How To Revitalize Your Brand

Revitalizing your brand is not often easy and means assessing where you came from, where you are now, and where you want to go from here. It can often feel like you are starting your branding process over from the beginning, and though it will be a lot faster this time around (there is a lot you already know), you still want to ask yourself the hard questions and begin...well at the beginning. They say it is a very good place to start.1. What are the core values of your business/organization? What are some key words, short phrases, and descriptions that best depict what you do or want to be doing? What do you want your brand to "feel" like? Your brand has a personality and so needs to be thought about like you would a person. It will have a distinct way it talks, sense of humor, things it cares about, positions it agrees or disagrees with, etc. If you are stuck here, sometimes doing a visual exercise like creating a mood or vision board is helpful.2. What is the purpose of your work? Has this changed over time? What was it when you started and what is it now? What makes you unique and different from your competitors? What role do you provide in your partnerships with others? (ie. key stakeholders/constiuents/clients/fans, etc. depending on what type of business we are talking about) This information is what becomes your new mission statement and/or company description. 3. What are your goals? What do you want to accomplish over the next 1, 3, 5, 10 years? Think big and keep referring back to your core values, being reminded of what you value and will keep you interested in your work are they same things that will be engaging to other people. Make sure to also think about tangible and actionable goals, ie. things you can quantify and "check-off" when complete. Asking yourself these questions are the beginings of a new strategic plan.4. Who are yourkey stakeholders/constiuents/clients/fans, etc.?What are their demographics? (likes, dislikes,places they go/events they attend, other organizations they are a part of, etc... be specific on gender, age, social/political/cultural activities) Have these people changed since you began, if so, how? Are the people you market to now the same people you want 1-5 years from now? These questions will help you identify your target market(s)and in turn how you want to communicate your brand moving forward.5. Does your brand identity still "look" and "feel" right? Is the way you talk about yourself (written and visually) still inline with your core values and goals? Are your marketing materials consistent? Do they share the same basic theme and information, and are these clear to your readers/viewers? Either way, if you are considering a brand revitalization, something probably feels off to you, so taking a look at the fonts, colors, imagery, and textures you are using is probably a good idea. This will help you create a new visual language and identity.For a more in-depth exercise than what is listed below see4 Quick Tips For Visual Consistency: A Quick and Dirty Guide to Unifying Your Marketing Materials. Fonts: If your company/organization were a font, which one would it be? VisitMyfonts.comor Google Webfonts and type in your core values/key words and see what comes up. Color Palette: In general, what kind of colors are you drawn to and would best portray your core values? Try playing around with Colourlovers. Textures:Do you prefer smooth and clean vs. tactile and layered? See SubtlePatterns. Imagery: What kind of imagery are you drawn to? What imagery do you thinkbest portrays your core values? Visit istockphoto.Once you have finished going through the steps above, I think you will find you have already revitalized your brand. It is not one simple action that changes things, it is a transformation in how you are thinking about your company/organization and then choosing words and a new visual language that "feels" in alignment. Try to stay focused on your core values before you focus on who you are trying to reach. If you stay grounded in what you value, your purpose, and goals, you will attract the right people to your community. Then it is just a matter of choosing the right marketing channels for sharing and broadcasting. (print, web, social, email, etcHow to Build a Brand Internationally: What You Need to ExpandWhen businesses try to expand their brand globally, those goals don't change. But there are several steps you should take to make sure that your products or services will have a market overseas, that you can maintain quality in delivering and/or distributing your goods or services, and that your business or product branding meets cultural expectations -- and doesn't insult anyone -- in different parts of the world."The secret is doing your homework," Williams says. "Like any long distance relationship, it's got to be managed and needs more work than something you can see and physically touch, but it's not impossible."

The following steps may help you in building an international brand: Make sure you have a market. "Proven success with your current target audience doesn't automatically mean that your new target will connect in the same way with your products or services," Williams says. "Ask your new market the questions you used to build your initial business plan." First and most important, he says, you'll want to determine if a market exists for your product. If so, make sure the want or need isn't already being well met by someone else. If there are existing competitors, what (in the perspective of your potential customers) makes you remarkably different? If there is a market and there are no competitors, make sure you find out why -- are there laws against distributing your products or can consumers buy them through other means? Make sure you can deliver. Make sure you can get your product to, or manufactured within, the new market. "Import and manufacturing laws vary from country to country," Williams says. "Ensure you can make your products reliably and consistently available to your new target markets." Investigate the local laws. You need to make sure your products meet the local standards for construction of components, use of chemicals, disposal of goods, proper labeling of products, etc. Re-examine your business and/or product names. In choosing a name for your business or product, you need to be culturally sensitive if you intend to sell in foreign markets. Make sure product names make sense to customers in your new markets, both in English and in the local translation. Williams, who has done international branding work with Starbucks, recalls how a holiday favorite in the U.S., the Gingerbread Latte, didn't sell well in Germany even though gingerbread was a favorite holiday cookie in that country. Sales of the drink increased dramatically when Starbucks began using the German word for gingerbread and rebranded the drink, the Lebkuchen Latte. If you are considering translating names, don't rely on computer translation. "You don't want what you think is an effective name to mean something opposite or offend potential customers," Williams says. "Work with someone locally who can help make sure you communicate what you intend." Give your logo another look. Similarly, review your logo to make sure that you don't use any wording or symbols that would offend in a foreign market. "Ensure that any logos or symbols you use make sense and don't offend," Williams says. "Do an international search to make sure your logo isn't similar to that of another international company." For example, if you are selling products in some Middle Eastern markets, a logo featuring the face of a woman might not be appropriate. The best way to understand these cultural sensitivities is to consult a branding or design firm -- either a local one or an international firm that can research cultural sensitivities. Understand packaging requirements. If you're selling a product, you need to consider the laws and customs and packaging requirements in your new markets before deciding on packaging for your products. Your packaging may use a clear plastic shell that hangs from a rod, but your competition may package their product in a box that can go on a shelf, Williams says. This may put you at a disadvantage. "If you're selling a packaged product around the world there are incredible hurdles," Roth adds. Shipping food across borders may require you to provide more nutritional information on packaging, in more languages, and there may be laws prohibiting the use of certain products in some markets -- even New York City has a ban on trans fatty acids, for example. Learn the local standards and ensure your packaging includes any necessary regulatory information and meets transportation standards. Register trademarks and domain names. Follow the process in your new market to ensure you preserve patent and trademarks. Thanks to the NAFTA Treaty your marks should already be protected in Mexico and Canada, Williams says. If you're doing business in the European Union filing for a Community Trade Mark (CTM) will protect you. Another consideration is making sure the Internet domain name for your company and product are available. You still want to register a dot-com, which is the most popular domain worldwide for businesses. But you may also consider registering domains using specific country codes -- .nl for the Netherlands or .br for Brazil -- if you are targeting only one or two local markets and plan on providing up-to-date translations of your websites into the local languages.In taking these steps to building a brand internationally, it almost always helps to find local resources to help you understand and enter new foreign markets. You might consider entering into business with a local distributor or retailer in this new market. "It is nearly impossible to understand local culture simply by visiting a country," Williams says. "Find local customers, local translators. Just because you took two years of French in high school doesn't make you qualified to understand the French market nor do French translations. Just as consumers' needs are different in Rhode Island from those in Florida and California, so are the needs of consumers in Paris different from those in Marseille."Dig Deeper: Trademark, Copyright & Patent ProtectionHow to Build a Brand Internationally: Building International Brand Awareness

The way to build awareness of your brand in these new markets -- and increase sales because, let's face it, this is your goal -- follows the same formula you use to increase brand awareness at home. "Craft and communicate a message that is relevant to the needs and wants of your customers," Williams says. "Deliver this message in the places they are receptive to it, in terms they can relate to and understand, and through the channels that will truly reach your potential customer." Craft your message. Having done your homework and researched the new foreign markets, and perhaps engaged the help of a local firm or representative, you have hopeful honed your domestic branding for this new audience. Be sure to note what the competition and other businesses are doing. "What may have seemed witty or charming in the U.S. may be misunderstood in your new market," Williams says. "Be careful playing the 'old and established' angle. An 'old' company in the U.S. can sound impressive, but you may be doing business in a country that has bottles of wine and rounds cheese older than your company." Deliver this message through the right channels. Don't rely on radio advertisements if your new market is a city in which people commute by subway or bicycle. Make sure you are communicating your message where it will be seen. Think about advertising inside the subway. "What are the habits your customer base in that other country? Where are they found? What is their lifestyle? What are they doing?" Williams says. There is no secret answer. It's up to you to connect the dots and find the right approach. Communicate in the right manner. The manner and tone in which you engage your potential and new customers is as important as the words you choose, Williams says. "Manner and tone will come across through your packaging, advertising, online, through your sales people, and even the way you answer the phone," he says. What types of interaction you will have with customers? What will be the tone you choose? What types of sales process and policies will you use? Even though you are based thousands of miles away, this is still a reflection on you and your brand. Remember that.While you focus on raising brand awareness, there is another component to building a brand internationally that needs your attention. You need to be vigilant in maintaining your brand reputation in every market in which you sell. That gets harder as your business gets bigger and expands into more locales. "Once you start having a couple of different offices or are in multiple states or countries or you've gone from 10 employees to 300 -- all of a sudden you're not a mom-and-pop operation anymore," Roth says. "Remember, your brand is a promise. You're starting to make a promise that people are buying into and you need to deliver whatever that product or service is."

You need to ensure that your customers' experiences with your product, your business, and your staff are positive. That extends to how you deliver your product, product quality control, how service is delivered or structured, and how your people act. "The larger you get, it's not just you being the representative for your widget," Roth says. "You now head up an organization."

In branding, one bad customer experience often resonates longer than one good experience. "One bad experience magnifies 100-fold," Roth says. "You need to have constant vigilance." You might consider developing an employee manual, investing in online training for your staff, and/or keeping in check how fast you grow so that you can ensure that you deliver on your brand promise no matter what market you serveThe Advantages of Global Branding and Advertising

Global branding and advertising emphasizes the same brand positioning and messaging from one country to the next. It is an opposite approach to customizing advertising in each individual marketplace. While each approach has merits, global branding is preferred by many small businesses for a variety of reasons.ConsistencyA primary reason companies position brands in the same way around the world is consistency. The logic is that if brands and products are perceived the same around the world, that position is stronger compared to brands whose perceptions of value vary in different countries. As people travel to different countries, they should hear the same messages they hear about the brand in their home markets.Lower CostsGlobal advertising is typically a lower cost approach relative to customizing brands for each country. This is especially important to small businesses, which typically don't have huge advertising budgets. Since you don't have to constantly redesign and redevelop your brand, you benefit from sameness in strategy and messaging. You do have to adapt the language to fit each country, but the message strategies and concepts can remain constant. Often, the development of ad messages is as expensive, or more so, than the costs of placing ads.Related Reading: What Is Brand-Based Advertising?SynergyGlobal branding allows for synergy that is not possible through individualized approaches in each country. In social media, for instance, global consumers might discuss your products on Facebook and Twitter. With a consistent brand, this synergy of marketplace communication helps your products become more viral thanks to word of mouth. With competing perceptions of your brand and products, this synergy wouldn't exist as customers couldn't as easily discuss your products across the globe. You also have customers that travel and look for global brands in countries they visit.Global TeamsGlobal brands make it easier to set up virtual work teams where advertising employees in each country work together using software tools and forums. This enables sharing of ideas and a wider perspective on what would work and what wouldn't work in positioning the brand on a global basis. In more fragmented, country-by-country branding, this collaboration would produce few fruits

What Is Standardization And Customization In Marketing

Standardization and customization are polar opposites of each other. standardization means "one size fits all." It refers to the tailoring of a marketing program or campaign in such a way that there are enough elements to appease everybody. The target audience is vast. Standardization helps keep the costs low of reaching out to many people. It is employed typically in situations where the product in question is for mass consumption. These products are typically low volume products that makes it economically unfeasible for customization.

Customization on the other hand refers to the tailoring of the campaign according to the needs of an individual or groups of individuals. These are high margin products where the volumes are low and the buyers are few. E.g. If an expensive luxury yacht was on sale then the company selling it could go to the extent of tailoring the marketing efforts according to the needs of specific buyersnternational brand management is dealing with different type of problems. If your company is working in different countries, you have to catch up the customer needs and learn about market characteristics of each country. If you want to be succesful in different countries either you stardardize your product or adapt it for that market.Lets have a look what can be the reasons of product standardization and customization.Reasons of Product Standardization Economies of Scale Common Consumer Behaviour Consumer Mobility Home Country ImageReasons of Product Customization Climate Biological Differences National Consumer Habits Government RegulationsAs we can see there can be number of reasons forces us to choose one of the strategies.Now we will look for the example of these strategies.One of the succesful example of standardization strategy is Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola is making business nearly all over the world and they never think about changing their products formula. They have a good advertisement policy and they did it well for each country still they did not change the product.Anywhere in the world the coca-cola has same taste.For customization the best example is Barbie which is icon of America. In product history in 50 years they change Barbie for good. Barbie toys started to produced not only American but also Indian, Jamaican, Japanese, Korean and Italian.

