PBL Task 10 - Investor Relations

Define: Investor relations - "is a strategic management responsibility that is capable of integrating finance, communication, marketing and securities law compliance to enable the most effective two-way communication between a company, the financial community and other constituencies, which ultimately contributes to a company's securities achieving fair valuation. The term describes the department of a company devoted to handling inquiries from shareholders and investors, as well as others who might be interested in a company's stock or financial stability." (source)

Put it simply, investor relations is something that is capable of integrating different factors to enable the most effective level of communication between different sectors.

1. What are the main characteristics of a turnaround strategy?

2. Building trust through communication

3. Examples

This image shows that a turnaround strategy basically means to solve a problem that is making a loss in a company and to transform it into something positive. 

1. Involves restructuring

Turnaround involves restructuring the sick company.

Restructuring means rearranging the resources of the company for improving its profitability and performance.

Restructuring can be a:

• Financial restructuring,
• Technical restructuring,
• Marketing restructuring,
• Personnel restructuring, etc.

2. Applicable to a loss-making unit

Turnaround is a strategy of converting a loss-making or an uneconomic unit into a profitable one.

1. It is applicable to a loss-making unit.
2. It is done (applied or implemented) by making systematic efforts.
3. It is a solution to solve the problem of industrial sickness.

3. Needs consultation of experts

Turnaround can be done by consulting company's own (internal) experts or by external experts (hired consultants).

These two types of experts have their own advantages and limitations:

1. Internal experts know the company's culture, resources, level of technology, etc., much better. However, they may be biased because their interests are involved.
2. External experts though may be unbiased, but their suggestions may not be practical and the sentiments of the employees may not be considered.

So, a sick company must keep a proper balance of consultation between the internal and external experts.

4. Long and time-consuming process

Turnaround strategy is a long-term strategy:

1. It is not a one-day task.
2. It is a lengthy and a time-consuming process.
3. In some cases, it may even take few years to turn around a sick unit.

5. Involves an in-depth planning

Turnaround involves stages like analysis, planning, arranging, testing, rearranging, and re-planning.

It goes through the following stages:

1. Turnaround strategy first involves detailed analysis or study of the failed model or structure of the sick company.
2. It begins with planning suitable, adaptable and result-oriented strategies to initiate the turnaround.
3. The implementation of newly planned strategies takes place by arranging (orienting) the structure of the once failed model. It is done so as per instructions (orders) conveyed by a planning authority or committee.
4. After this basic arrangement, planning is put to a practical test for some determined time period. Over a time, data is collected and analysed statistically by experts to seek improvements or failures, if any, in its performance.
5. The plan is enhanced or tweaked even further if some improvements are noticed in its testing phase.
6. In case of witnessing some failures, the plan is corrected and again re-planned followed by making proper rearrangements.

Thus, turnaround strategy involves in-depth planning with evidential testing.

6. Capital intensive strategy

Turnaround is a capital intensive strategy. It mainly requires a large amount of funds (money) to restructure the resources of a sick company.

For its initiation, company needs an excellent team of expert consultants and professionals. Along with utilising the expertise of its internal staff, company also needs external support and/or consultations of other professionals. It needs more funds to pay for the services of these professionals. Furthermore, since the time period of a turnaround cannot be fixed it needs a continuous supply of funds for its uninterrupted operation until a satisfactory success is achieved.

This overall makes a turnaround strategy a costly affair. It is not a viable choice for those companies who cannot afford its capital intensiveness.

7. Optimum utilisation of resources

Generally, a sick company doesn't make an optimum utilisation of its all available resources. These mainly consist of human resources, financial resources, physical resources, and so on.

The turnaround strategy helps to utilise the resources optimally.

1. Turnaround helps to restructure and reorganize all available resources of the company.
2. It tries to channel (use) resources only for profitable venture and not for non-profitable ones.

