I operate in two worlds. By day (and often into early evening) I craft brand-focused communication programs for a variety of mission-driven organizations. By night (and often into early morning) I write, perform and record with a band as part of Boston’s vibrant independent music scene.

There’s always been a synergy between the two, as I often draw on my marketing and branding experiences while managing promotions for my bands. The last year or so, however, I’ve noticed the tables have turned a bit.

Nowadays, however, I find myself bringing my DIY music marketing experiences to bear on my branding projects at Sametz. Music blogs focused on independent artists have become an excellent source for current thinking on building connections in our increasingly noisy, fragmented world.

With limited resources, independent bands must make the most of every opportunity. At the same time, they’re less encumbered by red-tape and drawn-out decision making processes, and more willing to take calculated risks. As a result, musicians and bands are out in front of many mainstream marketers. Consider…

One step beyond…

Bands understand from the get-go that their music effects different people in different ways, and often fulfills a variety of needs beyond the simple “entertainment” a particular genre offers.

Bands purposefully promote the social aspect of their music: the emotions it triggers; its power to inform and educate; its ability to conjure memories; and so on. Businesses should take a similar approach. While they are undoubtedly important, take a step beyond your core value proposition to see what surrounds it. Your constituents aren’t monolithic, after all, and neither are you.

People are people…

Artists have always understood that personal connections drive success. Putting on a great show is important, but it means nothing if you aren’t building personal connections in the process. And playing a show is often the easy part; it’s the time before and after the set spent hanging with the club staff, the sound person, other bands––and the audience––that really makes a difference.

Organizations should follow suit; people aren’t likely to become loyal to your brand unless they have a (positive!) sense of the people behind it.

I want my ____ TV…

Successful bands understand their role as mini-media companies. Via websites, photostreams, Twitter, blogs, video channels and other social media outposts, bands produce a mosaic of content with a particular voice––one that people find valuable and regularly worth tuning in to.

Businesses must understand that on the Web, entertainment and commerce are quickly becoming one and the same. The ability to engage is more important to brand-building and the bottom line than anything you can say about the “speeds and feeds” of your programs, products, or services.

It takes two to make a thing go right…

Bands are always collaborating: sharing audiences, leveraging resources, and cross-pollinating ideas. Whether they’re working with an engineer, a producer, a  club owner, or other musicians, artists are constantly moving and existing outside their immediate orbit.

As a result, bands (independent, working bands anyway) rarely become isolated. They are in constant touch with what’s happening creatively around them. Business should look for opportunities to work outside of thier comfort zone; to experience new ideas and new ways of doing business.

Here, there, and everywhere…

Bands have always understood that it’s far better to be discovered by fans than forced upon audiences. When a listener “discovers” a band, they feel a sense of ownership which soon breeds feelings of loyalty and advocacy. By being everywhere it matters to be––from social media sites, to blogs, to internet radio, to soundtracks of all kinds, and beyond––bands strive to be visible enough to “get found.”

Marketers, of course, now call this “inbound marketing”… but bands have been doing it for years.

Looking for cues to help craft your inbound digital marketing strategy? Instead of reading xyz marketing blog, take a few minutes to study how your favorite artist (or the local band you keep hearing about) is using their website as the hub of a broader inbound strategy.

Independent artists aren’t so “starving” anymore. Many are savvy marketers who could teach us a thing or two about communicating effectively in our complex world. And chances are, someone you know or someone within your organization is a working, independent musician.

Learn from them… and then, please, buy a CD.

What do you think? What else can brands learn from bands?

I live out of my Victorinox messenger bag.

Me and my Victorinox have walked every corner of this city. It’s been with me on planes, trains and automobiles to New York, Nashville, Atlanta, Denver, San Diego, San Francisco, St. Petersburg, and halfway around the world to Melbourne, Australia.

