Branding is establishing a company as memorable, desirable, and valuable through a consistent experience. It clarifies what the company stands for to create relevance. Successful brands create memorable experiences that people want to be part of through consistent adherence to qualities and behaviors. Building a strong brand increases awareness and the perceived value of offerings to help attract customers and grow business over time.

1. Branding 101
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2. What is Branding?
Branding is a concerted, company-wide effort to establish your offering as
memorable, different, desirable, valuable and advantageous
Branding creates consensus around what you believe in, stand-for, and aspire
to. It clarifies and solidifies your competitive position, offering, significance,
and key differentiators; creating cachet, mystique and interest
Branding establishes your company as relevant and meaningful to all desired
audiences

3. What is Branding?
Brand credibly and convincingly articulates the promise, value and
benefit customers will derive from their experience with your
company and its services
When executed correctly, a brand, and its unique tenets, beliefs and
persona, is understood inherently at the very first interaction—
because the experience consistently adheres to a fixed set of
qualities and behaviors that are undeniable, inimitable and
unforgettable
A singular, predictable, premeditated experience is the true essence
of brand

4. What is the quintessential brand?
X?
There is none.
Any brand can be iconic, meaningful and revered if
given enough thought and attention.

5. Why Brand is Important?
Brand is the only sustainable, discernable point of
difference in an increasingly commoditized, over-touted,
oversold, overabundant marketplace

6. What do successful brands do?
They create memorable experiences you want to be a part of….
Even if what’s being sold is really a “story” rather than something new or
different.

7. Why invest in brand?
• To establish a baseline for targeted, consistent and accurate communications
• To create an unwavering, steadfast and recognizable persona across all
media and manifold touchpoints
• To reach the right audience with the right message—every time
• To underscore the how, what, where, why and “who” of a company—
establishing a clear and undeniable competitive stake in the ground
• To reinforce intangible, emotional qualities that have real meaning and
purpose

8. Why invest in brand?
The law of increasing returns:
• Overcome category resistance
• Reduce the cost of client acquisition, awareness and retention
• Predispose clients to consider, try or recommend your offering
• Attract important partners and allies

9. What’s the pay-off?
The perceived value of your brand directly impacts your ability to sell
and grow
50¢
$3.90

10. To build a brand, you must:
• See the big picture: industry, competition, trends, client behavior
• Know what people expect from you
• Know what you can actually deliver
• Identify your truly inimitable qualities
• Be prepared to consistently perform and “own” your position
• Take every opportunity to leverage brand permission
• Walk the walk at every conceivable corporate level and touchpoint
(down to the mailroom)

11. The secret formula: conviction, recognition, and…
consistency

12. Brand strategy is meaningless without the
endorsement of brand stewards
Branding reveals the concrete and intangible qualities that make you, you.
Brand Strategy
Brand Stewards
Brand stewards bring these qualities to life.
(And your brand stewards are everyone from your CEO and summer intern to your clients and your
vendors. In other words, codifying your brand and making it known, is a “Good Thing”)