8. Leaves a permanent effect

Turnaround leaves a permanent effect (mark or impact) on the structure and working of the company. It helps a sick company to stop its all unproductive activities and concentrate on productive ones. It aids the company to change its technology from a labour intensive (that involves many people working) to a capital intensive (that requires large capital investment in modern equipments, high-tech machines, etc. and hence less people working) one. It may also help a sick company to amalgamate with some other company, thereby forming a totally new company.

9. Needs co-operation of people

For turnaround to be successful, full co-operation of employees is necessary. This is because the turnaround strategy will involve the employees.

Co-operation of other groups such as shareholders, financial institutions, suppliers, and others is also required for the turnaround strategy to be effective.

(source)

Example: Xerox Corp's turnaround strategy in India

• In 1999, the world's largest photocopier marker began to fall. 
• In 2000, they reported a loss of $273 million.
• Also lost $20 billion in stock market value (April 1999 - May 2000)
• Revealed turnaround programme in December 2000 which included
• cutting $1 billion in costs
• raiding up to $4 billion through the sale of assets
• exiting non-core businesses and lay offs.

Turnaround strategy:

• Allaire and Mulcahy (CEO's) travelled to meet and talk with as many employees as possible to prepare them for the changes that were going to happen.
• Held meetings, teleconferences and large town meetings to help employees understand the situation.
• By keeping communication lines open with employees and maintaining high visibility built employee confidence in leadership and ability to execute the strategy.

PBL Task 9 - Subliminal Messaging

1. What is subliminal advertising & what is the purpose behind it?
- Rules and regulations
- Tools
- Pros vs. cons
- Examples

The term "subliminal" itself means: "affecting someones mind without their being aware of it." (source) Subliminal advertising has been banned within the UK but is still permitted within the US.

The advantages to using subliminal advertising is the fact that you can influence someone's decision without their knowing about it. A person's thoughts and actions include but are not limited to memory extraction and storage as well as breathing and body temperature and maintenance among others. The subconscious mind also controls the most core traits possessed by your concious mind. (source)

The disadvantages include the fact that there is a less than 25% chance that the message that you are trying to put across subliminally will be noticed by the concious. Very little marketing agencies endeavor to insert such messages due to the strong impact it can have on the audience which could lead to overwhelming bad press. Due to this, it puts off any likely advantages that it COULD bring. (source)

PBL Task 8 - Social Media

1. Why should companies use social media?

• What is the purpose?
• What are the advantages/disadvantages?
• Example eg. viral content

The Internet Advertising Bureau UK did some research into the power of social media. They found out that the average age of customers that interacted with social media were 39 years old of which 84% were female. 86% of consumers are accessing social media while at home with 59% choosing to use their laptops, 31% using their smartphones, 30% using desktop and 12% using tablets. 

80% of consumers said they would be more inclined to buy more often in the future because of a brand’s presence on social media, with 83% of consumers saying they would trial a product because of a brand’s presence, emphasising the importance and power of the channel. 

Frequent activity on social media is key:
An example of this was with Heinz’s new product launch around ‘Snap Pots.’ Taking a look at the Snap Pots activity across an eight-week period showed that consistently posting maintains momentum and mindshare. Missing a week’s post for a new product you’re promoting can mean you have to play catch up the next. 

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1. Social media helps you deliver better customer service

Twitter is often a first port of call for many customers who have pre-sales or support related questions. Leaving customer questions to go unanswered makes a business look unprofessional and like they just don’t care, so it’s crucial that you are visible on the social networks that your customers are using, and that you are regularly monitoring all of your channels for brand mentions and customer questions.

Real-time communication helps to make happy customers which in turn creates brand evangelists who drive positive brand sentiment. I’ve seen customers converted time and time again thanks to businesses answering pre-sales questions promptly; being active on social media really is a great way of positively influencing sales.

2. Social media drives brand building & differentiation

Social media makes it easy to improve brand awareness and build your brands identity. You can effectively establish your brands personality and give your business a human voice that people can relate to.

Connecting on an emotional level or showing some personality are both effective ways of helping your brand stand out from your competitors.

