Building a Project Brand the right way!
In the last blog, we had discussed about how a Brand can help a Program transition from an unexciting unanimated entity to a complete personality with whom all the stakeholders relate to. This blog would provide pointers to project/program managers, sponsors towards building a Project Brand
1.Provide a Form/Shape to your Program: I believe this is the first step towards building a Brand. It gives visual cues towards the Brand values and helps in building Brand Recall. Typically we leverage a Program Name, Tag Line, Logo or a Mascot for this purpose. (Not necessarily All but in some useful combination depending on client context). Majority of the times the first perception is formed through these Brand Cues, therefore these have to be crafted carefully with good brainstorming among key stakeholders.
2.Ensure the expected outcome of the program correlates to the Brand Values: For building a brand for a program, it's important that the program outcome correlates with the Brand Values which we are trying to project. Unless this happens, there will be a disconnect in the minds of stakeholders, which could pave the way for distrust towards the project. E.g. If we are talking about decentralization, then centralization should not come out as a cue from any form of brand communication.
3.Build a focused and integrated Communication plan around brand: Only a focused effort towards building a brand would create long-term brand value leading to benefits for the programs stated in my blog earlier. Use Town halls, road shows to exhibit the brand, and reach out to all stakeholders.
4.Use Brand Ambassadors: We need to spread the brand with the help of Brand Ambassadors such as CXOs and Unit Leads who would represent Brand values and at the same time would help demonstrate senior management commitment towards the Brand.
5.Build on your Brand by incorporating it in all your work: Build templates to carry the Brand Logo and messaging theme for all frequently used documents in your program. Sometimes, depending on the budget and size of the program, the usage of the Brand Logo on t-shirts, pens etc also spread awareness about the brand. All these would serve to reinforce the Brand.
6.Keep Relevant Information freely available: Any information which is not classified about the program should be freely available based on a stakeholder category and other client contexts. This enhances the trust towards the brand and helps in restricting any grapevine discussions against the program.
7.Even before implementation, Keep each interaction of the program to the external world (outside of program team)in accordance with the Brand: For e.g. Be extra prepared for User Acceptance Testing phase with your internal users or an Integration testing phase with your trading partners. Ensure that you are not giving them a feel of unpreparedness, this could be extremely damaging towards the brand.
Overall please remember, Branding takes a lot of patience and time but the results are far reaching! A steady flow of positive communication supported by a focused plan will help the project overcome any negative perceptions about it and thereby become successful.
