• Can you tell someone about your company, product or service in 30 seconds or less?
• Do you have a compelling story about what makes your company, product or service different, better or more special than your competitors?
• Do you have a clear value proposition that demonstrates the Return On Investment (ROI) a potential customer would realize by doing business with you?
• Do your customers clearly understand why it’s in their best interest to enter into a long-term business relationship with you?
• Do you have a way to add value to your transactions that goes beyond price-cutting, to encourage trial and build relationships?

If you answered “No” to any of these questions, you need to brand.

Ask a dozen people what a brand is and you’ll get a dozen different answers. Let’s take a Zen approach and say what a brand in NOT:

• A brand is NOT a logo.
• A brand is NOT a name.
• A brand is NOT a slogan.
• A brand is NOT a graphic look.
• A brand is NOT an ad campaign.

Just as someone’s eyes, hair and clothes are not the person, these are elements that communicate your brand’s message and look, but they are not the brand.

Your brand actually exists in the HEARTS and MINDS of your customers. Your brand is a collection of perceptions that they have about your company, products, services and people. It’s how they THINK and FEEL about the EXPERIENCE of all those things. These form the relationship that your target market has with your company, products, services and people.

BRAND = RELATIONSHIP

In essence, your brand is like the personality of your company—it’s what your target markets have a relationship with. And based on that relationship, they decide whether they want your company, products and services as part of their lives and their businesses.

Good brand marketing is about creating and nurturing those relationships. We do that by continually communicating the unique VALUE that your brand delivers to each one of your target audiences:

• In ways that are appropriate for their age and lifestyle or work culture…
• Using venues that are already a part of their lifestyle or work situation…
• In clear terms that they can easily understand and relate to…
• With benefits that are specific and relevant to what they care about.

Branding is the way we purposefully influence and direct the meaning, value and significance of your brand to your target markets. It’s a proven approach to establish and deepen the relationship between your target markets and your company, products and services—to create brand loyalty and business growth.

Literally, Branding is translating your product or service into visual, verbal and tangible experiences that are relevant and meaningful to your customers.

BRAND = THE REASONS WHY CUSTOMERS CARE

THE BOTTOM LINE:
customers buy from companies they care about

Typically, most marketing agencies and marketing departments use a 12-step process to develop a brand and take it to market. The 12 steps fall into three main categories on the timeline: Research, Branding and Execution.

Research / Background

• Initial Business and Needs Analysis
• Evaluation of Existing Marketing
• Competitive Research
• Customer Surveys

Brand Marketing Development

• Strategic Branding Session
• Brand Positioning Statement
• Marketing Communication Plan
• ID Development – Name, Logo, Tagline, Slogan

Marketing Execution

• Campaign Development
• Focus Group Testing
• Campaign Roll-out
• Track Results and Refine

As you can see, Branding is at the heart of the Marketing Process.

Where We Work With You…

Businesses usually bring Lockhart & Associates in to work with them on the Research and Branding Areas up through development of a Marketing Communication Plan, which is essentially a blueprint for the Marketing Execution. During Execution, we often supervise the execution of brand messaging.

Typically, we work with the company’s current agency or internal / outsourced marketing resources. We have often been called upon to assist in the selection of agencies and creative resources, or to make referrals from our marketing resource network.

There are generally six main business occasions that determine when an organization needs to assess and revitalize its brand—or launch a new brand:

• Readiness to take the current business to the next level
• New or more intense competitive activity and/or pressure
• Changing marketplace or economic dynamics
• New opportunities within the marketplace opening up
• New innovations for services or products being introduced
• Information from customer research, surveys or feedback.

Any one of these occasions or a combination of these indicates that it’s time to assess your current brand and update it to more strategically and effectively compete within the marketplace.

That being said… many small to mid-size businesses have a strong brand that simply isn’t being leveraged well through execution in the marketplace. In that case, you don’t need a new brand—you need a strategy to go leverage your brand in the marketplace (usually a marketing communication plan) and the internal or external resources to execute it.

Your brand exists in the hearts and minds of your target customers. Positioning is the “space” that you want to own in your customers’ minds and hearts. Similar to the well-know bumper sticker, “Positioning Happens.” And it happens by design or default. Your customers will put you some place in their hearts and minds—brand positioning makes sure that place is where you want to be.

Clear positioning is the key to success in marketing communications. It is Positioning that transforms your company, product or service into a BRAND.

A Positioning Statement is an internal strategic document that is used to clarify and influence the position that a product, service or company occupies in the minds and hearts of the target market. Your Positioning Statement summarizes your core brand message, including the Target Market, the Competitive Arena, the Point of Differentiation and the Benefits. Bottom line, your Positioning Statement acts as a guideline, to establish criteria as to whether a form of media is communicating the brand position clearly—whether the communication is “On Strategy” or “Off Strategy.”

Your Positioning Statement is “Ground Zero” for all of your brand and marketing communications. Based on your Positioning Statement, we create the visual, verbal and experiential elements of your brand within your marketing campaign. They can include:

Visual Brand Elements	Verbal Brand Elements	Experiential Brand Elements
Logo Mark Color Palette Typography Graphics User Imagery Photography Design Layouts	Name Tagline Brand Promise Key Messages Campaign Theme(s) Headlines All Copywriting	Advertising Web Site Direct Marketing Interactive Media Events / Meetings Presentations Point-of-Sale

EVERYTHING COMMUNICATES! And it is essential that you clearly communicate your brand position every time you make any kind of contact with your target market.

Built on 20+ years of experience in branding products and services for Fortune 500 companies, Brand Excelerator™ is a proven process specially designed to brand small to mid-size businesses fast and cost-effectively.

