What is Brand? Why Brand? What difference does Brand make?

1. What is Brand?
Why Brand?
What difference does
Brand make?
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2. Introducing Brand…
• A strong corporate brand is the evocative articulation of organisation‟s
purpose
• Beyond mission statements and objectives, the brand encapsulates a core
promise and answers „why choose us?” and “how we are different?”.
• Brands creates simplicity out of complexity.
• Brands take the rational and make it emotional through the use of language
and symbols as a shortcut to decision making and the guarantee of a
promise made.
• Strong brands energise people - for employees they create meaning, stir
XXX
emotions and engage people.
• Externally the brand creates a connection and commitment with customers.

3. What is the role of Corporate Brands?
They help businesses
PERFORM
They INSPIRE employees
to live by the brand with
enthusiasm and
conviction
They PROTECT against
predators
Internal
Alignment Value
and creation
Engagement
UNIFY They help organisations
Make sense of the CHANGE via unchanging
business as a values which help the
whole organisation flex

4. Characteristics of successful brands
• One simple, unifying idea delivered clearly and consistently
• A clearly articulated, vision shared across the organisation
• A point of differentiation from your competitors
• Understanding your stakeholder‟s needs, delivering and exceeding them
• Building on a solid foundation of strong business fundamentals
• Staff and executives who „live and breathe their brand‟ and walk the talk
However, this does not happen by chance. Businesses who do this well
have a sound strategy & positioning which makes branding look easy.

5. Why is this important?
Organisations & senior executives typically understand the
tip of the iceberg:
• Name
• Logo
The real power is aligning to the above whilst also creating
real meaning for your stakeholders,
What is your positioning?
• Is it Credible, Sustainable, Relevant and Unique ?
What do you stand for?
How are you truly different?
Are your internal stakeholders aligned with what you are
saying?
Do you know what your external stakeholders seek, expect
and want?
Have you got the clarity beneath the surface?

6. Successful businesses align their proposition
• Customer facing Proposition – Why do business with us?
• Employee facing Proposition – Why join or stay with us?
• Investor facing Proposition – Why invest with us?
• Community “Values” Proposition – Why believe in us?
The Corporate Brand links these propositions

7. Successful branding projects
Great brands are a combination of :
» Insight and understanding of the business and marketplace
» A clear group vision/strategic positioning
» Clear brand values
» Creative inspiration that reflects the Role, Purpose and Values of the brand
» A consistent delivery throughout the marketing mix and to all brand
stakeholders
Critical success factors include
» Senior management mandate and ongoing support
» A core team resourced and empowered to bring the entire project together
» Experienced branding partner with proven process and capabilities
» A deadline and the commitment to stick to it

8. Why Brand?
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9. In the context of Financial Services…
• Financial Services marketing communications is characterised by numbing
sameness, commoditised product feature wars, and laundry lists of product
benefits.
• It‟s a sea of noise, parity, clutter and dullness...
• Branding helps cut through the morass of the market, get noticed, and
connect with the customer on many levels and in ways that matter.
• A strong brand becomes the client‟s “shorthand” for making choices in a
complex, risky, and confusing marketplace.

10. Is this rational???
• What we actually think or why we buy a particular brand of product is based
on stored memories, images and feelings – which is what a brand is all
about
– Will we really belong to some rebel tribe by buying a motorcycle?
– Does every woman identify with Audrey Hepburn because her gift came
in a light blue box?
• It is one of the key reasons why we operate from feelings over facts,
respond to emotion over reason, and choose great brands over their service
or commodity substitutes.

11. Enough already!
“The „surplus society‟ has a surplus of similar
companies, employing similar people, with similar
educational backgrounds, coming up with similar
ideas, producing similar things, with similar prices and
similar quality.”
Kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale, Funky Business

12. What difference does
Brand Make?

13. What is the value of a strong, differentiated brand?
Strong brand Weak brand
• Clear understanding among target • Poor brand recognition and confused
market of your positioning & offering value proposition
• Increased ability to attract clients • Limited ability to differentiate
• Ability to retain & attract higher quality • Reduced ability to attract quality staff
employees • Market unclear of offering
• Increased brand equity & awareness • Confusion of relationship between
• Consistent representation of brand parent and sub brands among staff
and marketing messages and market
• Positive impact on share price* • Limited brand equity built
– See notes • Limited ability to build brand loyalty
• Potential to demand premium price* and preference among stakeholders
– Customers will pay 19% more for a leading brand name
– See notes

14. Building brand equity - Moving to desired.
Where are we today?
High
High brand Equity & High Brand Equity &
Low Market Share Strong market Share
Equity under leveraged Strong brands Desired
Brand Equity
Weak Brand Equity &
Weak Brand Equity &
Strong Market Share
Low Market Share
Vulnerable – build Brand Current?
Growth Opportunity
Equity
Low
Market Share
Source: A.C.Nielsen

15. Summarising the Corporate benefits
Improved corporate reputation & better known brand
More robust share price
Increased ability to withstand adverse news, results or economic downturn
Clear Differentiation
Increased ability to attract and retain quality staff
Focused workforce - staff all „singing from the same song book‟
Strong, unified culture
Consistent marketing, communication and brand representation
Symbiotic relationship between corporate brand and business units

16. Benefits of an aligned Brand
Internal External
Human Resources Customers and Distribution Channels – Existing
» Improved access to and retention of and New
employees » Provides customers with a clearer
» Improved satisfaction of new and long understanding of the value proposition,
standing employees delivering greater ease and more
» Improved engagement and productivity of meaningful, dimensional and sustainable
employees relationships,
Community
Corporate and Business functions » Provides the community with a greater and
clearer understanding of the reason they
» Deeper alignment, cohesion and exist, how they are positioned, what they
understanding across the entire believe in and what role they play in the
organisation: department, division, city, broader community
country region or globally and how it plays
out on a daily basis Potential Employees
» Greater degree of focus and flexibility, » Greater clarity and simplicity about who we
reduces confusion and ambiguity are, what we stand for and what a career
with us looks like
» Assists in ensuring that Fidelity becomes an
outward-looking, flexible, integrated and » A distinctive and clear EVP, internally and
more responsive organization externally aligned that attracts the best
graduates
» Strategy and priorities are communicated
and clearly understood by all staff and » A clear market leader to seek out amongst a
management myriad of competitors

17. More Benefits of Building Brands
The emotional connections between brands and buyers leads to greater access, lower price
sensitivity, better openness, and more forgiveness for mistakes for well - branded companies.
In fact strong brands are reflected in these preferential actions:
• Increased willingness to try a product or service.
• Lower time required to close a sale
• Greater chance that the product or sale is purchased
• Willingness to give a larger sum of purchase requirement
• Comfortableness with paying a price premium
• Lowered sensitivity to price increases
• Lowered inducement to experiment with competitive offerings.
In Summary:
A strong brand brings tangible commercial benefits. It ensures you‟re a „must have‟ on
any shortlist. It justifies a price premium. It helps drive customer loyalty.
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18. Summarising the outcomes
• Your brand strategy builds current brand positioning and extends the brand to
develop a unique & sustainable market position across all sectors of the business &
across all stakeholders
• It creates a platform to drive „connectivity‟ between business divisions – adding value
at a corporate level and across business units
• It delivers a stronger understanding of and commitment to the brand among staff
• It can include a brand identity system and visual language (look & feel, tone of voice,
etc) calibrated to present consistency, while aligning to the needs & wants of the
business unit brands within the business
• Implementation then plans to bring the program to life for internal and external
audiences
• Supported by tools to track brand performance and measure improvements in brand
health

19. Thanks!