Branding For Dummies®

Branding For Dummies®

by Bill Chiaravalle, Barbara Findlay Schenck
Released December 2006
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9780471771593

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Book description

Why do consumers pay a premium for a Dell or Hewlett-Packard laptop, when they could get a generic machine with similar features for a lower price? The answer lies in the power of branding. A brand is not just a logo. It is the image your company creates of itself, from your advertising look to your customer interaction style. It makes a promise for your business, and that promise becomes the sticking point for customer loyalty. And that loyalty and trust is why, so to speak, your laptops sell and your competitors’ don’t.

Whatever your business is, whether it’s large or small, global or local, Branding For Dummies gives you the nuts and bolts know-how to create, improve, or maintain a brand. This plain-English guide will help you brand everything from products to services to individuals. It gives you step-by-step advice on assembling a top-notch branding team, positioning your brand, handling advertising and promotion, avoiding blunders, and keeping your brand viable, visible, and healthy. You’ll get familiar with branding essentials like:

  • Defining your company’s identity

  • Developing logos and taglines

  • Launching your brand marketing plan

  • Managing and protecting your brand

  • Fixing a broken brand

  • Making customers loyal brand champions

Filled with easy-to-navigate icons, charts, figures, top ten lists, and humor, Branding For Dummies is the straight-up, jargon-free resource for making your brand stand out from the pack—and for positioning your business to reap the ensuing rewards.

