Leveraging Your Most Important Asset:
10 Things You Need To Know About Branding
SUNY CUAD
Elizabeth Scarborough
13 June 2007
www.SimpsonScarborough.com
#10: Branding is more than what you do to a cow
DEFINITION OF BRAND
• The sum total of all associations made with
your institution
• Including the good, the bad, and, possibly,
the ugly
DEFINITION OF BRANDING
• The process of influencing those
associations
www.SimpsonScarborough.com
Your logo,
visual identity,
and/or marks
are simply
reflections of
your brand.
#9: Effective brand strategy development begins
with research
• Research can be qualitative or quantitative
“The more you engage
• Research objectives:
with customers, the
– Provide insight into differentiators
clearer things become
– Establish existing brand associations
and the easier it is to
determine what you
– Establish “year zero” benchmarks against
which future progress can be measured
should be doing.”
– Allow for testing of reactions to possible
positionings
John Russell, President,
Harley-Davidson
• Example: Alumni Association of the U of MI
Existing
•
Non-descript
•
Traditional
•
Old, not diverse
•
Out of touch
•
Athletics
•
Fundraiser
Desired
•
Fun
•
Young at heart
•
Active
•
Involved
•
Exciting/relevant
•
Cool
www.SimpsonScarborough.com
#8: Differentiation is the key to your brand
“Your premium brand had
• PRIMARY: attribute on which your
institution is different than MOST
better be delivering something
• SECONDARY: attribute on which your special, or it's not going to get
institution is different than MANY
the business.”
• You are not different because you offer
personal attention
Warren Buffett
Secondary Attribute
Primary Attribute
Price
Service
Product
Price
Service
X
Dell
Geico
Craftsman Tools
Saturn
Wal-Mart
Suave
X
Circuit City
Continental Airlines
Experience
Honda
Nordstrom
Singapore Airlines
Access
Dollar General
Priceline.com
American Express
Product
Target
Staples
Maytag
The Home Depot
Gucci
X
Williams-Sonoma
Pier 1
Tumi
Sony
Frito Lay
Source: The Myth of Excellence, Crawford and Mathews
www.SimpsonScarborough.com
Experience
Chuck E. Cheese
Gateway
Southwest Airlines
Four Seasons
Peapod
Nike Stores
BMW
Access
Avon
Tide
McDonald's
Gerber
Amazon.com
CNN
X
AOL
Hallmark
Starbuck's
Marlboro
X
#7: Your brand position needs to be welldocumented
• You need a formal, written positioning statement
• The positioning statement is not a tagline and is
not used externally; it is an internal statement
which provides focus for your marketing efforts
• Possible formats:
– The only university with __________
– The best __________
– The #1 __________
– The __________est __________
– The __________ university
• Miller Lite:
– Positioning statement: Miller Lite is the
best tasting, lower calorie beer
– Tagline: "Less filling...tastes great "
www.SimpsonScarborough.com
The litmus test for
positionings:
1. Is it true?
2. Is it easy to
understand?
3. Does it
differentiate?
4. Is it expressed
the way people
will express it in
their own
minds, their
own words?
#6: Branding and integrated marketing go hand in
hand
• You can’t do one if you aren’t doing the other
“Long-term brand
• “Integrating” means bringing consistency to the
equity and growth
messaging and approaches you are using with all
depends on our
your audiences
ability to successfully
• Organizational structure is the biggest barrier to
integrate and
integration
implement all
• Why do it?
elements of a
– Because your institution is probably
comprehensive
wasting a lot of money and time on
marketing program.”
duplicated efforts
– Because your fragmented, isolated
Timm F Crull,
strategies are probably not penetrating
Chairman & CEO of
– Because you are likely missing many
Nestle
opportunities to
– Because you can’t afford not to
www.SimpsonScarborough.com
#5: Your brand may have sub-brands (1 of 3)
• People will argue one unified brand does
“A house of brands
not apply to their *portion* of your
is like a family, each
institution
needs a role and a
• This is simply not true; there is a thread
relationship to
that holds all of your institution’s pieces
others.”
together
Jeffrey Sinclair,
• But, sub-brands, may exist and need to
Brand Strategist
be defined
• The sub-brand must operate under, and
jibe with, the over-arching brand
www.SimpsonScarborough.com
#5: Your brand may have sub-brands (2 of 3)
Do you want a
“house of
brands?”
