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We built the ACM brand with a website aligned with new fliers and other advertising.

DID YOUR KNOW?

A Harris Interactive poll lists the 5 most reputable companies in the USA: Google, Johnson & Johnson, Intel, General Mills and Kraft. The 6 categories reviewed were: emotional appeal, products and services, social responsibility, vision and leadership, workplace environment, and financial performance.

In 2007 total spending on media advertising in the USA was nearly $284 billion. Of this, only 7% was spent on Internet marketing.

AT&T spent $2.4billion on creative. Monster spent $140million.

The latest trend in branding is product prominently displayed in TV shows. The 2009 Dodge Challenger will be an essential part of "Lucky Chance."

If you are like many SMEs, you know marketing is essential but are concerned about ROI. We offer flexible payment terms, credit card options, and staged marketing plans that spread cost over time while building a sturdy foundation for future work.

High-Impact Branding: More than a Visual Art

Branding gives a company/person/service/product a unified and unique image and personality that reflects its promise and purpose. It provides potential clients with subtle clues about the value(s) of the company and its place in the world. To be reassuring, a brand should be appropriate, credible and competitive.

Branding sums up the corporate story you want to share with your prospects. The brand story plants you in the mind of clients and prospects as the most appropriate solution to an encountered problem. Your brand reflects your point of differentiation. It shows up in your logo, your colours, and the names of your products. If it's honest, your brand represents your corporate sacred path.

Your brand should reflect your vision and
flow through your corporate communications.

Some points to consider:

• Colours, layouts, language styles, tone of voice and other elements work together to create a brand identity: a visual coding of the corporate message.
  
  
• When a brand identity is widely and consistently used, it reinforces the encoded message. Conflicting identities emanating from a single organization confuse potential clients. They may wonder which more accurately reflects the company's Quality of Service — that glossy tri-fold brochure from marketing or that cheap photocopied flyer from your sales rep out west.
  
  
• If the message encoded in a brand identity is positive, then over time, elements of the brand — perhaps a pair of golden arches — can stand alone to encapsulate everything the company wants the client to know about the its product line and customer service.
  
  
• Many people think that only commercial companies brand, but branding can also be useful for non-profits, and has been used for museums, universities, charities and individuals.
  
  
• Your brand should be able to cross cultures and time, sending a similar message to anyone who encounters it.
  
  
• Wearing a brand implies that the wearer shares the corporation's values, successes, and lifestyle. Use it throughout your communications and buy your staff branded items they will use to help them buy-in to your mission.

Take Charge

Imagine 20 adults trying to write the definitive "Snow White". What is the key message? Should the story be told or read? What style of artwork should be used? What colours and typeface best tell her story? Does they story even need a brand?

Companies ask similar questions about their own brand. What is our unique selling position? Do we need to tell people who we are? Isn't it obvious what we do? Should the brand reflect our product, mission statement or CEO?

Somewhere along the path, someone with the power to implement decisions must take leadership. YOUR BRAND IS IMPORTANT! Don't delegate it to a freelance designer and walk away. Your design team needs rules and guidelines to help them create your brand.

But once your brand is in place, make sure every stakeholder understands it. Make sure they acknowledge the story being told and agree that it contains key messages. Collect as much insight as possible and be aware of conflicting impressions about the company's mission.

Style Guides

Style guides are a simple way to disseminate rules that your staff and suppliers can follow. They should respond to known circumstances. New situations should be solved in compliance with the general tone of the guide, then written up and added to the guide.

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