Corporate Identity Tony Spaeth cl26

Identityworks: Tools - Components of identity

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Home > Tools > Components Of Identity

Overview > Components Of Identity >

Corporate Identity Components The Spaeth Model

Corporate Identity Process > Corporate Brand Platforms

Identity is fact... the effective sum of the facts that can be used, in the minds of

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various audiences, to distinguish a given entity from all others. To manage identity

Decision Trees >

is to manage these facts.

Naming > Guidelines And Standards Manuals > Implementation Checklist >

[ Site Map ]

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In thirty years work with CEOs, we've learned there are just three core aspects of the leadership responsibility we need to focus on: 1. Destination, short for who we are and where we're going (includes vision, positioning, corporate purpose and mission statements) 2. Culture and personality How we must behave to get there 3. Composition How best to express our defining components, to help get there.

Situation factors are other possible facts about the company (real or merely perceived) which can serve in the minds of key audiences as identifying factors. HQ location for example (Kansas Citybased Hallmark...). Sometimes they're even stronger than the name and logo; examples are Transamerica's tower

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(architecture), and Bill Gates (management). These “situation factors” including products, brands, and subsidiaries must be understood in analysis and planning; like all other identity tools they can be reshaped, changed, ‘spun’ and leveraged.

Third, there are the verbal and visual Identity System elements we more directly manipulate... names, theme lines, logos, signature systems, association models and other verbal or visual tools.

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The presence of a leader is signaled by an identity system visibly managed to express the institution's defining destination, culture and composition.

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(c) Tony Spaeth / Identity

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T H E C O R P O R AT E I D E N T I T Y P R O C E S S

Tony Spaeth / Identity [email protected]

Start PROPOSAL PHASE CORPORAT E ACTIVITY

CONS ULTANT ACTIVITY

Go Decision

Recognition of need to review identity

First meeting • Credentials and procedures • Statement of problem

Second meeting? • Review plan & estimate • Establish team

Written program plan, timetable & fee estimate

INPUTS

Internal Change • Change of Vision/Positioning • Reorganization • Acquisition / merger • Product line change • Marketing strategy change

Environmental change • Technological • Societal • Regulatory

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T H E C O R P O R AT E I D E N T I T Y P R O C E S S

Tony Spaeth / Identity [email protected]

Phase One A N A LY S I S A N D P L A N N I N G CORPORAT E ACTIVITY

Go Decision Designate internal s

Plan Approval

Presentation of Identity Plan Findings, conclusions, recommendations CONS ULTANT ACTIVITY

IDENTITY PLAN Current identity assessment • Visual messages • Verbal messages • Nomenclature system & elements • Name & logo • Identities of components • Signatures & association system

Situation Factors assessment • Industry definition • Geography/Nationality • Size & Ranking • History & Ownership • Management • Competitors • Units & Competences • Brands

Communications Materials audit • Print • Signs • Other media

Literature Review • Press articles • Analyst reports • Business plans • Marketing plans

Leadership Intentions • Destination Vision, Mission, Position • Culture Character, Personality • Composition Organizing concept, Components, Relationships

Identity Platform • Positioning • Purpose • Mission • Composition • Culture • Personality

Creative Direction As required… • Naming Plan • Logo Design criteria • Association models • Nomenclature system

INPUTS Executive Interviews • Corporate mgmt. • Line managers • Corporate staff • Distributors • Agencies

External Interviews • Customers • Industry press • Analysts • Regulators • Unions

Image Research • Review existing data • New research? (added Phase)

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T H E C O R P O R AT E I D E N T I T Y P R O C E S S

Tony Spaeth / Identity [email protected]

Phase Two NAMING AND LOGO DESIGN CORPORAT E ACTIVITY

Plan Approval • Identity Platform • Naming Plan (?) • Design criteria

Logo decision and design approvals

Name selection & clearance

Second-cut selections and availability search

Directional design review

Design recommendations

CONS ULTANT ACTIVITY

Naming Phase (if required) • Master List Generation • First-cut selections & screening

