BRAND THE UNBREAKABLE FRAME

BRAND:
THE
UNBREAKABLE
FRAME
BY RYAN SCHULZ

STORIES ARE GREAT
TOOLS THAT ALLOW
PEOPLE TO CONNECT
WITH AND ASSIGN VALUE
TO A MESSAGE OR IDEA.
They have the power to influence behavior,
inspire action and persuade perspectives.
Telling stories about the brands we market
is at the core of what we do as impactful
communicators. We spend most of our time
trying to protect the frame that others attempt
to put around our organizations.
We believe there are three levers of identity
that people use when describing most
B2B and professional services organizations:
relationships, reputation and
intellectual property.
Failing to adequately frame the conversation
around your brand surrenders your story to
the competition and other stakeholders that
try and frame it for you. The story becomes
disjointed. Experiences that your audiences
have with your brand, on or offline, greatly
influence how others perceive you. However,
these messages don’t always consistently
reflect your organization’s true essence.
IN SHORT: It creates an unclear and
complicated mess.
It takes a well-articulated and differentiated
brand to frame the conversation around these
three levers, and an even stronger one to do
that when you’re not in the room to speak
for it.
2

SO THE INEVITABLE QUESTION THAT IS ON YOUR MIND IS:
WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?
“
WHY ISN’T
MY BRAND
WORKING
FOR ME?
“
We believe it is largely because of a
misunderstanding around positioning and
value propositions. When positioning isn’t
clear, organizations typically have a broken
view of their competitive or comparative
set. And in our experience, marketers have
too narrow a view of their value proposition,
resulting in brands with very similar core
messages (see such bland terms as
trustworthy, client-focused, results-driven
or collaborative). These core messages
simply do not serve to differentiate.
A truly differentiated
brand is an
unbreakable
frame built from
the consistent use
of identity and
character across
all communications
channels.
It is a lens through which all of your
communications flow, and it gives context to
who you are as an organization. We’d like to
take an in-depth look into how to construct
this unbreakable frame and highlight the
importance of digital-first thinking within
your marketing efforts. In doing so, we will
further explore how true brand differentiation
is key to telling the compelling story your
organization needs.
3

TABLE OF CONTENTS
SECTION I
5 | Defining Brand & True Differentiation
6 | An Authentic Point of View
7 | The Brand Plan Pyramid
SECTION II
8 | A New Standard for Brand Engagement
9 | Thinking Digitally
10 | The Self-Directed Buyer
11 | Marketing Technology for Brand Marketers
SECTION III
12 | Define Your Direction: IBM
14 | Find Engaging Visuals: CBRE
15 | Express Your Organizational Character Through Social Media: Gartner
SIDEBARS
8 | The Rise of the CXO
11 | A New Generation of Decision Makers
13 | 5 Signs You Need a Brand Refresh
CONCLUSION
17 | Conclusion
4

DEFINING BRAND &
TRUE DIFFERENTIATION
SECTION I
Many executives think of their brand as being limited to a logo, tagline or
color palette. Although these elements are important, they are actually just
components of your brand; verbal and visual signifiers for your organization.
They are representations of your brand; cues to help audiences remember
their experiences with you. They are not, however, your brand.
A more holistic way of thinking
about Brand is as the “sticky glue”
that connects business strategy and
customer/client experiences. Brand
stickiness emanates from a clear
understanding of what story is at
the heart of your organization.
That story is your Brand Essence:
an intangible feeling one gets in
the presence of your brand.
This is defined and reinforced
by what makes you different,
memorable and unique.
Collaborative. Responsive.
Client-focused. Innovative. Far from
being memorable or unique, these
are some of the most commonly
used go-to-market messages for
B2B and professional services
organizations. Nearly identical value
propositions like these create a
dangerous “sea of sameness.”
Besides being uninteresting, this
environment also puts undue
pressure and emphasis on the
professionals of these seemingly
identical organizations to be the
differentiators themselves.
As marketers, we must dig deeper.
We need to find a point of view
that is authentic to the character
of our organization and unique to
our competitive set and vertical.
Without this, it’s impossible to
separate from the pack and present
your clients and customers with a
brand experience that is more than
just your snappy color palette or
slick logo.
BRAND ESSENCE:
an intangible feeling one gets
in the presence of your brand.
5

