Eugenia Levenson at CNN Money has written a wonderful article about Nike’s efforts to reposition itself as both an environmentally and socially responsible company. In 1998 founder and CEO Phil Knight acknowledged that “Nike product has become synonymous with slave wages, forced overtime, and arbitrary abuse.”

After years of being known as a sweatshop-running giant, Nike appears to have made a conscious effort to reevaluate the impact of its design on the world around them. The formation of what is known as “Nike’s Considered Team” is a good indication of such a change.

From the article:

“A prime example is Nike’s Considered team, an in-house sustainability think tank that is tackling issues like waste reduction by harnessing the company’s creative engine, the designers. They are the ones who make hundreds of choices about how shoes are made, so Nike created a tool that quantified the environmental costs of those decisions: the Considered Index..”

Now it seems that designers are able to plug in the specs of a shoe design and the system will give them instant feedback on how their design scores from an environmental point-of-view.

From the article:

““What designers do really well is solve problems,” says Lorrie Vogel, a designer who is the Considered team’s general manager. “We just make it really easy for them to understand what those are.””

Brilliant.

Take our brand evaluation quiz to determine the strength of your brand.

PART ONE: Do Your Homework

There is nothing appealing about homework. Since childhood when homework became a daily requirement, we tried to avoid it or get it over with as quickly as possible so we could get on to more exciting things. In today’s business world this trait of human nature continues to play a part.

Often in the mad dash to find the solution to a nagging problem, we end up with a quick fix that only delays the inevitable due diligence that’s required to advance. Building a sustainable brand is no different. We have to do our homework in order to get it right.

Let’s apply this thinking to the brands we experience daily. Some brands seem to reinvent themselves every year or so, constantly striving to be at the forefront of the “next big thing.” While others seem to have not aged a day and are just as relevant as the first time they came into our lives. Why is that?

For some lifestyle brands, continual reinvention is part of the brand DNA. “Trendy”, “fashionable” or similar guiding principles are a core part of their brand values. Beverage and clothing brands are good examples of this approach. These brands are appealing to a target audience that is evolving themselves, so the strategy while unconventional, is expected and it can be successful. With the exception of this example, an approach like this is risky and can leave consumers unsure of your brand’s identity.

So how do you get out of this cycle, or better yet, avoid getting into it in the first place? You have to be willing to take a deeper look at your business and how your brand supports it. In short, you have to do your homework.

Countless clients have come to us asking us to redesign their brand or their packaging or change some other primary brand component in the hope that this time they’ll get it right. I’ve listened to many prospective clients tell me some variation of, “My last agency did not get us (or our products, or customers).” Or my favorite, “Our customer’s tastes have changed.” Really? Trust me, unless you’re willing to do the homework it takes to fully understand the issues your brand is facing, the results won’t be any different.

To build a successful and sustainable brand, your homework starts by defining some basics about your business.

What do you do?

Who is your audience?

Why is it compelling to them?

We’ve met many business owners over the years and when asked these questions the majority responds, “I don’t know.” The sad truth is if you don’t know why you are in business, no amount of investment in branding can sustain you over the long term.

Not understanding your brand is why homework is such an important part of the equation. By answering the next few questions you will be on the way to correctly positioning your brand. You will gain a better understanding of your audience, what’s really important to them and how to interact with them. And finally, you will have the beginnings of a strategy that can help you grow and sustain your brand over the long term. So let’s get started.

1. What is your business?
By knowing what you do, you also know what you don’t do. Defining a clear focus will position you to appeal to more people. It may seem counterintuitive that a narrower focus would broaden your audience, but no one trusts the restaurant that serves Italian, Mexican, and Chinese cuisine. We all know you can’t be that good at everything.

Knowing exactly what you want to focus on today will give you the clarity you need when considering change or expansion in the future. Has the category shifted? Do you see a new unmet customer need? And speaking of your customer, when you define what business you are in you also reinforce the reasons why customers buy from you in the first place.

2. Who is your audience?
Being very clear and focused about your audience is also critical to your business. The narrower your focus, the easier it is to have a meaningful conversation with them. And, I do mean a conversation. If you are delivering a monologue to your customers you are way behind the times.

Understanding your customer is crucial and this means going deeper than conventional targeting (age, income, education level). The demographics of your target audience may be women 30-40 years of age living and working in a metropolitan area. And yet the experiences and needs of a 32-year-old single woman who rides the subway to work are very different than a married 36-year-old mother of two who drives to work.

Take the time to learn about their daily lives, what motivates them, and what situations they face. Do they listen to popular music? What kind of music – country or rock? How do they listen – at home or on the go? What do they read and why? What is their favorite part of the magazine – the articles or the horoscope? Find the commonalities and you will find your true target audience.

