How important is the CEO to your Branding Efforts?

Many a times when I companies, they send in a junior executive to do their work and later on the CEO is never really involved in the process. I always stress this. Everyone needs to be on board a branding exercise, most importantly the CEO who needs to walk the talk and live the brand for all to see. Communications consultant Bob Lamons says, "The CEO needs to be the No. 1 brand champion. No exceptions. No extenuating circumstances. Is she resists accepting this responsibility, the company will suffer."

I remember going in for a meeting recently with an organisation which had its brand values as Passionate, Fun, Dynamic & Empowering. In the meeting with the CEO and his team I observed that the staff were terrified of him. They were scared to talk back to him. The entire meeting was filled with fear and tension which was personified but a tough, tyrant like CEO. So much for the brand values which were not seen in the staff and definitely not in the CEO.

So the key thing to take note is that everyone in the organisation needs to be aligned to the Brand DNA of the organisation. NO BUTS!. They must project the values of the organisation through the right On Brand Behavior and they need to live the brand in across all their touchpoints including meetings, emails, customers meetings etc.

Contact me at jerome@thebrandtheatre.net for more information on how you can align your branding internally.

What is Branding?

1. The process of creating and enhancing the brand assets beyond the product or service itself

2. Leveraging an organization’s personality to create a customer relationship

3. Delivering what’s promised, or more, but never less

4. Differentiation from competition

5. Built over time

6. Perception

7. A million gestures all adding up create a brand experience

Happy New Year to All

Dear Friends,

A Happy New Year to all! Thank you for being part of our Journey! We look forward to Performing with all of you down the road. Take care and God Bless always.

Here are 3 branding trends for 2008 which you should be aware of when you bring in the New Year:

1. Engagement: There will be more emphasis on Brand Engagement and rightly so. Brand Engagement measures and metrics will be put into place as well. When you consider the power of today’s “bionic” consumers, born hot-wired into the internet with an iPod in one hand and a TiVo controller in the other, engaging them will be the only way of guaranteeing loyalty and profitability.

2. More “brands” will become “Category Placeholders.” As brands become more and more enamored with and enmeshed in “new” media like social networking and messages beamed into consumers’ living rooms from outer space, marketers need to ensure that their brands actually stand for something in the mind of the consumer.

3. Marketing and Branding will become more touch point focused and personalised. Key considerations:a) which touchpoint best reinforces brand values;
b) where the brand + media equation yields real engagement;
c) where the plan is seamless, believable, personalised, and authentic.

Experientially yours,

Management & Staff of:

The Brand Theatre Team – www.thebrandtheatre.net

The Brand Theatre was formed to create access to a sole experiential brand agency that can create and communicate a brand idea innovatively and experientially in everything your business does across the communication spectrum both internally and externally. We want to connect to your audience across all touch points, from end to end, by providing them with memorable brand experiences.

The Brand One Team – www.brandone.us

Brand One is a full service Corporate Brand & People Training Agency. Our entire business philosophy is helping people and organisations become successful as brands through training. Brand One offers programs and training in the areas of Personal Branding, Experience Branding and Internal Branding.