3. Myth #1: You own
your brand
Caroline Scotter Mainprize 2014
4. You don’t own your brand because…
• A brand is a vague collection of feelings, perceptions,
assumptions, and beliefs
• It exists in the head of the consumer
• You can control how you present the brand, but you
cannot control what other people think and feel about it,
nor what they say about it
• Your brand is what people say about you when they don’t
have your marketing materials to hand
Caroline Scotter Mainprize 2014
6. What can you do?
• Be authentic and sincere
• Work from the inside out ‒ you and your employees must
be the true believers
• What is your purpose? What are you really about?
• What are your values?
Caroline Scotter Mainprize 2014
8. Integrity is a bad brand value because…
• Integrity is a concept of consistency of actions and values
• To be fair, I did say it was part of what you need to do as
part of positioning
• But to have a value that says you act according to your
values is a bit of a waste
• If you’re really trying to say you’re ethical, that too is a
waste
Caroline Scotter Mainprize 2014
9. A business with integrity: The Mob
Caroline Scotter Mainprize 2014
10. What can you do?
• Develop and publish a code of business conduct
• Think hard about what you stand for and what you do
• Be prepared to use a lot of words
– What are you trying to achieve and how?
– What beliefs do you hold about your customers, your
competitors, and your company?
• Translate these into specific promises
• How are you going to keep those promises?
Caroline Scotter Mainprize 2014
11. Myth #3: Your logo
should convey all
your brand values
Caroline Scotter Mainprize 2014
12. It just can’t, because …
• A logo is just a visual shortcut
• No one looks at it in great detail
• It needs to be simple and bold, and to be able to be
reproduced at different sizes, in different places, in black
and white and in colour
Caroline Scotter Mainprize 2014
13. What the London Olympics logo meant,
apparently
“It is unconventionally bold, deliberately spirited and unexpectedly dissonant, echoing London’s qualities
of a modern, edgy city. Containing neither sporting images nor pictures of London landmarks, the emblem
shows that the Games are more than London, more than sport. The Games are for everyone, regardless of
age, culture and language.” Wolff Olins
Caroline Scotter Mainprize 2014
14. What you can do
• Think carefully about the uses of the logo: do you have to
put it on products/packaging or just on your website and
stationery?
• Think about how it relates to other design elements you
use
• Think of just one word you want it to convey
• Where does it sit on the spectrum:
Traditional Classic Contemporary
Caroline Scotter Mainprize 2014
15. Myth #4: A brand
‘voice’ is sounding
like Innocent
Caroline Scotter Mainprize 2014
16. Don’t try to sound like Innocent because …
• You need to be authentic
• You need to be distinctive ‒ even if you have the same
culture, values, and personality as Innocent, surely you
don’t want to be mistaken for them?
• You’re speaking to real people and you need to sound like
a real person
Caroline Scotter Mainprize 2014
17. The dangers of not being authentic
How sports brands speak:
“Just do it.”
“You never regret a run.”
“Impossible is nothing”
Caroline Scotter Mainprize 2014
18. Caroline Scotter Mainprize 2014
How real people speak about sports:
“Swimming officially sucks. First I bugger up my shoulder
for 6 months and then I get the mother of all ear
infections and have to get a load of fungus sucked out
with a vacuum cleaner. Yuck/ouch. Screw this for a lark.
I’m going back to running.”
19. What can you do?
• Go back (again) to who you are, what your purpose is,
what you believe, and what your values are
• How does a person like that speak?
• How do your customers expect/want you to speak to
them?
• Don’t just come up with a group of adjectives ‒ practise
writing and talking, discuss with your staff and colleagues,
develop your voice together
Caroline Scotter Mainprize 2014
20. Myth #5: You have
to advertise to
create a brand
Caroline Scotter Mainprize 2014
22. What can you do?
• Know yourself (I’m getting boring now)
• Understand your customers ‒ what do they want? What
do they really value about you?
• Think about marketing as a perpetual conversation with
your customers
• Grow one customer at a time
• Keep your promises. Be consistent.
Caroline Scotter Mainprize 2014
23. Questions for you to ponder
• If you had to start another, totally different, business
tomorrow, what would you continue to do exactly the
same?
• If your customers never read your marketing
materials/website, how would they describe you based on
your behaviour?
Caroline Scotter Mainprize 2014
