Trigger 3. Visual Brand Identity

Visual Brand Identity is the visual and verbal articulation of a brand or group including all pertinent design applications, such as, letterhead, business card, and packaging, among many other possible applications.

An Identity describes the visual devices used to represent the company. Identity systems are a visual components package that is paired with style guidelines and used as a framework to ensure the corporate image is cohesive and consistent. Some of the visual devices that leverage the brand elements and style guidelines are as follows: stationery, marketing collateral, packaging, signage, messaging, and digital projects, among others.

The identity is physical manifestation of a brand. To generalize, this includes a logo and several supporting devices, such as the company letterhead, business cards, website etc. all governed by a set of guidelines. The guidelines dictate how the identity is applied and approved for printed pieces, color palettes, typefaces, page-layouts, menu cards, uniforms, store furnishing, product packaging and such items, across media applications that maintain visual continuity and recognition.

Reasons for using VBI

·         Large organizations with layers of management require a thorough brand identity system that provides a unified vision and tools that help everyone build the brand. But before we dig in, let's define the difference (and relationship) between a brand, an identity and a logo.

·         Visual identity has been proven time and time again to be the foundation for customer recognition, preference and loyalty. It is the starting place for marketers to build value-adding associations. A well-managed visual identity provides stakeholders with reassurance through consistency and a prompt for recall of previous brand experience. The brand, and therefore its value, is put at risk when the visual identity is inconsistent, stagnant, in poor physical condition or perceived as an indicator of weak management.

·         The aims of a corporate identity are to:

o   create a single and clear visual identity for an organization, its divisions, its services and products / brands;

o   project an organization as professional, reliable and contemporary organization;

o   leverage the brand equity and standardize an organization’s visual presentation consistently across media applications

·         Corporate Identity benefits an organization in myriad ways. An organization that invests in developing a solid corporate identity says to its customer “we are here to stay.” It’s a sign of longevity, which is not only attractive to customers, but also is desirable to potential investors. It’s an indicator that an organization is serious about being successful, that it is reliable in the industry.

The importance of VBI

·         Awareness: as your identity becomes more developed and thus recognizable, awareness of your business will grow.

·         Positioning: symbols, values, culture, and projects. All of these help to encourage and foster any progressions within your business.

·         A bond: from the customer’s point of view, a strong identity creates a sense of belonging and reliability.

·         Staying power: Control over your identity will allow you to respond quickly and effectively to changes, thus ensuring the immortality of your organization.

·         Savings: a well-designed early identity will save you lots of money! No need to constantly reinvent graphics, your identity is well-established and solid.

·         Basically, corporate and brand identities are an expression and reflection of an organization’s culture, character, personality, and its products and services – inspiring trust with consumers, employees, suppliers, partners and investors. In the middle of the 20th century, the development of visual identity systems became mainstay in almost all branding initiatives. Some examples that come quickly to mind are iconic brands that have stood the test of time – Coca-Cola, IBM, Mercedes, Ford, Levis and McDonald’s.

·         In the 21st century, if the vision for a brand is not centered in a rich emotional connection with customers, and the visual identity not well-defined, then the brand may be visible, but it will lack personality. And a brand without personality is a brand without a soul. And although a visual identity is a small component of the overall brand expression, it remains the first connection made with the consumer’s mind.

·         Strong corporate branding is essential because it subconsciously shapes consumers’ feelings about an organization and its services or products. From the moment consumers interact with the identity, their feelings about an organization’s service or product are subconsciously reinforced. Often, these feelings last a consumer’s life-time.

Example: McDonalds 

One of the reasons McDonald’s is so successful is its highly recognizable brand identity. If you go to a McDonald’s outlet in any part of the world, they will all look relatively similar, the menus look similar, the food will be of the same quality and taste the same – and one might even run into their mascot, Ronald McDonald. This brand consistency is one of the reasons why McDonald’s is one of the all-time biggest brands.

Process of creation of VBI

Phase 1: Research, Vision & Design Brief

This phase should be as thorough as needed — depending on the depth of research and size of the company. It's the most crucial part of the overall process, and should result in a design brief that guides the rest of the project.

Below is a list of foundational questions and key dynamics to explore and document through qualitative and quantitative methodologies. (Note: This is only a quick overview of the most complex part of this process.)

·         How is the brand perceived against competitors in the market for products and services you're looking to provide?

·         What is the positioning statement of your brand? Answer the what, how, to whom, where, why and when questions.

·         What is the heritage of your product type, and the origin(s) of it's ingredients and fabrication process?

·         Who is your audience? Are they digitally savvy? Where will your products/services have contact with them? How do you want that contact experience to make them feel, take action and think about your brand?

