David Carrithers, vice president of marketing at Centennial Contractors Enterprises discusses the essence of branding.

I was recently asked to explain what brand means to an industry association. So I shared some thinking and background on how to look at the importance of branding within the mix of a business or a nonprofit organization. My background includes a large non-profit organization, where I found that branding was even more important in the growth of the organization.

A few high level thoughts.

1. Brand is not the logo (although the logo is a key brand element), the colors, the ads, or the website.
2. Brand is a promise. It is the outward meaning, understanding and value of the company (or product or service) being associated with that entity.
3. Brand must be aligned with the organization and what it represents.
4. Brand is the split second relationship feeling associated with an organization, its employees and the clients.
5. Brand is the spirit, the feel of an organization.
6. A powerful brand is 100% aligned with the value, the meaning, the movement forward of an organization/product/service. It is the most honest thinking and conversations you will ever have - if not, the brand promise is hollow.

So many people end up spending way too much time on colors and business card designs when they say brand, but they miss the underlying key thinking and drivers to a truly great brand. In technical environments this urge to jump into tactical stuff too soon is always prevalent. Branding should be the anchor point for the whole organization and the thinking from which other things flow - like design, message, actions within marketing, sales, etc.

Key: Brand allows for alignment of the whole organization. It brings the history and the future vision into the mix. It challenges us to ask, How is what we say we are demonstrated; how is it coming to life? Brand is the experience. It is the proof that what you say you are, you really are. I use a slide when I get to this point of a picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger, all pumped up, with guns blazing and the wording "brand means you can say you are this...." But in realty you are this... and it is a picture of the Teletubbies. You know what I mean, we have all experienced it in our lives. A store that has a tagline, "friendliest store in town" and you never see a smiling face. Or an airline that says "on time and best in class awards for...." and they are hardest people to travel with, or the bank that says in their TV spots "you matter to us" and when you call them you never get a live person and it takes forever to push button your way to one.

I can fill up pages of examples like these. The fact is, the more aligned the brand is with the value you bring, and the people in the organization are living to that brand promise, the more successful you will be in growing and reaching more people. The more off you are, the less alignment there is - well the fact is you can actually create negative brand value and drive the business into the ground.

In the early 1980's (yes, I am dating myself now) I had the grand privilege of working for Air Products & Chemicals. Before "brand" was a fledgling thought in the eyes of the business, Air Products already understood how key this was to their future success. Not only did we have very well thought out brand standards (which I helped with), but they said across all 66,000 employees, the brand must be lived. We are about quality, safety, responsiveness and helping our clients improve results. Think about it, Air Products sold air. But how and what did the liquid nitrogen mean to that company, that hospital, that assembly line? Things like making sure the 3,000 tanker trucks and delivery trucks were designed and painted to match - to stand out. That we made sure the trucks were washed once a week (others in the industry never washed their trucks) or hand wiped every cylinder when it was delivered. To systems, we put in the first telephony system for the liquid cryogenics in the world so that the cryo tanks would call the customers and say (based on their desired refill points) "I am half empty do you want me to send a truck or do you want to talk to a live person?" To the training of employees, and to the safety truck rodeos we sponsored. Even the fact that we had research labs targeting the key markets that any client could use at no cost (food freezing, steel, semiconductor etching, etc.) These were all key to the brand meaning what it did/does.

In the coming weeks, I'll post a couple other examples of branding efforts I've been a part of.

David Carrithers is vice president of marketing at Centennial Contractors Enterprises where he leads daily operations of its corporate brand management, market development and sales programs. Carrithers has over 25 years of experience in marketing and new business development. Carrithers has managed brand assets valued in the multi-billions of dollars, including the brands of American Express, MasterCard, General Motors, AT&T, Air Products & Chemicals, Motorola, Bell South, M&M Mars, Rich Products, Xerox, Diebold and American Cyanamid. Carrithers has been awarded two US Patents, and is recognized as an industry expert in customer and employee loyalty programs in the US. He is the global creator of the first stored-value cards and gift cards. He presents on business management, project management, relationship management and brand and product development. Carrithers has also served as industry chairman for Center for Job Order Contracting Excellence, a board member for the Alliance for Construction Excellence and IFMA Industry Ambassador to China in 2007. He blogs at www.CentennialNOW.blogspot.com and tweets @CentennialNOW.

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