SECTION I
AN AUTHENTIC POINT
OF VIEW
True differentiation, and understanding what that means, is key to client
identification, loyalty and a proper flow of brand equity. So how do you find
that unique point of view that is interesting and differentiated enough to define
your brand in a productive way? We find it helpful to continue thinking in terms
of frameworks.
The segment for whom the
positioning is focused on.
The category of services in
the competitive set.
What the brand delivers to
the market that is credible,
differentiated and relevant.
Activities, technologies and
capabilities that prove the
brand is capable of delivering.
Target Audience
Frame of Reference
Key Benefit
Reasons to Believe
For
who are looking for
there is ,
the
because only
is .
This positioning framework can
help evaluate the language your
organization uses to describe its
point of view. Overly common
descriptors like collaboration or
innovation can be understood in
this framework as the “reasons to
believe” in your organization. They
help prove your brand is capable of
delivering.
Here, the key benefit of your
organization is your differentiator;
what you bring to the market that is
unique, ownable and interesting.
6

THE BRAND PLAN PYRAMID
SECTION I
Starting with a strongly differentiated brand essence and purpose and working
downward, we find this diagram helpful when understanding and prioritizing
the key components of your Brand Plan.
1
DEFINE A PLATFORM
BRAND
IDEA
BRAND PERSONA
2
MAKE A PLAN
BRAND STRATEGY
COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY
3
EXECUTE THE STRATEGY
TACTICS
4
CREATE THE EXPERIENCE
OVERALL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
1 Your Essence and Purpose
define why you do what you do,
and what makes you inherently
you. This is what requires true
differentiation. Your Brand
Persona is what your company
is doing and saying about what
they do. These building blocks
uncover true Corporate Character
and help set the stage for the
meat of your Brand Plan.
2 Next, we have Brand
Strategy. This is about bringing
your persona to life in order
to achieve a set of goals
or specified outcome. Your
Communications Strategy covers
what you want to say, and how
your company should say it.
These are fundamental to ensure
you are aligning Brand building
blocks with the capabilities, goals
and needs of your company.
3 The logistics and the
requirements to execute
the strategy are your Tactics.
There is often great pressure
put on marketing departments
to think tactically; and to
make matters worse, most
organizations are really good
at doing so. The result is that
they often jump straight to this
step. Without understanding
how your brand is defined at
every stage of the pyramid, the
resulting tactics will often feel
as though they are coming from
many different brands instead of
one. It’s important to ensure your
Brand Idea, Brand Persona, Brand
Strategy and Communications
Strategy are all building upon
each other and working to inform
your overall tactics.
4 The only thing that really
matters is the experience your
clients and customers have
with your brand. If there is
misalignment between who
think you are and the way your
clients are feeling, your brand
will only crumble. Allow everyone
within your organization to tell
a different story, and you’ve
just made matters much worse.
Proper flow of brand equity relies
on a central narrative that is
played out across every single
touchpoint.
7

SECTION II
A NEW STANDARD FOR
BRAND ENGAGEMENT
Expectations on B2B brands have shifted.
THE RISE
OF THE CXO
The way we engage with
our clients, customers and
employees has completely
evolved. During the last 50 years,
we’ve transitioned from purely
face-to-face brand engagement
that occurred in brick-andmortar
storefronts, to
customer experiences that
now occur exclusively online.
Today, all business is digital—
even if you still operate out of
brick-and-mortar headquarters.
This digital shift often removes
something very important from
the equation: you.
This evolution has also taken
peer-to-peer communication
about your brand to another
level. Digital may make it
easier for you to share your
brand stories, but it also forces
you to relinquish a lot of control
as to how your stories are being
shared and who exactly is on
the receiving end. If you aren’t
putting messages out there
that are deeply rooted in the
character of your organization—
your brand essence—it will be
done for you. You can, however,
guide these conversations and
constantly work to protect the
frame around your organization
by sharing authentic and
consistent stories that highlight
your brand essence in an
unforgettable way.
Delivering best-in-class, seamless
online experiences is the new standard
that has been set by customers.
This shift has not only created the
Self-Directed Buyer but a new executive
position for some companies as well:
Chief Experience Officers (CXO). These
executives are charged with ensuring
the customer experience is not only
at the forefront of brand strategy, but
carried out across every customer
interaction before, during and after
conversion.
For companies without a CXO, the
responsibilities of ensuring positive
customer experiences throughout brand
engagement fall on a variety of brand
marketing roles.
8