Five strategies for a successful global brand

A new generation of global brands is emerging. Globalisation used to mean identikit high streets, May Day protests and a Starbucks on every corner. But with an international business suggesting strength and stability in the fragile economic markets, global brands are no longer being seen as dominating bogeymen.In April, Forrester Researchs Steve Noble called for companies to create an adaptive global organisation to deal with post-recession pressures. It seems that being global is back on the boardroom agenda.Coca-Cola seems to be taking note, scrapping its local UK marketing director position in May, in favour of a more regional strategy. Kraft has been quick to follow suit. While it will leave a UK marketer position, it has also said it will lead its strategy more centrally from Europe.For brands seeking to join the new set of global brands, there are five strategies that companies need to take into account. These involve creating a strong and consistent brand culture, borderless marketing, internal hubs, a new glocal structure and co-creating with consumers.Marketing Week sets out these five strategies that can help companies embrace the new business of globalisation.1 Build a strong, consistent brand cultureIn the past, a rigid corporate structure was an important element of the global brand. Local markets were in charge of developing their own brand strategies.However, in recent years building a consistent and strong brand culture that remains familiar to consumers wherever it is in the world has become a priority. Tony Effik, chief strategy officer at Publicis Modem, explains: A brand needs a single view of the world, a single philosophy.The rise of digital channels has shifted the brand emphasis from structure to culture, believes Neil Taylor, creative director at language consultancy The Writer. He notes: Social media and viral marketing stop brands doing what they used to do, which was to manage brands in a command-and-control sort of way.It becomes more important that your brand reflects your culture, rather than your guidelines. The brands that have done it well are those that have a strong culture of their own, says Taylor. ASmallWorld is an example of a business that has created a brand which is consistent around the globe (see case study below).Language is an important element in ensuring a consistent brand culture, he adds, citing Innocent Drinks as a good example of a company that has successfully retained a distinctive tone of voice across markets. You read Innocent Drinks in French and it feels just as playful and cute as Innocent in English. Its the same personality.Now anyone can see the companys Facebook page, or videos on YouTube Its forcing brands to question: how do we get a single content story that works across all of those marketsTony Effik, Publicis ModemCompromising your brand culture in a world which is becoming increasingly borderless can have damaging consequences a fact that Google discovered when it launched a self-censored search engine in China in 2006. Its previous search engine in China was subject to government blocks because of the countrys new media policy restricting internet access. Googles mission is to make the worlds information universally accessible and useful. But how does a brand with values like Google set up something in China that sticks to those values?Taylor says: If youre operating in China, the Chinese government doesnt want you to make information universally accessible and useful and it [Google] has naturally ended up compromising.The consumer backlash against Google in other markets was significant. Not surprisingly, customers around the world went: well hold on, we thought you were about this, how can you possibly run that business over there? News will travel and start to damage your brand even in your home market. Since late March 2010, Google has resorted to redirecting search requests from mainland China to Hong Kong, which doesnt have the same restrictions.He suggests that if your culture really is about making information universally accessible then maybe this is something Google shouldnt compromise on.2 Be borderless in your marketingWith the abundance of digital platforms, it is no longer possible for brands to follow different brand strategies in different countries. Companies are being forced to adopt a more unified marketing approach.Marketers need to rethink the term glocal, explains Publicis Modems Tony Effik. Theodore Levitts think global, act local slogan doesnt work in a digital age in the same way, he argues. The way we do global campaigns had to change because digital doesnt respect borders, particularly now with social media. What were finding is that as content moves across borders, brand stories are crossing over internationally.

