Online Branding Introduction and Best Practices

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Introduction to Online Brandingby Measured Voice

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Agenda• Branding 101

• Brand fundamentals

• Brand identity best practices

• Online branding best practices

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Branding 101A brand, at its core, is a set of ideals

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What is a brand?

What is a brand?

A brand is shorthand for an organization’s value and reputation

•Brands help customers remember organizations and what they stand for

•People develop strong feelings toward brands, including loyalty, love, and disdain

•Branding is important for organizations of all sizes and even individuals

•A logo is not a brand

branding ironby robalicious on Flickr

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What is a brand?

What is brand identity?

Brand identity is comprised of the tangible things people associate with your brand

•Components of a company’s brand identity can include its name, logo, voice, or the uniforms of its employees

•Brand identities appeal to people’s senses to remind them of a brand and its qualities

The American Alphabet2000 Heidi Cody (cc) by-nc-sa

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What is a brand?

Who makes a brand?

Brands are build through countless touchpoints and experiences

•Every interaction, touchpoint, and experience a person has with an organization contributes to that organization’s brand

•Strong brands are built by organizations that create consistent consumer touchpoints

•Ultimately brands exist in the minds of consumers

Is the Whole Foods brand shaped by its name, logo, products, customers, employees or its CEO?

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What is a brand?

Why invest in branding?

Organizations require a strong branding strategy to survive in a cluttered marketing landscape

•Consumers experience ~6,000 marketing messages each day—strong brands are able to distinguish themselves

•Employees of organizations with a strong brand benefit from a clear understanding of their objectives

•Strong branding increases organizations’ value by increasing awareness, repurchase, and customer loyalty

Top Global Brands 2008© 2009 Interbrand

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What is a brand?

When to invest in branding

Organizations benefit from investment in branding at a number of stages

Reasons to invest in branding:

•Launch a new company or product

•Name change

•Reposition a brand

•Revitalize a brand that’s fallen behind

•Create consistency out of fragmented operations

•Merge companies Many organizations are currently softening their brandsNew York Times

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Brand fundamentalsA brand is based on the ideals and capabilities of the organization behind it

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Brand identity fundamentals

Vision

Great brands are built upon grand visions that describe what a company ultimately wants to accomplish or become

•Organizational visions are often set by founders or executives and rarely change

•A strong vision can energize staff, attract collaborators, and recruit top talent

•A vision should stand on its own as a core statement that describes why an organization exists

•Few organizations publicly reveal their vision statements

Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.

That's our commitment.

Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.

That's our commitment.

Wikimedia Foundation Vision Statement

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Mission

An organization builds its brand while carrying out a mission to achieve its vision

•A mission statement broadly describes an organization’s activities, scope, and core values

•Mission statements may change more frequently than vision statements

•A coherent mission statement helps organizations by:

• Ensuring that staff, consultants, contractors and clients are working toward the same goals

• Informing voice and tone

• Enabling consistency across all programsThe mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally.

The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally.

Wikimedia Foundation Vision Statement

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Values

Organizational value statements, founding principles, philosophies or other guidelines can also reinforce a brand

•Vision, mission, and value statements only work if they are championed by leadership and adopted by staff

1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.

2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.

3. Fast is better than slow.

4. Democracy on the web works.

5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.

6. You can make money without doing evil.

7. There's always more information out there.

8. The need for information crosses all borders.

9. You can be serious without a suit.

10.Great just isn't good enough.

1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.

2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.

3. Fast is better than slow.

4. Democracy on the web works.

5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.

6. You can make money without doing evil.

7. There's always more information out there.

8. The need for information crosses all borders.

9. You can be serious without a suit.

10.Great just isn't good enough.

The Google Philosophy“Ten things [Google] knows to be true”

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Brand identity best practicesThe best brands identities are consistent and meaningful

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Brand identity best practices

Coherence

A good brand is quickly recognized wherever it is encountered

Coherence is achieved through:

•Uniform look and feel

•Unified voice

•Consistent strategy

•Constant quality

•Clarity and simplicity

What do you expect from McDonald’s?

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Names

A brand name gains strength by being used consistently and frequently

Qualities of effective names

•Recognizable

•Memorable

•Meaningful

•Legally defensible

Common types of names

•Founder (Ben & Jerry’s)

•Descriptive (Petco)

•Fabricated (Hägen-Dazs)

•Metaphor (Twitter)

•Acronym (CNN)

•Combinations of the above

Names are extremely important on the InternetHow many names do you recognize in this picture?

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Taglines

Taglines are quick phrases that capture a brand’s essence and appeal to people’s emotions

Tagline Characteristics

•Short

•Unique

•Easy to say and remember

•No negative connotations

•Evoke an emotional response

•Difficult to create

How many do you recognize?

Just do it

Think different

Expect more. Pay less.

A diamond is forever

The ultimate driving machine

You’re in good hands

Drivers wanted

All the News That’s Fit to Print

Happy jetting

Government made easy

How many do you recognize?