·         What values & beliefs should the brand have about the business and it's mission in the world? If the brand was a person, what would it's personality be? How would it look, act and talk?

·         What benefits do you want customers to associate with your brand? What is the vision of the brand that you want to create?

·         Other brand image concerns: market awareness, emotional associations, value to the consumer, brand perception vs. consumer behavior, changes desired in the brand-consumer relationship over time.

The Design Brief

It's important to have a design (or creative) brief if the brand identity project is bigger than one designer doing work for a small local business. A design brief should contain summaries from the research phase, such as: target audience(s), messaging objectives, values and mission of the brand, and the brand's products/services offering. It should also include budget, project schedule, file formats for delivery, and other practical needs.

Phase 2: Logo, Identity, & Guidelines

After the research phase is complete and a design brief has been created, it's time to start designing the logo and identity system.

The Logo

There are many ways to start designing a logo, but most often times you'll see designers begin by sketching out dozens if not hundreds of iterations on paper. The process of getting concepts down on paper and then iterating on those ideas can unlock new directions to explore and final solutions that you wouldn't have normally arrived at when starting on the computer. After selecting your best sketched concepts, you should start iterating on them digitally.

Here's a peak behind the curtain of a few logo concept sketches as they became final digital solutions:

Firefox Logo by Martijn Rijven of Bolt Graphic, art direction by Wolff Olins

Greenpeace Airplot Logo by Airside

The Identity System

The identity system usually starts after the logo is complete. The purpose of the identity system is to form a systematic visual language around the logo — one that compliments the design thinking of the logo and offers a family of useful, flexible elements that will help to design marketing and business collateral. Here are some examples:

Fortaleza 2020 by Guivillar

Handsome Coffee Roasters by Ptarmak

The Style Guidelines

The style guidelines contain and prescribe the logo usage rules, typeface system, color palette, layout guidelines, and more. They exist so that others can create design collateral and marketing materials that will have a cohesive look and voice.

Style guidelines have traditionally been produced as print and web-ready PDFs. They're the core of the identity design, and usually accompany the logo, templates, fonts and other resources packaged together to make designing for the brand easier. Style guidelines are in-depth rules about logo usage, styling, and layout, and are always interesting to browse through.

Here are a few style guidelines of popular brands: Skype (pdf, brand page), BestBuy (Euro Guidelines), BBC, Adobe, Apple, Google, and Walmart. Looking for more? Dig into this list by Logo Design Love.

Phase 3: Monitoring & Rebranding

Lastly, after a new brand identity has launched, it's important to monitor and care for it, as it's a living and breathing thing that interacts with your customers. Honestly, that's a loaded statement as there are many ways to properly care for a brand. Regardless, over time, if your target audience shifts, the market evolves, or the brand's products and services change, it may be time for a rebrand. The main challenge with rebranding is trying to maintain familiarity and consistency so that your customers will remember you.

5 key aspects of visual brand identity

If you want to make a lasting impression on your target audience, making the right decisions when it comes to visual brand identity is crucial. Here are the five most important visual brand elements that should be considered:

1. Choose the right brand name

Even though naming isn’t technically part of the visual design process of brand identity, the brand name should still be considered a visual element. A strong brand name shouldn’t just sound right and be easy to pronounce; it should look right too. Even if you hire a gifted design team, a poor brand name can eliminate the opportunity for a successful visual brand identity.

2. Create a consistent visual style

All of the brand elements should follow a consistent visual style throughout. If, for example, a decision is made to design a brand identity that is visually romantic and endearing, then this style should be applied to all visual elements. Exceptions can be made for advertising campaigns, but the overall brand identity should always be uniform. This is why visual style guides are always a vital deliverable as they help maintain consistency.

3. Develop a compelling logo

The logo is the flagship image of any brand. Logos can quickly speak volumes about your business, your mission and what services you offer. An enterprise without a logo has no chance of making an impact on its target audience. The logo is the most essential and valuable visual element of your brand, so keep this in mind when allocating your branding budget and hiring professionals.

4. Pay attention to color

Colors can play an integral role in brand recognition and brand loyalty. They influence our emotions and help us distinguish between competing brands. Having acknowledged this, considerable research should be carried out before deciding on a final brand color or palette. Cadbury’s, the UK based confectionery producer, considers their own brand color so important to their identity that they went as far as copyrighting their "Cadbury Purple," or Pantone 2685C as it is more commonly known.

5. Select appropriate typography

Typography concerns the style and appearance of any lettering or fonts used as part of your visual brand identity. These characteristics can have a significant influence over people’s purchasing decisions and help to further emphasize the message of your brand. Typeface and font choice can affect whether the right message is being communicated and these should conform to the overall visual brand style. Wrong choices can be disastrous, for example a playful font such as the ever-popular Comic Sans would not be suitable for a serious brand image.