3. Social media helps you to manage your reputation

Managing your reputation online is a critical part of any marketing strategy and social media provides you with a fast and effective way to do this.  When dealt with swiftly and sensitively comments and complaints can be dealt with effectively, this instant feedback demonstrates high levels of customer service and can effectively diffuse negativity and resolve any issues that the customer may have.

Negative sentiment can often be turned into positive in a very public way.  Such a visible demonstration of strong customer service and problem resolution can have a very powerful effect.  The customer is now happy and won’t go on to post bad reviews and warn their friends not to use the company, instead, they are more likely to tell them that the company provides great customer service.

4. Social media helps increase trust in your business or brand

With so many alternatives to choose from, customers are often overwhelmed and want an easy way to authenticate a business that they are dealing with for the first time.

Seeing that you are active on social media helps to fill potential customers with trust, it signals that you care about your customers and should anything go wrong, that it will be easy to contact you.

5. Social media allows you to obtain real customer insights

Customer insights can drive the development of social media campaigns and shape strategic decisions, helping you to make your website content and product or service offerings more attractive and relevant to your customers. Social media makes it quick and easy for businesses to obtain feedback from customers, which will give you a clearer idea of brand sentiment and help you identify common pain points you can address.

6. Social media is a great way of promoting your content

We all know how important content marketing is, not only in terms of SEO, but in order to attract new customers. Help increase awareness of each new blog article or news post that you publish, by shouting about them on social media.
Social media when used in conjunction with high quality content creation is a highly effective way to attract new customers to you and also helps you to build authority in your area of expertise.

7. Social media helps you keep customers engaged with you

Social media is a great way of keeping your business or brand in the mind of your customers. This means you can actively influence purchasing decisions and helps to foster customer loyalty and encourage repeat purchases.

8. Social media will drive website traffic

Being active on social media will help you increase the amount of traffic that your website receives. Successful social media activities will always improve the amount of traffic referrals your website receives, playing an essential initial role in your sales funnel.

Social media as an SEO ranking signal is increasing in importance. Being talked about and mentioned on social media is a positive signal that shows you are popular and have content worth sharing and talking about. This in turn drives Google to regard your website as being more authoritative, which is one of the many signals that helps your website rank better in organic SEO.

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Small businesses would also benefit a lot from using social media.

1. Branding

Social Media Marketing can create a recognisable identity for your product or service. This is extremely
important for a small business. Social Media tools can get the word out about
your brand in a way that promotes online conversation and creates buzz.

2. Word of mouth marketing

Exposure is a key to growing your small business. Word of mouth may not generate business but with social media, you can create buzz around your business and brand. More than 80% of online marketing firms agree social media engagement is based upon social interaction between the customer and the business.

3. Reputation management

Social Media tools let you keep an eye on what other people and sites are saying about your name, company, or brand online. You can then use the insights to fix any problems, if need be. You could use forums and message boards to answer questions professionally, honestly, and correctly, which will earn you respect as an expert in your niche. People will look to you for answers. 

4. Find out what works and what doesn't

Your business does not move forward unless you understand your prior faults. Social media gives you a chance to look at your prior engagement year over year, to find out what worked and what did not work. By doing so, you can review your social media metric tools and engagement score.

5. Helps with search engine rankings

Social media also helps you move up in the search engine rankings because of links. Many social news sites and social networking sites have “follow” links in their profile pages. These “follow” links can provide your online properties with a higher ranking on search engines such as Bing.

6. Cost-effective marketing and advertising alternative

Social media marketing shouldn’t cost a small business nearly as much as traditional advertising. And, if you do it yourself, it might not cost a dime. However, it will cost you time. Depending how much your time is worth, it might be worthwhile to hire someone to help with the social media marketing. But, all in all, social media marketing is just a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing and advertising.

Social media is becoming more and more of a necessity each day for businesses ranging from big corporations down to your average corner shop. Along with a clearly defined identity and already proven to work marketing tricks, social media is a great way of boosting your business both economically and brand wise.

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2. What are the different types of social media?