And then, last week, while crossing Tremont Street here in the South End, one of the metal rings that connects the shoulder strap to the bag gave way. The 1/4 inch metal had completely severed! My bag fell to the ground, its contents strewn about in the middle of the street. Fudge.

Sitting in my office an hour later the realization began to set in. How the hell am I going to operate without my bag? I logged on to the Victorinox website looking for repair info and quickly found a service phone number.

Great! I just need my receipt and registration card, right?

That night I turned my apartment upside down… to no avail. I’d since purchased a Victorinox wheeled garment bag, and of course I was able to find that documentation right away. But the documentation for my messenger bag––the bag that I’ve traveled around the world with for 6 years––was nowhere to be found.

So I did what anybody preparing to go toe-to-toe with a customer service department would do––I prepared for battle.

The next morning I called the customer service number. I pressed 5 for repairs and took a deep breath––ready to hold, and readied for battle.

But the line immediately rang. What, no 8-minute hold?

And then a woman answered the phone. A real person! Seriously? One level in on the phone tree and I get a real person with no wait?!? Are you kidding me?!?

Then she asked how she could help.

Hi… uh… my bag broke..
Been a customer for years…
I don’t have a receipt…
But I do have a different receipt…

Thankfully, she cut off my stammering,

CS: Sir, let me give you an address to send the bag to and we’ll fix it if we can, otherwise, we’ll replace it…

Me: I don’t have a receipt or my registration info…

CS: That’s okay, we just need to verify it’s a Victorinox bag and we’ll take care of it…

At that moment I moved from being a loyal Victorinox customer, to being a brand advocate.

I had purchased, and been very happy with, two Victorinox products. After burning through a bag a year until I bought one of their products, I didn’t hesitate to make them my luggage brand of choice.

I was loyal… but it wasn’t really something I talked about to others.

Until that moment of advocacy occurred.

People’s relationships with brands exist on a continuum from awareness to advocacy (in the non-profit world, “support” and advocacy go hand in hand):

Awareness > Comprehension > Participation > Loyalty > Advocacy

You can’t skip a step, and brand-focused communications (while critical) can’t do it all. Successful brands must live their values, too.

A that moment, when the quality of interaction equaled the quality of the product, I was instantly converted into a Victorinox brand advocate.

I had graduated from loyalty.

Brands need to remember that every communication––and every interaction––either contributes to a compelling, valued brand mosaic, or not.

The Victorinox brand is built on the notions of quality, durability, and precision. Lucky for me, those ideas permeate more than their products. They’re ethos the whole company embodies (that was some high-quality, high-precision service after all).

In the end, Victorinox was good to me, and I’m now compelled to return the favor.

Does your brand foster an environment for advocacy?

Have you experienced such a moment yourself?

Storytelling has been with us since our earliest days. And while methods have changed over time, the power of a good story endures.

Why?

As a means of engendering common beliefs; exploring our fears; gathering context from history; celebrating prosperity, beauty and love… well, storytelling just works.

Stories move us, shape our beliefs, and carry our history forward ––and most importantly, they’re easy to share, and they stick.

As referenced by Roger Sametz in his seminal Storytelling through design article for the Design Management Institute, storytelling expert Stephen Denning¹ tells us:

Storytelling is natural and easy and entertaining and energizing. Stories help us to understand complexity. Stories can enhance or change perceptions. Stories are easy to remember…and engage our feelings…Storytelling enables individuals to see themselves in a different light, and accordingly take decisions, and change their behavior in accordance with these new perceptions, insights, and identities.

This is why storytelling is so critical to brand building. After all, thoughtfully planned, well executed, brand-focused communications should ultimately work to influence thinking and behavior––in your favor.

With the proliferation of social media platforms, and the emerging practice of intentional content strategy, it’s apparent the power of a good story is more relevant than ever. The “hows” of delivering stories through myriad communication channels is a post for another day, though.

For now, let’s concentrate on how to collect and refine your brand stories.

