BrandToBeDetermined

The Time It Takes to Build a Brand

Newer brands are more newsworthy. This is great for PR.

But conflictingly it takes “10 years to build a brand”. This comes from two sources. And of course there is a creative tension between these objectives.

1. News is by definition bringing you NEW information. Hence news. So it is more likely the paper will write a story about the somewhat controversial Dr. Sketchy’s than it is the Art and Social establishment that hosts it and has been around for 10 years! New is just cooler in America. Young is better than old. Etc.
   
   1. “While a new brand name is a liability in an advertising program, it’s an asset in a PR program. A new brand name tells the media that the product or service is new and different. Exactly what the media wants to write and talk about.”- pg 257 Ries and Rise in The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR
2. Brands on the other hand take “10 years” to form in the mind of the consumer (Positioning, but these quotes are from “Rise of PR”)
   
   1. “The real barrier is the human mind. It normally takes decades to build a brand because it takes decades to penetrate the gray matter in between your ears.” - Pg 224
   2. “Successful brands get into the mind slowly. A blurb in a magazine. A mention in a newspaper. A comment from a friend. A display in a retail store. After a slow publicity buildup, people become convinced that they have known about the brand forever. – pg 228

The way I phrase it is an amalgamation of sources and comes out as

"it takes 10 years to form a brand in the mind of the consumer."

This is a depressing statistics for a marketer. But for every Google, there is a Wal-Mart that took decades to get off the ground, or Nike that took decades to get off the ground. Or the slow moving Red Bull that took forever to enter the US market but everyone thinks just appeared.

Wal-Mart,  Nike and Red Bull are the tortoises. It is helpful to remember that when building your brand strategy.

3 Basic Rules of Coming up with a Brand Name

The shortest answer I have ever given someone when they asked me "what should I name our company".

My answer on coming up with a good brand name for your company:

1. Brand name should be two to four syllables.
2. Hint at but don't directly say what the product is.
3. Be unique so it stays in the mind of the consumer.

I know those come from all of the books I have read on marketing and advertising. So I apologize I can't source the exact references as the ideas are not originally mine. But it is, in my humble opinion, a grand start on finding a good brand name for a product or service.

Primal Branding PPT on Slideshare - Great Find!

The book Primal Branding has influenced my thinking on brands significantly over the years. At the office we even made a collection of digital photos from our own past, our brand story, and loaded them onto rotating digital picture frames. So the new guys can learn a bit about where we came from.

Primal Branding says that a brand has to  have 6 elements to succeed:

1. Creation Story
2. Creed
3. Icons
4. Rituals
5. Pagans
6. Sacred Words
7. Leader

So being a big fan of Primal Branding, it was nice to see this shared PPT on Primal Branding. Good stuff.

End of the line for "Cocaine" Energy Drink

For the Branding nerds, an interesting he said, she said, then he said, then she said, then he said again and he then ran off the balcony flapping his arms screaming he could fly... debate on the energy drink brand name "cocaine" over at BrandChannel.

Cocaine: End of the Line

So much for "speed in a can". Sheeesh.

 

Mantra and Jennifer Rice on Branding

Through Laura Ries' blog I just learned about Mantra consulting and Jennifer Rice's blog on branding. I am excited to learn about another great thinker on branding. Specifically I like this recent post on the brands blog:

What's Your Brand Mantra?

...The issue of focus versus flexibility in a brand can depend on a couple factors:

1) How new is the brand? Here's where I completely agree with Laura: new brands should tightly focus. Pick one problem that needs solving and build a reputation for solving it. Netflix solved convenient movie rental. Google solved fast, accurate search. Apple offered a cool new way to compute.

As the brand becomes well-known, it may earn the right to extend its products and services. Sometimes age translates into trust; older brands are familiar and usually within our comfort zone..

So yes I am saying that I agree that there are SOME brands where brand extensions DO work. Some. If you bring this up with me over a beer then you have to pick up the tab. Rarely. Rarely do brand extensions work.

And speaking of brand extensions, have you tried to buy a toothbrush lately? It has gotten to the point where "will it fit in my the toothbrush holder attached to the wall?" is my primary criteria.

Primal Branding - Build-a-Brand Formula is Real

I just discovered Primal Branding from Thinktopia. Finished it actually. A find from walking the aisles at BN a few weeks ago and it made it through the queue. From the book:

Primal branding demonstrates how you can create passion for product and organization alike.

and

Think of the things that mean something to you. They all come from someplace ("creation story"). They stand for something ("creed"). They are symbolized by a sign, a sound, a smell ("icon"). You do certain specified things regarding them ("rituals"). Certain words evoke that experience ("sacred words"). You contrast that experience against other experiences ("pagans"). They have an individual, whether real or fictional, who is behind the whole thing ("leader").

- Primal Branding, Patrick Hanlon, Pg 237 (section above referred to as "primal code"

Definitely worth the read for brand architects and phone operators alike. Has a Ries tone to it. They also have a great primal-code teaser video on the site.

