Strategy & Brand

As a general rule, BlackDog doesn’t brand upstarts. Here are some resources to help get your brand new brand off the ground though…

If you can’t find the answer to the brand query you’re muddling over, puzzling out, and Googling till the cows come home, send it our way. BlackDog’s 365 blog is an ongoing, evolving, question and answer guide developed to help business owners and entrepreneurs understand and hone their brands. Submit your questions on brand, branding, or branders to BlackDog and we’ll send you a personal response with the answer. An anonymous and confidential version of your question and our response will then be posted on BlackDog’s 365 blog to help out your fellow ponderers.

What’s a Brand?

• The Big Idea
• Logo vs Brand
• Who Defines a Brand?
• Brand Success – Just a Marketing Plan?
• Brand vs Advertising

Do You Need a Brand?

• Why Do I Need a Brand?

Naming Your Brand:

• How to Name a Startup
• 10 Ways to Name Your Company or Product
• Types of company and product names — A field guide

Slinging a Slogan:

• What’s The Difference: Good Tagline vs Bad Tagline

Picking a great URL:

• How to Find a Good URL without Having a Brain Hemorrhage

Finding Your Big Idea:

• The Big Idea

Differentiating Your brand:

• Differentiators…Let me count the ways
• Crazy. Inspired. Bold. Successful.
• How Do We Crate an Iconic Brand?
• Strip Away All the Filler…

Missions and Visions:

• Is Our Mission Our Brand Promise?

Components of a Brand Strategy:

• 19 Components of a Brand Strategy

Identifying Your Customer:

• Who Is Our Customer?

Identifying Your Brand Touch Points:

• What’s a brand touch point?

The Best Brand Book for Startups:

• Is There a Brand Book For Startups?

The Best Brand Books Period:

• Do You Have a Favorite Brand Book?

How to Write a Business Plan:

• Writing a Business Plan

Identifying Core Values:

• How Important are “Core Values”?
• Changing the World… One Brand at a Time

Developing Brand Standards:

• Hey, I Have Standards

Sponsorship  & Strategic Partnership Standards:

• Banners, logos, & Neon Lights, oh my!

Diversifying into New Markets:

• How Does A Brand Diversify Into New Markets?

The Truth About Brand Loyalty:

• Do You Believe in Brand Loyalty?

Synching Your Brand with Your Brand Experience:

• How do you sync brand and brand experience?

On Relevance, Transparency, & Avoiding Bullshit

• Do you ever get over whelmed by finding ways or trying to be inventive and original?
• The Better You Are, The Better You Look

Do Charitable Actions & Social Giving Build Brand Equity?

• Do Charitable Actions Build Brand Equity?
• Redux – Do Charitable Actions Build Brand Equity?

Bringing Your Humanity to Work:

• Brand Is An Inside Job

Communicating your Differentiated Brand:

• We Don’t Brand Bullshit: How BlackDog Does Communications
• Narrativity: You’re Too Good For Boring
• How Buff is Your Brand Narrative?
• Crafting Content out of Fingerprints
• Top Shelf: Communications Reads We Recommend
• Top Shelf Part II: More Communications Reads We Recommend

Brand & Social Media:

• Social Media – The Prize Inside
• The Rolling Stones Didn’t Have to Bribe THEIR Groupies
• Twitter, the Medium is the Message
• Social Media Masterminds: Facebook Pages that Are Getting it Right!

The hardest thing about Brand Development isn’t the time intensive research….

It isn’t being consistent yet flexible… innovative yet timeless.

The hardest thing about Brand Development isn’t creativity, charisma, social media, new marketing, old ideologies, fierce competition, or even too many cooks in the kitchen (although that is a much too oft encountered obstacle)… nope.

It isn’t over coming brain washing…. all those years of being told a brand is a logo, no… wait, a tag line… no…  an elevator pitch, an advertisement, a website, a banner, a name, a look, a campaign, a (___fill-in-the-blank___)… not those things either.

Nope… the hardest part is being explicit…

It’s precisely zeroing in on what really matters to your customers and  finding the guts to sing the glory of the story, explicitly, once you know it.

Successful brand development demands that an organization take the blinders off, put down the kool-aid, and walk tall and bold in the other guy’s shoes. Once you accurately identify the “pinch” your brand resolves…you’ve got to own it. Successful brands own their purpose, niche, cause, and message, explicitly.

