VOICING THE BRAND
You’re busy building a great organization, with important and valuable product and service offerings. Everyday, you’re fine-tuning. Perfecting. But until the audience—your marketplace—applauds what you produce by rewarding you with its business, there’s still work to be done. That’s where we can help.

Our brand development process, Market Voicing, finds for each of our clients the optimum expression of their brand promise. In so doing, we realize for them the best possible long-term return on their investment in marketing.

The work involves identifying a given organization’s most desirable market position, capturing its brand promise, and then setting a course by which it can establish that promise in the collective consciousness of its marketplace. Then we produce graphic identities, print and broadcast advertising campaigns, publications, Web implementations, interactive media products and other forms of marketing communication that articulate the essence of the argument, help accomplish specific objectives, and move the organization forward.

The first job in building a brand is, as Scott Bedbury (of Starbucks and Nike fame) puts it, to “crack your brand’s genetic code:”

“Every brand has at its core a substance that gives it strength. You have to understand it before you can grow it.”

During our first phase of the process, we undertake with our client the job of cracking the code of their brand. Once we get at the essence of the brand—its soul if you will, we work together to encourage the client organization itself to understand the value and power of its own brand.

STEPS IN THE MARKET VOICING PROCESS
Our process consists of the following:

Primary research in the form of a series of in-depth interviews with representatives of the key constituencies within the client’s community; Review of relevant secondary research (for example, existing market research already commissioned, published research relevant to the field, trends articles, etc); Perceptual Analysis sm of findings, designed to determine the current brand identity, and to identify the insights upon which we can form the strategy for the organization; A series of brainstorming meetings, involving the full Cognitive team, to identify the most efficacious positioning strategy; the articulation of that strategy in a positioning statement, and finally, development of a long-term brand positioning line for use by the client in all promotional materials going forward; Preparation and delivery of a comprehensive presentation of the findings of the Market Voicing process.

The deliverable of this first phase of work is a PowerPoint presentation, delivered in person and in hard copy, outlining the results from the interviews, our analysis, the proposed positioning strategy and promotional line, and typically, some rough creative ideas to demonstrate how the recommended position can work. Typically, we present this work to the client’s core marketing team first, and then, to help achieve consensus, remain available to present to other constituents (e.g., senior staff, the board).

DEFINITION OF TERMS

POSITIONING The distinct place, relative to the competition, that a given company, product or service occupies in the collective mind of the target audience. A market position is achieved via consistent marketing communications messages and delivery of service to the marketplace. Positioning cannot be achieved until it is reflected in the viewpoint of the market itself. Until that time, the marketer can talk only in terms of a desired position.

Whether an investment in marketing communications pays off or not depends on the message. But equally important are the perceptions and expectations of the target market. If the position is seen as competitive and positive, the marketing communications effort will be effective. If, however, the target market is not positively predisposed to an organization’s messaging, the investment in a specific marketing initiative is likely to produce only marginal results. top

BRANDING All the activities that form the identity of a company. Scott Bedbury of Nike and Starbucks fame, in his book “A New Brand World” refers to a company’s brand as its genetic code which “has at its core a substance that gives it strength.” The code must be “cracked” or understood in order to grow it. All activities undertaken by the organization, including, but not limited to advertising, promotion, Web presence, direct marketing, sales presentations, public appearances, pricing, product configurations and enhancements, etc. need to be done in support of the brand. top

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A POSITIONING AND A BRAND IDENTITY A position exists within the target consuming public’s mindset; a brand exists among competitive brands. top

RESULTS TO EXPECT
Our clients say it best:

“Our first project together was the corporate name change (instead of the new brochure that I had wanted). I can't tell you the number of times people ask me about the name. Each time I discuss it I reflect on how incredibly successful it has been for us. We have created a well-known brand image in this . . . market we serve, and the name Dakota is practically a term-of-art for how one conducts EHS audits.”
Reg Shiverick,
President
Dakota Software Corporation

“For the first time in my long association with this institution, I now have the language to use to not simply describe it, but convey its spirit.”
Member of the Board
The Harley School
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REFERENCE SHELF

What Great Brands Do
By Alan M. Webber, photographs by Trevor Graves from Fast Company Magazine, August 1997, issue 10, page 96

The Cluetrain Manifesto,
by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls,
David Weinberger; Perseus Books, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1999