branding strategies - terry lee stone · week 1: overview of the course, branding strategies &...

Week 1: Overview Of The Course, Branding Strategies & Brand Bible/Book Assignment

BRANDING STRATEGIESTerry Lee Stone

Thursday, September 10, 15

Terry Lee Stone

✤ Graphic Designer & Teacher

✤ Management of Teams & Projects

✤ Design Firm Management

✤ New Business & Client Service

✤ Author & Copywriter


Brands I’ve Worked On

✤ ABC • Adobe • AMPAS • BMW • Cartoon Network • Cedars Sinai

✤ Coca-Cola • Disney • ESPN • GAP • JC Penney • Health Magazine

✤ IBM • Mercedes Benz • Microsoft • Mohawk Fine Papers • Nickelodeon

✤ Natural History Museum • Oxygen • Paramount Pictures • Reebok

✤ UCLA • USC • Urban Decay • Warner Brothers


Course Details ✤ 12 week H&S course

✤ In-class: Lectures + Exercises (solo, partnered, group)

✤ Homework: Readings and/or Videos at terryleestone.com/branding + Write summary paragraphs + Class Discussion the following week

✤ Homework Assignments: Brand Bible (individual project) and Team Branding Challenge (group project)

✤ Extra Credit: Participate in class blog at terryleestone.com/branding

✤ Contact me: [email protected]


mailto:[email protected]


Grading Rubric

✤ Readings/Videos & Class Discussions

✤ In-class Exercises & Participation

✤ Brand Bible

✤ Team Branding Challenge


September 2015

Class Websiteterryleestone.com/branding


September 2015

Defining BrandingIt’s what you say it is


Product vs. Brand

✤ A product is anything that can be offered to market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption that might satisfy a need or want.

✤ Products can be a physical good, a service, a retail store, a person, an organization, place or idea.

✤ A brand is a promise about a product. More than the tangible aspects of a product, it is the feelings people have about it.


Exercise: What is Branding?

✤ How do you define branding?

✤ Why did you decide to study branding strategies?


What is Branding?


What is Branding?

✤ A marketing term for a complex set of interrelated activities that produce a response in the mind of consumers and potential consumers.

✤ Branding identifies a product and differentiates it from other products.

✤ Branding works to create an image that becomes associated with a particular set of attributes (e.g. quality, credibility, fun, etc.) the product owners want consumers to connect with and respond to so they buy the product.

✤ Branding is a story about a product that lives in consumers’ minds.


What is Branding?

✤ Branding is the sum of all parts experienced by someone together with their perception of that experience. Two things to remember:

✤ 1. A brand is a total experience gained from the behavior and relationship a person (consumer) has with a product.

✤ 2. A brand has two living parts: the part the business owners of the product create and the part which is kept in the mind and heart of the person experiencing it.


What is Branding?

✤ 1. Brand systems must strive for simplicity and to maintain internal and external consistency.

✤ 2. Brands evolve over time. Although brands can seem to be born overnight, most rely on cumulative experiences—through direct contact and/or association.

✤ 3. Weakness in a brand can happen due to inconsistencies that cause misinterpretation and misunderstanding with consumers.

✤ 4. Brands can and do fall out of favor. Those become “Zombie Brands.”


A brand is not a logo. That is a brand identity. It is just one aspect of branding.


Exercise: What is the Brand story?


Exercise: What is Branding?

✤ Which brands do you most identify with?

✤ Why do you identify with them?

✤ What do your favorite brands say about you?


September 2015

Defining Brand StrategyIt’s a plan of action


Business Strategy vs. Brand Strategy

✤ A Business Strategy is a means to achieve business goals and objectives. It can be described as long-term business planning.

✤ Business Strategy summarizes how the company will achieve its goals, meet the expectations of its customers, and sustain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

✤ Creatives believe that Brand Strategy is Business Strategy. Business Execs think of it as one aspect of Business Strategy, which might also include product development, engineering, distribution, marketing, sales, etc.


What is Brand Strategy?

✤ It is about understanding the behavior of business and improving on it in order to further the brand.

✤ Brand Strategy is a clear set of plans and actions, governed by a single stated direction.These plans/actions allow a business to improve competitiveness and boost their product(s) position and reputation in the marketplace.

✤ Brand Strategy is based on the core principles of why and how. For a product to be continuously successful, it must act upon a well thought out strategy.


What is Brand Strategy?

✤ Some simple rules to brand strategy:

✤ 1. Brand strategy is aspirational. It exists purely to support the long-term business strategy for a product—what it the business wants it to be, based on its vision and long-term goals.

✤ 2. Elements of brand strategy are there to communicate a vision and consistent message to the consumer.

✤ 3. If you don’t understand the business, you can’t develop a Brand Strategy for its products.


Our focus in this course is to understand and begin to develop Branding Strategies.


September 2015

Defining Brand BiblesIt’s about experiencing Brand Strategy for yourself


What is a Brand Bible?

✤ A Brand Bible or Brand Book is a document that establishes distinct guidelines on how all aspects of a business’(or product’s) brand will be handled.

✤ It should establish the rules for creating a unified and identifiable presence for the brand.

✤ Brand Bibles inspire. Style Guides tend to details, typically about implementation of branding elements, like brand identity.


Assignment: Brand Bible/Book

✤ As an individual project in Weeks 1 - 5, you will be creating a Brand Bible/Book. The completed project will be due in class on Week 6.

✤ It should take the form of a book. Size, shape, exact contents will be up to you. You will write and design it as digital files. (It is not required that you produce an physical artifact.)

✤ The goal is to summarize the brand and create something that will inspire a creative team to develop a Brand Strategy to make this brand more appealing to 20-something art and design college students.



✤ You may select any of Forbes Magazine’s Top 10 Most Valuable Brands as the subject of your Brand Bible.

✤ Find them at: http://www.forbes.com/powerful-brands/


http://www.forbes.com/powerful-brands/




Assignment: Brand Bible Content

✤ Your Brand Bible/Book will both inform and inspire the creative team. It must include these things in an interesting fresh way:

✤ Company Overview & History

✤ Basic Company/Product Statistics

✤ Branding Information (no redesign of their Brand Identity!)

✤ Brand Vision (your initial framing of a strategy to connect with the target audience)



✤ Select your brand from the Forbes list.

✤ Begin research on your brand.

✤ Week 1 Brand Bible Homework: research/write a Company Overview & History and Basic Company/Product Statistics. Gather Brand Identity assets (e.g. logos, taglines, typography, images, color palettes, copy tone/manner, etc.)


Additional Homework

✤ Watch the 1 hour video: The Naked Brand. Find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcHfAOTY4Vk

✤ Write a 100 word summary of the film that includes at least 4 main take-away ideas.

✤ Be prepared to discuss it in next week’s class. Pay attention to how watching this film affects what you think about the brand you will be working on for your Brand Bible.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcHfAOTY4Vk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcHfAOTY4Vk

Questions?

✤ Thank you!

✤ Contact me with questions: Terry Lee Stone: [email protected]




branding strategies - terry lee stone · week 1: overview of the course, branding strategies &...

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