INPUTS

Logo Design • Design exploration • Application studies

Intellectual property counsel

(Possible) name evaluation research

Refinement of selected directions • Application demonstrations • Color studies • Visual System elements

(if appropriate) Audience testing of candidate logos

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T H E C O R P O R AT E I D E N T I T Y P R O C E S S

Tony Spaeth / Identity [email protected]

Phase Three I M P L E M E N TAT I O N P L A N N I N G A N D A P P L I C AT I O N S D E S I G N CORPORAT E ACTIVITY Logo design approval

Applications Design Approvals

Application design recommendations CONS ULTANT ACTIVITY

(if required) Final logo design refinement

Implementation Planning • Applications design checklist • Timetable and budgeting • Preliminary announcement planning

Applications Design (see Checklist) • Stationery & Forms • Web sites • PR / IR communications • HR communications • Facilities signs • Vehicles • Marketing applications

INPUTS Technical input from • Advertising and PR counsel • Facilities management • Purchasing

Supplier input (e.g. signage)

Supervise prototype production/printing

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T H E C O R P O R AT E I D E N T I T Y P R O C E S S

Tony Spaeth / Identity [email protected]

Phase Four I M P L E M E N TAT I O N A N D A D M I N I S T R AT I O N CORPORAT E ACTIVITY

Applications Design Approvals

Identity launch Implement internal & external communications

Ongoing Identity Management Formalize identity management, measurement and policy oversight Contract signage, other implementation; brief suppliers & agencies

CONS ULTANT ACTIVITY Identity Standards & Guidelines Write and design: • Web site with templates • Printed manual(s) • Printed “voice” employee guide

Announcement preparation • Review launch plan • Write & design materials

INPUTS

Public Relations counsel

Corporate Advertising agency

Provide ongoing counsel • Technical • Adaptation to change

Supervise printing & fabrication

Implementation providers • Signs • Print materials, etc.

Environmental change • Technological • Societal • Regulatory

Internal Change • Change of Vision/Positioning • Reorganization • Acquisition / merger • Product line change • Marketing strategy change

Identityworks: Tools - Corporate brand platforms

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Home > Tools > Corporate Brand Platforms

Overview > Components Of Identity > Corporate Identity Process

Corporate Brand Platforms A Corporate Brand Platform is an actionable articulation of management intentions in six parts. The "Components" tool groups these intentions under three headings... the vision or defining destination, desired culture, and communicated

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composition. In practice, it helps to break the 'vision' piece into three elements (positioning, purpose and mission) and to add a 'personality' statement to the 'culture' piece. Thus there are six expressions of the leadership intentions I have found most useful to specify, for the purpose of

Corporate Brand Platforms

planning, deg and managing the corporate brand: >

1.

Decision Trees >

Positioning > What we hope to "be" in our audiences' minds, compared to other companies

Naming >

2.

Purpose > What we are in business to do

Guidelines And Standards Manuals >

3.

Implementation Checklist

Mission > Beyond the economics, why it is worth doing

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4.

Composition > How we are best seen to be structured to achieve our purpose

[ Site Map ]

5.

Culture > The distinctive shared behaviors that best our common purpose and mission

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Personality > Our chosen style and manner

Not all companies, it’s true, can usefully articulate all six statements. Their units, perhaps, may share no meaningful common purpose, mission or culture. To that extent, however, the corporate brand is by definition weaker; the units themselves may constitute the stronger and more relevant brands. Time after time, this six-part construct has been proven to be effective as an identity planning tool. (See Celera, Dow Jones, Flowserve, and Commonfund examples.) proceed to Positioning >

(c) Tony Spaeth / Identity

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Home > Tools > Corporate Brand Platforms > Positioning

Overview >

Corporate Brand Platforms: POSITIONING

Components Of Identity > Corporate Identity Process

"Positioning" provides a short, specific, definitive statement of the unique ‘position’ the company hopes to earn, relative to other companies, in the minds of its audiences.

