 Your
brand is arguably one of your most important assets.
With the proliferation of brands that bombard us on
a daily basis you need to make sure that your brand
gets you noticed - and for the right reasons!eTranslate
is a member of DBA and has developed a six-step approach
to the development of your international brand identity.
 Six
steps toward a competitive identity…
Before commencing on the re-branding project eTranslate
Marketing and Communicationsrecommends that some time
is allocated to establishing the working team –
both internallywithin your company and with the extended
eTranslate Team.It is also important to establish a
wide sphere of influence from the outset, in order to
ensurecross company ‘buy-in’ to the project
and its outputs.Although this may seem elementary it
is often the case that many re-branding projects failthrough
a lack of involvement of key staff. eTranslate recommends
the team should embrace allthe operational and management
elements of the your internal infrastructure.eTranslate
also recommends at this stage that a group of ‘soft’
clients and influencers is identifiedthat you can use
to test ideas and concepts. It will provide a valuable
sounding board thatcan be used to refine and tune the
solution to ensure a positive response in the marketplace.
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Step
1 : Establish the vision and roadmap
Right from the outset eTranslate would like to ‘take
the brakes off’ and fully explore the widevision
that you have outlined in your brief.At this point we
are not simply looking for unique selling propositions.
To be successful webelieve we need to establish unique
brand behaviour differentiators (UBBs) that powerfully
communicate the tangible advantage that you bring to
your customers.
eTranslate believes that by taking these core features
and turning them into realistic easy tounderstand brand
behaviours is central to the success of the project.Further,
at this stage it will be important to explore the impact
of the competition.eTranslate recommends that as well
as understanding who the competitors are we need tounderstand
what mistakes they are making in the market-place –
and most importantly, howwe can turn those mistakes
into an advantage for your brand.
This initial process is conducted through a series
of facilitated meetings and researchinterviews supported
by thorough desk bound market-facing research that scopes
and scalesthe potential for repositioning the brand
into the various marketplaces identified.The process
will end by fine tuning the ideas through a reality
check filter, then capturing theconclusions into a thorough
branding scoping and briefing document.The ideas and
targets implied within this process are then applied
to the business targets forthe company and a roadmap
for the re-branding project is completed.
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Step
two : Communications audit and planning
Once the scope and scale of the task is defined and
the core values of the brand position isunderstood,
eTranslate recommends that an audit of current communication
and productdeliverables is undertaken in order to understand
how fundamental a change is requiredfrom what is already
delivered to the various audiences.The communications
audit takes place at several levels:
• Consistency of message
• Consistency of visual delivery
• Relevance of message to the new value set
• Strategic importance of the type of communication
• Competitive advantage of the communication
• Relevance of the communication to the audience
The result of the process will be a refined list of
deliverables for each audience and productranked in
order of priority and also showing what information
each item should deliver tothe process of sales delivery
and ongoing customer relationships.At this stage we
would not restrict the audit to marketing and sales
collateral. We would alsorecommend we investigate product
packaging, the product itself and of-course all ‘virtual’media
such as the Web Site, Intranet, e-mail material and
PDFs.This list will then be prioritised and a plan will
be completed showing what deliverables arerequired by
when.
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Step
three : Creative strategy development
The broad vision and values outlined in the brief are
taken and turned into creative conceptideas that form
the basis of the new value proposition.These concepts
will be applied to:
• Names and naming conventions
• Competitive Message tables
• Colour Pallets
• Icons and symbols
• Themes
All creative strategies will be investigated thoroughly
before presentation to ensure that theyhold a unique
and relevant position within the marketplace.Once you
have selected your preferred route, eTranslate also
recommends that some externaltesting is done with the
soft client group and some friendly influencers in order
to gaugewhat type of response the market will make to
the creative strategy recommended.
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Step
four: Detailed design development
At the heart of this process eTranslate recommends
the development of a set of corporateguidelines. These
can be provided in HTML format for inclusion on your
Intranet and also ashard copy for the marketing and
sales teams to refer to.eTranslate also recommends that
the first-wave of Communications deliverables is producedalongside
the production of the Corporate Guidelines. This is
for two reasons. Primarily,pragmatism, you will want
to get this new imagery out to market as soon as possible
andsecondly, by testing some of the theories and ideas
in practical application eTranslate will beable to refine
the guidelines to ensure that they are usable and logical.
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Step
five : Launch
Clearly the introduction of this new position and image
will need to be carefully managed.eTranslate often recommends
a three-staged launch starting with an internal launch
to staff members.The internal launch can take place
significantly in advance of an external vertical marketlaunch.
The advantage of this is that it gives the staff time
to consider the new messages andget used to using them
before having to apply them practically in the marketplace.
As with all change we would anticipate that the staff
will have questions and concerns overthe new positional
messages and a month’s grace between the internal
launch and marketlaunch should give ample opportunity
for any concerns and objections to be ironed outthereby
making the process of external communication easier.The
second phase of the launch will be to influencers such
as existing clients, the media anda mix of financial
and hi-tech analysts. Again this will run slightly ahead
of the generalmarket launch and will give an opportunity
to practice the messaging and refine its use priorto
its wider scrutiny.
The final phase of the launch should be to the specified
vertical markets in order of priority –by this
time your staff will be well versed in disseminating
the messages and will be able toput them across in the
most advantageous and competitive way to excite prospects.The
exact format of the launches undertaken will need to
be worked out in more detail oncethe brief is fully
understood, however we would expect to employ a mix
of events, pressconferences, one-to-one meetings, direct
mail and advertising in key publications.
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Step
six : Roll-out
Once launched it will be important to maintain the
momentum created by the developmentof the new identity
through an ongoing communications campaign.Again at
this stage it is difficult to predict exactly what this
will comprise but we wouldrecommend that the full marketing
mix be explored including traditional and new media.Through
its links with Chime Communications eTranslate Marketing
and Communications canmanage a comprehensive campaign
covering
• PR (ongoing)
• Analyst relations
• Political lobbying
• Market awareness advertising both traditional
and new media
• Lead generation both traditional and new
• Details of our capabilities are contained within
the about eTranslate section of this document.
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eTranslate
International Creative Marketing and Communications
eTranslate Creative Marketing and Communications is
a marketing and design consultancy ableto help and support
the marketing needs of 21st Century business. Our team
of professionalconsultants has a wealth of experience
in planning and delivering powerful, successfulcampaigns
that achieve results time after time.The role of marketing
within an organisation is changing. eTranslate recognises
that change andcontinues to remain at the forefront
by embracing technical and professional innovationsand
pragmatically applying that knowledge to the solutions
we create.We provide a reliable, cost effective, creative
and professional marketing communicationsservice, focussed
on meeting your company’s specific promotional
aims and objectives.We operate flexibly on both a strategic
and tactical level depending upon your requirements.Our
services include
• Strategic marketing consultancy and project
management
• Web based marketing consultancy
• Corporate and brand identity
• Brand development
• Direct Mail
• Web Sites
• Intranet and extranet sites
• Telemarketing Company Brochures, product information
and sales literature
• Magazines and news letters (both electronic
and for print)
• Case Studies and white papers
• Advertising
• Multimedia presentations
• Exhibition and stand design
• Questionnaires, customer satisfaction and readership
surveys
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International
Branding 
