Brand Champions

A Mobile Website Enhances Your Brand

I am amazed at few organizations have developed a mobile-friendly website. Last time I looked this is the 21st century. Yes all, or nearly all, websites appear on mobile devices when one launches a web brower. But the vast majority of sites are impossible to navigagte and nearly impossible to read. Even attempting to view the site by zooming in or looking at it via column view. That experience dilutes your brand. You know that.

Every day you probably look at sites on your mobile device. You are going there because you have your smart phone in your pocket, you are away from your desk and your laptop is not handy. You are looking for general information like directions, telephone numbers, perhaps an overview of a company's services. Two sites that I really like are the GoDaddy.com and Southwest Airlines mobile sites. They make it very easy to learn if a domain name is available or check in for a flight. That is why you go to a mobile site.

Why don't you make it easy for your employees, customers and prospective customers to garner information about your brand from your mobile site? If you do, they will tell others and become your brand champions. If you do not, you will look like you are stuck in the 20th century and dilute your brand. They will help you do that too.

Rex Whisman

BrandED Consultants Group

Ernst Silten, the Ultimate Brand Champion

Yesterday I was organizing a few piles in my office, when I came across a valuable document. My coveted identification card that I received the last time I visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Those of you who have been there, know that upon entering the sacred halls of the museum, attendees are provided with a small booklet that tells the story of a real person who lived during the Holocaust.

During my most recent visit, the card I received told me a bit about the life of Ernst Silten from Koenigsberg, Germany. Ernst was one of five sons born to a Jewish family and earned his doctorate in the late 1880s. He had a pharmacy business in Berlin, and later purchased a pharmaceutical factory that supplied oxygen to hospitals. Ernst was married and had two boys.

During the war Ernst was forced to sell his business and his family fled to Amsterdam. Ernst stayed in Berlin trying to make ends meet with the hopes of his family returning after the war. In 1943 Ernst received notice that he was being relocated. Rather than face deportation or other horrific outcomes. Ernst committed suicide.

Ernst stood up for what he believed in and was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice as a brand champion.

Rex Whisman

BrandED Consultants Group

Brand Champion of the Day-Geraldine Ferraro

This past weekend, the world lost a pioneering political brand. Geraldine Ferraro died at age 75. Many of us know Congresswoman Ferraro best as the first woman nominated for national office when she ran as the vice president for the United States in 1984. It is hard to imagine that it took nearly a quarter of a century from Ferraro's nomination for it to be common place for women to serve at all levels of government.

When I think of the Geraldine Ferraro brand, I think about innovation, determination, compassion, intellect and confidence. I have been a champion of her brand of politics since I was introduced to her as a candidate for U.S. vice president. It was because of her that I voted for the democratic ticket in 1984. She provided credibility to the candidacy. Alghouth she was accused of such, it did not seem like a gimmick.

Many women and other minority candidate paths were paved by Geraldine Ferraro. I hope those who are in office today, on both sides of the aisle, know of the work she did and are champions of her brand. As I do on most Mondays and Fridays during the week, I pay homage to a Brand Champion of the Day. Today it is Geraldine Ferraro.

Rex Whisman

BrandED Consultants Group

Texting Influences Oxford English Dictionary Brand

I see that the Oxford English Dictionary recently approved several text abbreviations in the book's online update. My first reaction to the news was OMG, the time-tested brand is indeed keeping pace with the 21st century way of engagment and communication.

While I have been a champion of the Oxford English Dictionary for decades, they might just become my BFF. Brand champion speak for those of you in the know. I see that the Oxford English Dictionary also includes IMHO. That is a good move which enhances the brand.

I know many of you are asking yourselves WTF? ICAM. When are they going to include what is becoming a part of the online and offline lexicon. Well, I do not know if that has been adopted, but I guess not. IMHO that may take a while and will be a true test of the brand.

IAO.

Rex Whisman

BrandED Consultants Group

State of Colorado Risks Losing Its Brand Champions

Today's post was inspired by an op-ed that I read this morning in the Denver Business Journal. The theme of the editorial was the lack of progressive thinking in regards to development projects in my state. I wholeheartedly agree with the analysis. The editorial also helped me contextualize some other categories that I have been thinking about for a while and my state as a brand.

If I was asked to provide a brand association to my native Colorado, I would have to say risk averse. There are many highly educated and progressive people who live in Colorado, but it seems as though the culture lacks a "let us go for it" spirit. I think the state is stuck in the past thinking that people are still in awe of western heritage and the recreation possibilities that exist in Colorado. Those were 19th and 20th century attributes for our state brand.

We are now in the 20th century where education, technology and energy need to rule the roost. As an education brand consultant, I am always confused by the fact that we have so many people with advanced degrees living in this state and yet we are always near the bottom in resources devoted to education. The epitome of oxymoron. Like any budget manager, one must establish their priorities, and I understand the complexities of my native Colorado's budget.