• The effectiveness of each
• B2B vs. B2C

Social Networks - Services that allow you to connect with other people of similar interests and background.  Usually they consist of a profile, various ways to interact with other users, ability to setup groups, etc. The most popular are Facebook and LinkedIn.
Bookmarking Sites - Services that allow you to save, organize and manage links to various websites and resources around the internet.  Most allow you to "tag" your links to make them easy to search and share.  The most popular are Delicious and StumbleUpon.
Social News - Services that allow people to post various news items or links to outside articles and then allows it's users to"vote" on the items.  The voting is the core social aspect as the items that get the most votes are displayed the most prominently.  The community decides which news items get seen by more people.  The most popular are Digg and Reddit.
Media Sharing - Services that allow you to upload and share various media such as pictures and video.  Most services have additional social features such as profiles, commenting, etc.  The most popular are YouTube and Flickr.
Microblogging - Services that focus on short updates that are pushed out to anyone subscribed to receive the updates.  The most popular is Twitter.

Blog Comments and Forums - Online forums allow members to hold conversations by posting messages.  Blog comments are similar except they are attached to blogs and usually the discussion centers around the topic of the blog post.  There are MANY popular blogs and forums.

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3. How do you implement a social media strategy?

• What are the elements?
• How to measure this eg. return of investment (ROI), evaluation
• Importance of strategy

Start by defining your goals

Define your target audience

Research the platforms

Plan your content

Build and develop your social media presence

Maintain your profiles

Hire a social media manager

You can find more in depth here.

PBL Task 7 - Media Agencies

1. What is a media agency? Include definition, tasks, advantages and disadvantages.

Definition:
A media agency makes sure a marketing message appeals to consumers, appears in the right place at the right time and that the advertiser pays the best possible price. (source)

Tasks:
a. receive brief from client
b. seek to understand more about the people they need to influence
c. research how target group consumes and uses traditional and social media
d. work closely with client and other brand agencies - if appropriate, develop an idea and a media plan that media buyers and/or content creators can then implement. (source)

Advantages:
- ensure that marketers understand the behaviour of their consumers
- make sure that messages are targeted correctly
- ensure marketers really understand the potential of the latest technology
- act as the conduit between the client and consumer as well as client and media owners
- they now work with social networks, brands that produce their own content or simply communicate regularly with customers for example as well as the more traditional newspapers, TV and radio so clients are able to negotiate better deals (source)

Challenges:
- need to work much closer with technology firms
- "dashboards" are very popular to make sure clients and internal media agency planners are constantly on the same page (source)

2. Name different media habits around the world. Include research and statistics, channels of B2B/B2C

PBL Task 6 - Communication Plan

1. How do you develop a communications plan?
- Include key steps

To develop a plan for communication of any sort, you have to consider some basic questions:

• Why do you want to communicate with the community?  (What’s your purpose?)
• Whom do you want to communicate it to?  (Who’s your audience?)
• What do you want to communicate?  (What’s your message?)
• How do you want to communicate it?  (What communication channels will you use?)
• Whom should you contact and what should you do in order to use those channels?  (How will you actually distribute your message?)
  source

Nine step plan:

1. Identify your objectives - what is the purpose for communicating key program messages?
2. Choose your target audience - who needs to know about your program?
3. Design your key messages - what key messages do you want to communicate to each other? What information should you and should you not share?
4. Select your communications method - how will you communicate messages to the target audience?
5. Plan for two-way communication - which method allows dialogue and opportunities for feedback?
6. Establish your time frame - when will you share updates with different audiences?
7. Draft a budget - what is your budget? How much will your plan cost?
8. Implement the plan - what key activities will you need to complete in order to roll out the plan?
9. Monitor results and look for ways to improve - who will be responsible for developing the review criteria and making the review happen?
   source

2. Why is the communications plan important to a company?
- What can be achieved?

- Helps give your day-to-day work a focus
- Helps set priorities
- Provides you with sense of order and control
- Helps to get staff to support your program
- Protects you from last-minute demands from staff
- Stops you feeling overwhelmed and offers you peace of mind
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Important to project managers because:
Expectations - they set the tone for all communication concerning the project. This allows you to maintain control of the project and ensure all stakeholders receive the necessary information. Set standards for how participants communicate, including email, meetings, phone calls and memos. For regular communication such as meetings, timing is another consideration. Schedule weekly project meetings to keep participants updated on progress.