How do companies test their VBI?

When we first began presenting our logo concepts to clients, the ensuing discussions often devolved into a subjective discussion of who liked blue better than green. This was not terribly helpful feedback, so we developed guidelines for our clients to ask themselves as they reviewed the options:

·         Is it legible? Is it easy to read and understand?

·         Is it impactful? Does it stand out and catch your eye?

·         Is it meaningful? Does it support your organizations goals and objectives?

·         Is it differentiated enough from your ‘competition’ and does it avoid obvious visual clichés? For example, a project we did recently for a community organization placed a lot of emphasis on ethnic diversity. When we examined the landscape of similar groups we discovered many logos that used multi-color hands – hand holding, overlapping hands, hands in circles. We decided to emphasize this group’s uniqueness by offering other design solutions.

·         Is it authentic? Does it feel genuine and appropriate for what you do, who who do it for and who you want to reach? If you offer services for the homeless, for example, you wouldn’t want your logo to look like one for a contemporary art museum.

·         Does it have enduring value? Will it stand the test of time, and look just as fresh in several years as it does now? Logo designs can fall into trendy traps. For instance, according to logolounge.com, did you know that “nested circles” and overlapping, transparent colors in logo designs are all the rage right now? (Check out this article for more on recent logo trends.)

·         Is it flexible? Will it work across different media, such as your website, business card, tote bag, PowerPoint slide, email newsletter…?

·         Will it work for you both in color and in black and white?

·         Do you need a tagline with it and if so, will it accommodate one?

London 2012 Olympics logo disaster

“The jagged emblem, based on the date 2012, comes in a series of shades of pink, blue, green and orange and will evolve in the run-up to the Games.”

It shows the numbers 2012 in a design aiming to appeal to today’s Internet generation. The chairman of London’s 2012 organizing committee, said:

“It is an invitation to take part and be involved.”

The identity was designed by Wolff Olins. Due to the fact that they were chosen as the designers more than a year ago, I’m left disappointed. The mascots are pretty scary, too (unsurprising after they were chosen from an open call for submissions).

When London unveiled its £400,000 2012 logo design, the masses were unimpressed.

Some claimed that it looked like "some sort of comical sex act between The Simpsons." Others opined that the logo resembled a swastika. On the flip-side, Iran threatened to boycott the Olympics since they believed the logo spelled out "Zion."

Pick your poison, but the logo seemed to be a resounding fail.

8 essential elements to a comprehensive brand identity

Does your company have a brand identity that is more than just a logo? While a logo is a good place to start, you should consider building your “visual position” to be something larger. Building a system for your brand allows you to meet the demands of different media, while still presenting a cohesive identity.

For example, website design only allows a limited number of font choices, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a corporate typeface for printed marketing materials. In fact the more elements you can establish as your basic look and feel will mean that variations from that scheme won’t make your brand identity disintegrate.

1.       Logo or wordmark. A logo is a graphic symbol, whereas a wordmark or logotype is just the words of your company or product name set in a specific, fixed way. These elements should be professionally designed and set.

2.       Different logo “lockups”. While your logo should always be rendered consistently, you will need variations based on placement and usage. For example, you may need color and black and white variations, you may need versions for horizontal and square applications. But they all should have the same essential qualities.

3.       Key colors. A corporate color palette is usually defined by the colors in a logo. Often these are one or two colors only, although some are more complex.

4.       Additional color palette options. In addition to the colors in your logo, what other colors complement them? This can be loosely defined such as: bright and bold, pastel, or cool colors. Or, they may handpicked from a color swatch book. These additional colors are often what really brings together (or makes a disconnect) from one point of contact to the next.

5.       Corporate typefaces. Choose just a handful of fonts to be used whenever there is printed materials. Make sure these are available on all the computers that will create these documents.

6.       Standard typographic treatments. Your typographic identity should include ways of handling key types of text, perhaps a consistent way of styling headlines or pull-out text. Work to make these similar from one application to the next. It may be the way you write your URLS, or the way you capitalize your headlines.

7.       Consistent style for images. You don’t need to use the same photos over and over again, but all imagery should have a consistent look and feel. Maybe the photos are brightly lit and the subject is looking right into the camera. Or, the photos have a subtle color palette and the people never look at the camera but are engaged in their activity. Photos could be close-ups, soft focus, or crisply detailed. You don’t need to use photos! You can use line art, illustrations or just charts and graphs. Whatever you choose, use a consistent style in all materials, whether printed or online.

8.       Have a full library of graphic elements. These are all the small details that really build a branding system. It could be a background texture, a line style treatment, a use of white space or color blocks. These are the areas where do-it-yourself-ers start to suffer, and where a professional graphic designer can pull together a cohesive look for you.

