How to launch a a successful brand initiative

Companies today realize the importance and competitive advantages of having a strong brand. And many commit significant dollars and resources to initiatives to develop one. However, look at the resulting reports and efforts one year later and frequently the initial enthusiasm that fueled the undertaking waned and the hopes for brand-building were not realized.

Here are some ways to maximize a successful brand undertaking:

Understanding the concept.
Many come with money and high hopes, but slight understanding of what brand-building is. When they say "we want to build our brand", what many really mean is, "we want to increase our name awareness". And name awareness is very different than brand development both in the strategy to achieve it and in the results. Generating name awareness involves heavy ad spending, logo designs, sponsorships and other expensive undertakings. Certainly all of these things may be part of a brand strategy, but they are not branding. Name awareness just means someone has heard of you, it doesn't mean they'll go out of their way to do business with you and stay loyal over the years. That's what brand appreciation does.

Simply put, branding is the promise of an experience consistently delivered. Every enterprise is basically in the same business: the experience delivery business. Knowing what that experience should be, what your employee culture is capable of delivering and making sure that it is consistently and perfectly delivered are the steps necessary to any successful brand development, yet they are frequently overlooked.

Commitment from the top.

Without the commitment of the CEO, branding will fail. Every company takes its cue from the person at the top, and the fact that branding is a priority must come from there. The companies that are most successful with their branding programs have CEOs who are tireless and persistent in their championing. Rallying the troops and generating and maintaining enthusiasm is much easier when everyone sees the passion of the commander in chief. Look at Bill Gates at Microsoft or Carly Fiorina at Hewlett Packard. They understand what makes their brand different and "tell the story" every chance they get. The vision for the company, where it's headed and how it will get there originates with the CEO, not committees or consultants. That's why any brand research that precedes development of a strategy must include an in-depth

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