New topic - In my previous post there is a comment from David Gallagher. He makes a good point that many of the instances of the word Ketchum are in the introduction and the bio. He is correct. But I do think my point that exactness of speech matters still stands as well. Our audiences must be able to find us, or our clients, and that starts with using the "sacred words" of that community.

Kelsey Ruger on Personal Branding

At our little house on the prarie we focus a lot on human capital. Having depth in the organization is HUGE! Part of that depth means individuals must develop their own personal brand. Kelsey's post on the subject of personal branding resonated with me. Some excerpts:

I have known a lot of people during my lifetime, but how many of those people remember me? That’s what’s important. You have to have a distinguishable brand so that people can remember you

And he continues: 

A successful personal brand is authentic. Thus, you need to know to build a brand.

Worth the read for all authentic personal brands... and I see I am not the only one reading Kelsey.

PB Hats in Fort Worth Texas - Now THAT is a Story!

Met Joe at PB Hats today in Fort Worth.  Every brand should have a story this good.  1911.  Wars.  And I learned more about hats from Joe in 5 minutes than I ever knew!  Fur?  Who knew?

<snip> Peters Brothers was started by Jim and Tom Peters in 1911. They were Greek immigrants who began their business shining shoes in Waco, TX during the "Cotton Palace Celebration." With their savings of $600 Jim and Tom moved to Fort Worth, TX and purchased a 17 ft. by 10 ft. wood building in the downtown area near 9th Street and Houston Street. They renovated the building and put in a first class shoe shine parlor. Jim and Tom hired four men to assist in shining shoes. (more)

Global Teen Culture Trends - Wired, Worldview, Global, Branded

You can blame my high school calculus teacher for making me read MegaTrends.  Via Chief Marketer:

Six Seismic Shifts in Global Teen Culture
By Chip Walker

1) Being wired: from an elite to a mainstream phenomenon
2) Worldview: from optimism to a great uneasiness
3) Success: from entitlement to self-activism
4) The new vanguard of cool: from “USA teens” to “creatives”
5) Global brand leaders: from American brands to world brands
6) Brands: from brand status symbols to brand apathy

The image is of course from the great Abercrombie because we all want to be skinny half naked people.  Or something like that...

Also note that the Intelligence Group just released their latest Cassandra Report on youth trends.

Economics DO Matter for your Brand - Learning from GM

General Motors, the once might house of vehicle brands, is ailing.  Primarily in my opinion from poor economics.  They have been writing checks they can't cash in the form of expected future growth (pensions, union agreements, etc.) and unrealistic forecasts while stepping away from pricing theory.  The bankruptcy of Adelphia left everyone wondering when GM would fail driving them to actually run ads countering the notion of a GM bankruptcy.  (image info below)

That said, strong brands could have helped GM prevent the pending train wreck futureliner crash.  The Rieses have fun with the lack of consistent brand identify of GM product lines in their book "The Origin of Brands".  And Rance Crain is piling on with his latest article in AdAge.com

GM'S REAL BANKRUPTCY IS IN FAILING TO DISTINGUISH BRANDS
Automaker Considers Ad Campaign to Adress Bankruptcy Rumors
January 23, 2006, Rance Crain

General Motors is considering an ad campaign to dispel the widespread notion it might go bankrupt. “As much as I hate to do this, we’re probably going to have to do something proactively on the marketing side just to address that issue,” GM’s marketing boss, Mark LaNeve, told The Wall Street Journal. “How you do that, I don’t know. It’s a tough thing because you really don’t want to go there.”

GM doesn’t need to go there. What it needs to do, in a forceful and surefooted way, is trumpet the new vehicles that are coming on line, talk about how it’s lowering prices across the board to be an attractive buy without incentives, and, in general, act like a winner. And please, no more whining about how it’s got to create a level playing field to compete. (more)

As for the top image, that is a screen shot of a web site that has images of the GM Futureliners from the 1930s linked from BoingBoing and a variety of other blogs.  I chose it because the irony of such forward future thinking crossed with the current situation for GM illustrates where they have stepped away from the heart of the brand.  From http://www.metafilter.com/archived.mefi/12/1/2002:

The GM Futureliner It began with the Streamliner and GM’s 1936 Parade of Progress, the brainchild of inventor Charles F. Kettering. The show was a tremendous success. Redesigned in 1941 and again in 1953, the 12 Futureliners and its band of Paraders were ready to hit the road, set up shop in a town near you, and showcase the marvels of science. Of the original 12 built, 9 have been found, 2 are being used for parts, 1 is for sale, and 1 is being lovingly restored by a group of volunteers. [more inside]
posted by snez at 12:45 PM PST

For those of you interested in the future, consider attending the IABC event in Houston tomorrow with Dr. Peter Bishop.  More info on that in full microformat hCal glory.

Riding the Future’s Waves of Creative Destruction
Dr. Peter C. Bishop Futurist, and Associate Professor in the College of Technology and Coordinator of the graduate program in Futures Studies
University of Houston
Thu 26-Jan-06 11:30 AM to Thu 26-Jan-06 1:00 PM