From Brand "X" to Brand Rex: 5 S.M.A.R.T. and Easy Steps to Create a Cult of Personality for Your Brand and Increase Sales

By Linda Tancs

If you've established a trademark for your business (or plan on doing so), then you understand the importance of distinguishing your product or service from others in the marketplace. Great brands impact sales and market share. If you'd like to develop a great brand, then this book, a guide to brand development and maintenance, will show you how.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312528642

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From Brand "X" to Brand Rex: 5 S.M.A.R.T. and Easy Steps to Create a Cult of Personality for Your Brand and Increase Sales

From Brand X to Brand REX: 5 S.M.A.R.T. and Easy Steps to Create a Cult of Personality for Your Brand and Increase Sales

By Linda Tancs

Copyright © 2013 by Linda Tancs

All rights reserved.  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the author.

The trademark GET S.M.A.R.T. is registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

First Printing: 2013

ISBN: 978-1-312-52864-2

De Novo Enterprises LLC

P.O. Box 7232

Hillsborough, NJ 08844

Ordering Information:

Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, educators, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the above listed address or email [e-mail].

U.S. trade bookstores and wholesalers: Please contact the publisher at the above listed address or email [e-mail].

To Barry, my true love and companion

About the Author

LINDA TANCS operates a public relations and communications consultancy. Leveraging 13 years of expertise as a trademark lawyer, she specializes in brand strategy, development and management.  Utilizing her executive and organizational coaching training at New York University, she adopts a self-directed problem solving approach with her clients to address both corporate and personal branding campaigns. 

Tancs is the author of Understanding Trademark Law: A Beginner’s Guide, Understanding Copyright Law: A Beginner’s Guide, and Understanding Patent Law: A Beginner’s Guide.  Initially published by Oxford University Press, the series was subsequently acquired by Thomson Reuters for their Westlaw imprint.  She is also a contributor to two Dummies books on branding statements and other promotional materials for job seekers.

Introduction

If you've established a trademark for your business (or plan on doing so), then you understand the importance of distinguishing your product or service from others in the marketplace.  Great brands impact sales and market share.  If you'd like to develop a great brand, this book will show you how. 

This text teaches a five-step plan towards brand development and management.  Known as the GET S.M.A.R.T.® methodology, the program teaches you how to be S.M.A.R.T. (defined for our purposes as Strategic, Memorable, Aligned, Resourceful and Timely) with respect to your brand to increase its value.  The goal of the program is to create a cult of personality for your product or service through effective branding.  GET S.M.A.R.T. helps established companies seeking to strengthen or redirect a brand as well as solopreneurs and small business owners desiring to establish a brand and increase market share.  Beginners will likely want to start at the first chapter and work their way through the five principles stated in the book.  Those in various stages of brand development and management will likely find additional resources by exploring the table of contents.  Throughout the book are various exercises for both novices and professionals designed to further your skills in designing, implementing and managing a brand identity. 

Chapter 1: GET STRATEGIC

Learning Objectives for this Chapter:

- Identify your goals with clarity

- Devise a market research plan

- Establish your vision and mission

- Determine your unique selling proposition

- Understand the basics of proper trademark selection and usage

Understanding Branding

The term branding is often used interchangeably with the terms marketing and advertising.  However, each process is distinct.  To put it simply, marketing refers to the message that you wish to deliver and advertising relates to the medium (or media) through which you will execute, or deliver, the message.  Branding is the step you must take before you engage in marketing or advertising.  The terms brand, brand name or label are often used colloquially to refer to a trademark.  The law defines a trademark as a word(s), name, symbol or device (or a combination of these elements) identifying and distinguishing one merchant’s goods from those of others.  A service mark likewise may consist of a word(s), name, symbol or device but identifies and distinguishes one merchant’s services from those of others.  Of course, a merchant may designate both goods and services under a single mark.  In that case, the mark is both a trademark and a service mark.

Branding, then, begins with the development of a word (or perhaps a group of words, like a tagline), a symbol (e.g., a logo) or other element identified above.  But these elements are just banners for the brand—labels.  Labels alone are not assets.  Creating an asset entails establishing an experience around the label—in other words, developing a cult of personality around the brand for it to gain consumer attachment and occupy a distinct position in the marketplace.  This process is the essence of branding.    

So why is branding important?  Because a strong brand identity is the cornerstone of a successful business.  Just ask the custodians of such iconic brands as Apple®, Starbucks®, McDonald’s®, Nike® and Coca-Cola®.  Consumer attachment arises when your audience associates with your brand.  That association produces loyalty, which in turn drives sales and repeat business.  Another important aspect of branding is its potential to attract the best talent to your organization.  A powerful brand voice does the selling for you and helps attract those applicants who share your sense of values.

Creating a Brand Strategy

As indicated in the previous section, a brand, or label, alone is not an asset.  Creating an asset begins with the formulation of a strategy designed to develop your brand.  Companies spend millions, sometimes billions, of dollars to define and establish a brand.  Whether you manage a global brand or one around the