A 2.5 hour workshop given in Spring 2014 to the social enterprise startups & their leader entrepreneurs funded by the United Way Ground Floor program in Dallas. The workshop helped them to demystify marketing science and measurably impact their brand messaging.

1. Brand Identity and
Messaging Workshop
Feb 18, 2015
United Way Ground Floor Program

2. Introduction
 About Me & My Journey –
Brand & Communications is
A Key Thread
 Journalism – Newsline
 Communications & PR –
Quaker Oats & Pepsi Cola
 Brand Management - PepsiCo
 Startup CEO - ALUMRISE
 CMO - MBO Partners
 Full Circle: Startup CEO
@Guidrr
Twitter: @aassiaharoonhaq
LI:
www.linkedin.com/aassiaha
q

3. Our Objective
 A Simple Objective
 Build Your Brand
 Explore Brand Identity via Positioning
 Understand Framework For Brand Messaging
 A Bigger Objective
 Demystify the steps
 Discuss the ideal and practical process
 Marketing Hacks:
 Where to spend your time and where not to

4. Potato, Potaato, Tomato, Tomaato!
Brand
Identity
Brand
Messaging=

5. Brand Identity - One Leg
 Who’s Creative?
 Who’s Scientific?
 Who’s Able to Be Both?
Brand
Positioning
Messaging

6. Brand Positioning
For (target audience), (brand
name) is the (frame of reference)
that delivers (benefit/point of
difference) because only (brand
name) is (reason to believe).

7. Understanding Target
Audience
 For Vitamin Water, health conscious women, not
people who like to drink water
 For Tiffany, luxury seeking consumers, not jewelry
buyers
 For __________, YOUR BRANDS
Tip: Narrow -
not broaden –
your target
audience

8. Frame of Reference: Tricky &
Necessary
 To health conscious women, Vitamin Water is the on-
the-go beverage
 To luxury seeking consumers, Tiffany is the luxury
accessories brand ..
Tip: Frame of
Reference is What
You Are Not What
You Want To Be

9. Benefit/Point of Difference
 To health conscious women, Vitamin Water is the on-
the-go beverage that naturally refreshes without
calories
 To luxury seeking consumers, Tiffany is the accessories
brand that are designed to signal luxury
Tip: Benefit/POD
takes time to
develop + must be
proveable!

10. Reason to Believe (Proof)
 To health conscious women, Vitamin Water is the on-
the-go beverage that naturally refreshes without
calories because only Vitamin Water combines zero
calories, a naturally squeezed fruit flavors and no
artificial sweeteners.
 To luxury seeking consumers, Tiffany is the accessories
brand that designed to signal luxury because only
Tiffany’s iconic crafted creations make it possible
to look luxurious
everyday.
Tip: RTB is how
you deliver the
benefit – proof!

11. Position Before Brand Identity ..
 Once you have a positioning, you can think about how to
embody that in an identity
 Think of it like a persona, a tribe among which your customer or
consumer moves
 What does your brand stand for?
 Don’t make this up – keep in mind target audience, and your
claims about benefits and differentiation
 Remember: A Brand positioning statement is NOT brand
messaging – it’s internal, something you protect and guard
and use as a gauge
 Unilever and the Brand Key
 Team Alignment Tool
 Religion

12. Brand Identity/Personality
 Birds of a feather flock together, Identify Your Flock
 1st Marketing
Hack!

13. Let’s Play With Identity
Volunteers?

14. Checklist
 Test of Pithy
 Test of Visual – not just words
 Test of Real – A real person, a real “type”
 Test of Voice – Can you imagine how you could deliver this?
Whose voice (hint: may not be yours)?
 Test – Brands Like Me: Who Else speaks your voice, looks
and acts like you need to? They may provide clues for your
brand (but don’t copy!)
NOW - You’re finally ready to build brand messaging …

15. Messaging – The Other Leg
 Who’s Analytical & Data Driven?
 Who’s Experimental & Creative?
 Who’s Able to Be Both?
Identity Messaging

16. Messaging Love – Key Step
 “More than words”
 Look for and bring together pictures, colors, sounds and other
signals that speak to your flock
 Circle key words that they use – not words you use
 “Then you wouldn’t have to say that you love me ..”
 In building messaging, speak only to them – as opposed to
speaking to the whole world
 “Because I’d already know”
 Even on your Website, narrow down your home page and key
pages to speak to your target, using their words, their voice,
their sounds and their preferred terms – it’s as if by speaking to
them, you are also speaking FOR them

17. Messaging Hack 1: Relearn Your Brand
 Go out and talk to five customers about your brand.
 Do not sell them, or try to persuade them
 Simply listen
 Please take their photos,
 Please ask permission to use what they say (good, bad,
ugly).
 Write down what you have learned about your brand
 Use this to develop a visual story about your flock –
your birds of a feather. Can you bring them to life for a
marketing partner?

18. Part 2: Go Test It
 Don’t change your Web site, start a project or build
a big budget campaign
 Do a simple landing page test and make sure your brand
is speaking to your audience
 Send it to those 5 people by the way!
 Write down what you have learned
 Choose the words or images that seemd to resonate
 Don’t judge them, seek to understand them

19. Messaging Hack 2: Think Again
 The Person You are Speaking To May Not the
Person You Seek to Serve:
 Who are you selling to?
 Target audience is not necessarily the end-user of your
product e.g. a software for schools should be sold to school
purchaser, and not to parent
 Trick question: Who does Pepsi sell to?
 So -- How does this insight change your marketing
messaging?
 Does it make it easier or harder?

20. Messaging Hack 3: Dispel 3
Marketing Myths
 Myth 1: Marketing is for “creative” people
 Brand marketing is a science that uses data, reasoning, intuition –
and creativity but creativity is not about colors, fonts, designs – it’s
about insights and decisions
 Myth 2: Marketing is about design and graphics
 Assure that if you work with someone on marketing, they are
trained to work with the process, not just share ides about design,
color, advertising & fonts! Those decisions come after the main
marketing decisions are made – and shojuld be overseen by
someone who speaks for the brand
 Myth 3: Marketing is something anyone can do
 You gave birth to a child, raised it, send it to school. So who cares
what happens to the child later? Think about your brand like your
child. Make sure you brand has caretakers – who listen &
understand your brand – not tell you what to do. Who’s your
internal brand shephard? Do you trust them? Do they like your
customer? Do YOU like your customer?

21. Final Hack: Marketing In Digital Age
 Old way: Ideate, gather, build, refine, launch
 New way: Ideate, build, launch, gather, refine, relaunch
You have
permission to
change message –
but not to change
core brand
positioning or
identity

22. Thank you!
Homework:
1. Build a positioning with your team
2. Develop identity
3. Try a test messaging campaign
Good luck!