When you have a comprehensive and broadly built graphic identity, it creates a foundation for a rock solid brand identity.

The truth is, that once you start making things, your identity standards are going to be tested.

For example, item #5 (choose a corporate typeface) is not going to be fully applicable on your web site (unless you’re Ikea and choose Verdana for everything). But if you have seven other branding elements that are strongly apparent in the web design, the site will still be able to promote your recognizable brand. If on the other hand, those other graphics are not well-defined and well-used, each application you create dilutes rather than builds a comprehensive brand identity.

Sources

·         Leroux, K & Reich, J. Is your logo effective? Tips to evaluate your visual identity. 2011. (http://www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com/blog/2011/05/19/is-your-logo-effective-tips-to-evaluate-your-visual-identity/)

·         Brackett, E. 8 essential elements to a comprehensive brand identity. 2010. (http://www.visiblelogic.com/blog/2010/04/8-essential-elements-to-a-comprehensive-brand-identity/)

·         Lamson, G. Designing a brand identity. 2013. (https://creativemarket.com/blog/2013/07/23/designing-a-brand-identity)

·         Brand Finance. Visual Identity – Definition. 2015. (http://brandirectory.com/glossary/definition/visual_identity)

·         Landa, R. Visual identity & branding. 2006. (http://www.umas.hr/~icaljkus/ruta/chapter7.pdf)

·         Ridivi Consulting Knowledge Base. The importance of corporate identity. (http://knowledge.ridivi.com/the-importance-of-corporate-identity/850)

·         Hardy, G. 5 key aspects of visual brand identity. 2012. (https://www.waveapps.com/blog/visual-brand-identity-design/)

·         Airey, D. London 2012 Olympics logo disaster. 2007. (http://www.davidairey.com/london-2012-olympic-logo-disaster/)

·         Stampler, L. & Taube A. The 15 worst corporate logo fails. 2014. (http://www.businessinsider.com/the-15-worst-corporate-logo-fails-2014-1?op=1&IR=T)

Trigger 2. Integrated Marketing Communications

1.       Why did many companies start using IMC?

IMC = a new way of looking at the whole, where once we saw only parts such as advertising, public relations, sales promotion, purchasing, employee communication, and so forth, to look at it the way the consumer sees it – as a flow of information from indistinguishable sources.

IMC = a concept of marketing communication planning that recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines, e.g. general advertising, direct response, sales promotion and public relations – and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency and maximum communication impact.

Traditional communications strategies are based on mass media delivering generalized transaction-oriented messages. Integrated communications are much more personalized, customer-oriented, relationship-based and interactive. They are aimed not only at changing awareness and attitudes, but also at directly influencing behavior

Table 1. Classic and integrated communications

Brighter mornings for brighter days

To reinforce its claim ‘We bring brighter mornings’, Tropicana developed a full-round integrated marketing communications campaign. On its website it explains the healthiness of its orange juice. As a juicy, delicious, nourishing orange only needs water and bright sunshine, Tropicana claims its juice is actually a bit of sunshine which brings mornings to life with a nutritious boost. Why? Because ‘brighter mornings develop into brighter days’. This message is also stressed in its TV commercials. To further bring the message alive, Tropicana organized several events in which it literally brought sunshine to people in the farthest reaches of Canada, but also in a more iconic place, Trafalgar Square in London. The event on London was on the same day that the TV campaign kicked off. A giant helium sun was installed which was 30 000 times bigger than a football, had a surface area of 200 m² and weighed over 2500 kg. the internal light source of the Trafalgar sun produced the equivalent of 60 000 light bulbs: 4 million lumens of light. The sum rose an hour earlier than normal sunrise and set three hours later than normal sunset, giving people in London four additional hours of sunlight. Next to delivering this unique brand experience to people, informing them on the website and bringing the message in advertisements, the claim that a glass of Tropicana tastes delicious and energizes your day was reinforced by digital and point-of-purchase communications, free samples, a PR campaign, a movie on YouTube, and a Facebook action.

Who would not believe that of Tropicana can bring sunshine to the darkest places of Canada and enlighten London like this, it would not be able to bring a little bit of sunshine to your breakfast table?

The major benefit of IMC is that a consistent set of messages is conveyed to all target audiences by means of all available forms of contact and message channels. Communications should become more effective and efficient as a result of the consistency and the synergetic effect between tools and messages. In other words, IMC have an added value when compared with traditional marketing communications.

2.       What are the challenges/benefits in IMC?

IMC do not happen automatically. All the elements of the communications mix have to be carefully planned in such a way that they form a consistent and coherent integrated communications plan. As a consequence, IMC can only be implemented successfully if there is also a strategic integration of the various departments that are responsible for parts of the communications function.