Be precise about what you stand for and what you believe, where you’ve been and where you are going, what issues and values drive decisions, what you will and what you will not do. Be unequivocal about your purpose and absolute in your expectations.

A successful brand engagement should purpose to excavate an organization’s explicit brand:

• The kind of brand that transcends the conventional and continues to represent the foundation of the organization… it’s Big !dea.
• The kind of brand that connects employees, clients, customers and the public to the company’s mission, core competencies, differentiators, and powerful benefits through a carefully considered governing purpose, a meticulously crafted positioning statement, and a real “story” that means something to those you want to engage with your brand.
• The kind of brand that is unequivocally specific about what an organization does, how it’s done differently, why anyone should care, and what the company team and identity stand for.

You know…the kind of brand that literally double-dog dares customers, employees and partners not to choose it.

“In ordinary times, most men and women do not have radical questions about their identity.” Sam Keen

“In every society, however, there are extraordinary men and women who, for a variety of reasons, stand outside the social consensus, shatter the norms, and challenge the status quo.” Sam Keen

BlackDog was founded for such a time as this. As we celebrate our 5th anniversary we recognize that the heroes’ path is far less lonely then it used to be. Reformers and pathfinders are challenging debunked definitions of success. Renegades and visionaries are juggling, rather than ignoring, the paradoxes, tensions, and contradictions that confound the sustainable way forward. Humanists and rebels are throwing off shallow pursuits and questioning the failed ideologies, values, and purposes that guided the past to where we are today. Revolutionaries are decoding the cost, merit, and value of business as a good citizen.

In the new world order –we are all paying attention to the very real fact that when business supports people* it profits. And when it doesn’t, sooner or later, it won’t.

BlackDog was launched with one purpose- to align organizations around identities and purposes that matter. In 5 extraordinary years that ideology has only deepened.  We are on the side of those fearlessly navigating the naysayers course; doing what can’t be done in the “real world” of the ordinary or the timid.

*employees, customers, investors and community

It has been surprising to realize just how many business leaders are struggling with the same question: “What’s the point?” The question, asked any number of ways, is usually followed by a long  list of reasons and arguments for convincing the working masses to show up every day to do what “should” be done, that is, produce something that someone else wants to buy.

Organizations must exist to contribute positively to the human experience…that is benefit one’s quality of life, culture, and community. Quite simply work should empower people in their quest and pursuit of happiness as they labor, contribute, and create. Anything less and the business will flounder. The uninspired, overtaxed working community will struggle to maintain momentum and sustain passion in transactional cultures. Focus will wane, mission creep will set in, morale, productivity, and value will slide.

The current economic crisis is a reflection of our human crisis. We unequivocally must bring our humanity to work. Our work should reinforce our sense of purpose, our value, and feed our very human need to build and create. It’s that simple. It’s that complicated. Work is not an add on.

The quality of our work changes when we see it as a vocation and a service. Watch the quick clip of Rainn Wilson describing his role as Dwight Schrute as a “service” on Big Think.

http://bit.ly/quNKwm

How will I know when it’s time to brand or re-brand? What are the signs?

If we agree that a brand is simply the central organizing principle that engages teams internally and customers externally then it makes sense to “evolve” your brand when your business is ready to evolve. When a significant change in course is required to remain competitive or kick up the game.

• You’ve evolved to the point of mission creep. No one knows what we really do around her. An evolved brand strategy clarifies the meaningful strategic course and the purpose.

• When you need to close the gap between what you do and what customers think that you do.

• When you decide to differentiate by more than price and function (the easiest differentiators to copy).

• When you have a story worth talking about, worth listening to, and worth supporting.

• To develop the company culture and attract likeminded, zealous, inspired talent that shares your values and purpose.

• To increase the value and effectiveness of your marketing strategies.

• To build trust with your customers.

• When a new competitor with a value-loaded proposition is storming your market, reducing your once “owned” differentiation to a cost-of-entry benefit, usurping your brand position, and muting your relevance.

• Your organization is ready to enter new markets with a disruptive and powerful proprietary advantage that changes the strategic game.

• Your products perform better in independent testing against your two biggest competitors. Yet, they smoke you in sales. How can you have lagging sells with a winning product?

• You have acquired competitors. The infighting is impeding the market penetration.

• You are hoping to secure venture capital for your big ambitions. But the feedback indicated that you had a confusing message and a vague image.