Open territory: Cokes Open Happiness campaign has a relevance in every countryBrands that dont adopt a borderless approach risk becoming marginalised, warns Stephen Woodford, chairman and CEO at DDB UK. People are much less aware of international boundaries than before. Digital channels are borderless media and therefore brands that operate across such media feel more pervasive and part of the world. If you look at brands like Nike, Adidas, Coca-Cola and McDonalds, they are everywhere and have local strength and identity, but also consistency across markets.Having a single identity is important to the success of Santander on a global level, explains Keith Moor, brand director at Santander (see Viewpoint above). The banks UK acquisitions Abbey and Bradford & Bingley have been rebranded so that the Santander brand has a presence across Britain as well as its domestic Spanish market.We wanted the Santander brand to be very well known, to have a single identity globally, so that we can capitalise on other markets and global sponsorships like F1, explains Moor.The recent Nike football advert, timed to coincide with the World Cup, is a good example of borderless marketing, thinks DDBs Woodford. The ad has taken footballers from around the world and weaved them into one story. Its just great stars from around the world, all united by one thing. Its a great example of not a multinational brand, but a transnational brand. It doesnt have any boundaries; its truly global.This process is especially difficult for FMCG brands notes Publicis Modems Effik. In the past, a brand could have one target audience in one country and a different positioning in another. Now anyone can see the companys Facebook page or its Twitter stream or videos on YouTube, as things start to pass from border to border. Its forcing brands to question: how do we see our market? How do we get a single content story that works across all of those markets?If we talk about a new way of operating or a new global brand, it will be a brand that is asking for opinion, that listens to consumers and asks for co-creationAnna Valle, DurexWith this increased interconnectivity, markets that were previously seen as second or third tier must now be treated in the same way as top tier ones, he explains. You had a global brand operating in Uganda and you never really paid much attention to them because they didnt really matter in the grand scheme of things.Somewhere like Uganda really does matter now because a bad interpretation of the brand or a human rights issue affects what you do in London, New York and Tokyo. Now every market is a tier one because tier three markets can come around and bite you on the bottom.The marketing focus for global brands has moved away from division to cohesion, thinks Richard Huntington, Saatchi & Saatchi director of strategy. Instead of looking for what divides consumers up, brands should be looking at what unites them.He says: Marketing traditionally has been focused on differences and segmentations between markets and consumers. If brands start caring about the things that real people care about then those differences seem to disappear.3 Build yourself an internal hubThe need for a unified marketing team is more important than ever. Involving marketers from across the global brand in the overall marketing strategy will engender overall cohesion, says Kip Knight, president of Knight Vision Marketing, who has set up marketing academies for global heavyweights such as PepsiCo and eBay while working at those companies.He says: It doesnt work to simply hand somebody a strategy and say, well good luck with that. They have to feel like theyve had a chance to vet it, to debate it, ideally in person, with others that are equally responsible for the brand. Ultimately, theyve got to feel like they own it. Its not my strategy; its our strategy.By taking this approach, marketers are much more likely to focus on the same goals for the brand, as opposed to feeling like theyve got to go and create their own version of this brand in the market, he adds.

Strong proposition: Durex is encouraging consumers to help spread the marketing messageInternational condom manufacturer Durex has recently built a global brand centre so that marketers within the company can maintain a global perspective wherever they are based.This global hub is helping its marketers become brand evangelists so they can all talk about the company in the same way, says Anna Valle, head of global marketing at Durex. The same way that were building communities with consumers, were now building our internal community, a website where we will have blogs; there will be a space for markets to put their best practice. It will help us to share the global vision, to engage and be more consistent. It will also help us in terms of speed to market. Im seeing what everyone is doing, so I can pick it up and move faster. Its all about alignment and building the brand together.Santanders Moor is also an advocate of bringing the global team closer. Twice a year everybody from every market comes together. We share best practice, knowledge and information. This approach means that every marketer from Spain to South America is thinking about the brand in a unified way.4 Adopt a glocal structureTwo major global brands have recently challenged the local marketing structure that had become the norm. Instead they are adopting a more regional structure in a bid to become more unified.Coke has scrapped its GB marketing director and simplified its operations in Europe by reducing the number of business units it has from ten to four.Similarly, Kraft has decided that while a GB marketing director position will exist, marketing will be led centrally from Europe.A spokesperson for Coca-Cola explains: The restructuring of marketing is simply part of this wider process. The changes will enable us to innovate more quickly and accelerate the increased coordination in our marketing already taking place in Europe and globally.The ability to be both global and local is paramount for successful international campaigns, explains Wendy Clark, senior vice-president integrated marketing communications and capabilities at Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola has a legacy of leveraging global scale and local relevance. And we know how important it is to balance both.