Many people are simply tired of words at this point. And that’s fine, but your tagline is important enough to warrant your full attention. So take a break, and come back to it when your mind is refreshed.

Think about your unique selling points. What do you stand for? What makes you special? What simple little group of key words sums you up in a nutshell? If you’re planning on a web presence (you are, right?) it’s also helpful to think about what words people might search for when looking for what you provide. This is just another exercise to help you target the right word choices.

Remember, your tagline needs to be a relevant and memorable phrase that will both encapsulate the tone and premise of your brand or product, and reinforce your audience’s memory of the same.

A lot of our clients follow the short, three word list model. While these nice little lists are great (we have one on our homepage), they shouldn’t be treated as your primary slogan. Why? They don’t stand for you on their own. Place your competitor’s name over that sweet little list instead of yours, and what do you see out of place? Probably nothing. The three word lists are too generic when used as slogans. They may describe you, but they don’t describe you uniquely.

My own tagline might not follow all the rules in a strict sense: ‘Driven by Design’. But although the specific choice of the word ‘driven’ may not link back to my company name in a literal way, as a slogan it works. It’s unique, relevant and very much representative of how we operate.

One could argue that phrase-based slogans have the same pitfalls as the list model, but the same could be said for any option. A thoughtful phrase is just the better choice. Coke’s old slogan “It’s the real thing” on its own could easily apply to any product based company. But they’ve taken strong ownership over time through effective marketing and visible reinforcement. Remember, it’s not enough to craft the perfect slogan… you have to own it. Use it or lose it, as they say.

I often wonder why so many of the business owners and brand managers who approach us are so obsessed with the overall machine, without giving so much as a nod to the cogs that make it work. I’m not talking about employee recognition here (that’s another topic entirely) but rather, the less tangible qualities that impact the customer’s experience in doing business with you.

How many times have you avoided returning to a restaurant with a shoddy bathroom? And how wonderful is that free tea or cappuccino at your favourite spa?

In another analogy, building a successful business is in many ways like building a house. You start with a plan and an overall vision, but there are a million little things that need to be done (and done well) before you’re anywhere near having a habitable and stylish abode. So too in business must you “sweat the details” in order to achieve a big picture worth hanging on the wall.

The following list outlines just a few of those little things… specifically, the equally minute and influential details that may have passed your notice, but won’t go unnoticed by the customers who walk through your front door.

Your Store / Office / Restaurant / Physical Space

1. Clean Exterior with Clear, Visible Signage
2. Thoughtful Lighting (not too dark, not to bright, with focus in the right spots)
3. Neat, Clean Interior
4. A Pleasant Smell (clean, fresh, VERY subtle, appropriate)
5. Comfortable Seating
6. Up-To-Date and Well Maintained Decor
7. Appropriate Background Music (genre, type, and volume)
8. A Comfortable Temperature and Noise Level
9. Breathing Space (wide aisles, clean lines, elbow room)
10. Impeccable Bathrooms
This is a big little thing. Bathrooms need to be clean, functional, relaxing, not treated as storage or a decor afterthought… and for the love of god, don’t skimp on the toilet paper.

The People You Employ

11. Smiling and Friendly
12. Well Groomed (clean-shaven, minimal makeup… they should look like they care)
13. Clean
14. Knowledgeable
15. Well-Spoken
16. Involved
17. Attentive (they don’t just hear, they listen)
18. Committed (passion shows)
19. Appropriately Dressed (i.e., if you’re selling jewellery, jeans won’t cut it)
20. Nice Smelling (this means little to no perfume, with any halitosis kept in check)

Your Business Away from the Office

21. A Modern, Simple, Useful Website
22. Pleasant Surprises (little extras have minimal cost and big payoff)
23. Up-To-Date Materials (an old card with new address in pen doesn’t inspire confidence)
24. Clear Vision
25. Quality Papers (cover stock with gloss for your catalog, or that thicker business card)
26. Free Perks (works in the office too; free refreshments while waiting make a big impression)
27. Impeccable Writing (no spelling errors; appear knowledgeable, authoritative, positive)
28. Brevity (say more with fewer words)
29. Takeaways (something keep-worthy to take with them, and hand out for you)
30. Understand Your Customer (and more importantly, make sure they know it)

None of these should come as big shockers, but it’s surprising how many times things like lighting, smells and toilet paper are overlooked. Success in business is closely tied to success in life, and your customers will reward you for a consistently enjoyable brand experience that speaks to them, and makes them feel good about doing business with you.