Engage and mine

Brand-building is the responsibility of your entire organization. The marketing group might set the strategy (in concert with overarching business goals, of course), but branding is everyone’s job––from volunteers and customer service reps all the way up to the board of directors. And those two polar extremes are often where the best stories can be found.

Engage your board members and volunteers by asking them to tell a story about your organization that exemplifies their reason for being involved.

Engage costumer service representatives and ask them what they’re hearing on the front lines. Chances are they know things you don’t!

Collect story ideas, gather the contact information of everyone involved, follow up, and fill in the details using the template below.

Make it sing

To make a story “sticky”, you need a structure and a hook. And if it’s going to help build your brand, your organization’s role in the story must be explicit.

Here’s a basic template I’ve used with a number of clients to help organizations develop a library of effective, brand-building stories.

Title

• What would you name the story if you were making a movie of it?
• Pull the reader in; think evocative and emotional as well as literal.

Subhead

• Convey progress / transition; the value [your organization] added.
• Speak to interaction between customer and [your organization].

Situation

• Who was benefiting from [your organization] in this story?
• What were they out to achieve? What are they passionate about?
• Contextualize, if appropriate, within their broader life and experience.
• Did they pursue other avenues of help / assistance first?

Enter [your organization]

• Explain [your organization's] entry into this person’s life.
• What role did [your organization] play?
• Which product / program / service came into play?
• Who from [your organization] participated?
• What about [your organization's] role was innovative?
• Any breakthroughs as a result?

Progress and benefits

• Explain the key benefit / value delivered by [your organization].
• Explain the transition / progress experienced by this person.

Results

• How is the person “different” at the end of the story?
• Is the story ongoing?
• What are the expected (future) results and benefits?

For written stories, work in quotes wherever possible. Or adapt this outline into a script, and document your stories via short conversational videos. Do whatever works best, given your established communications strategy.

Most organizations have an untapped wealth of brand stories at their fingertips. A little digging, follow-up, and editing / shaping can go a long way.

Do you know your brand stories? And could you be telling them more effectively?

1. Stephen Denning, The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations (Boston: Butterworth-Heinmemann, 2001), p. xv.

Have you ever thought of your brand that way?

Think about it…

Independent media channels provide a distinct voice, and view the world through a particular lens not shared by others. Independent media channels engender trust and loyalty, giving audiences reasons to connect above and beyond particular programs.

Your brand can––and should––do the same!

You’re a content publisher, after all. Your brand––by way of your website, blog, e-newsletter, Twitter stream, YouTube channel, and Facebook wall––provides a mosaic of content that audiences (ideally!) find engaging, useful, and worth talking about to others.

And out there on the inter-webs, information disseminated solely in support of commerce doesn’t cut it. You have to engage and hold your audience’s attention. In fact, your ability to engage––to spur people to respond in some way and come back for more––is more important to brand-building and your bottom line than most anything you say about your programs, products, or services.

Why? The web has rolled content, commerce, and entertainment into one. Going forward, successful brands––for profit, non-profit, retail and B2B alike––will be those whose audiences view them as an independent media channel… providing a differentiated mosaic of content that engages, entertains, and encourages action.

Is your channel coming in clear? Does your mosaic of content reflect a greater “picture” of your brand people can understand and connect with?

Some tips:

Define your voice

If your brand was an independent media channel, what would you call it? What would its tagline be? While you might not put it out there for the world to see, a concise notion of your identity will help guide your content decisions: who are you… and what are you trying to say?

This is where your content strategy comes in. What are the “story lines” that you can credibly advance about your brand––and that people will tune in to? Where is the content coming from? Who’s in charge? Do you have an editor in chief?

Draft an architecture

Knowing what you want to say, and where, means creating a digital content architecture. What platforms are you going to use? Who are the target audiences for each? What messages make sense, given audience / platform combinations? What is your metric for engagement and response? Answer all these questions, and you’re well on your way to creating an effective structure for your “programming.”

