At birdsong gregory, we enjoy working with the many industrial manufacturing companies based in and around Mecklenburg County because so much opportunity exists to help them develop stronger brands.

According to Deloitte’s Global Benchmark Study, the most successful manufacturers excel in building innovation capabilities and are focused on growth through mergers and acquisitions, geographic expansion and developing new market segments. Another common element that B2B manufacturing companies share? A strong, consistent, and scalable brand platform.

Manufacturing a Strong Brand

In today’s environment, manufacturers are under intense pressure to constantly innovate, expand into new markets, and lower costs. To create brands and experiences that communicate powerfully around the world, manufacturers must effectively articulate their vision and competitive points of differentiation to a wide range of audiences, including end-users, suppliers and distributors. Clearly conveying this message is especially important for motivating employees, who are responsible for infusing the brand experience into product design and throughout sales and service processes.

Also critical is mapping out a comprehensive brand architecture and design system that aligns an organization without undermining its core brand equities – transforming internal and external touchpoints through distinctive visual and verbal identity elements.

Our Brand Discovery Process

For the last 13 years, we’ve helped our clients create, build, and grow their brands and deliver tangible equity to their business. Whether you’re a start-up, a challenger, a market leader, or a brand in need of turnaround, our approach begins with a thorough, systematic brand discovery process. Understanding the current state of your brand is the most important step you can take – whether you are launching a new brand or redefining an existing one.

Our brand discovery phase typically includes the following steps:

• Depending on the size of the organization, this can be a single intense session with senior management or a series of sessions involving a broader sampling of employees, customers, and C-suite executives. A typical session lasts up to four hours and is a facilitator-lead discussion around existing and planned products and services, brand perceptions, brand values, organizational goals, competitive landscape and more.
• As a way of testing the perceptions gathered during the brand discovery group session, a series of face-to-face (or telephone) interviews and web-based questionnaires take place with customers, suppliers, partners and other select individuals who interact with the brand. This is a critical step in determining if internal brand perceptions are aligned with external brand realities.
• We then conduct a thorough review of all the tactics being used to deliver current brand communications, brand messaging and brand experiences. The brand audit typically includes internal and external marketing materials such as websites, blogs, social media properties, sales collateral, advertising campaigns, product packaging, etc.
• Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of competing brands plays a key role in developing a unique and compelling brand of your own. It is critical in establishing a brand that will gain traction and deliver tangible results. To accomplish this, we determine how your competitors are positioning themselves and identify weaknesses your brand can exploit.
• As the final step of our brand discovery process, we present an in-depth report of everything we’ve learned through group sessions, interviews and research. We identify the branding opportunities that hold the greatest potential and present what we believe to be the strongest positioning for your brand given your audiences, industry sector and competitive situation.

Want to learn more about how our agency can help your company develop a stronger, more consistent, and scalable brand platform? Click here.