Remember, a happy customer is often a return customer.

While new business owners invest substantial amounts of time and resources into product and concept development, package design, advertising, PR and distribution, the act of choosing a name for their brand is often treated as an afterthought. As a result, we end up with generic and damaging brand names like ‘x place’ or ‘y barn’… or names that are already shared with dozens of other companies.

Choosing the right name is your first act of public branding, and it bears a heavy burden in that it must represent your values, your aspirations and your business using a small selection of letters. That’s a lot of weight for a few tiny words to carry.

So lesson number one, then, is to treat the naming process with equal importance as you would the development of your product itself.

Important Considerations

• Uniqueness
  Confirm trademark and URL availability for your shortlisted names
• Longevity
  Research the fit and stretch of your name against long term objectives
• Expandability
  Your name needs to grow the brand, set aspirational targets and remain flexible
• Objectivity and Relevance
  Target your audience, not yourself
• Diversity
  Ensure your name translates favorably into other languages
• Connectivity
  Launch stronger with support, excitement and backing from employees and key stakeholders
• Cooperation
  Your name is your label. Your slogan is your essence. Use both appropriately.
• Coverage
  Not every new product needs a new name. Your primary name should be strong enough to serve as an umbrella.
• Memorability
  This follows from all of the above. Your name needs to endure when all else is forgotten.

Remember, it’s easy to come up with a name. What people fail to recognize, however, is that it can be an incredibly difficult and complicated process to come up with a GOOD name.

Many business owners seek out naming consultants after having tried unsuccessfully to name their product or company in-house, often after having already invested considerable time and expense. Getting a brand specialist involved from the outset will push you solidly down the right path to creating a powerful brand name.

More often than not, consumers associate brand-speak with trickery, exaggeration, misdirection and outright deception. The sad thing is, I don’t blame them. A lot of brands are disingenuous. What those brand managers don’t realize is that tricking someone into buying once is far less profitable than earning customer loyalty and trust over the long term.

Investing in your Brand for the Long Haul

Branding is so much more than just looking good. You need to pick up where we leave off.

Good branding requires ongoing maintenance. But unfortunately, too many companies slow their branding efforts to a near-halt after unveiling the new logo and website.

In a number of ways, rolling out your new visual identity is really just the beginning of one of your most important branding endeavours… that is, a long-term and focused investment in building trust.

“Investing in brand development is increasingly important to build credibility and differentiate,” says Cynthia Round, executive vice president of brand strategy and marketing at United Way of America, which recently rolled out a completely revamped brand campaign. “People are making purchasing decisions based on how closely aligned their values are with an organization and how much they trust what that organization is providing.”

Your brand platform should accurately and honestly represent your organization’s core values, but it is equally important that your actions and business practices follow in line. Trust and personal connection are at the foundation of employee and consumer loyalty, both of which have a significant and direct impact on your bottom line.

Brand Trust: as Simple as Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Building and marketing a good base image is only step one. If I’ve heard of you, I’m more likely to trust you at the outset. But trust is built over time, accrued from a consistent collection of experiences and perceptions. To get to level two, you need to do what you say you are going to do. It seems easy, but it’s a step that so many fail to reach. Finally, customer trust and loyalty are confirmed and reinforced when you simply repeat step two at every opportunity.

Deliver on your promise in a consistent way, and you’ll never lose business due to a lack of credibility.

Free Advertising: it Goes Both Ways

If your brand promises gold and delivers bronze, you’re finished. Bad news travels fast and far. So in failing to live up to the image you’ve created for yourself, you’ve not only alienated one customer, but have also lost out on potential business from all of the people your single unsatisfied customer has complained to. You may be able to hold your head above water for a while with this strategy, but it won’t last.

