Insights from John Nishimoto

Business leaders have always raised an eyebrow when it comes to the ROI of enterprise-wide branding programs. These programs are multi-year, multi-million-dollar expenditures that look and feel great, but are not seen as contributing to short-term capture of new revenue, market share or measurable business results.

In light of the current financial climate and ever-shrinking budgets, marketers are forced to find resourceful, albeit innovative ways to continue to develop or refine their brand messages and visual identity. Only those initiatives generating quantifiable business value are being green lit. Marketing campaigns tied to new customer acquisitions, or net new sales are more apt to get high priority in today’s environment versus brand- or image-building campaigns that are designed to give audiences a momentary case of the “warm and fuzzies.”

This has proven challenging for brand managers and marketers who hold fast to the belief that every communication is an opportunity to build — or detract from — your brand. So how are some doing it?

During the 1980s  — when "Corporate Identity" was in all its glory; when logos, personality traits and color specifications made agencies legitimate "identity" experts — the gestalt was one of a one-size-fits-all, rubber-stamp approach. Consider those days of the three-ring binders, pica-to-point brochure templates and print-ready logo stat sheets. In that era, the category was aptly labeled "CORPORATE" Identity, as in: the point-of-view is owned and governed by the CORPORATION.

Now, fast forward to 2000: Any agency concerning itself with corporate identity really became the logo and Pantone guys. Eventually the category outgrew its CI skin and evolved into something described by the more overarching term "branding" — somewhere between advertising, management consulting and spiritual healing.

“ ...corporations demand that they remain at their accustomed comfort and luxury levels of the feeding frenzies ... They refuse to budge an inch ... It will be their extinction ... Their insatiable greed and lust for money will essentially pull down the whole global economy, and all of us ... Everyone loses ... You’ll see ...” —one voice among millions, http://www.stopthehousingbailout.com

With four-million-plus Google results for the key words “bail out” — whether you’re for or against it — the one thing that is clear is that the hundreds of financial-services and insurance companies have a major turn-around in front of them.

It’s one thing to have to take on the financial TARP transfusion and be able to recirculate those funds back into the economic pipeline. Make no mistake, that feat alone will be a difficult one to achieve. It’s another thing to have your existing customers feel enough assurance to stick with you and to convince new ones that you’re worthy of their trust.

Names of places you’ve been to, experienced or seen from your window everyday have more meaning than you might think. Especially when that place was the tallest architectural landmark within the 50 states and currently represents a historic memorial for one of our nation’s most challenged moments — it can become a lightening rod for debate and make for decision-making paralysis. This past week, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, as custodian of the once-dubbed Freedom Tower, has unassumingly announced that — call it what you want– but the real estate shall be referred to as “1 World Trade Center”. This is legal, accurate and obvious at the same time.