BRANDING

Brand Relevance
Achieving brand relevance is a strategic task that, by its very nature, is never complete in the volatile markets of our rapidly changing societies. Each and every day more brands enter the marketplace. Ironically, as their numbers increase, there are fewer and fewer brands that really stand for anything significant in the minds of the public.

The New Brand Management - Corporate Reputation
Corporate branding is moving beyond its concern with consumers alone, to become increasingly concerned with inspiring confidence among investors, creating a positive work environment for employees, and protecting the communities and the environment within which an enterprise operates. This shift to a brand strategy of social responsibility is a brand management strategy for attracting and retaining customers by building corporate reputation through the practice of corporate social responsibility.

It's Time for Brands in Every Boardroom (PDF 375k)
By Dr Lindsay Moore of KLM and Lesley S. Craig, Esq. of Townsend and Townsend and Crew LLP

The brand has become a strategic business concern for every senior corporate executive and board member. With increased global competition, it has become essential for leaders in every industry sector, from commodities to consumers packaged goods, to understand the theory and practice of the successful deployment of brands.

The Strategic Significance of Brands (including "The Theory of the Brand")
The Brand has risen to occupy a place of paramount importance on the pages of such stalwart business publications as Financial World, Business Week, and Fortune magazine. In the 90’s, when these reputable magazines first started reporting financial valuations for brands, much to everyone’s surprise, these valuations were often greatly in excess of the annual revenues of the companies surveyed. As the reality and significance of these numbers sunk into the corporate world, the concept of “the Brand” quickly rose to a new level of strategic significance.

Branding State and Civic Entities
To many it sounds strange to talk of “branding” a state or civic entity, but it is quickly becoming common practice among nations, regions, cities, and communities. Branding has spread rapidly beyond the confines of the corporate world of consumer products to embrace all entities ranging from the individual person to supra-national organizations, such as the European Union.

Branding Radioactive Waste
One of the biggest problems in branding is branding across cultures and on a global basis. However, even such a difficult undertaking as global branding is dwarfed by the magnitude of branding radioactive waste, not only across global cultures, but thousands of years into the future!

Brand Faceting and Marketing Strategy
The proliferation of Brands has made the management of a Brand even more challenging and more critical to the success of an overall enterprise.

Branding Diamonds
During the 1990s, De Beers began the then seemingly unusual practice of “Branding” its diamonds, despite the fact of its near-total monopoly of the diamond market.

The New Brand Strategy at Phillip Morris
Philip Morris Companies have spent over $200 million in corporate-image advertising over the last two years, designed to improve the image of “Philip Morris.”

Why Do We Need a Brand Strategy?
With the dawn, during the mid 1990s, of the Age of Intellectual Capital, came the realization that the real wealth in the modern enterprise is located in the intangible assets of that enterprise and not in the “traditional (tangible) assets” such as real estate, plant, equipment, inventory, cash, and the like.

The State as a Brand
Brand gurus have long declared that all public entities and identities, and not just consumer packaged goods, are “Brands.” Today we see the truth of that assertion as we recognize the emergence of the “Brand-State.”

The Theory of Branding
A six-point synopsis of the theory of branding.

A Theme Park for Dracula?
During the early 1990s, with the success of Walt Disney World in Florida, it seemed that theme parks were the brand building tool of choice for any Brand which could offer entertainment and rich media.

Brand Development
Smaller companies, with local and regional markets, often accept the dominance of large, national brands in their marketplace. All too often they assume that good branding and targeted marketing is either too complex or too expensive to be within their reach.

Branding Commodity Products
Producers of raw materials and commodity products often overlook the opportunity to increase their gross margins, create consumer demand for their specific items(s), and build valuable Brand Equity by employing the branding practices made successful by consumer packaged goods enterprises.

The Value of Brand Equity
Link to two articles by Dr. Lindsay Moore to further undertstand the value of brand equity.