Brand Champions

Social Media Enhances Your Brand

Yesterday when flying across the United States I had the opportunity to read the current edition of Success magazine. Several of the articles were on brand and social media, probably my two most favorite topics. As a brand consultant, the former better be. As a brand consultant and blogger, social media better be too.

Of course there a still some skeptics about the two subjects, but here are some factoids cited in Success magazine from Socialnomics.net which might help make the case for social media to enhance your brand. Years of reach 50 million users:

Radio- 38 years

TV- 13 years

Internet- four years

Facebook- nine months (if Facebook were a country it would be the world's fourth most populous)

Utilizing social media as primary communications channels and delivering on-brand messages can enhance your brand more effectively than most traditional ways of marketing. As a bonus, social media is designed to build a community of brand champions.

Right before I posted this blog, I tweeted, and will drive both to Facebook. Time to do so? About 10 minutes. Cost? Zip. Still not on Facebook? Then your brand does not exist. Don't you want to recruit and retain brand champions at little time and cost?

Rex Whisman

Brand Champions Blog

BrandED Consultants Group

Research Leads to Effective Brand Strategy

Does your organization conduct ongoing research amongst internal and external stakeholders, your brand champions? Hopefully the answer is yes, or at least we try to. At least annually you should be asking your constituents what they know and what they think about your brand. The process of conducting interviews, focus groups, online surveys, social media connections and other research determines how much your brand is in alignment with your strategic plan.

This process will also help your organization determine what metrics work and which ones do not to measure the effectiveness of your brand strategy. Employee retention, customer loyalty, return on investment, fund-raising giving rates and other measures can be used to determine how well your brand performs against these metrics.

Some organizations call them employee satisfaction surveys. Regular check-ins with your brand champions that give your internal stakeholders an opportunity to have their voice heard and for your organization to listen. At a minimum there needs to be inclusion of questions concerning the mission and core values of your organization. These attributes represent the essence of your brand. If you do not know what people understand about your brand how can you expect them to deliver on your brand promise? How can you effectively recruit and retain brand champions without research?

Rex Whisman

Brand Champions Blog

BrandED Consultants Group

Brand Champion of the Day- Jaret Peterson, USA Olympic Aerial Team

Last night Jaret Peterson won the silver medal in my favorite Winter Olympics event, the men's aerials. That competition combines speed, gymnastics, skiing, artistry and more. I am hard pressed to think of a challenge more daunting that what the aerials requires.

In his second jump Peterson pulled out all the stops by going for it with his trademark "Hurricane" jump. The number of twists and turns in 3.5 seconds seems impossible to accomplish, even in slow motion. For his efforts and for what he stands for, Bret "Speedy" Peterson is the Brand Champion of the Day.

With grace, enthusiasm, innovation and other brand attributes, Jaret Peterson has recruited a ton of champions for his brand. It is so great to see competitions like the aerials, snowboarding and other contemporary sports in the Winter Olympics. I can't imagine what will be included in the future.

Rex Whisman

Brand Champions Blog

BrandED Consultants Group

Do Unions Enhance or Dilute a Brand?

I pondered that question this morning when I read in the USA Today that union membership in the public sector nudged ahead of union membership in the private sector last year for the first time. Like many of you I have mixed feelings about unions. My first job out of college was teaching social studies at a high school. During my teaching days I was a member of a teaches union.

While a member I realized the benefits of my union. At that time I also witnessed how the union contributed to the division between the teachers and administration. Now that I am a brand consultant, my mind is wired to always look at an organization from a brand perspective. This morning I wonder if organizations whose employees and vendors are unionized include the unions in the brand development process and make them aware of the organization's brand strategy. If so, perhaps there could be more collegiality.

What do you think? Could unions become champions of the brand, and could the brand become champions of the unions? Either way if unions are to survive, they need a brand strategy!

Rex Whisman

Brand Champions Blog

BrandED Consultants Group

Recruiting and Retaining Brand Champions

The key to recruiting and retaining brand champions, especially internal stakeholders, is to engage them in the brand development process. This was reinforced for me over the past several weeks as a colleague of mine and I have facilitated engagement sessions in Philadelphia, New York and New Orleans over the past several weeks.

It has been great to witness first hand the enthusiasm demonstrated by faculty, staff, students, senior administration, students, alumni and others as part of a national education brand initiative that my organization is leading which will connect nearly fifty middle schools, high schools and colleges in the United States. The experiences of these groups is critical to the development of the brand strategy, and necessary for the strategy to be sustainable.

By engaging your stakeholders in your brand development, giving them a forum to share opinions and make recommendations results in loyal brand champions.

