You say it best when you say nothing at all …

My work with a telco going through a merger continues this year and I’m currently working through a situation where the next stage on the journey from 2 brands to one will commence.

My challenge is to work out what to communicate to customers in the retail stores. The question this raises is – how much of the brand story can you ask the store staff to convey to customers and what parts should you communicate through signs and point of sale if any?

To cover our bases we’re trying everything: direct mail, hard signage in store, soft VM in window decals and POS around the store. Crafting the right message is proving quite complex as it could confuse and frustrate the existing customers and potentially alienate new ones in the process. You’ve got what you think is an important brand story to convey, however for customers, its just business as usual. They need their service and their needs met regardless of what brand strategy the company is trying to execute.

A well earned break.

The year is winding down and I thought I’d do a quick post to wrap up 2010. On reflection of the year that was, I’m pleased that my consulting work and Brand Savvy continues to grow and evolve. I enjoyed working on several new projects with new clients and launched this blog! It is a work in progress and I plan to add some case studies of brand projects I’ve worked on soon. In the mean time I thought I’d plug the blog roll (see the right hand column of this blog) – I’ve compiled what I think are some great brand resources that live on the web, I hope they’re helpful. Here’s hoping next year brings more visitors and maybe even a comment on this blog! See ya in 2011. Cheers Jordana

Personal branding

It feels like about 5 years ago when the idea of personal branding became popular. A strategy to treat yourself like a brand – to develop your own personal brand to drive your career aspirations, hook that great job, promotion etc. In other words – who do I need to be – to be perceived the way I want – to land the job I want? I think it’s really not anything more than an interesting and different way to explore yourself and your goals.

At the moment I’m working on developing a brand for a sole trader business. And it begs the question, am I branding the person or the business? What are the ways in which I can create a compelling business brand that is an authentic expression of who the business owner is?

Mmmm … I’ll let you know how we go. Any thoughts?

 

Merging two brands to one raises some tough questions

I’m working with a large multinational utility company at the moment. They have recently merged with a competitor brand. The challenge they face as they evolve from two brands to one is how to do so without eroding either customer base?

Here are some of the big questions they’re grappling with:

Which brand is the strongest that will lead us into the future?

How and more importantly when do we communicate with the customers of the ‘old’ brand?

When is the right time to pull the trigger and cease trading on the old brand?

Should we change quickly or gradually? What’s best for our customers?

Can we expect to grow while we’re in this process of merging?

There are so many inherent risks in getting it wrong. How much does brand management play a part in these issues? What are the brand management tactics or triggers you can use to support this transition?

In this case, the company is choosing to gradually introduce one of the brands into their retail stores – making them a multi branded environment. I wonder how much the customer actually notices if the visual merchandising changes in their store? This tactic assumes that customers are visiting those stores regularly to learn about the changes. I also wonder if the company is risking confusing potential new customers in the process? And how hard is it for the staff to sell both brands?

I heard a great example the other day, that put the customer’s needs first and at the same time built brand loyalty during a major merger. When Westpac bought St George, all they said to customers was “now St George customers can use Westpac ATMs for free”. By saying this, and this alone, it makes it abundantly clear for the customers ‘what’s in it for me’. “Easy, simple, better for me, no need to change” is what I get out of that.

Has your organisation defined its brand?

Hello and welcome.

I’ve created this place to share ideas, thoughts and experiences about creating and managing brands. Please feel free to contribute and share your thoughts and experiences too.

Thanks, talk soon.

Jordana