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The CEO’s Approach to Branding

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BRANDING• How do Mid-Market CEOs think about

“branding”?

• Fancy Agencies– Is that $100,000 branding campaign going to produce any

results?

• Massive Expense– Changing logo means changing all signage, packaging,

corporate identity and market materials

• Intangible Item – Difficult to measure

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WHAT DOES BRANDING MEAN?• Logos?

– Designers might say so

• Product line?– Product managers might say so

• Different people describe it differently

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©2010 ShortTrack CEOwww.ShortTrackCEO.com

BRANDING DEFINED• The Entire Experience

– With a product/service/company

• Elements of Experience– Emotions after seeing logo/colors– Feelings triggered by print, digital and traditional media– Tone of conversations: one-to-one and one-to-many– Personality of people interacting with market

• Sales rep• Customer service

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RESULT OF EXPERIENCE• Elements of Brand Work Together

• Create an Impression

• Occurs Regardless of Your Intentions

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Good BadForgettable

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VALUE OF BRANDING• Strong Brands Influence Markets

• Create Economic Goodwill– Measured on balance sheet– Coca-Cola brand alone (not company value) estimated

at $68 billion (Interbrand)• Influence Pricing and Customer Lifetime

Value (CLV)– Drivers of company value

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EXAMPLE• If You Could Raise Prices 3% Without

Losing Sales….

OR

• If You Could Increase YOUR CLV

• How Would These Affect Company Value?

Branding and Accomplish This!

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©2010 ShortTrack CEOwww.ShortTrackCEO.com

A SIMPLE BRANDING STRATEGY• Mid-Market CEO Should Own

– Most don’t have a CMO to police this– Stay high-level

• Focus on Delivering a Defined, Consistent Experience– At each market touch point– Each time you interact with market

• Too Important to Delegate– Lower-level creative people & consultants shouldn’t

define your strategy

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©2010 ShortTrack CEOwww.ShortTrackCEO.com

HOW CEO CAN OWN EXPERIENCE• Write Down the Details of the Experience

to Deliver– For each offering– Every time interact with market– Be specific

• Use tangible, concrete examples– Create vivid picture

• Refer to Experience Outline at Every Marketing & Strategic Decision– Share with team– Pricing, product development, service offering

components, people & their roles, sales messaging, store/office design, corporate identity, marketing campaigns

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©2010 ShortTrack CEOwww.ShortTrackCEO.com

LONG-TERM GOAL• Delivering a Repeatable Experience Wins

Mindshare of Market– Positions you as a certain “something”– Builds competitive advantage

• Download our eBook for More

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– http://www.shorttrackceo.com/mid-market-ceo-ebook/