Just do it

Think different

Expect more. Pay less.

A diamond is forever

The ultimate driving machine

You’re in good hands

Drivers wanted

All the News That’s Fit to Print

Happy jetting

Government made easy

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Voice and tone

A brand’s voice can underscore or undermine its message and reputation

An effective brand voice is:

•Consistent across all channels of communication

•Easily understood by its audience

•Reflective of its organization’s vision and beliefs

Elements of a brand’s voice and tone include:

•Content

•Style

•Personality

•Vocabulary

•Punctuation!?!?

You’ve got mail!

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Staying on message

Effective brands adhere to a memorable, identifiable, and customer-centered message

•Every communication, from every outlet, is an opportunity to reinforce the brand’s message

•Consistency is built on repetition

•A brand’s message should be polished, clear, brief, and precise

•Maximize impact by eliminating language that distracts from your message

Apple uses very specific language to talk about its products

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Logos

Logos use shape and color to instantly remind customers of their brands

•Logos exploit the fact that the brain processes shapes and colors faster than language

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Logos – stewardship

Many companies use guidelines to ensure that logos stand out are used consistently

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Look and feel

Look and feel refers to visual and tactical elements that makes a brand distinct and recognizable

Contributors to look and feel

•Design

•Color palettes

•Imagery

•Typography

•Sensory

familiar strawby paper or plastic? on Flickr

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Color palettes

A brand’s color system should be easily recognizable

•A company may have one overarching color system with different systems for individual products or business lines

•Color systems should include RGB or HEX codes to facilitate design for the Internet

•A well-defined color system simplifies design decisions

•Some companies, such as Tiffany & Co. and Kodak, have trademarked their key colors

Century 21 colors

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Typography

Brands use consistent rules for typography to reinforce their look, feel, and tone

•Some organizations have designed their own typeface to distinguish their brand

•Well-defined typography guidelines simplify design decisions

Barack Obama for President consistently usedthe Gotham typeface in campaign materials

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Brand architecture

Brand architecture refers to interrelationship of a parent company and its brands

•Brand architecture seeks to simplify naming, marketing decisions, and operations

•Brand architecture systems are extremely varied across organizations

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Governance

A brand identity is maintained through guidelines and vigilant maintenance

•Brands are kept healthy by individuals with executive authority over brand identity decisions

•Staff should be trained using documented brand guidelines to recognize elements of the brand identity and how to use them properly

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Online branding best practicesThe Internet presents new opportunities for organizations to build and maintain their brands

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Online branding best practices

Domain and URLs

The URL is many people’s first point of contact with an organization’s online brand

Characteristics of good domains and URLs

•Easy to say, spell and remember

•Consistent with brand name

•Descriptive

•Readable

•Intuitive

•Clean

Where do you think these go?

• nba.com

• nba.com/wizards

• apple.com/iphone

• facebook.com/cocacola

• patagonia.com/about

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln

Where do you think these go?

• nba.com

• nba.com/wizards

• apple.com/iphone

• facebook.com/cocacola

• patagonia.com/about

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln

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Content

Internet users become loyal to site content before they become loyal to a site’s design or the organization behind the design

•People interact with organizations online largely through content

•Content should be easy to find, understand, and share online

•Content should appeal to its audience and be consistent

•Developing an effective content strategy is a key element of online branding

•Cascading style sheets (CSS) are a brand’s best friend to maintain consistent look and feel across content Which domain has content that I can trust and understand?

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User experience

Users are loyal to online services that “just work” and are easy and pleasant to use

•Positive user experiences make it easy for users accomplish their tasks, engendering loyalty

•Frustrating and error-laden user experiences damage users’ brand perceptions

Recognize that huge button?

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Usernames

Organizations should follow consistent naming guidelines when choosing usernames for social media sites and other Internet services

•Usernames should match the brand name as closely as possible

•Consider brand architecture when choosing usernames

•Consider that usernames may appear in a variety of contexts including vanity URLs and alongside comments

Social media provides many opportunitiesto highlight brand names

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Profile pictures

Follow branding guidelines to choose consistent profile pictures customize themes on social media sites

•Profile pictures should incorporate branding elements appropriately into the dimensions of a profile picture

•Consider how profile pictures may be resized or used in different contexts

Do you recognize these Twitter profile pictures?

Do you recognize these Twitter profile pictures?

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Favicons

A favicon is a tiny icon that helps distinguish pages and domains

•Favicons help users identify content by appearing alongside URLs in browsers’ address bars, tabs, and bookmark menus

•Favicons remind users that they are in the right spot

•The favicon provides another opportunity to reinforce visual branding elements

Favicons offer subtle brand reminders

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Questions?Get in touch:

Jed Sundwall

619-681-1856 x208

[email protected]

@jedsundwall on Twitter

Online Branding Introduction and Best Practices

Business

Transcript of Online Branding Introduction and Best Practices