Achieving Brand Consensus

By Jesse Hopps

Successful
branding, or re-branding, requires that key stakeholders are involved
in a democratic process to agree on what the new brand will be.
However, working with every stakeholder throughout the process is
simply impossible. Read this Research Note to learn how you can achieve
consensus on your brand.

Use Demand Metric’s downloadable Branding Selection Tool to help you provide choices for your stakeholders that are equally satisfactory for the brand champion.

What are the Key Branding Drivers?

• Mergers & Acquisitions – combining two distinctly different brands is perhaps the most difficult of all re-branding exercises.
• Entering New Markets – when new businesses are formed, or when old business units are spun off, organizations typically create new brands.
• Updating Corporate Image – organizations that have been in business for over 20 years often have a requirement to get their brand up with the times.

What Key Choices Need to Be Made?

• Mission Statement – your mission statement describes the fundamental reason you are in business. For example: to help our customers succeed etc.
• Vision Statement – this is how you envision your
  organization and would like others to view you. Typically, vision
  statements look to the future.
• Corporate Values – these are the core values that your organization believes in, i.e. Excellence, Continuous Improvement, Community etc.
• Positioning Statement – this aspect of your brand positions your product/service or company, correctly within the industry.
• Corporate Tagline – normally a very punchy 3-6 word sentence(s) that drives home your core messages. Be careful not to make this too generic.
• Logo – corporate logos are images that identify your organization.

Action Plan:

1. Understand Business Strategy – speak with senior
   management to get a clear picture of where your organization is headed.
   It is impossible to develop a brand when there is no strategic
   direction.
2. Build a Small Team – branding exercises can be
   implemented much more efficiently if you have the right stakeholders
   engaged each step of the way. Build a cross-functional team of 3-6 key
   executives that can represent each of your brand constituencies,
   including customers.
3. Gather Feedback – poll customers and employees to
   identify how you are currently perceived in the market, and compare
   this to how you’d like to be seen. Additionally, ask for suggestions
   related to your branding choices.
4. Narrow Down Options – take all the given ideas and
   further develop them until you have 3-4 options for each brand category
   that would satisfy Marketing & senior management. Go back to your
   general audience with these options and vote for the winners.
5. Make Branding Selections – use Demand Metric’s downloadable Branding Selection Tool to provide your stakeholders with 3-4 clear options for branding decisions. Tally up the results and re-vote if necessary
6. Implement Branding Strategy – now that you have
   your brand elements selected, develop, and implement your branding
   strategy. This could include: updating collateral & the corporate
   website, changing policies & procedures to accommodate your new
   identity, and communicating to customers.

Bottom-Line:

Effective branding requires input from all your key stakeholders.
Work to understand your organizational roadmap, build a branding team,
open the floor to suggestions, and achieve consensus on your brand.