Bring ‘em home

Far flung outposts on YouTube and Facebook are great for meeting people where conversations are starting, but your website needs to be at the core of your digital media strategy. Drive people to the place you can most effectively communicate “one-on-one”, and find out who they are––and how you can help.

Know your stats

How are people responding to your content? What messages hold their attention the longest, and keep them coming back for more? Where do they stick––and where do they “bounce”? By keeping a close eye on your stats and analytics, you can tell where things are working, and where they’re falling flat. And there’s no sense in experimenting if you can’t gauge the success of your experiment.

People want more than the latest information on your new widget. They want to connect with you and with others, and be both informed and entertained. You need to keep their attention, foster deeper connections, and move them to take action. If your channel isn’t doing all those things, you’re not taking full advantage.

So, what’s on?!? You have a voice, use it!

Putting customers first, and brand second, can be somewhat of a tough pill to swallow for marketers.

Sure, most understand the need to build communities around their brands, and to nurture those who cluster around the experiences their brands enable. For many, however, it largely remains lip service. Marketers talk about putting customers first, yet many continue to focus on the more transactional tactics of marketing products, programs, and services to build their brand.

They’re missing out.

Human nature doesn’t drive us to connect with brands. Rather, people desire a sense of connection with other people. (Does anyone really love Facebook? What people do love is the easy means of connection Facebook affords.) Your brand, informed by those communities around it that matter most, is a means to an end—a platform for interaction among like-minded individuals.

It’s not about you, it’s about them.

Armed with new tools, and more timely constituent information than has ever been available before, businesses (nonprofits and for-profits alike) can effectively put people first and build their brands in the process—increasing loyalty, decreasing costs, and bringing important feedback and new ideas to the fore.

A few things to keep in mind:

Putting people first means (drumroll…) putting people first.

Your brand program should be informed by the values and lifestyles of those who interact with your programs, products, and services. Use social media and RSS readers to set up listening posts to hear what people are saying, not just about your brand, but among each other. Interact with customers in-person wherever and whenever possible. Invite a group of high-value constituents over for tea.

If you come to understand the nature of those clustering around your brand, you’ll inevitably come to understand the nature of your brand as a platform for community. Institutionalize that kind of thinking above and beyond the walls of the marketing department and re-organize around it if possible. It’s a more effective, and cheaper, brand-building practice than marketing product “speeds and feeds.”

Your constituents aren’t monolithic, and connections must be reinforced.

Those who cluster around your brand likely share a common, high-level set of values—yet each has their own personal reasons for showing up to the party.

Some may participate for social, emotional, or spiritual reasons. Some may be indulging passions, pursuing particular goals, or exploring new ideas. Determining your constituent segments remains vitally important, but you must do more than pump out perfectly tuned communications.

Your brand program should advance opportunities for people to interact among themselves along those resonant wavelengths, and to help them realize their personal visions—however big or small. Doing so strengthens the community around your brand, in turn building your brand.

Don’t try to control the cluster.

People that cluster around your brand will most certainly talk. In fact, you want them to, and it’s far better if  conversations are within earshot. If people are critical of your brand, wouldn’t you rather hear it firsthand? Rather than seeking to control or edit the dialogue, embrace it and engage in it.

Peoples’ criticism may in fact be spot on (Domino’s anyone?) and your brand community could become a crowd-sourcing tool for improvements and bold, new ideas. Rather than control, seek to steward those who cluster around your brand by providing context and content that maximize engagement.

By putting people first—really putting people first—marketers can truly bring brands to life. More than just putting a “community” button on your website, more than just amassing 4,000 followers on Twitter, building your brand around people means a strategic shift in thinking.

It requires literally decreasing the distance between you and those who matter most, listening, engaging, and not being afraid of what you might find—because it’s likely true, and it might be the spark of a great new idea.

How is your brand putting people first?

