Partner Plus Brand Basics Session 1 Slides

Cisco Confidential © 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. 1

Brand Basics Part 1: Understanding Brand John Bowen, Alex Millet and Mohammad Saigol Brand Consultants

4 April 2013

Presented by

© 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 2

• Brand consultancy

• B2B and corporate focus

• Strategy and design


• Part 1: Understanding Brand (4/4/13)

What we mean by brand, what value it can offer to a business, and how you might begin to think about creating or improving your own brand.

• Part 2: Defining Your Brand (4/11/13)

Guidelines for helping you define what your brand stands for in the context of your competitors, your customers, and your own company and culture.

• Part 3: Bringing Your Brand to Life (4/18/13)

Information and advice about translating your company’s brand strategy into customer brand experiences through messaging and design.


• What is a brand?

• The power of brand

• The business value of brand

• How to begin developing your own brand

Cisco Confidential 5 © 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 6 Cisco Confidential Cisco Confidential © 2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. 6

“A brand is a living entity – and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures.”

Michael Eisner, Walt Disney Company CEO 1984-2005


It is your name…

It is your logo…

It is your advertising…


It’s also your product

It’s also your people

It’s also your culture


Brand is what you stand for

Meaning it’s what you promise

And how you deliver on that promise

So that any one part stands in for the whole in people’s minds


• The simplest way to think about your brand is as a promise you make to ALL of your audiences

• To customers, to employees, to partners, to investors…

• When you live up to your promise, you build your brand

• When you break your promise, your brand suffers


Cisco Confidential © 2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. 12



“Authentic brands do not emerge from marketing cubicles or advertising agencies. They emanate from everything the company does…”

Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO


• A clear brand promise that is directly connected to a business model – brand strategy is business strategy

• Employees who all share a single understanding of the brand promise, and who are held accountable to deliver it

• Holistic approach to all brand touchpoints to ensure consistent and effective expression across the brand experience

Cisco Confidential Cisco Confidential © 2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. 16

The most valuable brand in the world


• Your brand already exists… it’s a question of whether you want to control how it develops

• You can position your company based on brand… or your customers will position you based on price

• Common trigger events for a branding or rebranding effort include: category shifts, radical technology changes, competitive pressures, internal restructuring, mergers and acquisitions



Brand – it’s not just for B2C anymore.



Company focus

Competitive differentiation

Customer relevance


The power of company focus

• UPS needed to expand

their value proposition

• Success required a shift in

internal culture as much as

external marketing

• A new brand promise

hooked employees and

customers alike


The power of customer relevance

• When markets shift, it’s

sink or swim

• When Xerox saw change

coming, they evolved to

meet new customer needs

• Today, the brand is more

relevant – and valuable –

than ever


The power of competitive differentiation

• Intel found itself in a

commodity market despite

their high quality product

• Customers needed to

know there is a choice

• Few products are

indispensable, but the Intel

brand now feels like it is


It’s not just for the big boys…

• ACME brick was founded in 1891

• Invested in brand through 100 year guarantee, sponsorships, product stamping, event marketing

• Estimate that 10% or their annual sales is ROI on brand building (13X)




Brand drives preference



Brand generates loyalty


Interbrand – Best Global Brands 2012 Report



Secure leadership alignment

Agree on your objectives

Agree what will be measured, and how


• To make the case for brand as your organization’s leader:

Beat the drum of differentiation

Position brand as an internal rallying point

Lead with passion

• To make the case for brand from within the marketing team:

Begin with the marketing benefits of brand

Connect brand to business benefits

Begin with broad examples before getting specific to your company


“Goods and services are no longer enough.”

The Experience Economy, Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore


In this section, you learned what a brand is and what it isn’t, and how strong brands can drive tangible business results.

You also picked up a few tips on how to kick start your own branding initiative.

In Part 2: Defining Your Brand, you will begin thinking about what you want your brand to stand for from a strategic standpoint.

See you next week!

Thank you.

In partnership with

Technology

Partner Plus Brand Basics Session 1 Slides