Consistency - A solid communication plan increases the consistency of how the project is handled. The participants who follow the plan should communicate consistently with one another. You also need to ensure that all stakeholders have the same information on the project requirements and changes. If some stakeholders aren't informed of changes, you risk mistakes or delays in the project work.

Productivity - Regular communication allows the employees working on the project to remain productive. When they are kept in the loop on project happenings, employees will feel more comfortable with their duties. They are equipped with the necessary information to keep working rather than stopping frequently to seek out information they are missing. The employees are also better able to work together with proper communication, allowing for collaboration and effective performance on the project.

Outcome - A communication plan enables you as the project manager to lead the team to the desired project outcome. Without proper communication with all stakeholders, you might fail to meet the requirements of the project. You need clear communication from the stakeholders to figure out exactly what they want and need from the project. For example, if you are developing a software program for a third party, regular communication with the third party is imperative to figure out exactly how they want the software to work. Continued communication ensures that the final product will meet the expectations when it is delivered.

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3. Give examples of different communication plans.
- How were they implemented?
- Industry correlation
- Trends

STARBUCKS

Reason #1: Consistent branding 

Starbucks has a brand personality that comes through in every communication.  No matter where you are in the world, the logo, storefront and store presence all have a familiar look and feel.  When I am in an unfamiliar place, I always notice when someone walks by carrying the distinctive coffee cup.  When driving on a highway, all I need to see is the logo and I know refreshment is nearby.

Reason #2: Web is the content hub

The web experience is tailored to the audience.  For example, my web experience acknowledges my rewards status, so anytime I go to the web site i can easily access my account, check on my rewards, find stores; all the things I want to do as a coffee consumer.  

Video is used to masterfully tell the story of ordinary people and, at the same time, ties in an appropriate brand message.  

Reason #3: Content is Integrated across channels

I’ve subscribed to email communications, so I regularly receive messages.  These messages are appropriately paced, visually oriented, providing interesting information about the products Starbucks offers.  The content is focused on education and information, not promotion.  I am rewarded for frequent purchases and special occasions.

Starbucks has a presence in social media.  Although they have a large Twitter and Facebook audience,  I’ve noticed they have found their voice in these channels and it’s appropriate and consistent with who they are as a brand.

 Direct mail is the delivery mechanism for rewards.  Despite all their online prowess the old fashioned postcard is still the gift basket for delivering rewards benefits. I always look forward to the distinctive solid black postcard because I know it’s treat time.

Reason #4: Mobile experience

Starbucks is leading the way in the mobile experience, which makes complete sense when you consider their product.   At a basic level you can view their content from a smartphone. Email communications are optimized for the mobile experience, so it’s easy to consume the information while you’re on the go.

The Starbucks app is one of the more powerful features in their marketing arsenal.  Once the app is downloaded one can use the phone to pay for products, reload funds on a card, and find stores. In fact I seldom carry my physical gold card anymore, it isn't necessary.

Reason #5: Make it easy to share content

Each communication encourages readers to share content with friends.  Following best practices, Starbucks provides easy one-click options to ensure that sharing content is simple and easy to do; most important, they ask you to share.

Reason #6: Engage consumers

Starbucks has a separate presence for collecting ideas.  For some time, they have branded an experience around the idea of collaboration: the site is myideas.  Once again the web serves as the hub of the experience.  Here, one can submit and comment on different ideas.  Starbucks wisely provides feedback so consumers are able to see how the company uses consumer ideas and feedback.

Starbucks even has a twitter account for this initiative.

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PBL task 5 - Creating a Brand Strategy

Task 5A;

Problem: Brand strategy

1. Define brand strategy - include elements and importance of strategies.

"decision-making for the effective handling of brands; three general branding strategies are available - a single brand for all of the organisation's products, family branding, or the use of individual brand names for all products." (source)

 Five Key Brand Elements:

·         Brand Position
The Brand Position is the part of the brand that describes what your organization does and for whom, what your unique value is and how a customer benefits from working with you or your product/service, and what key differentiation you have from your competition. Once you've defined your brand position, make it available in 25, 50, and 100 word versions.

