* Seasonal Considerations - When would the best time(s) be to advertise the product line/service? Are there particular seasonal periods when advertising would be most effective? If so, they must be included into this strategy.
* Frequency Considerations - This is very important in terms of whether the goal is to have the message reach a very specific target audience many times or a broader target fewer times. Also, it should include a statement of how much exposure (i.e., impressions) would a person need to receive to get the message of the advertising.
* Advertising Environment – Finally, the media strategy should talk about the environment in which paid advertising is run. Should you be in newspapers -- but only on the sports page, in certain quality magazines, only on news programs, etc.?
SUMMARY - Planning the execution of a marketing program requires strategic thinking. Experience indicates that the likelihood of success will increase dramatically if the key elements of the marketing mix are thought through strategically before the tactical plan has been developed.
CHAPTER FIVE
Brand Identification
What is a Brand? - Many people associate a “brand” only with consumer products such as cereals, soft drinks, automobiles and candy bars. However, a brand should be viewed as the name identification of almost any business (profit or non-profit) that is trying to establish a meaningful identity for the organization. For example, the law firm of Zylie, Kylie & Minton has a “brand” that is its name, as much as the Red Cross or Coca Cola has a brand. It is essential that a new venture develop a name and logo that will stand for something positive in the minds of the target audience.
Elements of Brand Identification - Almost everyone in the developed world is familiar with the brand IBM, representing the International Business Machine Corporation. The IBM symbol is more than just the letters that stand for the name; it is the representation or identity of the brand, which the company has developed over many years of marketing. Not only do the three letters represent the brand, but it is the identity of the company. This “look” of the IBM letters has been developed because of thousands of dollars of research and artistic input.
There are several elements of brand identification that we will be discussing in this chapter. Perhaps the most important message that could emerge from this discussion is the importance of consistency of presentation of the name in all-external communications. Every time the customer sees the name of your brand/company, regardless of the medium in which it is presented, the look and feel should be the same. Therefore, the exact same presentation of your name must appear on all internal and external communications, including at least business cards and stationery, advertising and promotion vehicles, trucks, buildings, etc.
Basic Principles of Name Selection - There are a few basic principles that will generally help in the name selection process for a small business. Specifically:
* Descriptive names tend to work better than non- descriptive. For example, “we drive your car” is a descriptive name for an agency that will take you to the airport in your own vehicle. This is a particularly good name because you know right away what business they are operating. This is different from a name like Xerox, which required millions of dollars in advertising before the public became aware that the name stood for a machine that created copies using a specific technology (xerography). The Xerox name is one that violates many different principles of naming relative to small business, as we will show below.
* Easy to pronounce names are generally much better than those, which require an explanation to pronounce. Sunkist and Gatorade are two brands that are very easy to pronounce, whereas Xerox and Linksys (routers for networking computer systems) are not.
* Easy to remember names also will work better for a small company that does not have the advertising budget to keep reminding the target customer that the brand exists. To this end, the iPad and iPhone clearly are two names that are very easy to pronounce and easy to remember.
* Short is better than long for names, is always a principle that a small business should follow. Some service companies feel they must include the names of all the principles rather than create a name that might mean something long term or at least be representative of the company. Clearly the IBM name does this very well.
* Has longevity is another principle of naming that many people do not understand. Essentially, it refers to the viability of this name over an extended period. This can be a particular problem that can be faced by service companies when the name of the business is the last name of the founder. While there are many cases when this worked (McKinsey & Co, Dell Computers & A.C. Nielsen) it took years and millions of dollars to establish these names as having equity in themselves, so the companies can have meaning beyond the life of the owner.
For a small company, it is best to have a name that stands for what the business does (i.e., Connecticut Consulting Group), so the future does not rely on the owners being present for it to have credibility. It also helps because clients don’t only want to see the “named” partners just because they are on the masthead.
The 5-7 Word “Slogan” - Even the best brand name probably does not describe exactly what the nature of a business is in such a way that it becomes obvious to the individual who is exposed to the name. For a large company such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nike or IBM this is not necessarily a major problem, as they can afford to spend millions of dollars advertising and promoting their name so that it becomes a household word. Perhaps the Nike “check mark” is the perfect example of this.
However, for a small business, the concept of spending large amounts of money to explain what their name means is not realistic, thus making the 5-7-word slogan even more important. The objective of the 5-7-word slogan is to modify the name of the product or service, so that when someone sees the name they understand what the name stands for.
I recommend developing the 5-7-word statement and incorporating it into the name/logo of the company, so they are always seen together. Thus, the name and/or logo will eventually develop the image that is included in the statement.
Perhaps the best example of combining the name and logo is shown below in the example of BMW. You almost never see the BMW logo without seeing the tagline “The Ultimate Driving Machine”.
Developing a Branding Strategy - One of the first documents that should be created when a new company or brand is formed, is a branding strategy. Essentially, this outlines what the company seeks to communicate with its name in terms of the elements identified above, but also regarding such issues as the tone and look of the name when it is reproduced. For example, do you want a very contemporary name that looks modern but at the same time has the feeling of durability and stability, so it does not appear to be a flyby- night organization?
The naming strategy can be a simple as a one-paragraph description of what the organization is trying to communicate with its name. It is a vital document, as it will be the basis against which the ultimate name and other elements of the brand identification system should be measured against.
Logo Development - A logo is a graphic representation of the name of the company or the image that the entity wishes to communicate. In the case of IBM, the name and logo are one in the same, but for an organization such as McDonalds, clearly the logo is the golden arches. Some companies employ a completely different strategy than an IBM, McDonalds or Coke, in that all their products have different BRAND names, so the consumer identity is to the brand and not the company. Examples are Procter & Gamble, Lever Brothers or Ralston Purina. Most of their major brands have broad scale brand identity, but most people have no idea who the parent company is for the brands. Is a logo necessary? A logo is simply a shorthand way of communicating the name of a brand or company. There is no requirement to have a logo