3. Why are you compelling?
It should be clear to you and easy to explain why you are compelling to your customer. How exactly is your product different from the competition? It is different isn’t it? You can’t just have more of the same. To stand apart in a saturated market you need to solve a problem and fit the consumer’s lifestyle. Does your product give them a compelling new experience, a different choice or is it lost in the crowd? By carefully considering your audience and what aspect of their lifestyle your brand enhances, you can position yourself as the only solution. Now, that’s compelling.

So, are you done with your homework? Not quite. You’ve completed the business strategy chapter. If you do nothing else, this exercise alone provides some clear context and direction for your business activities. The next step is to examine your brand strategy. The clarity of your brand platform is directly related to how successful your brand communications are in creating the desired perception in your audience’s mind. In my next newsletter, I’ll cover five questions to define your brand. Until then continue to apply the lessons learned in this part of your homework.

PART TWO: Align Your Brand Strategy with Your Business Strategy

Think about your favorite food. How does it look, smell and taste? What attracts you to it? Recalling those sensory feelings is probably rather easy to do. We know from human psychology that the senses drive our first impressions about people, places and objects. Our senses also trigger our memories and automatically, unconsciously and without effort recreate those experiences in our mind.

Likewise, a strong brand, properly and consistently executed – the brand experience – activates the senses and creates positive responses from your audiences. In order to design the right brand experience, you first need to start with the right brand strategy or as we call it, the brand platform.

In Part One, I discussed business strategy and provided specific homework exercises for establishing a clear context and direction for your business activities. Your homework addressed three critical business questions: What do you do? Who is your audience? Why is it compelling to them? Your answers are the foundation for building a sustainable brand. The stronger your foundation, the more sustainable your brand.

With your business strategy in place, your next assignment is to translate it into a brand platform. And why is that important? Simply, your audiences experience your brand, not your business. By starting with a solid brand platform that describes what the brand stands for, its personality and key points of differentiation, you define the brand experience for your audiences. When that definition is consistently executed in your brand communications, whether written, verbal or visual, these brand experiences will form a perception of your brand with your audiences. Over time that perception becomes your reputation, and finally your promise. What promise are you making to your audiences?

It’s now time to pick up your pencils and answer the following brand strategy questions:

1. What are your brand values?

2. What is your desired brand personality?

3. How is your brand positioned?

1. What are your brand values?
Brand values drive behavior and decision-making, and ideally are shared with your audiences. However, your values are not defined by your audiences. They are defined by what you truly believe in. Remember, you have to live and communicate them everyday. Your brand values can be as fun or serious as you want them to be; more important is that they must be authentic.

Every business decision related to your brand should align with its values. Think about yourself and your own life. Consider how your values influence your decisions, where you live, your food choices, even what light bulbs you use. Now back to your brand. Is your brand expressing the values you want attached to it? Do these values cultivate the brand experience you want established? It has been our experience that brands that have clearly defined values and consistently communicate them have a greater chance of forming meaningful connections with their audiences.

For example, most consumers when considering outerwear may at first just be interested in style and functionality. But Patagonia brings to the conversation something different and it resonates with their customers. Patagonia’s mission statement to “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis” clearly reflects their values and becomes a point of preference and pride for their customers.

2. What is your desired brand personality?
Brand personality is about attributing words that describe human emotions and characteristics to a brand to achieve relevance. Is your brand warm, imaginative, fun and quirky? Or is it serious, cosmopolitan, refined and educated? A distinctive brand personality consistently executed will easily differentiate your brand from another and engender brand loyalty. Consider the brands you associate with and are loyal to. What are the words that come to mind as you describe your relationship with these brands? You’ll find the words you use are brand personality traits.

Just as important as having a brand personality is consistently applying it in every audience touchpoint. Does your customer get the same personality and emotive cues from your package as your Web site? Consider Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream. Their brand personality is expressed very clearly and consistently in their brand communications and products. Their customers feel connected to the playful, nonconformist, passionate and likeable traits of the brand. And customers are willing to pay quite a bit more to be connected to that fun, yet uncompromising personality. Who else besides Ben and Jerry’s could call a flavor “Cherry Garcia”?

3. How is your brand positioned?
Positioning is the distinctive orientation that a brand adopts in its competitive environment to ensure that individuals can tell the brand apart from others. When many companies are saying the same thing, what can you do and say that is legitimate and meaningfully sets you apart?

If you’ve done your homework on business strategy, you already know why you’re compelling to your audiences. Your brand position is about clearly communicating this competitive advantage to your core target audience. If you are positioned properly in your audience’s mind there should be no other alternative to your brand.

Take for example Seventh Generation, the makers of safe, environmentally responsible household and personal care products. Seventh Generation gets its name from the Great Law of the Iroquois that states, “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.” In support of this values statement, Seventh Generation differentiates themselves from competitors in their category through a position of sincere environmental advocate and educator. This position is delivered upon through their brand communications and the products they sell.

Have you clearly expressed how you lead in your category? When you stand for something larger than what you sell and communicate it effectively, you move beyond mere commodity.

