Putting It Together: Wrapping Up My Cheesehead Look at Branding

Over my last four posts, I took a lighthearted journey around the topic of branding using some little-known Wisconsin anecdotes.  It wasn’t just a way to pay homage to growing up in the Dairy State.  It is also because I have been spending a lot of time thinking about branding.  Sage in North America is undertaking a major transformation by moving from a house of brands approach to a branded house model.  In the process, we have decided to stop using such well known products names as Peachtree or Simply Accounting.

Like Joseph Steinwand and his invention of Colby cheese, Sage over its nearly 30 year history has been adding value to its product lines in ways it didn’t always recognize while it was doing it.  Our long history of providing subscription support has evolved into programs like Sage Business Care and Sage Advisor which have enriched standard software by enabling insights to help business achieve their ambitions.

But similar to Kleenex, we recognized that we needed to focus, protect and communicate what was important about our offerings, about what made them distinct and relevant.  As a result, we have increasingly focused on those items we bring to small and midsized businesses and to make them consistent across our portfolio.  We standardized our Sage Business Care offerings.  We invested to provide both online and on-premise options.  We introduced subscription pricing to enable purchasing flexibility.  And, through a common naming architecture, we positioned our solutions under a common commitment.

We had to choose the best path to do that.  We decided the branded house approach was essential.  Our focus is singular:  small and midsized businesses.  Our offerings help them automate their business processes in support of their goals.  We are bringing consistency across the full range of offerings.  The individual product names didn’t say that.  A common master brand did, and so a branded house approach makes the most sense for us.

Finally, like Harley-Davidson, we recognized that we have to deliver every day in every way against that brand.  We’ve invested in common infrastructure to ensure a common experience.  We’ve added new capabilities like Sage Advisor to then improve that experience.  And we are engaging with all of our employees and business partners to focus on delivering an extraordinary customer experience.

This week, Sage takes major steps in our branding journey.  We introduce a new cloud-based management tool for start-ups called Sage One.  We launch the US edition of Sage 50 Accounting, representing the next era of Peachtree.  We begin full use of our new names across all of our public facing materials.  In the process, we have significantly improved our websites and marketing tools.  We inaugurate a new ad campaign using national radio, TV, print and online to help get our message out about Sage today.

We believe strongly that Sage offers small and midsized businesses in the United States and Canada something that is unique and relevant, a set of solutions that proactively empower them to better realize their business ambitions.

Through our focus on creating a clear naming structure that focuses on Sage, on consistently delivering value programs built around business care and providing advice, and by focusing our entire ecosystem on living up to that promise, we are confident that we are writing a great branding story.

Green Bay Packer fans and Wisconsin natives take pride in the cheesehead label.  And I take pride in the Sage branding journey.

A Cheesehead Look at Branding, Part 4

No Wisconsin-focused story looking at brands could be complete without a discussion of Harley-Davidson.  After all, there aren’t many brands which have fans willing to tattoo their bodies with the company logo.

Founded in 1903 in Milwaukee, Harley-Davidson has thrived for nearly 110 years by focusing on motorcycles.  In 2003, nearly one million people helped the company celebrate its centenary in Milwaukee.  Along the way, the firm has maintained intense customer loyalty, enabled brand extension across a broad array of consumer-licensed products, and supported an active ecosystem of dealers and company stores.

Clearly, Harley-Davidson produces a great product, but as importantly it delivers in every way against its core philosophy of “it’s a journey, not a destination.”

First, it is closely linked to its customer base, understanding what they value and delivering against those expectations in its products.  Next, it stays focused on its unique customer base, understanding what’s relevant to them in terms of buying preferences, and it closely manages its licensee base to match those preferences. It also recognizes the importance of its strong dealer network in two ways:  the necessity of dealers embodying the Harley-Davidson brand, but also of Harley-Davidson’s need to recognize regional differences among its dealers.  Finally, it understands what makes it brand both authentic and aspirational, and ensures that its more than 6000 employees and over 1300 dealers in 60 countries understand and live that brand daily.

At the end of the day, a brand is so much more than logos, taglines, ad campaigns and marketing initiatives.  It is the accumulation of thousands of separate actions– the product decisions made in the design lab, the interaction of salesperson and customer on the showroom floor, the quality of the response when a support line is called, the willingness of a customer to recommend the product to another.  Together, every bit of the company’s structure, ecosystem and actions define what the brand represents.  Together, what each and every customer finds meaningful and relevant in that brand representation is what ultimately gives the brand value and staying power.

When you look to brands that are powerful like Harley-Davidson, you will likely find that beneath whatever they say, you will find a common culture among all its employees and extended family of dealers, agents, and partners.  It will be a culture that understands the brand and lives it – all to deliver something that their customers value.

A Cheesehead Look at Branding, Part 3

A short series of musings that use Wisconsin icons to illustrate brand concepts.

 

In 1997, a famous article by business writer Tom Peters coined the idea of a personal brand.  “Brand You” is ultimately the promise that you as an individual represent to the marketplace of employers, colleagues, and interested bystanders.  In the case of creative artists, though, personal brands can truly become brands in every sense of the world.

Two talented folk from the early part of the twentieth century in Wisconsin nicely illustrate one of the key ideas about brands. 

Here’s one of those artists.  You’re probably familiar with the person’s remarkable range of novels made into famous movies and musicals, like Giant, Cimarron, Showboat and more; hit Broadway plays still being revived today like Dinner at Eight; and renowned for wit as part of the Algonquin Round Table and honored with a Pulitzer Prize.  Chances are you know some of those titles, but not the common thread of the author’s name.

So how about this one?  Architect of the Fallingwater residence overlooking a stream in a Pennsylvania wood, the Guggenheim Museum accenting the East Side of New York City; Taliesin West nestled in the deserts of Phoenix; and Prairie-style private homes sited across the nation.  I bet you not only know the name, but can even picture the person.

The first is Edna Ferber.  The second is Frank Lloyd Wright.  Ferber is like a house of brands, similar to Proctor and Gamble, where people know Tide and Gillette but don’t connect all the pieces.  Wright is like a branded house similar to Harley-Davidson, where the passion is with the overall brand, a passion that carries over to whatever has been created beneath it.

Why did Ferber’s novels remain better known than she? Why does Wright’s reputation rise far higher than any single design?  If you were creating your own personal brand, would you rather be a Ferber or a Wright?

Often, companies must make decisions on how they want to present the results of their creativity.  Which approach will create the most value?  Which will open the most doors over time? 

Generally a company will seek to emphasize the overall brand when it is focused on delivering a common promise to a similar group of customers, like Disney’s promise of good, clean family fun or BMW’s of driving performance.  Alternately, if a company seeks to deliver distinctive promises to different consumer segments, it will seek to emphasize individual product brands.  This is the path taken by General Motors and Proctor and Gamble.

Depending on the situation and goals, either approach might be right.  But the approach taken will determine what gets remembered and where the value lies.

Which, to come full circle, is why people still license the image of Frank Lloyd Wright, but Edna Ferber’s value remains solely in her individual works.