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
  2. About the Authors
  3. Authors' Acknowledgments
  4. Introduction
    1. About This Book
    2. Conventions Used in This Book
    3. What You're Not to Read
    4. Foolish Assumptions
    5. How This Book Is Organized
      1. Part I: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Branding
      2. Part II: Building a Brand, Step‐by‐Step
      3. Part III: Launching Your New Brand
      4. Part IV: The Care and Feeding of Your Brand
      5. Part V: Protecting Your Brand
      6. Part VI: The Part of Tens
    6. Icons Used in This Book
    7. Where to Go from Here
  5. I. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Branding
    1. In this part . . .
    2. 1. Branding ABCs
      1. What Are Brands, Anyway?
        1. What brands do
          1. Brands make selling easier
          2. Brands trump commodities
          3. Brands build equity
        2. Why brands are a big deal
      2. Seeing the Big Branding Picture
        1. What's involved?
        2. Who's involved?
          1. Assembling your branding team
          2. Enlisting professional help
        3. Gulp! How much does it cost?
          1. A glance at branding budgets
          2. In lieu of big bucks . . .
      3. Pop Quiz: Are You Ready to Rev Up Your Branding Engine?
    3. 2. When and How to Brand
      1. Branding Demystified
        1. Translating branding lingo
        2. Branding's essential ingredient
      2. To Brand or Not to Brand
        1. Products
        2. Service businesses
        3. Business brands
        4. Individuals (namely, yourself)
          1. Personal brands
          2. Personality brands
      3. A Bird's‐eye View of the Branding Process
        1. Step 1: Decide what you're going to brand
          1. Brand architecture 101
          2. Following the Rule of One
        2. Step 2: Do your research
        3. Step 3: Position your product or service
        4. Step 4: Write your brand definition
        5. Step 5: Develop your name, logo, and tagline
        6. Step 6: Launch your brand
        7. Step 7: Manage, leverage, and protect your brand
        8. Step 8: Realign your brand to keep it current
      4. When to Brand
        1. Opening a new business
        2. Introducing a new product
        3. Fundraising for a nonprofit
        4. Taking your business public
        5. Going global
        6. Raising venture capital
        7. Merging with another business
    4. 3. Heating Up Your Branding Iron
      1. Gearing Up to Brand, Rebrand, or Refine Your Brand
        1. Getting real about your current brand identity
        2. Taking stock of your brand assets and using them to your advantage
        3. In your dreams! Defining your desired brand identity
      2. What's Your Goal? Prioritizing Your Brand's To‐Do List
        1. Build awareness
        2. Create an emotional connection
        3. Differentiate your product
        4. Create credibility and trust
        5. Motivate purchasing
      3. Crunching the Numbers: Budgeting for Your Brand Building Program
      4. Making Brand Development Part of Your Business Plan
        1. Knowing the relationship between your mission, vision, and brand identity
        2. Committing to the branding process
      5. Who's on First? Recruiting Your Branding Team
        1. Getting buy‐in from the top down
        2. Engaging all employees in the process
  6. II. Building a Brand, Step‐by‐Step
    1. In this part . . .
    2. 4. Finding a Niche You Can Fill: Researching Your Market
      1. Defining Who Buys What You're Selling — and Why
        1. Your customer profile
          1. Mapping out geographics
          2. Detailing demographics
          3. Uncovering behavioral patterns
        2. What your customers want and value
        3. What sets your most ideal customers apart
        4. Why customers buy from you
      2. Digging Up the Info You Need
        1. Know thyself: Conducting a self‐assessment of your offering
        2. Tuning in to customer insights
        3. Conducting customer research
          1. Just watch! Observing customer behaviors
          2. Just ask! Interviews and surveys
          3. Just listen! Using focus groups
        4. When to do it yourself and when to get research help
        5. Where else to turn for facts and figures
          1. Go Web surfing
          2. Hit the library reference shelves
      3. Putting It All in Perspective
      4. Seizing Marketplace Opportunities
    3. 5. Filling Your Niche: Positioning Your Brand
      1. The Marketing Muscle of Positioning
      2. Finding a Position of Your Own: The Birthplace of Your Brand
        1. Fulfill an unfilled need
        2. Specialize to create a new market niche
        3. Transform an established solution
        4. Discover an all‐new solution
      3. Figuring Out What You Do Better Than Anyone Else
      4. Deciding Which Customers You Serve the Best
      5. Finding Your Place in the Competitive Landscape
        1. Putting your brand on the positioning map
        2. Determining your point of difference
        3. No copycats! Avoiding the fate of a me‐too brand
      6. Testing and Protecting Your Position
    4. 6. Putting Your Brand into Words
      1. Dusting Off Your Business Vision, Mission, and Values
        1. Refocusing your vision
          1. The values you value
          2. Envisioning your highest hopes and aspirations
        2. Building your brand on the strong back of your business mission
        3. Polishing your business promise
        4. Defining your brand character
      2. Mission Possible: Defining Your Brand
        1. What to incorporate
        2. The anatomy of a brand identity statement
        3. Grading your statement
        4. Putting your brand identity statement to the test
    5. 7. Naming Your Brand
      1. What's In a Name?
        1. What the right name does
          1. Conveys or implies your brand image
          2. Advances your brand promise
          3. Becomes an asset
        2. When naming happens
        3. Types of names
        4. Naming advice to follow
      2. Picking (or Inventing) Your Brand Name
        1. Rounding up good ideas
          1. Brainstorming
          2. Finding inspiration
        2. The hard part: Narrowing your list to the best options
        3. Putting your top contenders through a preliminary test
        4. Building consensus around your top‐choice name
      3. Grabbing a Domain Name, If You Can
      4. Fitting Your Name into Your Brand Architecture
      5. Catch It If You Can: Protecting Your Name