Pencils down. How are you doing? By answering the three questions of values, personality and position you are well on your way towards building the right brand experience for your audience. You are also ready for the final part of your homework. These last two questions are for measuring the success of your brand.

Does your brand strategy express your business strategy?

Does your customer experience the brand as you intended?

The first question is an inward perspective on your business, what you do, who you do it for and how you’re compelling. Your brand strategy should clearly align with your business strategy. If you understand your business, creating your brand, its values, personality and position comes natural.

The second question is an outward perspective on your brand. Experience your brand from the viewpoint of your audiences. How is your brand engaging the senses? Are the brand elements and communications creating one cohesive experience that effortlessly reinforces your brand in their mind? If your intent and your execution don’t align, review your homework again to identify the misstep. It’s often in plain sight.

So who’s going to grade your homework? Your customers, of course. After all, they are the final litmus test of the true success of your brand.

– Will Burke, CEO and Creative Director

How Is Your Brand? Take our brand evaluation quiz to determine the strength of your brand.

Are you on the list? Just released is BusinessWeek’s 100 Best Global Brands. Coca-Cola leads the list for the second year in a row. To read the complete story and view the list click here. I applaud BusinessWeek for continuing to build awareness of the important of investing in your brand – especially in today’s economic climate. And by using a methodology for evaluating brand value that is consistent with how other corporate assests are valued, gives transparency to the true economic worth of a brand.

The question I leave you with is, what are you doing to grow your brand’s value?

BusinessWeek recently announced their picks for the best global design of ’08 in the 2008 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEAs). The awards focused on 17 categories and included submissions that ranged from world-renowned agencies to student designers all over the world.

Two themes were recurrent throughout the winning concepts: social responsibility and a focus on minimalism and simplicity. Some very cool, innovative ideas from around the globe….click here to view the winning designs.

Another great article in Metropolis Magazine reminding us that “jones-ing” has no age limit and design is not just a pretty face. Philip Nobel writes about his mid-life reintroduction to skateboards. Beyond a vehicle to capture the joy of his teen years, Nobel sheds light on the design revolution that has taken skateboards from fashion and sports into “…the most efficient, elegant form of urban transportation…” You decide.

I stumbled upon this link while looking for new clothes from our resident wiener dog, Alfie. From their jackets and beds made from recycled plastics, to the recycled neck-tie collars and leashes, it is nice to see someone doing things the right way… in style!

Visit Annie’s Sweatshop for more details.

It is almost Earth Day and I’m thinking about cars. But the Fisker Karma is no ordinary car. Designed by Henrik Fisker, the Danish-born automotive designer who penned the BMW Z8 and Aston Martin V8 Vantage, the Karma is the next generation of performance and green – 0-60 in under 6 seconds, top speed of over 125 mph, 50 miles on a full charge, and range of 600 miles – in a 4-place plug-in hybrid luxury sports sedan (greenlux?). The Karma has been written up in several automotive magazines since it’s introduction earlier this year at the Detriot Auto Show. However, the Robb Report Collection has recently written an article in the April 2008 issue (not online yet, will link when it becomes available) that captures why this particular car will resonate with the next generation of greenlux consumers. More important to me, my wife, who wants a hybrid as her next car, loves this car. And she’s never said that about any car.

The conversation has changed, it not about paper or plastic when shopping anymore. Now stores are rewarding customers if they BYOB (bring your own bag) with 5-10 cents off per bag they bring in and use. Whole Foods has gone even further and gives customers the choice to save 5 cents on their bill or donate the savings to one of three charities. Smart and another example of how Whole Foods “lives” their brand values.

I’ve become a strong support of the BYOB movement and carry 2 IKEA beach bags in my car to use whenever and wherever I am shopping. In most stores, I don’t get a second look. However, I do stand out when I am at Neiman’s and that’s fierce!

In the 3 months since I made the switch to BYOB, I calculated a savings of over 100 paper or plastic bags. Now if we can get a few million more of us to BYOB we can make a big impact on the environment.

Here are some interesting facts from 1 Bag at a Time : 14 plastic bags contain enough petroleum to drive a car one mile; 380 billion plastic bags or wraps are thrown away in America each year; making a paper bag emits 70% more global warming gases than making a plastic bag; 0 paper bags biodegrade in landfills due to a lack of oxygen; cities spend up to 17 cents per bag in disposal costs, wasting millions of tax dollars.

Are you ready to join me?

A nice article in the NY Times about NXT shaving products, which use an LED to literally light up their product on shelf.

From the article:
“It’s impossible for a new brand to spend like a Unilever or a Procter & Gamble,” on promotions, said Mr. Leventhal, whose privately held company, Clio Designs, has manufactured a line of women’s electric shavers since 2002. “We as a new company could go out and raise $200 million in venture capital, but that would be ludicrous — why spend $100 million on advertising that’s speculative at best?”