The client is a major daily metropolitan newspaper with a weekday circulation over 450,000 and Sunday circulation of over 600,000. The newspaper also offers a portfolio of niche publications and online products.
The client wanted to initiate a strategy to define the brand of its core print newspaper. Key issues the newspaper wanted to address included understanding the online product and its relationship with the print product; how the core brand of the newspaper should be used for different products; and where various products fall on the brand relationship spectrum.
Kannon utilized its Brand Academy approach to the project. The Kannon Brand Academy is based upon methodologies outlined in David Aaker’s book Brand Portfolio Strategy and Mike Moser’s United We Brand. The Kannon Brand Academy culminates in a Brand Road Map which documents the consistent and cohesive identity of the company’s brand in a practical, day-to-day guide.
A cross-functional Branding Team was assembled, including senior Kannon consultants and core client professionals, which met regularly over four months to develop a brand strategy. The Brand Academy work approach was iterative, integrating data and analyses with solid business experience and judgment. A sub-group worked on the Brand Architecture to determine how the client’s brands are organized and related within the portfolio of products offered.
The team established that the current Brand Portfolio had two Master Brands and five Product Brands; however, the team recommended that a new name should be considered that foreshadows a multi-media portfolio for the future. Action steps were prioritized and put into place to build the capabilities, tools and frameworks to manage the branding process. The team also identified the Core Brand Values, Message, and Personality of the core print newspaper, online, and business-to-business Product Brands.
The newspaper’s Vice President of Strategic Marketing, commented: “Kannon’s Brand Academy helped the cross-functional team agree on the key components of our portfolio strategy moving forward and how branding is driven by that strategy. Moreover, the team discussed the key issues from each department's perspective, and built consensus around the recommended solutions throughout the process. Each department's representative on the Brand Academy developed a vested interest in the initiative's recommendations, and embraced the language and structure to bring back to their own departments.”