·         Brand Promise
The Brand Promise is the single most important thing that the organization promises to deliver to its customers—EVERY time. To come up with your brand promise, consider what customers, employees, and partners should expect from every interaction with you. Every business decision should be weighed against this promise to be sure that a) it fully reflects the promise, or b) at the very least it does not contradict the promise.

·         Brand Personality
Brand Traits illustrate what the organization wants its brand to be known for. Think about specific personality traits you want prospects, clients, employees, and partners to use to describe your organization. You should have 4-6 traits (5 is ideal), each being a single term (usually an adjective).

·         Brand Story
The Brand Story illustrates the organization's history, along with how the history adds value and credibility to the brand. It also usually includes a summary of your products or services.

·         Brand Associations
Brand Associations are the specific physical artifacts that make up the brand. This is your name, logo, colors, taglines, fonts, imagery, etc. Your brand associations must reflect your brand promise, ALL of your brand traits, and support your brand positioning statement.

·         source

Importance of strategies:

2. What are the arguments for internal and external brand strategy development - use examples.

While many companies do not use the words internal branding, all of the interviewees were 

able to describe the activities that build the bridge between strategy and execution. They 

used expressions such as: 

• Living the corporate values. 

• Leveraging the corporate brand strategy to reinforce brand requirements internally 

and reach out to potential recruits externally. 

• Activities, processes and communication involved in empowering associates. 

• Create and demonstrate consistent brand experience at all touch points. 

Based on these interviews and additional reading we would suggest the following definition 

for ”internal branding”: 

Internal branding is the set of strategic processes that align and empower employees 

to deliver the appropriate customer experience in a consistent fashion. These 

processes include, but are not limited to, internal communications, training support, 

leadership practices, reward & recognition programs, recruitment practices and 

sustainability factors. 

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External Opportunities and Threats

Situational analyses consider opportunities and threats from the external environment. External opportunities include things such as gaps in the market that no company is currently serving, new markets and other clear growth opportunities. External threats include new product releases from competitors and new competitors arising in the market.

A range of external factors can present either opportunities or threats, depending on the specifics. Changes in the law, for example, can provide distinct opportunities to some businesses in an industry while threatening the survival of others. Changing consumer preferences and market-changing new product categories, as another example, can give new entrepreneurs a world of opportunities while seriously threatening established brands.

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Task 5B;

Problem: Brand architecture

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of different brand architecture/strategy/models?

- Why do companies use different ones? eg. Apple vs Nestle.

All these brand strategies have advantages and disadvantages to each model. All companies would have to use different methods purely due to the fact that their outcome is going to be different.

For example, Apple's brand is aimed towards people that can afford to spend a lot of money on their products, none of which are cheap. That means that they would earn a lot more money and their profit margin would be higher. They would then be able to spend the profit on making better products and improving their marketing techniques and adverts.

Nestle, however, have a lot of sub-categories such as Kit-Kat, Nescafe coffee and Pure Life bottled water. This shows that they provide a wide range of products for their consumers, showing how diverse they are. Their branding strategy would be based more on families.

They're both different as they are targeting different markets and they have different associations, stories, promises, positions and personalities.

PBL task 4 - Brand Identity and Image

The trigger of this task was the fact that Itella was changing its name to Posti as of January 1, 2015. Again, we found it hard to think of what the actual problem was. In the end, we decided the problem was:

"Brand identity vs. Image"

The learning objectives we came up with were:

1. What is the difference between brand identity and image?

• what are the elements of brand identity?
• what are the elements of image?
• why are they important?
• include sources & definitions

Brand identity: the overall looks of a brand's communications.

Brand image: the general impression of a product held by real or potential customers.

The main different from these definitions is that the identity is what the company portray themselves to look like while the image is the customers own opinion.