THINKING DIGITALLY
SECTION II
When it comes to utilizing digital, many organizations take a process-driven
approach to brand planning and inevitably lump this tactic alongside all
the others.
This process will prove
severely lacking, as digital is the
medium through which all your
communications flow. Applying a
digital lens upfront helps dictate the
intent behind your different tactics,
whether online or off. It also makes
examining audience behaviors much
easier and data-rich. Knowing where
your customers are active online,
and how they want to engage and
consume information, all contributes
to a well-informed brand strategy.
THE NEW “FACE-TO-FACE”
In today’s connected
communications environment,
digital is the medium through
which all your communications
should flow.
SEAMLESS
MARKETING
CONTEXTUAL
MARKETING
PRINT
BRAND
PLATFORM
DIGITALLY
CENTERED BRAND
&
COMMUNICATIONS
STRATEGY
CAMPAIGN
EVENTS
INTERNAL
PARTNERSHIPS
PITCHES/PROPOSALS
9

SECTION II
THE SELF-DIRECTED BUYER
Modern buyers have all the information they need about you literally at their
fingertips. Better informed, connected and more skeptical than ever before,
they crawl the Internet looking at your digital footprint. They explore and
solicit comments and reviews written about you on every platform. A little
freaky, right?
The Corporate Executive Board
acknowledges this shift. They found
recently that the average B2B buyer
is 57% through their purchase
decision before engaging any
representative of your organization. 1
Today’s self-directed buyer will
experience the character of your
organization long before you even
step in the door (assuming there’s
one there to begin with). If you aren’t
putting direct messages out there
about your brand—or if your brand
isn’t differentiated enough to stand
on its own—the modern buyer is
more than happy to build their own
story for you based on everything
else they’ve read or heard.
THE AVERAGE B2B BUYER
is 57% through their purchase
decision before engaging
any representative of your
organization.
A strong brand and communications
strategy executed across all of your
channels, online or off, allows you
to communicate with the self-directed
buyer in a way that exemplifies
your brand story and essence
while also meeting their information
consumption needs.
10 1
https://salesandmarketing.com/content/mapping-buyer%E2%80%99s-journey

MARKETING TECHNOLOGY
FOR BRAND MARKETERS
SECTION II
Dictating and controlling this brand and
communications strategy is no small task.
From demonstrating ROI and securing budget
to attracting top talent and training employees,
the demands on brand marketers are high in
all areas of business. There’s little time to listen
to your audiences and, therefore, limited room
for agility or adaptation. What’s more, many
B2B and professional services organizations
lack the internal infrastructure needed to
measure and monitor client experiences and
gather feedback.
A NEW
GENERATION OF
DECISION MAKERS
Besides consumer brands’ influence
on customer expectations, business
marketers must now take into account
the motivations, behaviors and buying
habits of digital natives and, more
specifically, millennials. A term loosely
applied to those born after 1980, digital
natives are the next generation of
decision makers who are entering the
C-suite, launching startups and buying
professional services.
Fortunately for all of us, the
advancements in marketing
technology have helped to
overcome this hurdle. Although
challenges can vary across
industry or market, digital is an
empowering tool that allows
marketers to break down
organizational silos, listen
intelligently, respond quickly
and adjust plans in a nimble
way. This ultimately results in
a unified experience for the
customer by effectively closing
the feedback loop.
each group’s unique needs and
expectations. In turn, they will
uncover and understand the
data at their fingertips, applying
insights and finding the
alignment between their
audience(s), business strategy
and industry opportunities.
Millennials’ growing role in the
workforce and marketplace is not a
ground-breaking discussion; however,
it’s important to note this group’s
relevance in how brand continues to
evolve. Knowingly or not, this group is
demanding more out of B2B brands—
they desire to work for, and with,
companies that feel authentic and
real. The sea of sameness won’t cut it
with these folks. As the B2B industry
becomes increasingly commoditized,
establishing a strong brand is
paramount to achieving differentiation,
which is key to building true customer
loyalty, regardless of generation.
The role of the Brand Marketer in
this situation is to clearly identify
audience sets and understand
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SECTION III
DEFINE YOUR DIRECTION
You may have come to the conclusion that your brand could use a bit of a
facelift. As you begin considering how to tackle your brand strategy, you
might find these suggestions helpful to refresh your brand and strengthen the
framework that exists there. Included in this section are also some examples
of B2B organizations who have done an impressive job demonstrating great
brand work.
The value in creating engaging and
consistent guidelines for your brand
cannot be understated. Having a
resource for internal and external
audiences that explains how your
brand should be represented
cross-channel can create a
heightened level of consistency
and, therefore, have a lasting impact
on your audiences. Clearly defined
and documented brand guidelines
can also help solve an internal
lack of clarity around your brand’s
purpose, positioning and persona.
Defining your organizational
character for the world, as well
as your colleague sitting across
from your office, can go a long
way in terms of brand recognition
and protecting the framework of
your brand.
HOW IBM DID IT
It’s nearly impossible to talk about
great B2B brands without talking
about IBM. Here’s a firm that has
evolved many times over the
years, from selling cheese cutters,
to punch card machines, to
computer mainframes and servers,
to finally, today, selling the ability to
deal with data. All the while, the firm
has maintained its brand, sometimes
with an iron fist. You can’t help but
be impressed by the organization’s
discipline. IBM has almost 400,000
employees in 170 countries. Its
marketing department is global
and involves people from different
cultures with great distances
between them. And yet, go to
any one of the firm’s social channels,
and you will see a great amount
of discipline in everything from the
use of the logo and photography,
to the voice and tone of the
writing and the subjects covered.
It’s impressive.
12