To briefly recap, businesses—for-profit and nonprofit alike—typically manage a family of products and programs, and the perceived relationships between those offerings and the “master” brand matters. That’s ultimately how credit and equity accrue in the right places.

With that in mind, snack isle mainstays Mars, Nabisco, Pepperidge Farms, and Entenmann’s provided a clear set of examples to help frame thinking around brand relationships, which exist on a continuum from product-focused to master brand-focused.

So what does this mean in the world of social media?

Social media provides marketers and brand stewards myriad new opportunities to engage those that matter most in meaningful, two-way dialogues. Some say the price you pay for this increased engagement is a loss of control. While you can’t control the conversations, you can work to control the brand context in which they take place.

Social media involves people just as much as programs and products. How you connect to and leverage the power of your people will play a huge role in your success online. And with brand diffusion a continuing threat, managing how your social media outposts are positioned verbally and visually is vital.

Master branding in social media

In master branding (exemplified last time by Entenmann’s), all the energy is put into building the master brand, and programs and products are afforded no unique identity. (As such, you can’t really master brand people!) For organizations looking to extend a single, high-level value proposition across a number of social media outposts, master branding makes a lot of sense.

The New York Times certainly thinks so, as they provide an easy case study in managing brand relationships on Twitter. The master brand profile is, obviously, @nytimes. And in exactly the same way Entenmann’s brands cake and strudel, the New York Times master brands key content offerings including @nytimesscience, @nytimeshealth, @nytimessports, @nytimestravel, and @nytimesstyle via a consistent, plain-speak naming convention and standardized background and profile image designs.

For a master-branded blogging example, look to Accenture. The Accenture Technology Labs Blog, the Accenture Blog for Internal IT, and Accenture’s Green IT Blog are, again, master branded in much the way as Entenmann’s cake and strudel. While Accenture has a number of blogs with a couple of different design approaches, all share a plain-speak naming convention and a master brand-focused design approach. Accenture takes a master branding approach with all its communications, and has clearly committed to it in the social media space as well.

In both examples, while connections are forged within discrete content areas, all the equity flows to the master brand. Depending on your goals, offerings, content strategies, resources, and the opportunities before you, master branding likely makes sense for some portion of your social media communications architecture.

Source branding in social media

Source branding is about promoting two brands at once, connecting on multiple levels, and encouraging cross selling. Of course social media is a place for much more than “brands,” it’s a place for people. And whereas master-branded social media content may indeed lean more towards the company line, source branding is a great way to bring people into the equation and create real dialogue while also building equity in the source (i.e. master) brand.

Looking again at the New York Times, its high-profile personalities on Twitter employ a simple name and bio convention that communicates both the source (New York Times) brand and the elevated personality brand. Thomas Friedman is a brand; his Twitter handle is @NYTimesFriedman, and his bio clearly states where he works. The background design is the same as the earlier examples, but Mr. Friedman’s picture is used in place of the Times’ logo. The same approach is used for other high-profile personalities like Maureen Dowd (@NYTimesDowd), Frank Rich (@NYTimesRich), and more. This type of tight source branding is reminiscent of the Pepperidge Farms examples shown last time.

Of course sometimes communications need a little more autonomy, and source branding can provide much needed flexibility. In the blogging world, successful blogs like General Motors’ Fastlane and Southwest Airlines’ Nuts About Southwest show how a little distance between a blog and its source brand can provide for a more engaging experience. While still clearly connected visually to GM and Southwest, a looser, more casual approach provides breathing room that enables engagement around content well beyond corporate press releases.

Do you have products, programs, personalities, and / or content that has (or could have) equity in and of itself? Are there resources in place to keep it all healthy? If so, source branding in social media is a great way to let aspects of your business flourish—meeting audiences where they are and all the while steering ample credit to the master brand.

Endorsed / product branding in social media

For instances where near-complete autonomy is appropriate, endorsed and/or product branding provides a means for very thin connections to the master brand. Think of the “endorsing” Nabisco triangle on a box of Oreas from last time, or the nearly invisible Mars presence on a Snickers wrapper (or its Twitter feed for that matter!).