On the other hand, if you’ve planned your brand strategy on a basis of sustainable and honest values (i.e., you can and do deliver what you say you will) then what you’re reinforcing is a lasting impression of quality, value, and credibility. Good news may not travel as far or as fast, but the ROI (considering your investment is nothing more than doing what you do anyway) can be immense.

Approximately 80% of our new clients come to us via direct recommendations from former or existing clients. That’s a significant amount of advertising that’s being done on our behalf, at no expense to us.

Honesty and Authenticity = Tangible ROI

The bottom line is, every company wants measurable, tangible returns on their investments. This is especially true when it comes to branding strategies. Trust is a tricky thing to measure, but when the United Way undertook a campaign to determine investor and donation motives in 2003, they found that a strong brand was 67% of the reason people chose to invest in the organization.

Often, it’s the smaller daily interactions that illustrate how your brand is working for you. And that’s precisely what you want. Small actions (both positive and negative) build upon one another, impacting the experience your brand provides, and acting directly on its strength.

Once you’ve built the visual aspects of your brand, success is as simple as delivering consistently on what you’ve promised. People will pay more for, and choose more readily, the experience and peace of mind that a healthy brand provides.

It has also become an uber-brand that represents intangible, un-buy-able values (peace, love, joy, family, selflessness) simultaneously with supreme commercialism.

I love Christmas: hot cocoa, a roaring fire, home cooking, decorated trees, lit up streets, friends around, and the overall heightened consideration of other people (which really should be more present year-round). And of course, the unavoidable and remorseless spending of money we don’t necessarily have.

I like shopping as much as the next red-blooded woman, and I love choosing gifts for people I care about, BUT I loathe the chaos that is the holiday shopping experience. Firstly, running a fully booked design firm means I am impossibly busy, and it’s hard to find time to brave the traffic, find parking, and wait in obscene lines at the counter. So I shop for a lot of gifts online, which doesn’t seem particularly festive to me. Something is lost.

Smart online retailers are starting to catch on. In the same ways that a brick and mortar store would decorate their shop for the holidays, internet based companies are learning to create a more festive atmosphere for their customers. We all know that emotion sells. And the experience you’re providing for your customers online can be just as lucrative as one you might create in your physical store.

Now, my customers aren’t looking for the same thing as holiday shoppers. You’re business folk, and it’s not likely you’re going to hire a corporate designer as a gift for a loved one. But, I still felt like I should give a subtle little nod to the holidays… so I created a festive little holiday variant on our logo in the upper left corner. Even for those of us who aren’t selling a product, small efforts like this one show a human side that customers often appreciate.

If your business does happen to be one that caters to holiday shoppers, there are a few things you can do to improve your customers’ experience, and boost your online sales this December.

Intelligent Use of Colour
Humans are deeply and predictably influenced by visual stimulus, particularly the experience and use of colour. If you’re going to ‘decorate’ your website for the holidays, do it tastefully. Blinking flashy strings of rainbow christmas lights as text separators are not going to help your cause. A rich feature area with two or three cohesive colours in a consistent palette will create a pleasing experience, which will make your visitors want to stay and browse around.

Good Bone Structure
If your website design sucks, then no amount of tinsel is going to save it. Before you even think about holiday branding strategies, you need to make sure your base materials are solid. You need an impressive and credible visual image, a strong homepage with obvious calls to action, a simple and clean interface, an intuitive navigational structure, and a minimalist shopping process. Your visitors should not even have to think about how to use your site – you want their focus on your products, not your overcomplicated shopping cart software.

Holiday Sales!
This is a no-brainer. It’s the holidays. People expect special price offers. And if you’re not offering any, it’s nearly guaranteed that your competition is. On a recent trip to Home Depot, my husband noticed there were a lot of two-for-one sales on power tools. He wondered why one might need two of the same tool, but it was actually a pretty obvious holiday sales tactic… buy something you might have wanted for yourself anyway, and get another one free so you can tick a name off your holiday shopping list. It’s a double incentive on high value purchases that might otherwise be put off. His reaction? “That’s brilliant.”