DEFINE YOUR DIRECTION
(CONT.)
SECTION III
SO, HOW HAS IBM
DONE THIS?
It didn’t happen magically, and it
didn’t happen overnight. The firm,
for a long time now, has invested
in tools that make its marketers
more empowered by giving them
targets that they can hit over and
over again. When thinking of
successful brand guidelines, there
really is no better example in the
B2B market than IBM. IBM has
photography guidelines, design
guidelines, voice and tone
guidelines, brand guidelines and
video guidelines. It has also built
a cadre of tools that explain to its
enormous marketing team how
to use those guidelines and
create compelling (and consistent)
marketing materials over and over
again. More than that, they market
those tools to the people who
need them the most. Consider
how far a little guidance and
documentation at your
organization could go knowing
how impactful this was, and
continues to be, for IBM.
5 SIGNS YOU NEED A BRAND REFRESH
1
2
3
4
5
Your organization’s visual identity and/or digital experience
is dated or neglected, making it difficult for customers to
differentiate and create a personal connection with you.
Your marketing and communications strategy isn’t
clearly developed or aligned with core audiences.
There’s a severe distance between your business
strategy and audience needs.
Internally, there’s a lack of clarity around your brand’s
purpose, positioning and persona; organizational
character is missing.
You’ve experienced significant changes in capabilities
and/or growth and your brand hasn’t kept up.
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SECTION III
FIND ENGAGING VISUALS
Expressing your brand with engaging visuals across your digital experience can
really help refresh your brand. Whether on social, your website or promotional
materials, expressing your brand story through impactful imagery helps tell the
story of your brand in an impactful (read: sticky) way. Visuals that are stale and
outdated make it difficult for audiences to connect to your organization.
HOW CBRE DID IT
CBRE is a great example of the
power of good, brand consistent
imagery. As king of the real estate
market, the firm realized a few years
ago that its brand story revolved
around owning big real estate in
major metropolitan areas. What’s a
great way to showcase real estate in
an engaging way? Photography.
And where’s a better place to
engage your audience with
photography than the ever-popular
Instagram? This tool has allowed
for great brand recognition for B2C
and B2B firms alike, and CBRE is
no exception. CBRE doesn’t always
shoot its own photos, but it is
so consistent in the kinds of
photography that it chooses, it
doesn’t matter if the organization
shot the images itself or not. Taking
its passion for photography one step
further, CBRE even sponsored an
urban photography contest.
This same approach can work
for other professional services
organizations. For example, say that
you are a global law firm with offices
in cities around the world. Why not
pick a style of photography that suits
your brand, and take photos of all
of the cities you are in? Better than
that, make it about your clients.
Take pictures of all of the cities
that you do work in around the
world. Now you are telling a human,
global, client-centered story
without ever uttering even one
of those words that lead you back
to that sea of sameness.
14

