What Can Your Brand Learn From The Marines?: August 2011

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Clarity

By Andrew Fortunato
What Can Your Brand Learn From The Marines?

Have you ever seen a commercial or advertisement, and been left wondering exactly what it is that organization does? With the ever increasing number of media channels to choose from, organizations can easily get sidetracked, and lose focus in their messaging. In order to maintain clarity in brand messaging and overall strategic communications, it helps to stay grounded in one’s roots. The brand vision is where those roots take hold.

Without a clear brand vision, an organization is like a ship on the stormy sea without a compass. The brand vision sets the course for the entire outfit, and provides the foundation for all communications. The brand vision is the ideal image of how an organization seeks to be known by the public at large, and its consumers. The organizational leadership carries the torch of responsibility for ensuring that all marketing and advertising continually circles back to the brand vision in every piece of strategic communications.

It is easy to get lost in words when an organization doesn’t have a clear vision of what it is trying to communicate. My advice is, don’t get lost in the words. Keep it simple. There is one thing your organization does better than everyone else, and is what your company is known for. What is it?

The Marines are well known as a group of Smart, Tough, Elite Warriors. Marines are known for what they do best – Make Marines, Win Battles. You see this message in everything the Marines stand for, represent, and communicate. The message is simple, focused, clear, and without confusion.

How does your organization measure up? Ask yourself -- what does your organization do?

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About the author: Andrew Fortunato, http://www.linkedin.com/in/AndrewFortunato, former Marketing Chief for the Marines, CMO, consultant, and speaker, advises and leads organizations seeking marketing and operational success. Andrew shares insights in-person and on his “What Can Your Brand Learn From The Marines?^TM” blog at http://marinesbrand.blogspot.com.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Maintaining Brand Relevance in an Ever-Changing World

By Andrew Fortunato
What Can Your Brand Learn From The Marines?

The marketplace is dynamic, and ever-changing. As the environment changes, brands are constantly challenged to remain true to their core values, while at the same time remaining relevant to their customers. The brand provides the foundation that a company or product is known for, and sets the consumer’s expectations. Stray too far from your brand roots, and risk becoming unrecognizable and less credible in the eye of the consumer. Fail to adapt to changing times, and risk losing touch with the loyal customer.

Maintaining relevance requires a brand to remain firmly grounded, while at the same time being responsive to change. Enduring brands are able to proactively recognize change, adapt to new environments, remain true to the essence of their brand, and maintain meaningful consumer engagement. The Marines are one brand that has endured and succeeded through constant change for over two centuries. Tradition, improvise, adapt, overcome, innovate, lead, and win are the watchwords that have guided the organization in good times and bad. These attributes provide agility in the marketplace and at the same time allow an organization to remain true to their brand.

Learn more about what went into building the Marines brand, and how they maintained brand relevance in the face of a pronounced demographic shift.

Click here to go to the podcast (28 minutes): http://www.powertothesmallbusiness.com/2011/02/branding-us-marines

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About the author: Andrew Fortunato, http://www.linkedin.com/in/AndrewFortunato, former Marketing Chief for the Marines, CMO, consultant, and speaker, advises and leads organizations seeking marketing and operational success. Andrew shares insights in-person and on his “What Can Your Brand Learn From The Marines?^TM” blog at http://marinesbrand.blogspot.com.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Reputation

By Andrew Fortunato
What Can Your Brand Learn From The Marines?

Today I read a widely circulated article about a well known, self-described, consumer advocacy organization inadvertently being removed from a prominent internet search directory. A lot of the commentary associated with the story centered on the validity of content posted by the watch dog’s magazine. There are at least two sides to every story, to be sure.

I was reminded by the article of a situation I found myself in a few years ago. I had been asked by one of the largest distributors of a certain product and service in the US, to help solve a bothersome on-line reputation management problem. As it happens, the main driver behind the problem was the very same consumer advocacy group in the news today. There were numerous comments posted in response to the article rejoicing at the news. Obviously, the company I was helping had not been a solitary beneficiary of the magazine’s devoted attention.

There are a lot of competitive forces at work in the market place today. The internet provides a widespread forum for individuals to circulate various opinions. It is important to remember that opinions are not necessarily facts. Opinions are extremely powerful and valuable though, as they are shaped by perception. Consumer perception is extremely important to a brand’s reputation.

Reputations are earned. In the case of brands, reputations are built, or destroyed, by the perceptions of their consumers. As I crafted what became a successful strategy to overcome the company’s reputation issue, I discovered that their reputation was indeed earned, and well deserved.

The situation was quite a contrast to the well respected brand I had been privileged to be part of – The Few, The Proud, The Marines. The Marines brand has truly become an American icon by delivering consistent performance, quality, leadership and accountability; based on integrity over more than two centuries. When I took leadership of Marines marketing, my leaders gave me one simple directive – “Don’t Break the Brand!” The Marines understand the value of their brand, and that reputation is everything. It starts with leadership at the top, and filters through every individual in the organization. Remember, you break it, you bought it. Once a brand is broken, recovering a reputation may not always be possible. It is far better to nurture and protect your brand, then to play defense. Marines much prefer to always be on the offensive anyway.

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Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Performance

By Andrew Fortunato
What Can Your Brand Learn From The Marines?

When building a strong brand, there is one thing that matters more than anything else. The one key element is delivering consistent, quality performance. Sustained performance and delivering on the brand promise is what builds credibility.

Too often companies attempt to create a brand based on the story they want to tell. The pitfall here is that a brand cannot simply be contrived, or conjured out of thin air. The brand must represent the true values and character of an organization. It is completely transparent. Despite best efforts to craft a story, consumers will ultimately ascertain reliability, determine credibility, and judge performance based on their own individual experience.

To the Marines, mission success is everything. In the world’s premier leadership organization, failure simply is not an option. Marines are known for their readiness, reliability, and competency in battle. As the world’s most renowned fighting force, the Marines deliver smart, tough, elite warriors, capable of achieving success under the most difficult circumstances; charged with being the most ready when the nation is least ready. That is one of the reasons why the Marines brand has taken its place among the world’s most respected and recognized brands.

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About the author: Andrew Fortunato, http://www.linkedin.com/in/AndrewFortunato, former Marketing Chief for the Marines, CMO, consultant, and speaker, advises and leads organizations seeking marketing and operational success. Andrew shares insights in-person and on his “What Can Your Brand Learn From The Marines?^TM” blog at http://marinesbrand.blogspot.com.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Brand Equity

By Andrew Fortunato
What Can Your Brand Learn From The Marines?

Your brand is a valuable commodity. It has value. The value of your brand today, is a direct reflection of everything your organization has done, or has failed to do to shape public perception. The brand represents a significant investment in organization’s future. You are either adding equity to your “brand bank”, or subtracting value all the time. Building brand equity requires following one simple rule – always be adding value to the brand bank.

With the Marines’ brand we applied a simple quality control test to everything we did. We called it the “Blues Test”. Quite simply, we asked the question, would a US Marine in full Dress Blue uniform look right in the environment being considered, if he were standing next to his grandmother, and would that appearance be what the American people expect from their Marines? If the answer was “NO”, it wasn’t the right thing to do, and we didn’t do it.

What is your brand worth, and how do you decide what is right for your brand? Do the right thing for your customers and your company.

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About the author: Andrew Fortunato, http://www.linkedin.com/in/AndrewFortunato, former Marketing Chief for the Marines, CMO, consultant, and speaker, advises and leads organizations seeking marketing and operational success. Andrew shares insights in-person and on his “What Can Your Brand Learn From The Marines?^TM” blog at http://marinesbrand.blogspot.com.