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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Step 1 : Establish the vision and roadmap

Step 2 : Communications audit and planning

Step 3 : Creative strategy development

Step 4 : Detailed design development

Step 5 : Launch

Step 6 : Roll-out

eTranslate International Creative Marketing and Communications