2. What actions do a company need to take in order to achieve Brand Identity?

• how would you go about doing this effectively?
• are there any problems that could arise?
• how would you overcome them?

The elements of brand identity include

Logo or word mark: a logo is a graphic symbol. A word mark/logotype is just the words of your company/product name set in a specific, fixed way.

Different logo “lockups”: Logo should be consistent but there should be variations based on placement and usage. They should all have the same essential qualities.

Key colours: A corporate colour palette is usually defined by the colours in a logo.

Additional colour palette options: what other colours compliment them? For example, bright and bold.

Corporate typefaces: only a handful of fonts should be used with printed materials. They should be available on all devices used to create the documents.

Standard typographic treatments: your typographic identity should include ways of handling key types of text.

Consistent style for images: All imagery should have a consistent look and feel. Photos don’t have to be used. Line art, illustrations, charts and graphs can also be used. There should be a consistent style in all materials, be it printed or online.

A full library of graphic elements: these are the small details they build a branding system. These are the areas that a professional graphic designer can pull together a cohesive look. (source)

The elements of brand image include

First impressions: a customer will always judge a website/leaflet/brochure etc by the way it looks. If it looks nice, the customer will want to know more about it. If it ends up looking tacky or boring, they may decide to take no extra notice.

Emotions: a brand shouldn’t just aim to look very good. They should also look like they can deliver what they promise, therefore it should be based on what the customer wants to see. The business should also think more about the emotion that the client is buying into. Eg) construction business. Customer isn’t just buying buildings, they are buying reliability, solidity and strength. Once this has been looked into, the company would be able to think more about fonts and what would look best with the message they are trying to convey.

Bigger & better: if a company makes themselves look bigger, a customer would become more attracted to it. If the company looks like it has been in business for years, have gained extensive knowledge in the field and have a solid workforce in place, a customer would be more inclined to look into them. A way to do this could be to use certain types on a website or add strategic partners to it.

Brand values: creating a predefined set of values is important as it informs both clients and staff of the way things are done. They should be able to convey to clients how you operate and what they can expect from a working relationship.

Strapline: your business should try to odder a single, short line caption for the brand. It is not only one of the quickest ways to inform customers about what you do but they will also remember the brand. In order to create a strapline, you would have to think creatively and not necessarily on the actual service being offered.

Message: this is the first of many sales hurdles that needs to be overcome in order to get a client to buy into a business/service. Your main sales message should be as short and concise as possible and should try to avoid and technical terms or specific industry terminology that ordinary people won’t understand. The emotions and brand values you are selling should also be worked into the message.

Benefits: always aim to highlight the benefits that the product/service can offer to clients and put them on the forefront of any marketing materials. This is what they’re most interested in. What do you do, who have you previously worked for, what was the impact? This will help to set you on top of your competition.

Continuity: all customers should have the same brand experience no matter when they deal with your company, especially in a B2B environment. This will ensure a consistent and reliable business experience so customers will always know what to expect. This also creates a trust between you and your clients, therefore marking them feel comfortable to recommend you to others without putting themselves in a bad light be referring others to an unreliable supplier. This also stands for the way your staff dress/answer the phone, the manner in which your business sends out invoices ad where you have your business. They should always be consistent.

Growing with the business: your business will (hopefully) grow to a size where your brand image no longer accurately reflects how much your business has grown. This is the point where it is worth you looking to rebrand. For example, update your logo/website/stationary/marketing tools to make them more contemporary and fit in line with your current developments.

Don’t stray: stick to what you have and don’t do something different after a while eg) using different fonts on websites.
(source)

3. What benefits can you gain from identity change?

In this particular trigger, the company is able to benefit from the identity change by combining two different companies together. 

4. What is your own opinion of brand identity and image?

Holland and Barrett

• strapline: the good life
• same font on website
• receipts have logo and strapline at top
• own brand products look similar to logo
• to customer: seems like a high end brand
• partnered with GNC
• 'green' theme throughout
• used to be Health & Heather - have rebranded to keep up with the times
• NBTY bought H&B in 1997
• http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/