But, if Colorado does not get its fiscal and forward-thinking act together then those who do their business mostly out of state will find themselves moving out of state. When that happens, where will your brand champions reside? I help organizations discover or rediscover their roots and see how that process creates a rallying cry for the organization. I hope my beloved Colorado can do the same.

Rex Whisman

BrandED Consultants Group

Will T-Mobile Champions Transfer Loyalty to AT&T Brand?

As a six year loyal champion of the T-Mobile brand, I am asking myself this question. I am asking myself other questions too. I anticipate others who help make up the fourth largest mobile provider in the U.S. are doing the same. Whenever I hear buy out or merger of one of the brands I champion, I get nervous.

I wonder whether or not I will have the same service that I am accustomed to. I question how smooth the transition will be. I wonder how difficult it will be to become a new brand champion. I think about employees of both organizations and how effective the internal branding will be. I am having those sensations right now in relation to the proposed purchase of T-Mobile by the number one service provider AT&T.

While I strive to be a number one type person in my career and personal life, I am not usually a number one type person when it comes to brand support like AT&T. I am usually a smaller brand loyalist. Number one sounds large and lacking in customer service. Are you a champion of the AT&T brand? What has the experience been for you?

Rex Whisman

BrandED Consultants Group

Brand Champion of the Day-Japan

A week and one-half ago I was watching the peaceful view of Lake Lugano from my hotel room in Switzerland. The water was tranquil and the beauty as far as the eye could see. A half a world away another large body of water was much more violent. Those were the views on my television from half a world away in Japan.

The tsunami was a result of Japan's most tragic earthquake. The sight of homes, automobiles, trees, telephone lines and people streaming down city streets and piling into one another was surreal. The reality today is millions are without power or homeless. Thousands are missing and dead.

This event is another is what seems to be an endless chain reaction of natural and man-made disasters in the world. These are times when we need to be brand champions of all nations.

Rex Whisman

BrandED Consultants Group

Happy Birthday Twitter Brand

This week twitter turned five years old. The brand has accomplished quite a body of work during its pre-school years. Most brands do not get anywhere close until at least graduate school. I recall sitting in an airport several years ago waiting for a plane and decided to open a twitter account. A few minutes later I received a notice that someone who I did not know was "following" me.

Thinking that somehow the person had hacked my account in the airport I closed the site down for a couple of weeks. Realizing the error of my ways I started tweeting on subjects related to brand and have not turned back since. At about that same time I began posting other thoughts on this blog, facebook and linked in. I now work with clients to help them execute their brand strategy through technology like twitter. Interesting.

Social sites like twitter realize the importance of connectivity and allow us to post thoughts from blogs which are instantly sent off to other sites, including twitter. My followers receive a tweet. Genius. I often use twitter as a tool to help clients understand the value of adopting a promise statement or positioning statement in 140 characters or less. Yes there are new ways of engaging in the brand development process every day using social media.

Thanks twitter. Happy birthday to your brand. You have one of the largest set of brand champions around the world. Congratulations.

Rex Whisman

BrandED Consultants Group

Brand Champion of the Day-East Grand School District

This week I read a story in my local newspaper, the Denver Post, about a school district in my state, which I think deserves recognition. The East Grand School District, located in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and like many public school districts in the country, was facing the real possibility of closing two of its elementary schools.

Earlier in the week, champions of the East Grand School District brand came up with the requisite $500,000 US to keep the schools open for another year. In projects that I have worked on I have witnessed similar situations where donors, alumni and others step up to the plate. This demonstrates what it means to be a brand champion.

In order for education organizations to be sustainable I advocate a brand strategy. Not because that is what I do, but because I have seen it work first hand. In the meantime, East Grand School District is the Brand Champion of the Day!

Rex Whisman

BrandED Consultants Group

Higher Education Taking Hold Around the World

Anyone who follows this blog knows that I have been engaging in dialogue the past couple of weeks in Switzerland with many of the world's leading authorities on brand. It was an honor to be a part of the conversation. It was great to learn what other nations are doing in terms of higher education branding. Many have a clear view on brand, while others are just now considering their path.

In the United States, branding found its way onto the education landscape in the 1990s. Since then most institutions of higher learning in the States have undertaken some form of branding. Most have taken what I call an agency approach to branding. These schools have internally or in conjunction with an outside firm devoted most of their focus to what I consider to be an advertising campaign.

Those attempts usually fall short. I advocate that schools embrace what I call an academic enterprise approach that engages all stakeholder groups, especially faculties, in the process. That approach is all about creating a culture to support the brand. That approach is authentic and sustainable. As institutions around the world undertake branding, think brand as a noun first and a verb second. Your chances of recruiting and retaining brand champions is much greater.

Rex Whisman

BrandED Consultants Group