Geoff Rosenbaum of the Principle Group on Branding

Time for part two from a series of posts from Geoff Rosenbaum. Geoff is the Executive Vice President of Principle Group, an international branding company headquartered in the United Kingdom that recently opened a new U.S. office in Tennessee. You can follow the link to read Part 1 of Geoff’s branding series.

rosenbaum-geoff-small Implementing a global brand can be a big, complex and terrifying endeavor. It’s not uncommon to be faced with hundreds of sites in several countries, all needing to be finished yesterday. You probably don’t speak the language in all these regions, and it’s doubtful you have brand champions established in every office in your worldwide organization.

But it’s your job to turn concepts into practical reality. As an example, take large-scale branding endeavors such as site signage and interiors. What must you do to ensure material quality and design are consistent, installed according to your standards, and quality-checked to assure your superiors the project has been correctly managed across all locations?

As promised in our last post, we’ll spend the next few weeks reviewing the five rules of brand implementation as developed by Principle Group through multiple, successful global programs. Rule number one is to Plan It Like a Military Campaign. principle_group_logo_small

Even if you’re starting off with nothing more than a set of brand guidelines and a list of properties, it’s critical to ensure you address these four steps. Ignore one and you’re inviting failure. And in global brand implementation, under a deadline with the world (and your boss) watching, failure is not an option.

Step One – Understanding Your Targets
You’ll need a site audit for each location to identify existing branding, and discover opportunities for new branding. You’ll need photos, measurements, feedback from local code authorities – all the information you can gather to understand the site. Only when you’ve thoroughly and accurately collected this data will you be able to assess your true options for each location. Which leads us to:

Step Two – Planning Your Attack
Make sure you have established brand guidelines for various situations, that your signs and interiors are design engineered, and that the materials you’ve chosen are readily available in every location. Using the information from your site audits, you’ll be able to establish site-specific brand schemes and secure the appropriate landlord and permitting approvals.

Step Three – Marshaling Your Resources
The key resources in any large-scale brand implementation program are money (budget) and strong project management. Budget may seem an obvious point, but your choice of materials and their regional availability can become serious constraints if not properly investigated up front. Don’t let that surprise cripple your campaign after it starts.

Ensuring a top project management team is quite possibly the most important step in the process – these are your ground troops and it is essential they are well-trained. They must understand your brand guidelines, your goals, and the timelines within which you must accomplish your goals. Without this understanding, they will have no chance to appropriately enact your plans.

Step Four – Establishing Logistical Support
Finding quality resources globally, for production and installation, can be a difficult process, but it is possible and has been done before by others.

The trick is not trying to reinvent the wheel. Choosing the right partner to help you identify these resources, ideally a partner who can also help guide you through steps one through three, is key.

Establishing that relationship and an international sourcing strategy are fundamental steps that will enable you to prepare for rule number two – Do It Now, Do It Everywhere – which we will address in our next post.

Thank you for reading! If you have any questions at all regarding these posts, please feel free to email us at geoff.rosenbaum@principle-group.us.com.

Susan Gunelius

Susan Gunelius is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc. and Founder & Editor in Chief of an award-winning blog, WomenOnBusiness.com. She is a 25-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored 10 books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing.