Brand 'Em
Why Your Business Identity Matters
by Nick Obourn
Painting by Curtis Settino

We don’t know when the first humans began to think about the universe around them or their place in it. But we are social creatures, and the emergence of tribes, languages, religions and nations suggests that we learned very early in our history how to identify with others of our kind, and differentiate ourselves from the rest. Rulers in ancient Sumeria, China and Egypt adopted symbols to mark their place in time and space. The brand was born.
   From the Pharoah putting his stamp on a pyramid to the cowboy rustle-proofing his prize bull, and on to the logo-lingo of today, not much has changed. The idea of creating ideals and an identity to represent a distinct but unified organism has stayed with us, and plays an important part in the modern world of corporate branding.
   Anywhere one looks in today’s business world, companies from the largest to the smallest are harnessing the power of their identity and releasing it to the consumer world. For some companies, this has been so successful it has become a part of our everyday language. Xerox and Band-Aid are words that immediately convey a purpose. In this way, language itself is a form of branding, defining items and classifying them for our ease. It is easy to see how the lines become blurred between the two.
   The maturing specialty coffee industry, growing in size each day, sees branding as the ticket to success. Starbucks, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Caribou Coffee Company and other large chains all began as small independent coffeehouses. Many wise marketing decisions and successful branding execution made them the companies they are today. So how do you go about creating your brand? What does it really mean to brand your business?

What does it all Mean?
The power of a brand can reach far beyond its integral parts, applications and implications. “A brand is a type of manufactured ‘reputation.’ A brand—a good one, anyway—should create an aura about itself: one that resonates with consumers after their first experience and causes them to re-visit that experience in short order,” says Jeff Stein, chief creative officer for St. Louis, Mo.-based Mozaic Ltd. A brand is a company’s “claim of distinction,” says Wes Shaw, brand development strategist and co-owner of Park Ridge, N.J.-based Words and Pictures.
   For example, Nike’s unmistakable Swoosh is today so ubiquitous that it has found its way into the world’s collective unconscious and can be displayed, without its brand’s name, and not have any lesser impact. Clearly, Nike’s is a success story. But it took decades of work, the endorsement of famous athletes and hundreds of millions of dollars for Nike to have the brand presence it has today. To grasp the scope of growth the company has achieved, consider this: The Nike Swoosh was created in 1971 by Carolyn Davidson, a graphic design student taking an accounting class taught by Phil Knight, CEO of Nike Inc. For her services, Davidson presented Knight with a bill for $35. As of the end of the 2004 fiscal year, Nike Inc. posted earnings of 12.3 billion dollars. Not bad for a small Swoosh.
   Large-scale branding success stories pervade the coffee industry as well.
   In 1959, the Colombian Coffee Federation created a character to represent the country’s brand of premium 100-percent Colombian coffee. Intuit to the world of coffee growing around them, they created Juan Valdez, a reflection of the Colombian coffee farmer. “I don’t know if you’ve been to the coffee region in Colombia, but you will see hundreds of Juan Valdez’s,” says Juan Esteban, president of the Colombian Coffee Federation. “The character Juan Valdez is just like a Colombian coffee farmer. You go there and you will see lots of farmers who are just like him, [complete with] the mustache, the poncho.”
   They took a risk creating the fictional coffee farmer who donned a white hat and traveled with his mule companion named Conchita. The creative advertising agency Doyle, Dane and Burnbach worked with the Colombian Coffee Federation to sculpt the brand identity that today is so closely associated with Colombian coffee. Today, Juan and his mule are not present in the Federation’s advertisements for Colombian coffee, because, like Nike, the logo—an outline of Juan and Conchita with towering peaks behind—has become the only necessary symbol. “When you see the logo, everyone knows what it is, it’s Juan Valdez,” says Esteban. KRC Research recently completed a focus group that showed 95 percent overall awareness of the 100-percent Colombian Coffee logo.
   Nike and the Colombian Coffee Federation are perfect examples of how a brand, no matter how large it might eventually become, must start somewhere. But brand identity does not develop from the ether; it is a calculated, brainstormed, creative vision that represents a company’s most recognizable attributes. In Nike’s case, Knight suggested to Davidson that she design something with movement, and hence, the sporting good company logo is one of the most recognized symbols associated with speed, agility and flexibility.

Creating Your Brand
The creation of a brand should be a process filled with implicit forethought. Without it, branding can be a slippery slope, and a poor branding strategy can cause a company to become a hollow entity not embodying its brand to the fullest.
   Many companies looking to create a brand identity hire outside creative firms to look in on and facilitate the creative process. These firms specialize in brand identity development through a series of methods designed to identify the most important aspects of a business. “We run a discovery session, and in that discovery session we get to a neutral place and get the people that are influential in the company [together],” says Shaw. These discovery sessions generally last about a day. Words and Pictures utilizes a method they refer to as “turning the telescope,” in which a company is urged to look internally to discover its claim of distinction. Shaw says that competitors are all doing research, running focus groups or seeing what is going on in the field. Then they all come back with the same information. And they create their advertising from this gathered information. “It’s no wonder [that] all the advertising looks the same because they’ve all gone to the same well.” Shaw and his associates attempt to gather at least 100 vital facts about the company based on the responses of the company’s employees. The broad spectrum of employees in a company, from the owner down to the barista, all should participate in this discovery session. Shaw finds that people who are actually on the floor with the product have a lot of ideas that are often not exposed to the brand creation process. It would be similar to a coffeehouse owner seeking to create a brand identity but not asking for the input of the baristi who serve the product and interact with the customers. These people are the backbone of a business and accurate branding is an accumulation of all employees’ ideas. From the 100 or so responses generated in these sessions, Shaw and his team try to narrow the field down to four or five claims of distinction. “You find what those claims are, and then you can make those claims. We take those claims and interpret it into words and pictures,” says Shaw.
   Gillies Coffee Co., based in Brooklyn, N.Y. has a very notable claim of distinction. The company is the oldest coffee roaster in America. Despite this great honor, the company was beset with a challenge. How does one revitalize a company’s image? The business was founded in 1840, yet in the late 1990s saw its renown fading among newly emerging specialty roasters. “We asked customers why they chose Gillies, and discovered that within the specialty retailing community we are known primarily for the quality, freshness and diversity of our products,” says Donald Schoenholt, president of Gillies Coffee Co. “This was good news, but in recent years, with a score or more of excellent new specialty roasters in the field, and continuing competition from traditional rivals, it became apparent that while our coffee might be fresh, our image was not. Being recognized as ‘America’s oldest’ was suddenly discovered to have drawbacks as well as the obvious advantages.” Schoenholt hired Words and Pictures after seeing an advertisement in Fresh Cup Magazine, and began to rejuvenate the brand image of the 160-year-old company. It was important for Gillies to keep its historic claim of distinction and to prove to the specialty world that it had a passion for the craft and young ideas. “The result has been the ‘New Approach’ theme which we have adopted during the last year as the central idea in our visual and word approach to our customers,” says Schoenholt. “It was decided that the familiar Gillies red-circle logo would remain and be used in all our art. It is a visual anchor to our brand heritage too recognizable and unique with which to part. Words and Pictures crafted ‘A Fresh Approach Since 1840’ as an additional word picture to ‘America’s Oldest Coffee Merchant,’ which appears in the red-circle trademark. The new phrase conveys a business with history and stability, places us in the forefront of the industry and has a youthful and progressive attitude.”
   Mozaic Ltd. has offices in San Francisco, Calif.; St. Louis, Mo.; and Kansas City, Mo. The company specializes in creative production projects and business development strategies. The company can help a business set itself apart form the crowd and Jeff Stein, chief creative officer, is the man to get your brand rolling. Similar to Words and Pictures and many other firms in the business of brand development, Mozaic holds a discovery session in which new clients brainstorm about “the brand landscape, competitive positions, intended ‘attitude’ of the new brand, target demographic, etc.” The second phase of development is the “creative cycle of the brand exercise,” says Stein. “This involves a team of visual designers, assisted by writers and account executives participating in a 2–3 week process of creating everything from logo/icon development to typographic treatments, secondary font selections, etc.” The result of this stage of brand development is a primary direction for the client and the creative firm to head. In Mozaic Ltd.’s case, they present their clients with 3–5 executions of the new brand. The third stage in Mozaic Ltd.’s branding process, once a design and image have been agreed upon, is planning the release to the marketplace. “Depending on the type of client, this phase may also include development of correspondence material, collateral and a ‘standards guide’ for use by the internal marketing department(s) of the client organization, and/or by other client vendors and partners,” says Stein.
   Now, for a small coffeehouse owner or a small green bean importing business, all this talk about branding, brand strategy, and execution may seem either a pipe dream or unnecessary. Possibly your company has already found its niche and the idea of expansion or even rocking the boat slightly is fraught with reluctance. This, however, is where branding can do its best work. A defined brand identity can help a company regain its focus, even if it is on its feet. “For a small company as ours, branding is a matter of concentration and focus. All our products are marketed under the Gillies brand,” says Schoenholt. “It can help consumers see your company more clearly.” Branding can tighten all the loose strings that may be weighing your company down. It can give all the employees of a company a stronger internal drive by creating a fearless leader who represents the best the company has to offer. For all of this to fall in line, though, a brand, the company, its employees, and its customers must all have a crystal-clear awareness of each other.

Eye of the Beholder
Forming a brand identity forces a company to look internally at itself and externally at the world of consumers. A company is only as good as its employees can make it. Solid branding is only as strong as the company that supports it. And strong community branding is as successful as the patrons that propel it.
   Representing your brand consistently throughout the company is a mark of a successful brand identity. “Consumers really value consistency, and the careful presentation of a logo lets people know that you take equal care in the creation of your product. It creates a message that consumers can trust,” says Lois Maffeo, information and publications coordinator for Olympia, Wash.-based Batdorf & Bronson Coffee Roasters. And when a brand is the leading indicator of a company’s identity, internal organization is paramount. Many people don’t think of this angle when forming their brand identity, believing that once a brand is out in the open, available for customers to see, the rest will take care of itself. But there are organizational elements and ways to manage your brand that can optimize its effect. “You start building your brand. And you have use for it externally and internally,” says Shaw.
   The effective internal support of your brand can exponentially affect the external use. “The simplest way to ensure that a brand is congruous throughout an organization is to make all associates feel like they have a stake in the game,” says Stein. “What I mean by this is fairly basic, but comes in a variety of forms. If your entity has ‘levels’ of employees, then make the brand part of all strata. From the boardroom to the stock room, everyone needs to feel like the brand is omnipresent, not just a marketing gimmick. Put out a newsletter that keeps everyone ‘in the loop,’ and affords you the opportunity to impart a consistent brand message and/or position. Distribute branded apparel or premiums to employees for performance, awards, etc.” Specialty coffee business owners often have planned employee meetings where the group discusses everything that might have happened since the last meeting. These meetings are a great opportunity to remind all those who work for your company that they represent the company as employees, and that the effect or the feel of the brand identity can be a barometer for employee attitude.
   DNA Design is a New Zealand-based design firm that runs the Web site allaboutbranding.com. In an article entitled “Why Branding Needs Organizational Development,” author Dannielle Blumenthal states the importance of organizing your brand and your company to align with each other. She states: “Brands depend on people to deliver them, especially service brands, where one’s impression of the product is often reduced to a telephone conversation with a customer service representative. The people charged with delivering the brand image have to understand it, and have to be fully committed to conveying it as well.” Whereas this article makes a general statement about branding, it may as well be referring to the heavily personal coffee industry. Every coffeehouse owner dreams of his or her barista conveying positively the brand image of the company; these interactions reinforce the strength of a brand and in turn create a community brand.
   In many ways, consumers are your best advertising campaign and are among the strongest brand promoters that exist. The community that surrounds your brand identity can create the momentum for your company to rise above the rest. Peet’s Coffee & Tea, founded in Berkeley, Calif., has a strong following of supporters who dub themselves “Peetniks.” Joining the Peetniks includes benefits such as early availability of special Peet’s Coffee & Tea roasts and entry into a sweepstakes that invites winners on an all-expenses-paid trip to San Francisco, Calif. to tour the Peet’s roasting facility, cup coffee with expert cuppers and have a roast renamed in the winner’s honor for the day. The community brand that Peet’s Coffee & Tea has created is the prime example of a following that is devoted solely to one company. “Marketplace buzz and/or consumer opinions are everything to a brand. In short: If consumer approval ratings of a brand are high, there is almost nothing that can stop you,” says Stein. “Conversely, if consumer opinions are low, nothing can bring a brand down more expeditiously.” Creating this community brand occurs with smart promotion, location specific release and intelligent managing of your brand.
   “If you make surgical equipment, you’re obviously not going to put a commercial in the Superbowl,” says Shaw. One must choose which of the many media outlets to enter, and when chosen, the efforts must be thorough and tactful. “You match the media with the audience you’re trying to reach,” says Shaw.
   There is a right time and place for everything, and The Colombian Coffee Federation is well aware of this as it releases its new advertising campaigns aimed at younger generations. The Federation is hoping to keep the strong image it holds with older generations who lived through the early ad campaigns and reinvent the brand power of 100-percent Colombian coffee with their children. In cooperation with New York City-based Weber Shandwick Worldwide, the Federation is placing its new ads in Rolling Stone, People Magazine and Entertainment Weekly. “It’s a mix of entertainment magazines targeting the younger audience and epicurean magazines for people who are really looking for premium coffee,” says Julia Gusakova of Weber Shandwick Worldwide. “The key of this new advertising is to create a premium coffee mood, and when you look at the ads, they feature these everyday moments but create a special mood that wants you to be part of that.”

The Whole Picture
Branding is not a simple thing, and there can be no illusions about that. It is possibly one of the most important aspects contributing to success or failure. Business after business has proven that fact. Key to successful branding is research, input, hard work, promotion, representing your brand, continually reassessing your business and its impression, and of course maintaining a quality product that will reinforce the strength of your brand. “There’s an old adage in our business,” says Shaw. “The best way to kill a bad product is do great advertising. You have to fulfill the promise.”

Nick Obourn is the associate editor of Fresh Cup. He can be reached at nick@freshcup.com. For branding legal issues, such as protecting your brand, please see Donna Blankenship’s article, “Coffee Rights: Knowing The Law Can Save Your Business” in the April issue of Fresh Cup.