EXPRESS YOUR
ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTER
THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA
SECTION III
A well-differentiated brand is no good without the power to express it
cross-channel. One very effective method of doing so is through social media.
In many ways, social media is the language of the web.
Everything needs to be shareable
and postable. Doing so exhibits
that you are alive and active. It
shows that you have real people
who work for you and your real
company. It may not be right for
every communications challenge,
but it can be especially helpful
when it comes to specific
goals like recruiting, promoting
CSR initiatives, internal
communications, character
building, thought leadership
or news and alerts. It also gives
you a chance to make bits of
your brand shareable.
places. Highlight your insights
in sharable posts; spread them
around the web like proverbial
breadcrumbs leading back to
the mother-load of content and
thought leadership.
A short (but important) warning
when it comes to social: prepare
to be disciplined or prepare to
be diluted. Social media was built
for sharing. Don’t put big heavy
pieces of thought leadership
here. That’s what your blog(s) are
for. Social media is a great way to
drive people to those more robust
1515

SECTION III
EXPRESS YOUR
ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTER
THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA
HOW GARTNER DID IT
Gartner, an information research and
technology company, does a great
job of promoting its brand while
driving traffic and giving attention to
the firm’s robust thought leadership
at the same time. In this case,
Gartner has a very similar social
media strategy for all of its channels.
It curates news from sources it knows
will resonate with its audiences and
reinforce the brands of the different
sources (Forbes, Inc. etc.). Gartner
also uses social to drive traffic to its
thought leadership and to spread its
insights around the web.
Gartner has created a very specific
and consistent look and feel for
these social nuggets. Each one
follows a similar design aesthetic and
employs a similar photography style.
The headlines are catchy and easy to
read at a glance (more likely to grab
you while you are scrolling), and the
way that they are written reinforces
the brand positioning of the firm.
The result is a series of graphics
that are worthy, most of the time, of
being shared. Each item either links
or displays a link back to a blog or a
thought leadership piece. Social isn’t
making its world harder and more
complicated. Social has become a
content engagement engine for
the organization; an engine that it
can measure, that tells a very rich
brand story.
16

CONCLUSION
BRAND is no longer simply a way to
sell a product; it is an overall message,
encouraging personal relationships
between the business and the customer.
Success today largely depends on
communicating that message with a
connected and coordinated marketing
approach, led by digital. A well-defined,
digitally-centered brand informs business
and marketing strategy, and sets the stage for
improved performance across all touch points,
online or off. The evolution of technology has
raised expectations for B2B and professional
services brands, and continuing to evolve with
that process will be what sets you apart from
the rest.
One of the most important takeaways here is the
value of being different, unique and differentiated.
And why is this so crucial? It makes customers pay
more attention to you, making it easier for them
to pick you out of this sea of sameness. This is
innovation with a different slant or idea that
connects directly to you. A plotline for your
organization, even your pricing structure can have
a better rationale with a clearly defined brand story.
As a result, we’re left with a powerful framework
of context—communicated through digital—that is
impactful and resonates with your key audiences,
asserting why you exist and how you can help.
151717

CONCLUSION
FIND ENGAGING VISUALS
With a keen sense of storytelling and more than a decade of brand work
to his name, Ryan Schulz is One North’s Director, Brand. He helps clients
clearly identify, define and embrace their brand essence, purpose and value
proposition. His goal is to advise clients so that they can communicate with
their own clients more effectively. Previously, Ryan served as Vice President
of Marketing and Communications for Vosges Haut-Chocolat and also as
Director of Brand and Communications Strategy at VSA Partners.
Ryan can be reached at rschulz@onenorth.com.
If you like what you’ve read here
and are interested in engaging
in a conversation with One North
to develop and/or harness a
brand for your organization,
contact Dawn Michalak at
dmichalak@onenorth.com or
+1 312.873.6889.
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ABOUT
One North is a digital agency dedicated to
delivering compelling customer experiences for
B2B organizations. One North has partnered with
hundreds of businesses to produce digital solutions
aimed at strengthening their most valuable asset:
their relationships. From brand planning, digital
strategy and creative services, to front and back-end
development and technology support, One North’s
team of 85+ innovative minds work collaboratively to
create digital experiences that intelligently connect
business strategy and marketing activities.
For more information, visit www.onenorth.com.
onenorth.com/ideas
@OneNorth
company/one-north-interactive
OneNorthInteractive
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