Rex Whisman

Brand Champions Blog

BrandED Consultants Group

Brand- It is a Noun First

As we know the word brand has many meanings and applications. For most when they first hear or see the word brand, they think of it as a logo or tagline. Certainly those are aspects of a brand, but we should not limit our view, nor our efforts to simply a logo or tagline, especially if we are brand and marketing professionals. When do, we reinforce the skepticism that some have about branding.

Too often marketing professionals limit their view of branding to advertising. They like others think it would be really great to come up with a cool ad campaign that can add to the portfolios of those involved. Again, an advertising campaign might be a solution for helping tell the brand story, but that is not where we should start. A good place to start is to first think of a brand as a noun.

A brand is our name, what our name stands for and the associations that people make with our brand when they hear or see our name. Once we get everyone at that starting line it is much easier to get buy-in to our branding initiatives. Think noun first, verb second. It is much easier to recruit and retain brand champions when they think noun first, verb second.

Rex Whisman

Brand Champions Blog

BrandED Consultants Group

Brand Champion of the Day- Bode Miller, USA Alpine Ski Team

Just prior to the opening of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, I tweeted predicting that Bode Miller was going to win at least one medal. I just had a hunch that his brand was much more subdued and focused that it had been four years ago in Italy. I guess humility and parenthood can do that to a person.

Yesterday Miller completed the trifecta and won a gold medal in the super combined. Last week he achieved a silver and bronze medal. There are not too many people on the planet that can make that claim. Although the entire USA alpine ski team is coming close. I am usually not much of homer, but it is hard not to be with these kinds of results.

Today, Bode Miller, you are the Brand Champion of the Day! You have recruited a number of champions for your brand this past week!

Rex Whisman

Brand Champions Blog

BrandED Consultants Group

How to Handle Brand Speak

Last week I had the opportunity to talk with a fellow education brand consultant in Europe. We were comparing notes on some of respective projects. Of course we discussed the importance of engaging stakeholders in the brand development process. In the case of a school, getting buy-in and participation from all stakeholder groups is important, but especially the faculties, students and alumni.

Another topic that my friend and I talked about is brand speak. We both continue to experience situations where people are skeptical about branding. Many still think that branding is a substitute word for marketing, which they think is advertising. As brand and marketing professionals we are obligated to help others realize that a brand is a name and the associations that people make with that name. Branding is the process of aligning our internal culture with our external reputation.

In the very early stages of brand development, it might be helpful to use words like identity, reputation, culture building and others if you determine that the word brand might have misconceptions. I do not think that we should hide from the word brand. We need to help others understand what it is and what it is not. We are all educators.

Rex Whisman

Brand Champions Blog

BrandED Consultants Group

What Does Your City Brand Stand For?

This morning during bagel and coffee time I read a story about my city and the strategy that some organizations are utilizing to promote tourism. According to the article one of the central themes is future. My first reaction was, huh? I get that any brand strategy needs to have some aspirational stretch in it, and the approach needs to be sustainable, but focusing on the unknown left me scratching my head.

Like many cities mine has yet to understand its mission, core values and essence. When people here or see the name of my city they the word mountains usually comes to mind. Yes we do have mountains just west of the city. In fact I can see them right outside my window as I write this post, but in the half century I have lived here I have never climbed a mountain in the city.

Tomorrow I leave for New Orleans, a city with a distinct identity. From the people to the culture, food and more, you know what you are going to get when you go there. You understand the essence of the city. What does your city stand for? How can the city recruit and retain brand champions if it has no identity, or is too aspirational? The same holds true for your organization.

Rex Whisman

Brand Champions Blog

BrandED Consultants Group

Brand Champions of the Day- New Orleans Saints

This weekend I am headed to the Big Easy to facilitate engagement sessions as part of a national education brand initiative, and present our work at a national education conference. On the heels of a Super Bowl victory and Mardi Gras, New Orleans should be a buzz. I always look forward to experiencing this most unique of US cities, and this visit is no exception.

Over the past week I have been caught up in the Winter Olympic hoopla, but I don't want to lose sight of the recent accomplishments in sport by the New Orleans Saints. I remember when my City of Denver experienced our first Super Bowl victory, so I can understand how the people of New Orleans feel. The grins are probably ear-to-ear.

On Mondays and Fridays I devote space on this blog to people and organizations who understand what it means to be a brand champion. Those organizations who know what they stand for, and those people who align with those values and become champions of the brand. I cannot think of a better example of a relationship that connects on so many levels, as the Saints, the City of New Orleans, and their people. For all you do, New Orleans Saints, you are the Brand Champions of the Day!

I was pleased to see the Saints following me on twitter a few days ago and I encourage you to do the same.

Rex Whisman

Brand Champions Blog

BrandED Consultants Group