Benefits of a Strong Brand, Part 4 – Better Representation from Employees and Those Who Support You

Here’s one more recent client story in this blog series that demonstrates why committing to a strong brand with clearly defined brand values yields a great return on your investment:

Benefits of a Strong Brand - Strong Links in the Chain - Brand Specialist Blog ImageI attended a recent meeting at one of our branding clients where I happily observed firsthand some great on-brand decision making by their staff.  This client—a fast-growing and highly respected consulting firm—had gathered its consultants to participate in a round of debriefing and brainstorming about ways to handle difficult situations that arose with their clientele. A team member brought up a situation that had arisen with their customer Costco, in which someone on the Costco team had proposed an exception to my client’s proven consulting process by introducing a second level of variables and decision making for the sake of “flexibility.” The team member of my client was asking the group at the meeting how to handle this and similar situations in the future…. Learn More…

Benefits of a Strong Brand, Part 1 – Increase Your Value to Your Target Clients/Customers

Here’s a quick client anecdote that illustrates an important benefit gained from a well-defined and strong brand:

Benefits of a Strong Brand - ProfessorsChoice.com - Brand Specialist Blog imageA few years back, HeLT worked with a publishing industry client who had started a new business unit that used state-of-the-art technology to produce custom textbooks for university professors.  Professors who could not find the course book they wanted could use the client’s service to design their own custom, hardcover, professional-looking textbook.  The client felt they had a pretty good idea of what their brand values would be before using our C.O.R.E.E. Brand Positioning Process: they knew choice and cost-savings were important values to their target customer.

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Branded Coffee Mugs & More — a HeLT Client Puts Their Branding to Use, with Results

Putting Branding to Use - The Steve Trautman Co. Branded Coffee MugA few weeks ago I was fortunate to attend the all-company 2013 kick off meeting of a client, The Steve Trautman Co. This Seattle-based client runs a consulting company that has been setting the gold standard in knowledge transfer solutions for the past decade and serves a blue chip client list, such as Boeing, Microsoft, Costco, Nike, Goodyear, Cadbury, Electronic Arts, and others. HeLT began working with The Steve Trautman Co. in 2010 and led the company through a rebranding, using our C.O.R.E.E Brand Positioning process.  We repositioned the company’s brand to focus on their leadership in knowledge transfer, changed the company name, streamlined their product offerings, and devised a simple way to present what they do to the marketplace (e.g. introduce their knowledge transfer tools as a simple, 3-step process).  We have continued to work with this client to provide on-brand marketing services…. Learn More…

Rebooting an Iconic Brand: Oreo Cookies in China

Changing product attributes for perceived brand values - brand reboot - Oreo cookie[Repost from older blog. Original posting date: Sept. 23, 2008] The case of venerable American company Kraft Foods and their foray into the Chinese market with the top brand in their Nabisco cookie line—the iconic Oreo—is a great example of a crucial tenant of branding: your brand is unlitmately not yours—it’s the world’s.

The Oreo has long been the best-selling cookie in America (a Kraft claim that no one seems to be disputing). It’s now also the best-selling cookie in China—but this wasn’t always so for the tasty two-toned treat. When Kraft Foods first unveiled the cookie to the Chinese in 1996, and then up until 2005, sales were less than stellar. … Learn More…