Ian Allison, creative director at integrated design and brand communication agency, Bell

Party. Let’s savour that word… ‘party’… mmm!  However, how many times have you been to a party that failed to live up the seductive promise that the word ‘party’ presents? Let’s dig deeper.

How much of that unfulfilled promise was down to your engagement – or lack of it? Parties are not a spectator sport (unless you arrive when the booze has gone, in which case it’s the funniest hour of your life). Experience can be a verb.

A brand must balance the promises it makes with customer experience. A good branding agency will help you define the promises that your brand can make and keep (brand strategy), and when and how to make them (marketing strategy).

The key word there is ‘… keep…’; this is the bit that you have direct influence over. Your colleagues are your first and most important audience. Behaviour will follow belief, and to make them believe you must involve them, listen to them. How many of your brand values can you actually remember, and use in a sentence that doesn’t make your skin crawl?

• develop and define the personality of the business, with input from around the world

• personality will need cohesion, authenticity and depth to work with the diversity of that exists in the world

• the personality of the business is the link between brand promise (communication) and brand experience (delivery)

• in understanding a business’s personality, different cultures will have a commonality that binds them together

• a strong personality will attract the right people to the business. This decision is rarely wholly rational

• a business with a defined personality is better able to make decisions about how it will act in the future

Human resources

Human resources teams should be at the heart of any brand-building exercise. New technology means new technical considerations and new behaviours to cope with them, but our need to work together effectively, to communicate with each other, and the ways that we do so have not fundamentally altered since we spat paint over our hands onto a cave wall (icon, anyone?) or used shorthand for speed, privacy and exclusivity – (anyone for texting?).

The methods and faster pace of digital communication are now firmly part of the fabric of our lives, yet we still want:

• speed, ease of use and relevant content

• to be surprised, flattered and delighted, to be ‘in the know’ – but tactics such as email and viral campaigns have to be carefully crafted to be effective and not counterproductive

• we want to be first in line, so we consider SERPs (search engine result page) positions; the higher up you are, the more easily you are found and the more important you are perceived to be

• for the same reasons, companies adopt such techniques as banner ads and Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

HR teams have direct influence over internal brand experience. Brand experience is half the branding equation; we experience the brand through our contact with it – whether that is a person, a brochure, a fragrance or a digital banner advert.

Digital communication and utilities are no longer a novelty, and they must be embraced because we often prefer to receive information and undertake transactions via that medium. It is no more or less important than any other media – just more or less appropriate, and should be a fully integrated part of your marketing and communications mix.

Living the brand
 
‘Living the brand’ is the Yeti of marketing; something oft mooted but rarely glimpsed in the wild – until now. Over the past two years, I have been working alongside a major Whitehall department, developing and implementing a branded internal communications campaign to support a major business reform programme. This was instigated following the Gershon review into public sector efficiency, published in 2004.

It’s an innovative approach for Government for two main reasons; firstly sufficient resources (time, people, and budget) have been allocated to do an effective job, and secondly they have recognised that private sector branding models cannot simply be transplanted wholesale into government branding issues – and consequently have shied away from the typically monolithic models that are usually employed. This means that, in collaboration, we have been able look at more ‘viral’ models of persuasion rather than ‘top-down’ information or instruction.

The journey has therefore been an open dialogue through which audiences have understood the new way of working required, then been supported with the necessary kit to work in that way – and we are now helping explain how new software will be implemented to enable all of this. I have been impressed all along by their openness to advice, commitment to their teams and their willingness to think laterally.

Consistency in global brand

For many potential clients, branding is like The Mariana Trench; on one level all is transparent and well lit, yet it can suddenly plunge into a very deep and dark place, where the pressure is phenomenal and unseen monsters lurk. However, I think we should look closer to home for a branding microcosm – ourselves.

Artists and philosophers (e.g. Dürer, DaVinci and Swedenborg) have long appropriated the human condition as a cipher for some greater, universal harmony and creating a global branding presence has its roots in such an approach. The human condition is universal; what varies is largely cultural and political, and these are the factors that shape the brand globally.

What do you do when you visit another country – fundamentally change your personality? Or do you adopt appropriate clothes and behaviour? I’ll wager the latter – for example, how can you ensure your corporate policies, such as ‘inclusivity’ or CSR are properly interpreted in countries where totally different attitudes and reference points exist? So, tactics vary, but may include:

• use employee forums or the recruitment process to understand the inherent cultural challenges

• a global strategy with actionable one year plans

• encourage global participation – spread the message, use/create global and local evangelists

• run global competitions to see who/which team expresses the company’s personality the best

• have a reason to celebrate

• remember and reward those (people/teams/offices) that express the business’s personality

• understand ‘where you are’ in each territory by gauging internal and external perceptions of your brand

• appoint champions carefully and create international forums for them to share best practice and continually evolve

• share rich content across your entire organisation.

My advice is: do your research and look to yourself – if you can be global, so can your brand. Branding specialists will help you to objectively unpack and synthesise this.