While a great market share / penetration strategy in the physical world, smaller organizations should be careful about endorsed / product branding in social media: unless audiences read the fine print, they might not realize who is actually behind the online experience they’re enjoying. That’s just fine for Mars, Proctor & Gamble, and the like, but most of us simply don’t have the resources to support an array of discrete product brands.

That said, if you have a need to maintain a social media outpost that strays significantly from your corporate / institutional voice, or want to subtly market or educate on particular themes, endorsed and product branding make a lot of sense. For instance, Quicken’s What’s the Diff? blog—in name, look, and tone—bears little to no resemblance to master-branded Quicken communications save for the “endorsing” Quicken logo in the upper right. Quicken is using an endorsed branding strategy to engage people in a casual, seemingly non-sales, environment. Of course the Quicken homepage is an easy click away.

Similarly, Adobe maintains a large index of both corporate blogs and largely autonomous employee blogs. By allowing employees to blog in their own voice—and at arm’s length from the master brand—Adobe has developed a corps of enthusiastic ambassadors for its products. And while many of the blogs have a unique look and feel that has little to do with Adobe brand, the sites all link back to Adobe and include at least a mention of the Adobe brand, if not the logo.

Sure, it might take some intestinal fortitude to engage in thinly branded social media communications, and while it might not make sense for core products and services, it could be the perfect strategy for “blinded” promotion. It’s also a great way to endorse your people, and for them to endorse you—leveraging the power of personality on your brand’s behalf. Just be sure to have appropriate guidelines in place ahead of time.

Matter where it matters to be, and get the right credit

Social media is about providing opportunities for connections that matter, thus it’s not a place to try and be all things to all people, all at once. People expect to be able to home in on what they want to connect with, but that shouldn’t come at the expense of your master brand.

By crafting a social media architecture—one that considers content, desired outcomes, and the appropriate mix of brand relationships—organizations and businesses of all stripes can create opportunities for dialogue that resonate and build brand.

The Japanese martial art of Judo is characterized by the principle of using an opponent’s attack against him. When an attacker rushes a Judo practitioner the opponent will quickly pivot so the attacker’s momentum can be used to send him flailing towards the ground. Rather than relying on superior strength, Judo is about redirecting potential attacks, and turning them to your advantage.

For communications professionals managing complex brands, the practice of “Brand Judo” can help turn negative perceptions into positive brand stories—insulating your brand from ongoing or potential attacks, and providing a differentiating leg up on the competition.

One of the all-time greatest examples of Brand Judo may also be one of the first. Advertising aficionados (and fans of AMC’s Mad Men) surely remember the 1960′s Volkswagen Beetle campaign. As competing automakers built bigger and bigger cars for growing post-WWII families, Volkswagen’s Beetle was seen as too small, too ugly, and, well, too German. The legendary campaign played up the small and ugly perceptions with headlines like “Think Small” and “Lemon” that drove home the benefits of driving a small, German (i.e. well-made) car. The folks at Smart surely know their history…

For a more recent example, look at Hulu’s current campaign. We all know television rots ours brains and we should all get out and smell the roses a bit more. Why on earth do we need more ways to watch TV “anytime, for free”? The answer is in fact otherworldly: it turns out Hulu is actually “an evil plot to destroy the world.” They’re all aliens at Hulu, and that’s how they roll. Comical, sure, but a fine example of Brand Judo in action as Hulu turns a perceived negative into a fun brand story.

In branding, whether it’s Listerine making the most of its “burn,” Altoids promoting mints that are “curiously strong,” Volvo turning boxy-looking vehicles into the safest cars on the road, Volkswagen’s lemon, or Hulu’s alien plot, perceived weaknesses are often, in fact, great (differentiating) strengths.

Brand Judo works. Find your inner lemon…and squeeze.

Got any Brand Judo stories of your own??