> Corporate Brand Platforms

The statement should cover three bases – industry, geographic scope, and ranking. > z Industry definition can be conventional or creative; for Dow Jones a “business knowledge” category was created in which it could credibly

Decision Trees >

lead.

Naming > Guidelines And Standards Manuals >

z Geography establishes the regional, national or global scope of the company’s leadership aspirations.

z Ranking establishes a comparative position to which the entity aspires, within its chosen industry and geography… usually "the leading,"

premier, preferred, or one of the leaders.

Implementation Checklist >

The ideal positioning statement is aspirational as well as defining, thus a "goal;" it must be earned, every day. The positioning statement provides the necessary one-line press release (and cocktail party) company definition. It is often the basis for a tag line. Examples I have worked with include:

[ Site Map ] z Dow Jones

“The world’s preferred source of business knowledge"

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z Eastman Chemical

“The world’s preferred chemical company.” z Malden Mills

“Innovative fabrics, engineered for performance and beauty.” z Celera Genomics

"The definitive resource for human genome knowledge and its medical application." z Flowserve

"The world's premier provider of industrial flow management services." proceed to Purpose >

(c) Tony Spaeth / Identity

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Identityworks: Tools - Corporate brand platforms - Purpose

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Home > Tools > Corporate Brand Platforms > Purpose

Overview >

Corporate Brand Platforms: CORPORATE PURPOSE

Components Of Identity >

The corporate purpose statement expresses the company’s functional reason-for-being… what it does, makes or provides every day.

Corporate Identity Process >

The purpose is never merely “to make money.” To make this clear, it helps to add the thought that “by doing this well, we will provide exceptional

Corporate Brand Platforms

returns to our employees and shareholders.” >

The purpose statement provides a continuing focus for corporate decisions, as well as communications. Examples:

Decision Trees >

z Dow Jones

Naming >

“Our corporate purpose is to comprehend the business of the world. By sharing that comprehension as universally as we can, helping people everywhere to understand the business in their lives, we will provide an exceptional return to our shareholders."

Guidelines And Standards Manuals > Implementation Checklist

z Flowserve

"We are in business to provide industrial customers with the world's most effective, efficient, durable and reliable flow management >

capabilities." proceed to Mission >

[ Site Map ]

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Home > Tools > Corporate Brand Platforms > Mission

Overview >

Corporate Brand Platforms: CORPORATE MISSION, OR SOUL

Components Of Identity > Corporate Identity Process

If Purpose is “what we do,” Mission is “why, beyond economics, it is worth doing.” So defined, they are quite different. Separating the "what" from the "why" makes it easier to perceive (and write) them.

> Corporate Brand Platforms

In every great company, leaders and employees are motivated, beyond earnings and dividends, by the belief that in achieving its daily purpose the >

company in some way makes the world (or its part of the world) a better place. The Mission statement expresses this contribution.

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The sense that a company’s contribution is uniquely meaningful to human society is the most durable driver of management, employee, customer

Decision Trees

and even investor loyalty. It is as close as you can get to a corporate soul.

Naming >

A credible, compelling Mission statement is seldom easy to articulate, but always worth the effort. As a rule, Mission statements are written primarily

Guidelines And Standards Manuals > Implementation Checklist

for internal audiences. Examples: z Dow Jones

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"We are motivated by the conviction that the free flow of business knowledge is fundamental to free markets, and free people." z Celera Genomics

“By helping the world fully know the human genome, we will contribute health and well-being to human life in current and future [ Site Map ]

generations." proceed to Composition >

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Home > Tools > Corporate Brand Platforms > Composition

Overview >

Corporate Brand Platforms: COMMUNICATED CORPORATE COMPOSITION

Components Of Identity >

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What are the defining principal parts, and how do they relate to one another to achieve the corporate purpose? Recognizing many audiences’ need to understand the company’s basic composition, this statement explains the company in of its organizing concept and/or its components.