• Once upon a time brands weren’t necessary in your industry. Your reputation was your strategic advantage for years. Things have changed. New players pushing a sharp brand are gobbling up the best and brightest and nabbing the deals to be had.

• Your industry has changed, the people involved have evolved, and the business has morphed. You need a cohesive brand to align the new direction, the evolution, reflect the relevance and introduce your Big !dea.

• Your brand has been gauging your carbon footprint up and down the value chain: adopting minimal packaging standards, innovating efficient delivery, and advertising models. You are now recognized as a forerunner in the sustainability economy. This opens whole new worlds to you…if you let people know what you stand for.

• Your brand is recognized as a great employer; your superior work culture has been honored with national awards. You want to build your employee engagement, programs, and success into your brand story in the hopes of recognizing your working community of contributors and attracting top talent.

• When it’s time to quit spinning a tagline and your wheels.When you are ready to strut your thought leading, game changing, taking care of people and business, big-bold, strategic innovations.

It’s time to evolve your brand when you are ready to turn it up and on.

What exactly is a brand touchpoint?

A brand touchpoint is anything, absolutely anything, that you do in the course of conducting business that gives a customer a reason to think more or less of you.

• Does your grocery store schlep food and goods? Or do you bring health and nutrition to the hungry masses?

• Does it take 24-48 hours for your clinic to refill a lost prescription for an inhaler lost at camp?

• If you blindfolded customers would they know that they were in your bank? Do your processes and customer experiences communicate a bank-centric interest? Are your branches like every other competitor’s branch?

• Does your hospitalized patient feel more like a number in a transactional exchange than a human in need of wellness, control, information, and care?

• Do the signs posted all over actually guide anyone to where they need to go? Who does the language that you use speak to? Who do the systems and processes benefit? Do the incentives you offer reinforce your value and genuinely address the customer’s real need?

Only 7% of the US beer market is comprised of craft beer devotees.
Yet, this savvy market is hopping at an ambitious rate of 11% annually as the commercial beer market shrinks 2% year after year. We want to know more about craft beer imbibers to build a kick ass craft beer brand for 3 guys with high ideals and a lot of guts.

If you drink craft brew this survey is for you… tell us your story. Be honest and keep it real.

I called your firm for an estimate for a brochure. I spoke with your communication strategist, forwarded marketing and communication materials, liked you on Facebook, and looked forward to a proposal. BlackDog declined the opportunity. I thought that you didn’t have time to write a proposal. I offered to forgo the protocols, agree on a budget, and proceed. BlackDog just flat out refused the work. Who refuses work?

First things first…I am sorry that you were disappointed by our response and that your efforts were likely delayed by our decision.

2.) Asking BlackDog to create a brochure is like asking BMW to make a little red wagon.

3.) BlackDog does and will thoughtfully decline project opportunities. We take our work personal and your business serious.

The official story (and long of it) is that BlackDog Strategy & Brand integrates the efforts of spirited brands that want to know how they can do what they do differently, simpler, and smarter. We align bold brands that challenge the boundaries, explore the limits, and harness their unique organizational competencies disrupting business as usual and creating new possibilities. We operationalize bold brands that are undaunted by the popular world view; brands that refuse to pay lip service to lofty missions or shallow pursuits.

We don’t spin communications or create noise at BlackDog; we humanize relevant brands that keep it fresh and real; brands that connect their Big !dea to what truly matters. We don’t fabricate shallow myths and we’re not persuaded by the demand for contrived hype. We partner with authentic brands that have people centric priorities, a story to tell, and a genuine contribution to make.

We champion the efforts of those that view their work as a vocation and recognize their accountability to society.

The short of it is that the organization that you represented likely wanted to create awareness but A.) didn’t have anything to say or B.) wanted to say what everyone else already was or C.) wanted to concoct a perception not based on reality.

I can say for certain that we never just decline an opportunity without putting up a good fight and making a strong case for substance, relevance, and authenticity. Selling out, mimicry, and the good ‘ole “tired” and true method of doing things the way they’ve always been done just isn’t for us and mediocre should never be for you.

Is there a brand book for start-ups?

Probably. But it would likely be a mistake to read a brand book while you are working to bring a new endeavor to life.

The best book to read if you are launching a start-up is Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of the Start; The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything.

Kawasaki marries sound business acumen with heart and guts.

And when you are done; read it again.