Know Your Market
If you’re catering to a niche market, then your promotional decor should be appropriate to their tastes. A sporting goods retailer would take a vastly different approach to a high-end jeweler. Acknowledge the reasons people come to your website, think about what they want to get out of their visit with you, and adjust your design accordingly. Remember, this is about THEM, not you.

Time For Change
In Q4, users give advertisers 30% more of their time when compared with any other time of year. If you’re going to roll out a new product, new campaign, new feature or benefit announcement, now is the time to do it. On December 31st, advertisers get an additional minute overall to engage their audience. You have their attention. Don’t waste it.

Decorate Tastefully
Cut the clutter. If you have something important to say, don’t drown yourself out with background noise. In trying to say too much, too many end up saying nothing. Focus on a few big drivers, and organize yourself thoughtfully. Your customers come to your website because they want something specific from you, so make it easy for them to find.

Flash is Overrated
A little bit can be nice, but usability is much more important from a shopper’s point of view. The trick is to combine ease-of-use with a visual atmosphere that gives your visitors a good feeling about shopping with you.

In building your brand, you are creating a new definition with the aim of making it a household name. When people think of tissue, they instantly think of Kleenex. That’s the sort of association you want. Instant identification in the mind of the customer is not enough though… you also need that identification to represent competence, quality, authenticity and credibility. At the same time, your brand needs to remain dynamic, relevant, and at the top of mind while retaining its established heritage and identity.

In the end, the message your brand puts forward must ring true to your business, in its current state, its history, and in what you hope for the future. When your brand image doesn’t represent the message you want to convey, it’s time to consider making a change.

Many CMOs feel that brands follow a distinct and irrevocable stage pattern:
- inception
- maturation
- plateau
- decline
- death

Brands in decline are thus generally (and literally) allowed to starve to death. Dollars are reallocated to growth brands instead, leaving the declining brand without any market support, and leading to its imminent demise. By the same token, new brands and products require a very heavy investment. More companies are seeing the benefit in the revitalization of diminishing brands… reinventing the wheel is a cripplingly arduous (and redundant) option, when all you may need to do is refill the tires.

Get to know your business from the outside in:

• How do your customers view you, your heritage, your values, and your ability to meet their needs?
• What do they see as the points of differentiation, or unique selling proposition of the brand?
• How many pleasant associations and experiences have consumers had with the brand?
• What are the negatives, if any, associated with the brand?
• What is the perceived value of the brand?
• Is the perceived value of the brand active or dormant? How does it stack up against other brands?
• How relevant is the brand?
• What do customers believe the brand can do for them, to add value or more desirable attributes?
• How much loyalty is there to the brand?

There are more options in revitalizing your brand than simply changing your business name and mission statement. In general, you have three main areas to consider:

1. Rebranding the company from the inside out
2. Updating the brand’s products and product attributes with better, demanded features
3. Redesigning materials for a more contemporary brand image to appeal to new generations of consumers

Redesigning brand image materials the most logical place to start; while it has the potential to produce sweeping improvements and revitalization across your brand, it also requires the least amount of investment and represents the smallest risk of consumer alienation. It is important that your business remain current, while retaining the reputation and recognition you have worked hard to achieve (and ultimately, to improve them as well).

Product packaging becomes outdated at an increasingly high rate… it is important to keep ahead of the curve, or get lost in the dust thrown up by your competitors. Your website must be current (you absolutely need to have a website), and it must infer the highest levels of credibility and authenticity on your business. Your materials should blow the audience away – the method of course depending on your key demographic and business model.

In all brand revitalization endeavours, it is important to keep your brand image relevant and attractive to existing core customers, while also attracting new ones. You need to ensure that your brand retains continuity, has relevance to today’s market, and has sustainability for the future. The best balance can be summarized in three segments:

1. Acknowledge your heritage (10%)
2. Address the needs of today (80%)
3. Look forward to the future (10%)

The bottom line is that periodic and well considered brand revitalization is an essential component of brand management. Revitalization, as inferred by the name, gives new relevance to what could have been perceived as an outdated, tired or just plain amateur business image.