Advertising, public relations, sales promotions and personal selling in most companies are traditionally managed by separate divisions that seldom communicate with each other, let alone take account of each other’s priorities or integrate their efforts. Successful IMC rest on the existence of one communications manager who has the authority to supervise and integrate all the specialized communications functions of the organization. Often this will imply a radical change in the structure of the organization, and that may be the most important reason why IMC have not been implemented in most companies.

Integrating the various tools can lead to synergies in a number of ways:

·         The sales team have an easier job if their product or company is well known as a result of sponsorship or advertising
·         A promotional campaign that is supported by advertising is generally more successful
·         Websites will be more frequently visited when announced in mass media advertising
·         Public relations, corporate advertising and sponsorship can have synergetic effects on company image building

Advantages of IMC:

·         Provides opportunities to cut communications costs and/or reassign budgets
·         Has the potential to produce synergetic and more effective communications
·         Can deliver competitive advantage through clearer positioning
·         Encourages coordinated brand development with internal and external participants
·         Provides for increased employee participation and motivation
·         Has the potential to cause management to review its communication strategy
·         Requires a change in culture and fosters a customer focus
·         Provides a benchmark for the development of communication activities
·         Can lead to a cut in the number of agencies supporting a brand

Disadvantages of IMC:

·         Encourages centralization and formal/bureaucratic procedures
·         Can require increased management time seeking agreement from all involved parties
·         Suggests uniformity and single message
·         Tendency to standardization might negate or dilute creative opportunities
·         Global brands restricted in terms of local adaptation
·         Normally requires cultural change from employees and encourages resistance
·         Has the potential to severely damage a brand’s reputation if incorrectly managed
·         Can lead to mediocrity as no single agency network has access to all sources of communications

For a brand to be maintained and to work, it is important that the communications used to develop and maintain the brand are consistent and meaningful. Part of the essence of IMC is that the mix used to support a brand, including the messages that are used to convey brand values, must be consistent, uniform and reinforcing. Therefore, successful branding is partly the result of effective IMC.

Brands that are integrated provide opportunities to be perceived as different, relative to a competitor’s product.  Branding is a method of separation and positioning so that customers can recognize and understand what a brand stands for, relative to other brands.

Levels of integration:

1.       Awareness
2.       Image integration
3.       Functional integration
4.       Coordinated integration
5.       Consumer-based integration
6.       Stakeholder-based integration
7.       Relationship management integration

The first 5 levels imply the integration of the communications effort mainly at the consumer or marketing communications level. The first 2 levels focus on conveying the same image and brand awareness through all the marketing communications tools. The next step is the functional integration of all the tools (advertising, sales promotion, sponsorship) into one marketing communications department. In the fourth stage, the marketing tools and the marketing PR function are coordinated. Finally, in the fifth stage marketing communications and marketing PR are functionally integrated into one system through which harmonized and consistent messages are conveyed to all actual and potential customers. In the last 2 stages, corporate communications and marketing communications efforts are integrated into one system. (Companies integrate not only with (potential) customers, but with all the stakeholders.

1)      Mission - the basic values and objectives of the company, which are based on the corporate identity

2)      Propositions - concrete propositions to target groups, derived from the basic mission

3)      Concepts - can be a theme, a core message, a specific style or a slogan – messages with a certain content and format; propositions are creatively translated into concepts

4)      Execution - implies uniformity in layout, design, typography, logo, colors, visual triggers and other elements of the house style

Successful IMC imply that a ‘one-voice’ approach is developed, which serves as a starting point for integrated concepts and execution.

Since marketing communications have to be embedded in the strategic marketing plan, the first step is to analyze the marketing communications environment and the marketing strategy, and assess where the marketing communications activity should fit in. form this analysis, target groups and objectives and goals of the marketing communications effort can be derived. Next, which instruments, techniques and media to use and to what extent will be agreed. On the basis of this plan, a budget can be established, and the communications plan and timing can be implemented. Finally, the effectiveness of the campaign has to be assessed.

Snickers: You’re not you when you’re hungry

As with all successful global campaigns, the “You’re not yourself when you’re hungry” campaign worked on a universal assumption, namely that when you’re hungry your mood and your abilities change. The campaign continues to run across social, television, retail and print.

Coherence. While the execution changed across different media and markets, the central theme and strapline remained the same as it was relevant for markets worldwide.

Consistency. The consistency of message worked well across multiple regional campaigns and media: from the TV ad featuring Joan Collins, to the PPC campaign based around commonly misspelt search terms, to the Twitter campaign featuring Rio Ferdinand and Katie Banks that generated newspaper headlines, questions in Parliament and legal proceedings. These consistent messages allowed the effectiveness of the central proposition remain intact across markets and regional campaigns.