Most businesses manage a family of offerings, and the perceived relationship between those “sub” brands and the parent or “master” brand matters. From financial firms with multiple fund lineups to non-profit arts organizations in the performing, presenting, education, and retail businesses, a strategy for managing the relationships between parent and product brands—so that credit and equity accrue in the right places—is a must.

It just so happens carbo-companies Mars, Nabisco, Pepperidge Farms, and Entenmann’s provide clear, memorable examples to help frame your thinking around brand relationships, which exist on a continuum from product-focused to master brand-focused,

So grab a glass of milk and dig in!

Product branding

Skittles, Snickers, and Twix are all made by Mars, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the packaging. This is called product branding. Each offering has its own identity and (yes!) value proposition, and the master brand is relegated to small type on the back. (I, for one, have affinity for the Twix value proposition!)

With product branding, all the equity is at the product level, and the success or failure of one offering is insulated from the success or failure of others in the family. Microsoft, for instance, entered the gaming (Xbox), search (Bing), and MP3 player (Zune) markets using a product branded strategy—while not readily apparent, Microsoft is indeed behind all three.

This is a great market share strategy, and as Microsoft has shown, a sound strategy for breaking into new markets. But the downside for many—particularly non-profits—is that unless people read the fine print they don’t know who’s behind the offering.

Endorsed branding

Next, look at Nabisco products like Oreos and Ginger Snaps. Each has its own visual identity, but the ubiquitous Nabisco triangle now provides a consistent endorsing agent. We call this endorsed branding. As above, the relationship is still largely at the product level as it’s unlikely you’d ever go into a supermarket for “Nabisco product cookies.” But the Nabisco imprimatur might persuade you to purchase Oreos over Stop & Shop brand sandwich cookies.

The strategy works for gaming companies like Electronic Arts (EA) as well. As a gamer, your relationship is at the game level, but you may choose one hockey game over another because of value you associate with EA through recommendations and past experience.

Source branding

Now, let’s look at Pepperidge Farm. For the first time there’s a uniform visual/verbal brand system at work, and the source brand (Pepperidge Farm) and the product brand (Milano, for instance) share almost equal billing.

Source branding is a great strategy for cross-selling as one’s affinity is shared across both brands. Whereas you’d never go into a store for “Nabisco product cookies,” you might go into a store for “Pepperidge Farm cookies,” and if they were out of Milanos you’d be fine grabbing Brussels. Similarly, if you’ve had a good experience with an Adobe product, or a particular type of Samuel Adams beer, you’re likely willing to try another in the family. By pairing the source and product brands within a common visual and verbal brand system you have an opportunity to build equity at two levels at once.

Master branding

Finally, let’s look at Entenmann’s, the last stop on the continuum. Here all the energy is put into building the master brand as the products are afforded no unique identity and are instead given generic names like strudel, cake, and danish. Google officially switched to this kind of master branding strategy for many of its core products back in May.

For organizations looking to extend a single value proposition across a number of like products, master branding makes a lot of sense. And for small to mid-sized businesses and non-profits, master branding is a great way to make the most of limited resources as you’re only managing one brand instead of several. And should you introduce a new product, for example, you don’t need to have 17 meetings and hire a consultant to figure out how it should be presented visually.

Analyze and migrate!

Food coma? Well, before you nod off, think about your goals, opportunities, and resources, and how your family of brands is positioned. Is your master brand earning appropriate credit? Do you have offerings positioned at the product end of the spectrum that should be migrated towards master branding? Do you have products—with resources behind them—that might benefit in the marketplace from a bit more autonomy?

And, because there’s no one-size-fits-all solution and organizations must often employ a mix a strategies, do you have a visual and verbal brand system in place that’s robust and flexible enough to support it all?

In this age of social media, having the right strategies in place can help you keep your online outposts appropriately tethered, too—and make the most of your resources. We’ll pick that up next time.

Until then, happy holidays!