When you want a proven solution that will give you a highly differentiated, clear competitive advantage in the marketplace, Brand Excelerator™ is the fastest way to create a strong brand that will deliver additional revenue streams, more customers and greater profitability.

Based on your Definition of Success for your business, Brand Excelerator™:

• Leverages the strengths and equities of the existing brand and assets
• Targets the most profitable potential markets and mission-critical markets
• Defines the strongest position for your brand within the competitive arena
• Creates a hierarchy of messaging with which to tell your brand story
• Provides a strategy and blueprint for delivering ROI and business results.

A Proven Solution That Delivers Results—Guaranteed.

Deliverables include:

• A Full Day Facilitated Branding Session: Moderated by our Branding Specialist, with key decision-makers and front line sales representatives from your company.
• A Brand Positioning Statement: This defines the unique value proposition of the organization that clearly differentiates it within the competitive arena.
• An Executive Summary: This document details the findings from the full-day session, as well as insights and recommendations.
• A Marketing Communication Plan: This document acts as a blueprint for the creation and roll-out of the brand campaign materials to all target markets.

We are so sure that you will be absolutely delighted with the results of Brand Excelerator™, that we guarantee it—or the process is free.

From Fortune 500 companies to small and mid-size businesses, to non-profit organizations, Lockhart & Associates has provided branding, strategy and brand marketing services for:

• Re-branding and Positioning
• New Product/New Positioning Roll-outs
• Marketing and Advertising Campaigns
• Major Sales and Marketing Meetings
• Senior Level “Behind-Closed-Doors” Meetings
• Corporate Videos and Films
• Executive Presentations and Key-note Addresses
• Marketing and Sales Force Incentives
• Marketing and Sales Presentations
• Printed Materials for Marketing, Sales and Corporate Image
• Interactive Media and Websites
• Television and Radio Commercials

For a complete list of B2B and B2C clients by industry, please roll over Clients on the menu above. Here is a sample of our branding experience for companies and products / services:

Strategic Branding Experience

Company Branding / Re-Branding

• 1221 Ocean Avenue - Re-brand of an ultra-luxury LA oceanfront apartment community, strategic communications planning, full campaign development
• The Alliance Portfolio – Company re-brand and strategy for a SoCal private equity lender, with campaign development for brokers and investors.
• Cabrillo Credit Union - Re-Brand, communications strategy and campaign development for a regional San Diego credit union
• Champion Development Group - Re-Brand, communications strategy and campaign development for an innovative boutique So Cal Real Estate Developer
• Convergent Resources Inc. - Re-brand of one of the five US companies in the Accounts Receivables Management Industry, plus initial campaign roll-out
• Datrik - Re-Brand, communications strategy and campaign development for a boutique national marketing list company
• Envirolink - Re-brand, communications strategy and campaign development for the world's largest on-line resource for environmental information
• The Irvine Company Apartment Communities - Re-brand of corporate division to be in alignment with parent company brand, 6 sub-brands of apartment collections and individual branding of 80+ apartment communities, strategic communications planning, full campaign messaging development, as well as brand, marketing and graphics standards manual.
• Irvine Spectrum Center – Rebrand and campaign messaging development for a major upscale shopping, dining and entertainment destination in Orange County.
• ISEVA - Positioning and branding, marketing communications strategy development, campaign development for an international customer service outsourcing provider
• Kindred Healthcare - Marketing communications strategy development, re-launch campaign development for one of the nation's largest long-term healthcare providers
• Newport Lending Group – Company re-brand and creation of a flagship mortgage brand called “The Navigator”, a net worth—builder loan, with full campaign including print, web, direct marketing and television.
• Pango Medical Devices – re-brand of a boutique yet global medical device designer and manufacturer.
• Repairmakers – rebrand of a dental orthodontic plier repair company into a franchised operation including repairs for dental handpieces and equipment.
• The Shops at Riverside - Re-branding, communications strategy and planning, campaign development for the largest mall in Bergen County, NJ.
• The Shops on El Paseo – Destination re-brand for a luxury retail destination both B2B targets (leasing to retailers and resort concierge referral incentive) and B2C targets (local resident and tourists), plus brand campaign messaging.
• Stone Creek Village Shopping Center – Rebrand and campaign messaging development for a small upscale shopping and dining destination in Stockton, CA.
• Teris – Re-brand with slogan and tagline development for a national litigation support solutions provider.
• Therapy Specialists – Re-brand of a the largest independent rehab therapy provider in Southern California, as well as campaign message development.
• Trigild - Company re-brand and campaign development for a national authority in non-performing franchise operation loans.
• Two Rodeo Drive - Re-brand of the luxury shopping center as an umbrella for 20+ luxury store brands, with strategic communications planning, full campaign messaging development, as well as brand and graphics standards
• Viva Senior Communities – Company re-brand, umbrella brand and brand hierarchy for a family of senior communities in SoCal.
• WTi Energy Metals – Initial branding for a subsidiary of Western Titanium, targeted specifically to the energy industry.

New Product Launches and Product Re-Launches

• American Software - Warehouse Pro Software (national launch)
• The Coca-Cola Company – Sprite U.S. re-launch / “Obey Your Thirst”, Cherry Coke U.S. re-launch, Minute Maid Flavors U.S. re-launch, Barq's Root Beer (U.S. re-launch after buy-out)
• Eli Lilly & Company - The Insulin Pen, nationwide launch to medical community
• Georgia-Pacific – EnMotion hands-free towel dispenser
• IBM and CD Group - Enable Your World (e-commerce enablement solution)
• IBM, CD Group, Cognos - Enabled Worlds (business intelligence line extension)
• Kimberly-Clark - Regard Bathroom Tissue (national launch)
• Symbol Technologies - LOMAS (national launch of logistics technology product)
• UPS Capital - Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment (national launch)