Dos of Brand Maintenance

Creating a brand identity is more than just your logo. A brand identity is visual and emotional
and communicates relevance and trustworthiness. Building an effective brand identity takes
years of hard work and perpetual tweaking, but is necessary for the success of your company.

When it comes to building and maintaining a brand identity, every little detail matters. It’s a
delicate task of following your core values while being brave enough to adapt to changing
market forces. This task is so hard that not even multibillion-dollar companies get it right
every time. [ CITATION Kat19 \l 1033 ]

A strong brand identity can do wonders for a company; it can have people humming your
tune and thinking of your company when they see a certain shape or color. In the tech
industry, Amazon and Apple are obvious winners, as they’ve been able to translate their
brands to mobile. Their brands are infused throughout many verticals and products, which is
not an easy thing to do. In my experience, it takes strict brand guidelines and a strong focus
on keeping your brand elevated no matter what.

Do: Keep things simple and focus on your core values.

Last year, was the year of voice assistants, with Amazon’s Echo
products dominating the market. With Echo, Amazon moved ever-
closer to delivering on its company mission statement to be “Earth's
most customer-centric company.”

Amazon’s relentless focus on customer experience stems beyond its friendly representatives
and lenient return policy. With voice, Amazon is strengthening its brand identity as being the
most customer-centric company on earth by making it easier than ever to buy what you want,
whenever you want.

By focusing on its core value, Amazon not only manages to delight its customers with a low-
friction shopping experience using voice but also fosters trust that Amazon will always put
them first. Companies should identify what makes them unique and allow that to guide their
core values. With these things in place, messaging and brand identity will become apparent.

Do: Follow the data, but don’t underestimate emotion.

When Netflix transitioned from its DVD-by-mail rental service, it followed data but forgot to
take into account one important thing: customer emotion. In 2011, the company announced it
would be splitting its DVD and online streaming services in two; Netflix would stream video
while Qwikster would deliver DVDs by mail. Combined with a price increase a few months
earlier, customer backlash was immediate. The company lost 800,000 subscribers and lost
goodwill because it didn’t take into account customer emotion.
This didn’t stop Netflix from bouncing back and maintaining its dominance in the streaming
video space. The company quickly nixed Qwikster and its CEO publicly apologized.
Although months of planning and rebranding were wasted, it showed that companies that
accept and rectify mistakes can recover their brand identity.

It’s easy to get lost in the numbers as a data-driven business but it’s also important to take a
step back to make sure you don’t forget to ask obvious questions like how customers will
react to change. In my experience, one easy way to gauge user sentiment is through surveys
and beta tests before finalizing updates to a product.[ CITATION Kat18 \l 1033 ]

Do: Be flexible and adapt to trends.

If you’re looking for an example of an established company
successfully adapting to trends, look no further than
McDonald's. The fast-food giant was struggling in the era of
clean and healthy eating, but it managed to stay relevant with a
renewed brand identity. Last year, McDonald's announced that
its most popular menu item, the chicken nugget, would be free
of artificial preservatives, adding to the company’s artificial-
preservative-free pork sausage patties and egg offerings.
[CITATION Bet16 \l 1033 ]

But getting rid of artificial preservatives was just one aspect of

McDonald’s renewed, health-conscious brand identity. The
company announced it would move to using cage-free eggs
exclusively by 2025. Additionally, the company moved to
using sandwich buns free of high fructose corn syrup.

By identifying food-specific trends, McDonald's rebranded itself as a fast food chain for new,
health-conscious consumers who still value convenience. This is not to say that McDonald’s
food is actually good for you, but it shows how an established brand adapted to changing
consumer tastes. The brand's strategy seems to be working as its shares surged thanks to
stronger than anticipated sales.

Brands should always be analyzing the market for changing consumer behavior and needs.
Beyond looking at your product, look at the entire consumer flow from start to finish to
identify what pain points need resolving. Look at what competitors are doing and see what
you can do better. In my experience, taking all of these factors into account can lead to a
healthier brand identity that's relevant to its consumers and the current times.

Don’ts of Brand Maintenance

Your brand is the core of your outward-facing identity, in my experience, so it’s important to
understand the implications and circumstances in which it will be used. Your brand is meant
to highlight your company and be consistent with the way you think and speak about your
company. The last thing you want is for your brand to distract your business.

In the world of mobile apps, for example, a common mistake I see is to focus too much on
the branding of a specific product, rather than on the corporate brand. This can lead to brand
confusion, especially when it comes time to cross-promote a suite of apps.

