CORPORATE | EVENTS & SPORTS | CITIES | GOVERNMENT
corporate
Brand is a competitive asset for business, but too often those tasked with driving the brand's equity are not clear on what success looks like. Being rewarded on brand metrics is common to give line of sight between responsibility and accountability. Often what is missing is the distinction between whether we should be chasing building the value of the brand, or the value of the business? That those can be seen as separate issues indicates that focus is still on the brand in isolation from the business, rather than recognising the brand as a key driver of the business.
Competition. It's the heartbeat of commercial endeavour and drives people and businesses forward. In a flattened world - your competition is just waking up.
Yes, there are times when the value of the brand as an asset is of vital importance; but more often the focus should be on building brand equity, grounded in a clear understanding of how it delivers value to the business.
Our work with corporates is unashamedly focused on enhancing the role and performance of brand as an asset of advantage for the business, but also why our advice is independent of any agency relationship.
We ground our work and analysis in empirical research on brands and the markets in which the business seeks to compete - because the world might be flat, but that doesn't mean the terrain doesn't vary widely.
We aim to deliver clear concise business oriented advice that is embedded within the existing business and processes; both a pragmatic and value-focused approach. Linking advice and insights into existing programs is the best way to show its immediate validity and overcome resistance to change. Given the rewards available from building stronger brands with aligned operational focus, doing anything less would be severely short-changing future growth and success.
Events and sport
The saturated sports and events market makes it harder than ever to get and retain fan attention - and build long term value for association and sponsors alike.
Global sport and events is an $100bn per annum industry
Sports and events feed our passion for competition. But a common refrain in papers, blogs and bars is that there is now too much money in sport and the day of the dedicated amateur is gone.
The latter observation may indeed be true. The occasional exceptional individual or team will still appear and capture our hearts and affection as the underdog, but on the whole, the performance standards are so high now, nothing less than full professional dedication will allow teams to compete.
The same goes for the administration of sports and events. The ability to rely on a dedicated watching audience in a sport saturated media market means that old models of logo exposure - if they were ever effective - are severely limited.
Having played the game is no longer sufficient qualification alone for managing the sport. A passion is vital, but understanding, defining and building the relationship with players, fans and sponsors requires professional management and strategic planning.
BrandCapital assists sports and event managers in gaining a deep understanding of their brands and how they are perceived by committed supporters, target groups and the public in comparison to other national and international sports and events.
This information is used to develop a brand strategy that leverages the unique strengths of the sport/event and enhances relationships with all key partners - players, fans and sponsors. We measure the value of existing sponsorship relationships and assist in identifying potential new strategic sponsorship partners.
Just as for on-field performances, there is too much at risk to be anything less than world-class.
Cities
“The unbranded state has a difficult time attracting economic and political attention. Image and reputation are thus becoming essential parts of a state’s strategic capital.”
Looking beyond the logo. City branding is not an exercise in identity design, but understanding the deeper narrative and aspirations of the place and people.
When looking at brands and places, most attention is garnered by two ideas - destination brands and places of origin. Both of these viewpoints are valid but limiting, and so not the focal point of our work.
Our focus is on city brands as key drivers of investment, business, residents and visitors, for the short and long term. We seek to understand a city’s brand equity, image and reputation, locally, nationally and internationally and what is behind the city’s brand.
These insights are then used to evaluate and re-focus the city’s brand strategy, identifying areas currently under-leveraged or not well communicated and setting targets and benchmarks for future development.
Government
Government and branding are not always comfortable partners. Within the public sector, many feel the term brand implies a directly commercial focus. We disagree.
Far from being a burden on society, governments and public sector agencies have a vital role - but miss value of the compelling narrative in accelerating their work.
Whilst the purpose of government and public service is not to create a profit for shareholders, they are charged with trying to deliver the services required of them efficiently and effectively.
This means developing a good reputation amongst the public they serve, so that people are:
• familiar enough to know the service exists and what its role is
• willing to use services and approach them with a positive attitude
• supportive of changes and new initiatives
• willing to adopt and adhere to new rules and guidelines
• supportive and forgiving in the event of bad news
• willing to consider government as a place of employment, especially those highly sought after candidates that might otherwise turn their talents to the private sector.
So how can government develop the reputation it requires to deliver its services optimally and successfully compete for talent? A keypart of that answer is: Brand.
BrandCapital assists Government departments and public sector organisations to understand their existing reputation, develop a strategy and track progress as improvements are implemented.
We can identify whether reputation is based on experience or perception and hence how best to address it, pinpoint barriers that are preventing people from using services and track performance on target attributes.
We also offer an Inside-Out approach, that can measure and strengthen the alignment between the perceptions of the brand internally and the desired external reputation, as this is critical to success. This approach can also include an evaluation and alignment of customer touchpoints and the Employee Value Proposition (EVP), as each of these elements are strongly inter-related.
When organisations are faced with limited resources, developing a strong reputation is a much more rewarding place to focus on building better performance and attracting the right employees, than simply aiming to be better known.