Continuity. The launched in the US with a Superbowl ad featuring Golden Girls actress, Betty White in 2010, and yet four years later the creative execution of the campaign remains intact.

Complimentary. The effectiveness of the central proposition and the global campaigns adherence to the first Three Cs mean that when combined you have a long-running, multi-channel, multi-million campaign, the constituent parts of which ensure that

Effectiveness. According to Effie.org activity in the first three months of the campaign in the US helped to grow sales by 13.4%, there was an 18,000% increases in Snickers searches on You Tube, over 5million online views and over 400million incremental and unpaid media impressions.

02: Be More Dog

O2’s foray into 4G advertising asked us “to be more dog”. The overall message of the campaign is that life in the digital 21st century is amazing, there are countless things around that should amaze and inspire us, but we have become too jaded by experience to appreciate the multitude of opportunities afforded us by technology. In short, we’ve become too cat (disinterested and aloof) while we should be embracing our inner dog (energized, interested and excited by the possibilities of everyday life).

Coherence. From print ads and TV commercials to interactive games that allow you to throw a Frisbee from your smartphone to the cat on your PC and or sending dog bombs to your friends, all communications adhere to the simple central premise – to take life by the scruff and make the most of opportunities.

Consistency. Once again the strong central premise allowed comms across a series platforms to adhere to key points. TV advertising slots drove viewers to bemoredog.com where quizzes a quiz determine how dog they were and then share the results through social channels. The aided reach and engagement and helped the launch ad achieve 385,000 YouTube views in the first 48 hours.

Continuity. While the campaign changed over time the strong central premise and its application across platforms allowed long-term continuity. In fact, the creative was used as a basis for a £7million above the line campaign to launch 02’s revamped Priority app.

Complimentary. The considered interaction of communications across platforms allowed a momentum to grow and helped the campaign gain a wider audience through social media and sharing.

McDonald's' "#McDStories"

While baseball is touted as America’s favorite pastime, one could argue that McDonald’s is America’s favorite fast food joint (I mean, those fries. Come on!). But when you combine the cautionary tale of 2006’s Fast Food Nation with the mainstream movement of eating local, organic foods, you could have a potential recipe for a marketing disaster.

So when McDonald’s tried to utilize social media to get some feedback from consumers on the McDonald’s experience, it created The #McDStories hashtag. It all started from McDonald’s official Twitter handle, @McDonalds, with the following tweet:

Seems harmless enough. But McDonald’s should have known better: People don’t eat McDonald’s for the fresh, wholesome ingredients it puts in its food. In fact, they eat McDonald’s without caring what’s in it because it’s easily available, cheap, and tastes good. So, what happened was the hashtag took off and tweets like this came flying in:

McDonald’s clearly didn’t think this one through. These days, people are starting to care about what’s in their food and how it’s made. And since they were given the opportunity, cynics and critics jumped on the hashtag in a negative way.

The Lesson: Not keeping up with trends in your industry hurts you. Understanding those trends, whether you play into them or not, will help you make sure you are either taking calculated risks with your marketing. Fail to understand them and you could totally miss the mark – like McDonald’s did.

Sources:

• De Pelsmacker. P., Geuens, M. & Van Den Bergh, J. Marketing communications. A european perspective. 2013
• Fill, C. Marketing communications. Brands, experiences and participation. 2013
• Heaton, A. Three examples of integrated campaigns. 2014. (http://www.smartinsights.com/traffic-building-strategy/integrated-marketing-communications/three-examples-integrated-campaigns/)
• Hibma, M. 4 cringeworthy marketing campaigns that totally missed the mark. 2014. (http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/marketing-campaigns-missed-the-mark-list)
• Rajgeet, K. Failure and success of IMC campaigns. 2014. (http://www.slideshare.net/kr_rajgeet/failure-and-success-of-imc-campaigns-42155721)

Trigger 1. Storytelling and corporate communication

·   1. Why do or do not companies use storytelling in corporate communication?

“Help me hire a hit man” – reads the sign of a panhandler outside a subway station in San Francisco. Apparently, she does quite well.

In Olympia, Washington, a guy gets similar results with motorists by holding up a placard that says: "Why lie? I need a beer."

A man in Times Square offers this only-in-New-York service: "Tell me off. One dollar."

These three entrepreneurial panhandlers succeed (in their own way) because they know something many business people have yet to discover: Nothing's more powerful than a good story.

Of course these stories rely on humor to succeed, but there's much more to them than that.

They grab and hold your attention — motivating "customers" to "buy" — because they're personal, credible, compelling, and delivered with commitment and consistency.