It is important for marketers and brands to learn from the mistakes already made when
planning for success, and here are three lessons to note. [ CITATION Fel19 \l 1033 ]

Don’t: Jump on trends without thinking of the bigger picture.

One of the biggest brand identity failures in recent history came from Pepsi when it uploaded
an ad, which was quickly pulled and never made it to TV, showing Kendall Jenner solving
social issues with soda.

Pepsi saw growing political unrest, including protests led by the Black Lives Matter activist
movement, as a trend, and they jumped without thinking of the bigger picture. The tone-deaf
commercial went viral and spawned an unrelenting torrent of criticism across social media.
Pepsi had to offer a public apology and take the ad back down.

While jumping on trends can be good for your brand identity, it’s important to only
incorporate trends that are relevant to your company and product. If you’re a soda company,
you should probably avoid getting political.

While it may be easy to jump on hot trends, not every trend will be beneficial to your brand
and some may even cause damage. Before leveraging trends, think ahead to how your
messaging can be misconstrued or considered disingenuous. Including trends in your
marketing will always be risky, so make sure it’s worth the reward.

Don’t: Wait too long to rebrand.

MySpace and Yahoo, two internet giants of the 2000s, waited years to rebrand and, as a
result, continue struggling to this day. Yahoo rolled out its exclamation-mark-less logo in
2013 but failed to show how the company was adapting to bigger trends. Instead, the
company kept its services the same and was eventually bought by Verizon in 2017 for $4.48
billion.

Similarly, MySpace revealed its new logo in 2010 but

failed to distinguish how the company would change.
Facebook became the social network to beat and
MySpace languishes as a strange amalgam of an
entertainment and music discovery site.

The failures of Yahoo and MySpace show that brand

identities are more than just a logo. Your brand has to
mean something and must differentiate you from
competitors.

Some of the biggest reasons to rebrand are when you’re trying to appeal to a new
demographic, you want to shake an old image, you need to adapt to market trends or you
simply want to grow further than the company’s original mission. Thoroughly consider your
reasons for rebranding and strategize accordingly so that your efforts are effective -- but don't
wait until it's too late.

Don’t: Ignore trends.

Campbell Soup Company may still be popular among Generation X and baby boomers, but
millennials are shunning the 148-year-old company. In the Morning Consult’s Most Loved
Brands survey, boomers and Gen Xers ranked the soup company at No. 2 and No. 5
respectively, while millennials ranked it at No. 27, next to Hershey’s and Dunkin’ Donuts.

Where McDonald’s identified and adapted to trends, Campbell’s has struggled for relevance.
The company repackaging its soups and tried selling them in microwavable bags, but neither
worked to rejuvenate the brand. Campbell’s acquisition of Bolthouse Farms is a step in the
right direction, but there’s nothing associating Bolthouse’s healthy products to its parent
company. To many millennials, Campbell’s is an outdated brand with an outdated product.

Companies should constantly be analyzing the behavior and needs of its customers.
Customers will literally tell you what their needs are and will help you identify trends that
will assist in shaping your company’s brand strategy. You can select random customers to
participate in surveys or focus groups, and you can also study reviews for your products or
services. These methods also offer opportunities to engage with your users and find out what
they truly care about.

Building and maintaining a strong brand identity is half art form, half experimentation. The
brilliant thing about digital advertising is that you have data available to constantly build, test
and target. You must be diligent in identifying and analyzing trends, have strong values and
be data-driven. Values are important, but it’s equally important that these values are
questioned and tweaked constantly to keep your brand identity relevant and strong.
[ CITATION Kat181 \l 1033 ]

The Dos and Don’ts of Marketing during a Global Crisis

It’s COVID-19’s world right now. Consumers – and marketers – are just living in it. The
virus is having a palpable impact on how consumers shop and consume media and goods, and
marketers need to figure out how to communicate with people in a new way. Or not
communicate, as the case may be.

“The first thing brands have to do is not think about today, but about how they want their
brand to be perceived when the world starts to return to normal,” said Jim Nail, a principal
analyst at Forrester. “The last thing you want to do now is appear tone deaf or opportunistic
or otherwise taking advantage of the situation in any way.”

New rules, new plan

Media plans that made sense two weeks ago might come off as dissonant today. Set-it-and-
forget-it is never a good idea, but especially not now.

