Benefits of a Strong Brand, Part 2 – Greater Collaborative & Strategic Partnership Opportunities

Do you know what a great sign of a really strong brand is? When others in the marketplace tell the story of your brand for you. Here’s another fun client anecdote that illustrates a second important advantage of having a powerful, clear brand:

Benefits of a Strong Brand - The Steve Trauman Co. -Brand Specialist Blog ImageI recently was asked to attend a company meeting of one my rock star clients, The Steve Trautman Co. (STC). This Seattle-based consulting firm is today’s leading expert in knowledge transfer and serves a blue-chip client list—such as Boeing, Nike, Microsoft, Goodyear, U.S. Steel, Aetna and more—with global solutions in knowledge transfer. HeLT had led STC through a rebranding just over three years ago and has since served as their brand manager. The gathering I attended included the company’s employees and contractors, plus a new strategic partner whom I hadn’t met. This new partner—Kathy Hagen of K L Hagen Intellectual Capital Strategies—would soon begin helping STC with some account management and sales. The interesting thing is that Kathy is, by all extents, a Steve Trautman competitor. … 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…

Using Brand to Shift the Conversation: a look at the Beijing vs. London Olympic Summer Games

 

[Repost from older blog. Original posting date: Jan. 12, 2012]  I was recently discussing brand focus and positioning with a client. One of the most interesting recent examples of brand positioning was the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games verus the upcoming 2012 London Summer Games. If you remember, the media made a big deal about the Beijing Games being China’s “coming out party.” With the Chinese Olympic Committee’s display of modern hosting facilities, the lavish opening ceremonies (costing more than the GNP of most small countries), and the Chinese government’s overall nothing-too-small/nothing-unscripted approach, it was if the Games were a show to world that China is on-the-scene and can now play with the big boys.

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