Sage Media is an international corporate design firm based in Ottawa, Ontario.

Rebranding, whether a product or an entire brand, is a serious endeavour. The overall need for rebranding is based on the basic premise that just as people change their style of clothes, hairstyles and home decorating, so brands need to keep up with the times and changing market and consumer dynamics. At the same time, rebranding can be undertaken to fix errors made earlier in a product’s development, to create new consistency across products, or conversely, to take advantage of the benefits of product differentiation and market segmentation.

Rebranding and brand revitalization are not tasks to be taken lightly, and should be backed by legitimate reasoning – and no, simply becoming bored with your logo is not a good reason.

Some of the better reasons to rebrand include:

- modernization, if a brand has become old-fashioned and is in danger of stagnation
- differentiation, due to fierce competition or a fast-changing environment
- blocking or outmaneuvering competitors
- handling increased price competitiveness
- addressing the needs of brand globalisation
- addressing a brand merger or acquisition
- improving competitiveness by creating a more unified identity
- testing new markets or products
- countering declining profitability or consumer confidence
- signaling a change in direction, focus, attitude or strategy
- capitalizing on new opportunities or mediums

Whatever the catalyst, just as your customers should come to you for the specialist product or service you provide, so should you engage the services of an experienced brand design firm when undergoing or even considering a brand redesign or revitalization campaign.

Sage Media is an international corporate design firm based in Ottawa, Ontario.

In recent years, the concept of personal branding has been getting more and more attention. The basic premise of this is that over the course of your career, you would benefit from creating “Brand You” as a way to differentiate yourself from other job seekers, business developers, vendors, and people in general.

Thomas Harrison sums it up nicely: “Your personal brand – your reputation – is a capital asset, and should be treated that way. If you invest in equipment, you have to take care of it, maintain it. Your brand is like your personal equipment, your hardware. You need to upgrade it every so often based not only on what you need it to do now but also on what you’re going to need it to do in the next three to five years. Your personal brand is a salesman on your behalf – often when you don’t even realize it.” [from Instinct: Tapping your entrepreneurial DNA to achive your business goals]

The modern workforce is rapidly becoming less a stiff hierarchical structure, and more a complex and ever-changing network of free agents. On average, people currently between 18-40 will change careers at least three times in their lives, and change jobs approximately every six years. And that doesn’t take into account the chances for advancement within one’s current position or working team. Companies utilize the benefits of branding to further their reputations and success as a matter of rule; it’s the law of the corporate jungle. Brand or be forgotten. What many people don’t consider is that the same rules can be applied to their individual endeavors, with comparable results.

Defining a brand for yourself is not much different than the process companies go through in branding their products and businesses. Follow a few key steps and you’ve got it:

What makes you different?

Start by identifying the qualities or characteristics that make you distinctive from your competitors, or your colleagues. What have you done lately to make yourself stand out? What would your colleagues or your customers say is your greatest and clearest strength? Your most noteworthy (as in, worthy of note) personal trait? Forget your job title and description; instead focus on what you do that adds remarkable, measurable, distinguished, distinctive value. Focus on what you’re most proud of.

Market yourself

Don’t sell the drink, sell the refreshment. It’s a principle that all successful brands are familiar with… no matter how fantastic your brand is, you still need to market the heck out of it in order to get ahead. Now, you’re not going to take out a bus ad with your smiling mug on the side (though you could – who am I to stop you). How can you market YOU? The same way the companies do, but different. Embark on a visibility campaign that takes advantage of your personal strengths.
- Sign up for extra projects in order to network with new people
- Take on freelance projects to expand your portfolio and word-of-mouth marketing potential
- Teach a class at a community college, adult education program or your own company to establish yourself as an expert
- Contribute a column or opinion piece to a local newspaper to improve your exposure
- Make a presentation at a workshop or get yourself on a panel discussion at a conference

The most important thing to remember about your personal visibility campaign is that it all makes a difference.