Grounded in a big idea

"In business," says Cary Brazeman, principal of The Corporate Storyteller, "an effective corporate story usually begins with an idea, the same idea that is the basis of the business plan. What's the company's raison d'etre... its promise to business customers or consumers? That big idea should be the basis of the corporate story."

Great business performances often elude otherwise strong organizations because their stories are poorly conceived or inadequately told.

"In most markets," Brazeman says, "saying your company provides 'exceptional customer service' or makes 'value-added' products doesn't inspire a prospect, because your competitors either do the same things or say they do. Corporate storytelling digs deeper and reflects on the core principles that define a company and its personality."

As important as language is to effective corporate storytelling, it alone is insufficient. "The KitchenAid blender on my kitchen counter is there as much because its design captured my imagination as it is for its functionality. That's part of KitchenAid’s story, and part of their sell," Brazeman says.

"Likewise, the American Express card in my wallet is a true testament to the benefits of 'membership.' I like the fact that they track my purchasing habits and call if I buy something that doesn't fit my profile to be sure the card wasn't stolen. That kind of service is part of the American Express story."

 The challenge for public companies

For public companies, effective corporate storytelling is especially important. Investors put a price tag on them every day, and so goes their cost of capital, investment return and growth.

"The stock market can be brutal and unforgiving," Brazeman says. "It minces no words. But it's arguably the most honest barometer of a company's future prospects. For listed companies, corporate storytelling is about showing investors why they should bet on you."

Brazeman adds that the best corporate stories often are powerful in their simplicity.

"They need not begin with 'Once upon a time,' but they dramatically improve the odds of happy endings."

_***

Storytelling, an important part of human communication, is being increasingly used by companies to communicate their values and build trust and connection with employees and customers.

A good story can create emotions and feelings among the audience, can simplify and transmit complex messages.

One of the problems with communicating your message, that many companies now face, is how to break through all the noise and disturbances created by their competitors and reach their target group in a real and concrete way. Differentiation has become even more important than before and the margins within which the companies are able to do this even smaller. This is because the consumers are so used to being bombarded with information and competition between companies often is fierce. These modern target groups who are more likely to disregard commercials, protect their mail from spam, and turn a blind eye to advertisements on every third street corner they pass, are proving difficult to sway. The circumstances at hand have given rise to a situation that compels companies to think outside the box in order to reach their target groups.

Shankar says that “as soon as we enter the world our parents to tell us stories and so we become socially and culturally into understanding the narrative form”.

Storytelling is a method that has been progressively used by companies as a tool to attempt to lessen the gap between consumer and company or employee and company and create a bridge of longevity, loyalty, mutual understanding, connection and trust.

Using stories when conveying a message is a way of triggering what is already latent in all of us. This is held to be true according to psychologists researching the Jungian and the cognitive approach, “stories are a fundamental part of human intelligence and imagination”. (McLellan)

Good stories can create a feeling of satisfaction of the experience you have just been through (McLellan). In this context, how to communicate a good story that will serve the objectives that almost all modern companies want to achieve, long and fruitful relationships with both consumers and employees.

Corporate storytelling can be said to be that added abstract value that a consumer is more than happy to pay a premium for. The technique itself is built on a basis of pedagogical and psychological techniques used to create a lasting memory with a spectator or listener. This is made by creating a context around the main message that the conveyer wants to communicate or as McLellan describes it, as a way of framing information so that it is understandable, meaningful, and memorable”. In this way an abstract value can created and the listener’s or spectator’s own emotions are evoked by mere association and this can, among other things, have a positive effect on creating solid customer relationships and spreading the organization’s values among employees.

The power of storytelling lies in the fact that it requires active listening, and provides mechanisms to emphasize meaning and feeling, which are not always possible with other communication methods. (McLellan)

Storytelling is a form of branding, or a means to achieve a strong brand. The brand can become strong if the story succeeds in conveying the correct mindset to the target group.

For the brand to have a great impact, it should be constructed on clear values, those values that are in imbedded in the core of the company.

According to Simmons, storytelling gives personality and meaning to products and brands and, therefore, companies can use storytelling to create and maintain images they would like to portray. This could be particularly useful for multinational companies, as maintaining the same product and brand image across countries and channels simply through conventional marketing communication could be challenging.

Figure 1. Core story connection

2. What makes an effective story and why?

Winner of Best Ad 2014

Simmons states that “if the story is good enough, people – of their own free will – will come to the conclusion that they can trust you and the message you bring”. It is important to tell stories in classical narrative forms, a story needs to have characters that all have specific roles to play. It also needs a plot and a timeline with a beginning, middle and an end. Moreover, Simmons points out that a good story also needs a conflict, without the conflict the story is not interesting enough. Shankar adds that the companies need to leave gaps in their stories to make sense of their consumption experiences and even part of their lives; moreover. They receive identities from stories and become a character in the stories.

