are looking good for your branding efforts. But then the CEO of your company goes on television to discuss the new brand, and he’s wearing the wrong logo on his shirt and mispronounces your brand name… You can tear up the work you’ve done brand building and take a trip back to square one. Ensure that your senior leadership is up-to-speed with any and all branding aspects, and then make sure that your most visible assets (all around your office, on high-exposure advertisements, etc.) are in alignment as well.
- …And must continue to all the way down. There is no skipping over the little things, as the details that seem to have minimal importance can quickly snowball into a brand consistency problem that will be difficult to correct. Are your employees all using the same fonts on their emails? Do their email signatures all look the same and include the correct brand elements? What about the PowerPoint presentations they make while out working with clients? These are questions that can derail a consistent branding effort quickly.
- Don’t forget your online presence. As the importance of your brand’s online presence continues to increase, and SEO strategies become a vital piece of your brand strategy, consistency takes another step toward necessity. Optimization is driven by repetition and consistent use of key words and phrases to drive traffic to your brand’s online outlets. Once they’ve arrived at your website, don’t make them want to turn around and leave – they are arriving with an expectation of what your brand is promising, and if your website falls short of these expectations, it’s game over for your brand with that individual.
- Ensure your brand is consistent in its living forms. This may sound strange – how can a brand “live” and where does it do so? But the living embodiment of your brand is walking the halls of your office or standing in your stores – your employees should know and understand what the brand is all about, and how their actions and words can often be the first (and most lasting) impression with your audience – and your brand should always want to put its best foot forward. This also includes your social media presence. In addition to ensuring that all logos and visual elements are consistent, a decision should be made on the “voice” for your brand that is used on these platforms – brand messaging, strategy aspects and overall personality should all match across the board.
- Be attentive to how and where your brand is being seen. Early on in the branding process, identify a department or individual who will serve as the “gatekeeper” for the brand, keeping and distributing brand guidelines, templates and other brand materials while also being the watchful eye throughout the organization for any potential brand inconsistencies. This way, you will have eyes on all areas of where your brand resides and can also education new employees on the proper branding protocol, keeping consistency on target moving forward.
Addison Whitney is a global branding firm with a passion for building strong brands.
To learn more about Addison Whitney, visit our website at AddisonWhitney.com, or contact us here.