If you have not taken advantage of the 'weakened' economy to revisit your corporate identity and messaging, now might be a good time. I've been following Abercrombie & Fitch over the last 10 months as a case study in over-estimating brand value. I still hope their strategy pans out in the long-run as they stick to their guns. But my sense is, they do not have a clear guage on how strong or weak their brand may be. Especially as people downsize and demand more for their dollar. Abercrombie has tons of substitute product competition. When times are good, it's easy to get lax in brand identity and the quality of your product/service. What stands out in bad times are the weak. While I may not be the target audience, it's difficult to know the difference (in a few words) between Abercrombie, their sister brand Hollister, and Aeropostale. All I know is Abercrombie is more expensive.

So, with this in mind, I offer 5 tips for improving (and validating) your brand message:

1) Stop using words from within the organization. When working at a company, you become ingrained in their language. And it's typically techie speak. Or functional terms. Ask yourself, what does that mean to our customers and more importantly, what is in it for them.

2) Have you validated or re-validated your value? (Sidenote: do NOT use the word 'value' in your messages. It's watered down because it is overused and value is different for everybody). I worked with a client on their brand identity. I asked "Why do customers work with you instead of the competition". They delivered a series of 10 benefits; however, they had not actually asked the customers. It was their internal thinking. I proceeded to interview (by phone) their key customers to discover only a few of those benefits were real. In the process, we learned another key benefit the company totally overlooked. Armed with this new information, we were able to solidify how my client solved their customers problem better than the competition and articulate from the customer's perspective.

Another thing happens when you do this work: You discover if you have slipped over time with something that was a benefit and is no longer valid. Or where competition is beating you.

3) Stop writing by committee. Brainstorming, innovating, new ideas are all GREAT with input from all functions of an organization. Creating brand identity and messaging does not. I repeat DOES NOT. The more people involved with messages and design, the more watered down the idea. Marketing's job is to keep an outside perspective and bring that into the organization. I've seen great ideas become vanilla with too many chefs. And chefs that tripped over themselves trying to sound so smart and academic, when really, the customer had no idea what the fancy words meant. Push back when it gets to this point.

4) Get your point across in 12 seconds. If someone comes to your website and doesn't 'get-it' right away, they will not waste time trying to figure you out.

5) True test: Get open feedback. Don't be afraid to ask someone outside of your organization (doesn't even have to be a customer) whether they understand your message right away. I know it hurts when someone says "I don't get it" after you spend so much time crafting a design or message. But sometimes all that time you spend looking at something takes your eye off a first impression. You don't see it because you know what it is supposed to say.

I know other marketers have been in this place before. For those of you non-marketers, think of these tips the next time you insist on voting for a logo.

Would love to hear your comments.
Jackie