        1. Screening to see if the name you want is already taken
        2. Treading the trademark ropes
    6. 8. Designing Your Logo and Tagline
      1. Planning Your Logo: The Face of Your Brand
        1. Matching your logo to your brand and business
        2. Choosing your logo approach
          1. Spelling it out with a wordmark
          2. Using your initials in a lettermark
          3. Creating a brandmark or symbol
      2. Developing Your Logo Design
        1. Design ingredients
          1. What's your type?
          2. A primer on colors
          3. Logo shapes and sizes
          4. Logo design evaluation
          5. Logo design taboos
        2. Preparing your logo artwork
      3. Putting Your Logo to Work
      4. Saving Face: Giving an Existing Logo a Makeover
      5. Managing Your Logo
        1. Creating logo tools, standards, and usage rules
          1. Presentation of your logo as a single unit
          2. Placement of your logo
          3. Color treatments
          4. Backgrounds and shadow effects
        2. Naming a brand cop
      6. Creating a Tagline
        1. Discovering what makes a great tagline
        2. Deciding whether you need a tagline (and you probably do)
        3. Tag(line), you're it! Coming up with your slogan
  7. III. Launching Your New Brand
    1. In this part . . .
    2. 9. Countdown to Takeoff: Planning Your Brand Launch
      1. Committing to Internal and External Brand Launches — In That Order
      2. Preparing for Your Brand Launch
        1. Knowing your story, chapter and verse
        2. Putting your brand launch into context
          1. Why are you undertaking this branding effort?
          2. What do you expect your brand launch to achieve?
          3. What about timing?
          4. What's your message?
        3. Producing prototypes to introduce your brand
        4. Checking your internal readiness
        5. Previewing your brand story with priority audiences
          1. Taking your brand story to investors and analysts
          2. Treating your best customers to an insiders' preview
      3. Ten, Nine, Eight . . . Writing Your Brand Launch Marketing Plan
        1. Benchmarking your pre‐launch situation
        2. Setting your goal and objectives
        3. Defining your target market
        4. Setting your strategies
        5. Selecting your brand introduction tactics
        6. Establishing your budget
      4. Takeoff! Launching Your Brand
        1. Launching internally
          1. Starting with the bigwigs: Launching with upper management
          2. Launching company‐wide
        2. Launching externally
    3. 10. Getting the Word Out with Public Relations
      1. Creating Your Brand Launch PR Plan
        1. Covering all the bases
          1. Employee or member relations
          2. Community relations
          3. Industry relations
          4. Government relations
          5. Media relations
        2. Writing your public relations game plan
      2. Introducing Your Brand with Publicity
        1. Matching publicity efforts to your brand launch objectives
        2. Targeting media outlets
          1. Knowing the right media outlets when you see them
          2. Tapping into media list resources
          3. Creating your list
        3. Prioritizing editorial contacts
        4. Pitching your story
        5. Preparing and distributing news releases
          1. Hard‐copy news releases
          2. E‐mail news releases
          3. Audio and video news releases
          4. News release artwork
        6. Creating a media kit
        7. Building an online pressroom
      3. Extra! Extra! Making News
        1. Staging news conferences
        2. You're on! Shining in media interviews
      4. There's No Such Thing as Bad Publicity, Right? Wrong!
    4. 11. Advertising and Promoting Your Brand
      1. Getting Singular with One Brand Message and Tone
        1. The power of consistency for you and your brand
        2. How to present a consistent brand image
      2. A Clear Purpose: Don't Get Creative without One!
      3. Gaining Awareness and Getting Some Action
      4. Making an Ad Schedule
        1. Matching media vehicles to your communication needs
          1. Balancing advertising reach and frequency
          2. Betting on frequency over reach
          3. Stretching dollars by concentrating on fewer media outlets
        2. Scheduling your ads
      5. Creating Ads That Work
        1. Print ads
          1. Punching up headline power
          2. Convincing copy
          3. Designing for impact
        2. Broadcast ads
        3. Hiring professional creative help
      6. Measuring Your Ad's Effectiveness
      7. Packaging Your Product to Convey Your Brand
      8. Staging Promotions to Build Business and Brand Awareness
    5. 12. Sending Your Brand into Cyberspace
      1. Creating Your Online ID
        1. Naming your site
          1. Turn your brand name into your domain name, if you can
          2. Devising Plan B domain names
          3. Domain name advice
        2. Registering your name
      2. Building a Site That Reinforces Your Brand
        1. Settling on the right type of site
        2. Considering content
        3. Mapping out easy navigation
        4. Integrating your brand image online and offline
          1. The power of one: Using one look, one message, one tone
          2. Making your home page your online business lobby
      3. Getting People to Your Site
        1. Register with search engines
        2. Help search engines find your site
        3. Build incoming links to your site
        4. Promote, promote, promote
      4. Using Blast E‐Mail to Reach Your Market
        1. Building permission marketing networks
        2. Getting your e‐mail opened and read
      5. Blogging and Podcasting
        1. Blogging basics
          1. Gaining visibility
          2. Starting your own blog
        2. Podcasts
  8. IV. The Care and Feeding of Your Brand
    1. In this part . . .
    2. 13. Suiting Up a Team of Brand Champions
      1. Branding from the Top Down
        1. Writing your branding playbook
        2. Becoming your brand's MVP
      2. Training Your Team
        1. Developing brand champions
          1. Emphasizing your brand's unique market position
          2. Promoting your brand promise
          3. Conveying brand character
        2. Gaining team buy‐in
      3. Prepping Your Sales Force
        1. Arming your sales force with testimonials and product endorsements
          1. Personal testimonials
          2. Celebrity endorsements
          3. Expert endorsements
