BIV Magazines: Adpages 2008

Cereal lovers have been digesting a spate of recent television spots and billboards across the Lower Mainland trumpeting breakfast food giant Post’s “new” line of Diamond Shreddies.

Barring a failing mark in grade-school geometry, you’re probably among the many consumers who’ve seen the ads and asked the same question: isn’t every individual square-shaped Shreddie just one 45-degree turn away from a diamond?

Of course they are. It’s been that way ever since the “Good, good whole wheat Shreddies” first appeared on grocery shelves in Ontario back in 1939.

Granted, it’s a case of cereal-aisle sleight-of-hand, but it’s also a great example of brand development – or, in this case, brand renewal.

Whether you view Ogilvy & Mather’s Diamond Shreddies campaign as an inspired re-imagining of the cereal’s appeal or not, is not really the point. Either way, it’s likely a safe bet that you sat up and took notice.

“There’s so much clutter out there these days, and your brand is really what gives you the ability to cut through the information we all get bombarded with everyday. If you have a clear and powerful brand, then you will stand above all of the other noise,” says Robyn Sussel, head of health and academic communications at Vancouver-based Signals Design Group Inc., a creative design firm that specializes in brand renewal.

“Clarity is the key,” continues Sussel. “A successful brand is one that can hone in on the most important elements of an organization (or product) and explain to people why it is unique.”

And in an increasingly on-demand world, corporations are realizing they have precious little time to seize upon the short attention span of today’s consumer.

“You have to make your point very quickly. Lost opportunity is a hard thing to measure, but if you’re in a competitive environment and your competitors are investing in their brand and constantly looking for ways to communicate their essence – what is unique about them – and you’re not, your profile and visibility is going to be diminished. It can be a case where a company didn’t invest in their brand and were simply outmanoeuvred by their competitors.”

One of the key steps to successfully developing any brand identity is to get all the internal stakeholders (from senior command right on down to front-line soldiers) in step well before contemplating any external rollout, says Taya Hawes-Puiu, vice-president and managing director of Identica Branding and Design’s Vancouver office.

The staff on the front lines may not feel like they are plugged into the brand development process, which is ironic – they are the employees who often have the most insight into the needs of the customer, simply by virtue of having the most direct contact with them.

“The internal branding issue is a key priority for us. Having a company’s values be transparent – and having the employees buy into those values – means they’re aligned with the division and moving in the right direction. That obviously makes for better business, but also happier employees, and that brings us right back to better business,” says Hawes-Puiu, whose firm represents retail (Aritzia, Oakridge Centre), emerging tech (Ballard Power Systems Inc.) and real-estate development (Concord Pacific) companies, among others.

In other words, if a brand is not ringing true with a company’s employees, how will it be viewed by that company’s customers and client base?

“For a brand to be successful it has to be integrated at all levels,” continues Hawes-Puiu, “and authenticity is a big component as well. The brand has to reflect what that organization stands for: its vision. It has to be ambitious, forward-looking, but it also needs to accurately reflect the organization. It should really be the DNA that influences all parts of an organization.”

Not too long ago, one of Identica’s clients in the financial industry was negotiating a major merger that called for a new branding initiative. The first crucial step in the process, says Hawes-Puiu, was nurturing a renewed sense of confidence within the firm’s workforce.

“The company’s CEO at the time said to me: ‘Beyond business results – which were amazing – it’s inspired our people to believe that anything is possible. That’s when I really got the power of what branding could do.’ “

When it comes to the cost of developing or renewing a brand, Hawes-Puiu counsels her clients to view whatever strategy they settle on as an investment rather than an expense.

Barbara Baker, director of client services at Signals, also cautions her clients that there is rarely any band-aid for branding issues.

Equal parts of time and money must be invested before a company rolls out a brand.

“If companies haven’t allotted the time or resources, or received a buy-in from the key stakeholders, ultimately we find that sometimes the implementation is not that successful,” she says. “It doesn’t have the longevity that brand [development and] renewal is based on – doing the proper research and covering all the issues.”

To wit, Baker stresses that businesses engender an ongoing commitment to their brands; to occasionally revisit – and redevelop, if necessary – their identity within the marketplace.

So, keep your eyes on the cereal aisle – it can’t be long before Post takes a cue from its Shreddies revamp and introduces us to Alpha Bits: version francaise. •

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