Spirit Airlines learned that the hard way when it sent promotional email messages last week
with the cheery subject line “Never a Better Time to fly” – the day after President Trump
announced that the United States was instituting a 30-day ban on travel from Europe. “The
perfect time to treat yourself? Right this minute,” the email chirped.

According to the airline, the messaging was created months ago and sent accidentally. That
was an automated mishap and evidence that the safest thing for some categories to do is to
pull all of their advertising during a quarantine.
But marketers will also have to review their media strategies for a scarier reason: the rapidly
deteriorating economic situation, said Andrew Frank, VP of research and a distinguished
analyst at Gartner. Organizations are going to have to start prioritizing cost cutting alongside
escalating concerns about fulfillment capabilities and employee welfare, Frank said.

Some sectors, however, "might have a case for increasing media spending,” Frank said,
pointing to movie studios planning digital releases or political campaigns forced to abandon
rallies and traditional canvassing tactics. Retailers with ecommerce sites are also keen to let
consumers know that they’re open for business, even though their brick-and-mortar locations
are not. For obvious reasons, clients are quickly reallocating investments toward digital and
ecommerce and away from out-of-home, events and drive-to-store campaigns, said Tim
Lardner, a client strategy partner at digital agency PMG. With fewer channels at a brand’s
disposal, the messaging and creative become that much more important. It’s about striking a
balance between staying top-of-mind without appearing to capitalize off of a global health
crisis.

“Brands can stay relevant by telling stories about what they’re doing to have a positive
impact on their communities, their store associates and their customers,” Lardner said. “Some
examples include why they’re being proactive about store closings in order to contribute to
efforts to ‘flatten the curve,’ showing how the brand is supporting employees and their
families and being a positive voice among a sea of chaos and confusion.”

There are also opportunities to align the message with consumer sentiments and desires for
specific products and product attributes, such as immune health, said Frances Zelazny, CMO
of Signals Analytics. "A crisis is temporary, but displaying the sense that you are in tune with
your customer and providing specific messages can instill a sense of trust and value that will
be long lasting," she said.

Successes in Marketing in the times of Coronavirus

In that vein, it’s less about advertising and more about trying to be helpful, useful and
informative, said Brian Wieser, global president of business intelligence at GroupM.

“And that could even lead to new and different consumer behaviors in and of itself,” Wieser
said, pointing to Chipotle’s coronavirus strategy as a prime example. “They’re providing a
distraction with custom entertainment for people who need it.” In addition to announcing free
delivery on orders of $10 or more through a partnership with Uber Eats, Chipotle is hosting a
series of virtual “lunch parties” on Zoom this week featuring interviews with celebrity guests
and the chance to win free food. Up to 3,000 people can join each hangout at a time.

Other brands are also rising to the challenge in ways that go beyond run-of-the-mill corporate
social responsibility. Ford, which temporarily halted all auto production this week, is offering
payment assistance to vehicle buyers and existing owners through its financing arm, Ford
Credit. The car manufacturer is also in talks with the government, along with GM, to
potentially produce medical equipment, including ventilators, at its now-idled auto factories.
Louis Vuitton’s parent company, LVMH, converted three of its perfume and makeup
factories into hand sanitizer production facilities with a plan to produce around 12 tons, all of
which will be donated to French hospitals.

Failures in Marketing in the times of Coronavirus

The Miami New Times reported last week that Norwegian Cruise Line managers were
encouraging their salespeople to share falsehoods about the coronavirus in order to drum up
bookings, including that the disease doesn’t spread in hot weather.

A whistleblower leaked emails in which a manager shared talking points for sales reps to use
if potential customers expressed concern about COVID-19, such as “The only thing you need
to worry about for your cruise is do you have enough sunscreen?” After the story broke, an
executive sent an internal memo with the statement: “One of our own ratted.” That email was
leaked as well. There is no worse situation than that for a brand. [ CITATION All20 \l 1033 ]

References
Jansen, K. (2018). The Dos And Don'ts Of Building A Brand Identity (Part 1). Forbes.

Jansen, K. (2018). The Dos And Don'ts Of Building A Brand Identity (Part 2). Forbes.

Kowitt, B. (2016). McDonald’s Just Made A Big Change to Its Chicken McNuggets.

Fortune. Retrieved from [Link]

mcnuggets-preservatives/

Piontek, K. (2019). How to strengthen your brand with your marketing strategy. Articulate.

Schiff, A. (2020). The Dos And Don’ts Of Marketing During A Global Crisis. Ad Exchanger.

Sullivan, F. C. (2019). Let’s Talk About How to Build a Brand. Medium.