Monday, January 25, 2010

The Naked Truth About Branding

Branding, which started as a way to distinguish products from generic alternatives now it has the exact opposite effect.

It’s been the fancy, eye-pleasing exterior that marketers have delivered but what's happened to the connection to the actual deliverable?

In other words, are too many brands all wrapping and no gift?

Ironically, today’s trendy response to the surfeit of superficial branding, is to go sans brand. Absolut has created Naked Absolute- a vodka bottle without a marking on it to “put the focus back on what’s inside” and Starbucks has built an unbranded coffee house in Seattle to bring back the authenticity of a community gathering place.

Yet I contend that people still care about content – what’s inside still matters. We still want products that work and brands we can trust, but they’re so cluttered out by gift-wrapping that we’ve been left numbed and craving authenticity.


If you agree that it's what’s inside that counts, then that’s where your employer brand should come from.


If you use your brand to build an authentic corporate culture that employees believe in, then your brand will always be grounded in your values and will always have intrinsic meaning- and you’ll have no choice but to deliver an authentic experience to consumers, shareholders, donors and alum.


For decades, companies have relied on ad agencies for their keen insights on talking to consumers, but, when it comes to branding, employees should be regarded as a significant target market- the way consumers are. They make or break the brand.


Ask BRANDEMiX how to make your employer brand more than just a pretty ribbon.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

1st Annual BRANDE Awards Competition Now Open for Entries.



1st Annual BRANDE Awards Competition Now Open for Entries.
1/7/2010

NEW YORK, NY. (January 1, 2010) –BRANDEMiX , the nation’s premier independent Employer Branding consultancy, is proudly sponsoring the 1st Annual BRANDE Awards- in recognition of companies demonstrating Employer Branding excellence that have yielded true business results.

The 1ST annual BRANDE Awards highlight programs that exemplify the key principles of effective Employer Branding including building authentic brand architecture, promoting it across a variety of internal and external audiences, and leveraging it with any current corporate branding. Most importantly, the Employer Branding must be surrounded by solid goals and metrics and linked to a true business or process improvement. Entries will be judged on excellence in strategy, execution, results and creative. The BRANDE Award Web site is located at www.brandeaward.com and the deadline for free entry is February 28, 2010.

“There continues to be tremendous interest in the area of “Employer Branding” says BRANDEMiX Founder Jody Ordioni. “However it’s true connection to real business results has never been thoroughly indexed. This shortage of data perpetuates the myth that Employer Branding is just another “HR-thing” or “design element” that doesn’t create positive business outcomes or significant return on investment.”

The BRANDE Awards are open to all organizations and individuals (agencies and other 3d party service providers can submit on behalf of their client) involved in the process of developing or managing Employer Branding programs.
“What truly distinguishes the BRANDE Awards from other competitions is that the BRANDES are judged by cross-industry experts in Strategy, Marketing, Business and Human Resources. As a way to generate interest and create a baseline for future competitions, the 1st Annual BRANDE Awards will be free for submissions.”

Online entries can be submitted from January 1, 2010 through February 28, 2010. To find out more, please visit http://www.brandeawards.com. The 2010 BRANDE Award honoree will be announced in late spring at an award luncheon held in New York City.

http://www.brandeawards.com]

About BRANDEMiX

BRANDEMiX is a woman-owned marketing/communications firm dedicated to Employer Branding in support of business initiatives. Bridging the traditional gap between marketing, advertising, internal communications and Human Resources, BRANDEMiX creates consistent, relevant and brand-aligned messages across all print and interactive channels, forming a line of sight from strategy to employees, investors and consumers. Clients include many of the Fortune 500 as well as non-profit organizations in education, healthcare and social services. Learn more at http://www.brandemix.com .