Your Online BrandPreservation + Promotion

Lesley FosterPresident, Creative DirectionBrown Dog Creative

My Career

BFA Design + Visual Communications, SAIC

Worked in Chicago as a Graphic Designer

Internet Born

Changed Focus to Web Design

Opened Brown Dog 2002

Overview

Defining Brand

Developing Your Brand

Planning

Executing + Promoting

Evaluating

Resources

Brands in the World

Defining BrandThe What, Why and How of Branding

WhatHow do we define brand?

The Sum of Every Piece of Your Organization

All the intentional and unintentional interactions your customers have with your company

Brand =

Collection of deliberate + accidental ways your company portrays itself

Process of managing how facets of your brand come together

Unified whole built around a well defined core

Developing a Strong Brand

Core Concept + Essence

Positioning

Supporting Keys

Clarify the core of your brand

“...is not an advertising slogan nor a description which will change with every communication. Essence should be a long term positioning which changes rarely and is more like a mission statement for a brand.”

Helena RubinsteinManaging Director and founder of the lab, a strategy company that focuses on branding and other related intangible issues

Brown Dog’sBrand ConceptUnique Websites that

Echo Your Brand

Essence

Defined as: The distillation of a brand’s promise into the simplest possible terms

Example #1 - IKEA: cheap modular furniture

Example #2 - Porsche: performance sports cars

Brown Dog’s Essence: “Harmony”

Like the single song of many instruments, Brown Dog Creative delivers websites that work in harmony with your brand. Cutting through the clutter like a best friend’s whistle that calls you to dinner, Brown Dog’s brilliantly-designed websites also get attention. That’s because Brown Dog is a technology dynamo creating more than just award-winning websites. With Brown Dog, you’ll get a loyal partner who listens and delivers interactive technology that helps your brand stand out from the pack. Brown Dog is well trained in marketing, design, message strategy and brand development. So you’ll get a web-based design that is not only an extension of your brand, but one that extends your brand with an interactive presence that makes your product or service look more desirable. And that’s the kind of music that’ll make anyone sit, stay, and surf.

Polished Brand Essence

Should be maintained in such a way that it has 100% recall amongst the whole business team

TIP: Consider an internal presentation to your entire organization.

Essence Works.

Harley-DavidsonAmerican Open Road

VolvoSafety

GodivaRich indulgence

BMWPrecision

KodakMemories

AppleThinking

Do it Yourself or Engage Experts?

Outsiders avoid branding in a mirror

Keep objective perspective

Avoid internal battles and make decisions clear

Positioning:Strategy for the whole brand

Positioning statement that’s narrow enough to be specific to only you but broad enough to include who you’ll be;

It tells insiders how the brand should act

Brand voice that will anchor the visual and written tone of every brand communication;

It tells insiders how the brand should look, feel and speak

Brown Dog’s Positioning Statement

For those to realize the potential of interactive technology, Brown Dog Creative is a web boutique that delivers beautifully-designed websites that work.

Brown Dog’sSupporting Keys

Award-winning design

No-holds barred technology

Well thought out interactive solutions

Loyal client list

Touchpoints

What are some others?

Take Control

If you don’t control your brand others will

You may not like the results

TIP: Use Google Alerts to see what other’s are saying(google.com/alerts)

Planning

Planning Tools

Marketing Schedule

Communications Plan

Analytics Report

Marketing Schedule

Think daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly needs

Concentrate on vertical attack

Communications Plan

Brainstorm ideas ahead of time

Provide a steady stream of communications throughout month - offline and on

Promotion Tools Available

If you aren't 2.0, then use and integrate what is available while you are developing 2.0 site. Many are Free.

Remember, if you aren't talking about your organization online, then someone else is - be the voice!

TOOLS: WordPress, Technorati, Digg, Online press release submissions, article repositories, SEO tools, our old pal, Google (Adwords, Webmaster Tools, Alerts, etc.)

My Top 10 Blog Posts

Problem - Solution

Book review

Events before during and after

Interview - 5 questions

Presentation

Personal experience

Breaking News (Press Release)

Link-rich Resource

Testimonial

How To

Any post can be a video

1-2 minutes is best

Create your organization's YouTube Channel, then upload your videos and embed them into your website.

Or link to it from your other touchpoints: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.

Finding the Time

Retooling offline content - use your website as your main communication tool and reuse its content

Streamline your productivity

Find 30-45 minutes each day

Post ahead, publish and tweet later

Use hashtags (#) to research trending topics

Revisit, Evaluate Often

A reflective process

Engage an advisory committee -volunteer professionals, board or organization representation, constituents, and those you are trying to reach(NOTE: You’re not asking this committee to come up with new communication, but assessing what your current communication is saying.)

Free Resources:

Internet

Webinars

Small Business Center

S.C.O.R.E. - retired expert

Advisory boards

Websites

allaboutbranding.comwebsitegrader.comgoogle.com/alertsgoogle.com/analyticsgoogle.com/adwords

onlineprnews.comprsitelist.comisnare.comhelpareporter.comezinearticles.com

Books

“Crush It”Gary Vaynerchuk

“Guerrilla Social Media Marketing”Jay Conrad Levinson

“Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog”Thord Daniel Hedengren“Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation”Sally Hogshead

Thank You.

“Customers must recognize that you stand for something.”

- Howard Schultz, Starbucks