Looking ahead

Careers no longer follow predictable linear pathways, you could go in any direction at any time. And personally, I think that’s fantastic. You’re only limited by your capabilities and your motivation, not some stodgy old attitude of A must proceed B. So you should always be thinking about where you want to be, and how you can get there.

A final tip: when marketing yourself, make sure you’re marketing YOU and not necessarily the company you happen to work for (unless you ARE your company, in which case you need to market BOTH equally). When you’re giving a presentation, freelancing or teaching a class, make sure the business cards you hand out are for “brand you”. Have some designed especially for your personal branding efforts, with YOU as the primary brand. The last thing you want to do is hand out one of your standard issue employee cards, where the focus is on your employer, and your name appears in template spot X – and is all too easily forgotten.

Sage Media is an international corporate design firm based in Ottawa, Ontario.

Now, all business owners are familiar with the corporate brochure, but rarely is it utilized in the same way by companies in non-creative fields. Most corporate brochures end up serving either as extended ads (too obviously self-serving, unless the ad is the purpose), or dry company profiles (which are, well, dry). I often suggest a more creative approach to my clients… a “show” rather than “tell”.

The creative SPP gives prospective clients a better idea of your experience and capabilities. Think of your case study segment as a mini-portfolio of sorts – it should highlight some of your biggest successes, and serve as an example of your company’s capabilities. Who used your product/service? What did you do for them specifically, and how did it make their lives better?

A good SPP needs to serve several purposes. If you’re going to mail it, it needs to work effectively as a direct mail piece. At the same time, it should work as a well-designed brochure or packaging concept. Put as much effort and imagination into designing your SPP as you would put into delivering a product/service to your best client.

It’s not essential that you have an SPP… however, it’s good to remember that an exceptionally clever and well-designed SPP can often open doors when a cold-call or sales letter won’t.

Sage Media is an international corporate design firm based in Ottawa, Ontario.

Your materials should all send the same clear and positive message about your business. For your corporate and marketing materials, this means that every item in the “wardrobe” should match… not in terms of looking identical, but rather each item should complement the other and when placed together, it should be obvious that they are two pieces in a cohesive suite of well thought out and professionally implemented design. This includes your logo, stationery, packaging materials and labels, signage, web site, email signature, window displays and office decoration, PowerPoint presentations, giveaways and specialty items such as mugs, t-shirts or pens.

Your trademark or logo needs to be professionally developed, and used in a consistent way. Don’t be tempted to change the font or colour randomly or without obvious cause. Of course you can have several versions of your logo, but keep the number of variants low, and be sure that you have one primary version that is recognizable as the “official” logo.

Your stationery should all be the same colour, finish, and quality of material. Ideally, your basic corporate identity package (business card, letterhead and envelopes) would be developed as a set by a brand designer with experience in creating cohesive stationery systems for business. And when printing documents on your shiny new letterhead and envelopes, use the same font consistently.

Project Taste and Success

You care about your business and take a lot of pride in the quality what you offer, so make sure you show it. Use high quality stock and finishing when creating your materials… go for the thicker stock, the satin or high gloss finish, and the best design company you can afford. In designing your materials, simple is always better. Yes you can have airbrushed murals printed on your letterhead – but please, resist the temptation to go too exhuberant in this area. Look at Apple; people love clean and simple. It’s just nicer, and people will take you more seriously as a business.

And as for your business cards, again you want to avoid the temptation to purchase an Avery kit and spit them out of your deskjet printer at home. The paper is lightweight, and the printing process is far from professional, so it ends up looking cheap, the ink will smudge, and it’s not durable. Have your cards designed professionally, and opt for offset lithographic printing on at least 12pt card stock (I prefer 14 with satin, or one of the more artistic options such as plastic or metal). The end point is that your card, and all your materials, should create a positive, interesting, and lasting impression.

And remember, these items don’t just apply to your corporate materials; apply them to the way you do business in general and you’ll reach the same result: an impression of competence, and success.

Sage Media is an international corporate design firm based in Ottawa, Ontario.