Consider this
in terms of
marks but also
in terms of
messaging and
positioning.
www.SimpsonScarborough.com
#5: Your brand may have sub-brands (3 of 3)
Or, do you want
a “branded
house?”
www.SimpsonScarborough.com
#4: Branding must involve your entire campus
community (1 of 2)
• You may be responsible for promoting
your brand, the rest of your campus is
responsible for:
–
–
–
–
Living up to it
Reinforcing it in every interaction
Making it tangible
Making strategic business decisions to
reinforce it
• You can’t expect your campus to
reinforce the brand strategy if they
weren’t involved in creating it
www.SimpsonScarborough.com
“A brand is a living
entity - and it is
enriched or
undermined
cumulatively over
time, the product of
a thousand small
gestures”
Michael Eisner,
CEO Disney
#4: Branding must involve your entire campus
community (2 of 2)
Wilkes also:
1. Engaged in a massive campus-wide effort to discuss and explore the
Wilkes
University
implemented a hugely successful, awardconcept
of mentoring
winning campaign
that
has received
2. Established
measures of
mentoring
success national attention
(including
the mentoring
NY Times)
built around the concept of
3. Identified
existing
activities
mentoring.
4. Mapped mentoring activities
in relation to each other and other aspects
of the learning experience
5. Identified gaps, conflicts, and opportunities for collaboration
6. Benchmarked best practices of mentoring organizations
7. Designed and implemented a system for integrating mentoring
practices into the student experience
8.Billboard
Trained faculty and staff on mentoring principles
Billboard
Theatre
Slide
Table Tent
Mall Kiosk
www.SimpsonScarborough.com
#3: Branding is a “process” not a “project” (1 of 2)
Four Core Disciplines of Branding
Brand
Strategy
Brand
Identity
Brand
Mgmt
Source: AllAboutBranding.com
www.SimpsonScarborough.com
Brand
Experience
#3: Branding is a “process” not a “project” (2 of 2)
Messaging
Offerings &
Architecture
Market
Logo
Customers
Brand
Identity
Personality
Category
& Position
Promise &
Experience
Products &
Services
Brand
Mgmt
PR &
Events
Brand
Experience
Personal
Interaction
Assets
Tagline
Environments
Planning
Design
System
Name
Brand
Strategy
Company
Tools
Training &
Adoption
Advertising
Print
Materials
Monitoring
& As’ment
Source: AllAboutBranding.com
www.SimpsonScarborough.com
Evolution
#2: Your brand must be tangible to your
audiences
• Leadership
– Formal leadership program
– Leadership workshops for faculty AND students
• Environmentalism
– Commitment to recycling on campus
– Support environmental causes
– Bring environmental speakers to campus
• Service
– Multitude of options for participating in service activities
– Emory student just gave $20,000 award to charity
• Internationalism
– Study abroad like no other
– Significant efforts to attract international students
– Campus communication/debate about internal events
www.SimpsonScarborough.com
#1: You have a brand, but you may not be in
control of it
• Your institution stands for
*something*
• It may not be what you want it to be
• If you are not in control of your
brand, it is likely defined by your
customers (current, potential, and
former) and/or your competitors
• Engaging in branding will help you
get in the driver’s seat with your
brand
www.SimpsonScarborough.com
“Success means
never letting the
competition define
you. Instead you
have to define
yourself based on a
point of view you
care deeply about.”
Tom Chappell,
Tom's Of Maine