Building a Strong Brand: Align the contact points

One of the easiest ways to build a strong brand is to make sure that every point of contact that prospects and customers have with your company reinforces the brand promise. Although relatively simple in theory, "touch-point alignment" often proves difficult in practice. Consistently reinforcing your brand requires discipline, focus and commitment.

When asked to identify the points of contact of a company to make, the majority of people point the obvious, such as logos and advertising. In fact, people often think of the logo as branding and advertising as the main way to build the brand. In fact, the concept of contact points brand includes much more of these visual signals of the base. Every point of contact your prospects and customers have with your company and its products and services offers the opportunity to build your brand - or weaken it. How to deal with points of contact determines the relative strength or weakness of your brand.

Each company has a brand experience inside and outside, and each plays an important role in developing your global brand. Imagine an enormous iceberg floating in the North Atlantic. The visible part of hitting your head above the ocean surface represents a small fraction of the total mass of the iceberg. Similarly, only a small portion of the brand experience of your company - the outside - it's very visible. Much of your brand lies below the surface and is not so easily recognizable.

A case in point

To illustrate our point, let's look at an extreme example - IBM. For much of its history, IBM has been one of the strongest brands in Corporate America, probably around the world. In the early 1990, however, the company's brand and advertising systems had fallen into a state of chaos. When Lou Gerstener took over as CEO in 1993, he quickly realized that the revival and clarify the IBM brand was one of his top priorities.

Upon arrival Gerstener, IBM had more than 70 different ad agencies that represent the company. Everyone has worked with a different product managers, without central coordination or supervision. A single issue of a magazine industry trade may have up to 18 different IBM ads with 18 different designs, messages, and even logos. The company has had hundreds of product brochures, each one different enough that it was virtually impossible to say that they came from the same company. Gerstener likened the situation to "70 Tooting horns simultaneously for all the attention."

To wrest control of the IBM Messaging its national leaders, Gerstener led 35 of them to a conference center in Palisades, New York. IBM has walls plastered with many different advertising, packaging and marketing materials, creating a veritable train wreck of brand and product positioning. At the end of his presentation, Gerstener asked a question: "But I doubt anyone can do better?" Unanimously, the team has decided to consolidate the reports into a single IBM 70 + advertising agency overall. From that point forward, all of IBM's marketing position has strengthened a fundamental message: IBM as a global, world-class integrator. The rest is history.

A question to ponder, and an exercise

What happens if an exercise conducted at your company like Gerstener year mark at IBM? What if you took all of one of your company's brand touch and spread them throughout the conference room? Use the following list of contact points to start the process:

Internal Branding (Workers):

recruitment or

Advertising or

or Site

or Employee Handbook

Screening process or

Goals and objectives or

or review process

or compensation structure

or internal communication

or recognition programs

o Training and Development

o Promotion Criteria

Retention Branding (Clients):

Policies and procedures or

or Logo

or Identity

or Site

or Email Marketing

or Pending

or Receptionist

Brochures or

Cards or

or Press Releases

or ads

Or Direct Mail

or Catalogs

Packaging or

o Prices

Or strategic alliances

or Match

or ads

Acquisition Branding (Perspectives):

or Customer Service

or Support

or Logistics / Shipping

or Corporate

or office

or branches

or Tradeshow Booth

or Business Process

Branding Financial (Financial Community):

or Press Releases

or annual report

or Quarterly Reports

or analysts Briefings

o Presentation to Investors

Every business is different, but chances are that most, if not all, the rules apply to your business. As you review the various points of contact, keep in mind that one of the easiest ways to build a strong brand is to make sure that every point of contact that prospects and customers have with your company reinforces the brand promise. Then ask yourself the following questions:

or is it a singular message reinforced or there are a cacophony of messages?

o There is a similar appearance to the messages or is it look like they are from different companies?

or the visual imagination or is the same look and feel (including images) differently?

It 'easy to conclude that a logo is a trademark or advertising is the primary strategy to build brand (although it is extremely expensive, even for larger companies). However, the reality is that a mark consisting of a lot more than a logo, and there are many ways to build a brand. The key is to identify the contact points of your brand and make sure they are aligned with the brand promise. The more consistency you have across your various points of contact, the stronger your brand will ....