What can a red nose do?

According to Laura Ries, President of Ries & Ries based in Atlanta, GA, you can build a brand with a red nose.

“A red nose is the visual hammer for Red Nose Day, a campaign started in the U.K. and has now moved to America. The Red Nose Day fund is a program of Comic Relief, a non-profit that raises money for children living in poverty. Hundreds of charities do similar work, but most don’t become as well-known or raise as much money. The difference? A visual hammer that drives the brand into the mind. It might be a simple or silly thing like a pink ribbon, a yellow bracelet or a red nose. Three visuals that have built powerful, relatively-new non-profit giants.”

Ms. Ries makes 3 points that will help any non profit achieve celebrity status.

1. Be focused: The best way to affect change is to focus on one issue or one disease or one disability. When you have a broad mission like the United Way, it is difficult to communicate what you do and it is hard to find one visual or slogan that can cover all that you do.
2. Be specific: Most vision statements of charities are too broad. “To create a just world, free from poverty,” for example. What does that mean? How can you visualize that? You can’t. That is why the more-specific campaign for Comic Relief is so successful.
3. Be first: Me-too campaigns don’t work. Instead of copying what has already been done (pink ribbons, yellow Livestrong bracelets, the ice-bucket challenge) and trying to do it better, find something you can be first in. Don’t use the same visual in a different color, create a new visual.

Dull Is the New Delicious

When it comes to branding standardization, "dull" can be the spice of life.

Brand standardization builds trust and in order to build trust with your customer base, it’s important to convey stability with conviction. Your brand should secure consumer confidence, this doesn't mean the brand's message can't be fresh and spicy! 

Four ingredients of a confident brand:

1. Consistent Messaging: With the ever-growing media landscape spanning the traditional and digital methodologies, consistency is more important than ever. A persuasive, simple message disseminated across all touch points keeps cohesion and recognition, eliminating confusion.
2. Visual Integrity: Visual integrity doesn’t mean everything has to look identical. What visual integrity in branding means is that your message—however your brand makes your consumer feel, whatever it is that builds trust—should be kept front and center of every campaign. The words may change, the images and color may change, but the essence of the brand remains intact.
3. Professionalism: If a brand changes with the wind, it creates a sense that it is unsure, unsteady, unreliable, and therefore unprofessional. A standardized brand creates an anchor for the company that speaks to its attention to detail and adherence to business absolutes customers can rely on, thereby magnifying a sense of professionalism.
4. Brand equity: Brand equity is the power of the brand gained from the goodwill and name recognition that it has earned over time through consistency, integrity, and professionalism. They are memorable and can demand a higher price, but only because the brand is standardized.

The Brand Glossary...Learning the ABC's of Branding

Brand Harmony The ideal brand status where all touch points and products that fall under a particular brand have consistency with regards to the name, visual identity and brand positioning across all its markets.

Brand Personality The means to brand differentiation by applying human personality traits (fun-loving, earnest, exciting, conservative, etc.) to it. It is usually accomplished through long-term efforts of achieving brand harmony. These traits demonstrate brand behavior through all touch points, including communication pieces as well as the people who represent the brand—its employees.

Touch Point (also contact point, point of contact) A touch point is any encounter where customers engage with a business to exchange information, provide service, or handle transactions.

Visual Identity Anything with regards to the appearance of the brand that appropriately exhibits the essence of the brand--including, but not limited to, its logo, typography, packaging and marketing materials and elements.