          4. Organization endorsements
          5. Spreading the good word
        2. Intercepting objections
    3. 14. Getting Customers to Pledge Allegiance to Your Brand
      1. Kindling Customer Loyalty
        1. Turning sales transactions into customer relationships
        2. Why customer relationships matter
      2. Delivering a Great Brand Experience
        1. Putting your brand experience to a personal test
        2. Auditing your brand experience
          1. Pre‐purchase impressions
          2. Purchase experience impressions
          3. Post‐purchase impressions
          4. Making use of your findings
      3. Making Sure You're Exceeding Customer Expectations
      4. Igniting Customer Passion
        1. Generating buzz
        2. Recipe for a cult brand
    4. 15. Valuing Your Brand
      1. The Brand Value–Brand Equity Connection
        1. Revving up the economic engine
        2. Gaining a competitive advantage
      2. Estimating Your Brand's Equity
        1. Brand equity measuring sticks
          1. Sales performance
          2. Marketing strength
          3. Brand experience
          4. Brand value
        2. Calculating your brand equity
          1. Figuring out the cost of establishing or replacing your brand
          2. Determining the economic value of your brand's premium market position
        3. When you need a pro: Identifying evaluation experts
      3. Protecting Your Brand Equity
    5. 16. Leveraging Brand Value with Brand Extensions and Licensing
      1. Planning for Product Innovations
      2. Tiptoeing into the Brand Extension Arena
        1. Avoiding line extension traps
        2. Look before leaping into brand extensions
          1. What works? What doesn't?
          2. Don't ask your brand to stretch too far
          3. Putting your extension idea through the hoops
      3. Cobranding: Brand Value × 2
        1. Uniting brands with like visions, values, and budgets
        2. Cobranding checklist
      4. Brand Licensing
        1. Understanding licensing lingo
        2. Benefits of licensing
        3. Licensing steps to follow
    6. 17. Revitalizing Your Brand
      1. Brands Grow Old, Too
        1. Spotting brand aging signs
          1. Has your business changed dramatically?
          2. Has your market changed dramatically?
        2. Brand change‐of‐life warning signals
          1. Rapid expansion
          2. Major product, channel, or strategic diversification
          3. A merger or acquisition
          4. A dated brand identity
      2. Examining Your Brand's Health
        1. Conducting a brand review
          1. What do you want to achieve through your branding program?
          2. How well does your brand fit in your marketplace?
          3. Is your brand an accurate reflection of your business?
          4. Do consumers accurately understand your brand?
          5. Does your current brand experience reinforce your desired brand image at all contact points?
          6. Does your brand compete well with the brands of dominant competitors in your market area?
        2. Making the diagnosis: Retool or retire?
      3. Fixing a Broken Brand
        1. Protecting your valuables
        2. Making the change
  9. V. Protecting Your Brand
    1. In this part . . .
    2. 18. Defending Your Brand
      1. Immunizing Your Brand with Government Filings and Trademarks
        1. Filing your name with local government offices
        2. Obtaining a trademark
          1. Trademarking through common law usage
          2. Obtaining a registered trademark
        3. Maintaining your trademark registration
          1. Use it or abandon it
          2. Defend it or lose it
      2. Shielding Your Brand from Misuse
        1. Laying down the law with brand usage guidelines
          1. Logo usage
          2. Typestyle
          3. Copy guidelines
        2. Enforcing the rules
        3. Naming and empowering a brand cop
    3. 19. Taking Action When Bad Things Happen to Good Brands
      1. Handle with Care: Avoiding Brand Equity Landmines
        1. Identifying potential threats
        2. Taking preemptive strikes against brand threats
      2. Be Prepared: Reacting to Brand Threats
        1. Compiling a list of who's who
          1. Primary spokesperson
          2. Secondary spokesperson
          3. Expert advisors
          4. Your CEO
        2. Knowing who to call
        3. Working out what to do and say
        4. Following crisis communications dos and don'ts
  10. VI. The Part of Tens
    1. In this part . . .
    2. 20. Ten Truths about Branding
      1. Branding Starts with Positioning
      2. A Brand Is a Promise Well Kept
      3. Branding Happens from the Inside Out
      4. Consistency Builds Brands
      5. People Power Brands
      6. Brands Live in Consumers' Minds
      7. Brand Names Unlock Brand Images
      8. Brand Experiences Trump Brand Messages
      9. Brands Need to Start and Stay Relevant
      10. Brands Are Valuable Assets
    3. 21. Ten Branding Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
      1. Thinking of Branding as a Quick Fix
      2. Starting with a Weak Identity
      3. Forgetting the Rule of One
      4. Failing to Differentiate
      5. Failing to Launch
      6. Failing to Protect and Defend
      7. Believing That What You Say Is More Important Than What You Do
      8. Underestimating the Value of Consistency
      9. Asking Your Brand to Stretch Too Far
      10. Ignoring Brand Aging Signs
    4. 22. Ten Traits of the World's Most Valuable Brands
      1. Simple, Powerful Differentiation
      2. A Clear and Compelling Vision
      3. A Promise Consumers Want and Believe
      4. Distinctive, Reliable, Superior Products and Services
      5. A Strong, Memorable Brand Identity
      6. A Single, Consistently Presented Brand Message
      7. An Amazing Brand Experience
      8. Brand Allegiance from the Top Down
      9. Adaptability to Changing Times
      10. Focus, Passion, and Persistence
    5. A. Resources for Brand Managers
      1. Browsing Great Branding Web Sites
        1. Allaboutbranding.com
        2. Brandchannel.com
        3. MarketingProfs.com
        4. Rebrand.com
      2. Adding to Your Branding Library
      3. Flipping through Branding Magazines
        1. Brandweek
        2. BusinessWeek/Interbrand Annual Global Brand Report
      4. Checking Out a Trademark Information Center

Product information

  • Title: Branding For Dummies®
  • Author(s): Bill Chiaravalle, Barbara Findlay Schenck
  • Release date: December 2006
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9780471771593