Several researchers also emphasize that to make sure the stories are good companies need to create different types of stories based on different purposes and objectives. (Denning, Simmons, Erkas and Baron) Denning divides stories into different categories, such as stories that spark actions, communicate who you are, transmit values, communicate who the firm is, foster collaborations, tame the grapevine, share knowledge, and stories that lead people into the future.

3. How to determine a target audience and which channels to use to reach them?

The main target audience when using externally directed storytelling is the consumer, however, also other stakeholders are of great importance to this dimension.

It is important for the company to localize its target audience in order for it to direct its message in the correct manner. In this context companies can establish a communication that is interactive, that will serve the company’s purposes and through it gain valuable information. Externally directed storytelling has become increasingly interactive, not only because of the demands of the modern consumer, but also as a result of media like the Internet. Consumers are invited to join in on chat rooms and websites offered by their favorite company, or indirectly, through their favorite company product or through a membership in their favorite store.

The stories are no longer told by the companies, and according to Fog, this development is forcing companies “to pay attention to what their customers are saying, whether they like what they hear or not”. Therefore, inviting the consumers to participate and be part of the stories surrounding the company can become a way of encountering this problem.

According to Fog, the Internet gives rise to a completely new approach to storytelling. Online, anyone can become an avid storyteller and consumers have the ability to mobilize in great numbers on a global scale. There is strength in numbers, but also in the fact that the online media gets your message across instantly. Fog says that “this means that brands can be created and destroyed in the blink of an eye”.

There are different arenas on which storytelling can occur. Externally directed stories can be partrayed through the media or advertisements. Internally they are often communicated through more or less formalized internal newsletters of through the company intranet.

Shankar says that companies have to consider their positioning strategy in a larger context. Companies have to consider that the result of the story, when it comes to branding, can be that e.g. the market only can hold one ‘heroic’ brand.  The arena therefore becomes more complicated when the purpose is to use storytelling to position your company and differentiate it from others. In advertising, such as TV, radio, billboards and the Internet, companies are and have always used storytelling as a given when wanting to market themselves.

Today every company has its own website where it displays its products and stories surrounding it. However, Denning states that even though this media is quick and has a global reach, there are a few downfalls to using this arena for communicating your message. The most important issue in this case is that storytelling, among other things, is a way of creating a long lasting relationship with your customer. This, according to Denning, gets lost when using this type of media since “people being reached by digital advertising don’t know who is speaking or whether they can rely on the source”. He states that it is too easy imitated, it takes place in a context that is fostered by “thin and anonymous relationships” and claims that “digital storytelling is not interactive”. He bases this statement on that there is no “face-to-face relationship” and therefore the teller cannot adjust the story according to the reactions of the audience.

When it comes to storytelling, the question of whether the story has to be real or not brings up conflicting views. Denning stresses that it does not have to be true and that it is “important that the story creates meaning for the audience” and that the listeners can see the meaning in a more personal context, so that it becomes truer to them. The connection between the emotion experienced and the story being told, in other words, has to feel real, but that does not mean that the story has to be real.

According to Sole and Gray-Wilson, there are 3 major problems related to storytelling:

1.       Seductiveness

2.       Single point of view

3.       Static stories

When a story is overly seductive, the audience could be distracted from its purpose, this might cause them to blindly absorb the story instead of skillfully evaluating it.

The second rick is that the story is often told from the teller’s perspective, which can be an organization or one person. A story told from a single point of view often excludes other interpretations and imaginations, and can even be misleading.

Static stories refer to those stories that do not undergo significant changes, the impact of a story also varies depending on how it is delivered, whether through oral, written or other forms.

An additional disadvantage is that the same story may not work in every culture, as we are often culturally and socially conditioned into understanding certain form of story. (Shankar) The meaning of stories may also be subject to interpretations, that is, different audiences could interpret stories differently. (Reiter)

Sources:

·         The Corporate Storyteller (www.thecorporatestoryteller.com)

·         Hermansson, E. & Na, J. How does company communicate through storytelling? 2008

·         Denning S. Effective storytelling: strategic business narrative techniques. Strategy and Leadership. 2006

·         Erkas, E. & Baron, J. The importance of storytelling in today’s business. 2007

·         Fog, K., Budtz, C. & Yakaboylu, B. Storytelling – Branding in practice. 2005

·         McLellan, H. Corporate storytelling perspectives. 2006

·         Reiter, S.A. Storytellers, stories and “free cash flow”. 1994

·         Shankar, A., Elliot, R. & Goulding, C. Understanding consumption: contributions from a narrative perspective. 2001

·         Simmons, J. Guinness and the role of strategic storytelling. 2006