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More precisely, the question is “to best our positioning, how do we want people to understand our composition?” It is really communicated

Corporate Identity Process Corporate Brand Platforms

composition that matters, which may differ from legal, reporting or ing structure.

Decision Trees >

The Composition statement provides the strategic platform for unit branding and naming, the unit signature system, product endorsement, and

Naming > Guidelines And Standards Manuals > Implementation Checklist

other such aspects of sub-corporate identity. A useful Composition statement may emphasize convergence in the parent brand, as in the Dow Jones illustration. Most often, it will simply list four or five basic areas of competence that the overall purpose. Or it may anticipate evolving specializations, as in the Celera Genomics instance. These examples:

> z Dow Jones

"Although historically we are formed of strong, freestanding businesses, today convergence and coherence are more important to us than division. Our purpose is best served by an open flow of ideas, skills, people and information throughout Dow Jones." [ Site Map ] z Celera Genomics

“Today we are one team, wholly focused on decoding the genome. As we learn more, we expect to divide into more specialized teams, each

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Identityworks: Tools - Corporate brand platforms - Culture

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Home > Tools > Corporate Brand Platforms > Culture

Overview >

Corporate Brand Platforms: CORPORATE CULTURE

Components Of Identity >

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The Culture statement identifies any specific, distinctive behaviors which actually help characterize (and differentiate) the corporate brand, and which its leaders believe to be helpful if not critical in achievement of the corporate purpose. Considerations include how the company culture relates to those of its industry, national base, and owners/founders.

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In some companies, in reality the stronger culture is at the division or subsidiary level. When this is intentional, the Composition statement (and the

Corporate Identity Process Corporate Brand Platforms

corporate brand) would reflect its ive role. When it is not, there is leadership work to be done.

Decision Trees >

To be of any help, the Culture statement must go beyond boilerplate, parity expressions of quality and the like. Examples:

Naming >

z Dow Jones

Guidelines And Standards Manuals >

"Our most fundamental ion is for the integrity, accuracy and relevance of the information we provide. This Dow Jones value crosses all unit lines."

Implementation Checklist >

z Celera Genomics

“We are at home in the cultures of pharmacology and medical care, of information technology, and entrepreneurial commerce. We contain all these but above them we are scientists, driven by the need to know and understand." [ Site Map ]

z Commonfund

"Our corporate culture easily, indeed proudly captures the aggressively competitive, performance-driven values of finance, in service to our educational mission."

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Identityworks: Tools - Corporate brand platforms personality

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Home > Tools > Corporate Brand Platforms > Personality

Overview >

Corporate Brand Platforms: CORPORATE PERSONALITY

Components Of Identity >

Culture identifies fundamental behavioral values. Personality, in contrast, identifies preferred style and manner.

Corporate Identity Process >

The Personality statement is especially useful in forming a consistent corporate “voice” and visual design. It can also drive logo design. This is

Corporate Brand Platforms

particularly clear in the Dow Jones example, where the instinct to design a "bronze plaque" kind of logo was strong but wrong, and had to be directly >

confronted.

Decision Trees > Naming > Guidelines And Standards Manuals

z Dow Jones

"We are not a bronze plaque. Our defining personality is dynamic, fast-moving, real-time. We are innovators.

> z Celera Genomics

Implementation Checklist

“We are proudly aggressive, and impatient... focused by our >

purpose, and driven by our mission.”

< return to Tools [ Site Map ]

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Identityworks: Tools - Decision trees

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Home > Tools > Decision Trees

Overview > Components Of Identity >

Naming & Branding Decision Trees The general case (PDF):

Alpha Corporation Decision Tree

Great companies love creative entrepreneurial managers. Naturally, creative managers love to give a creative name to anything they make or

Corporate Identity Process > Corporate Brand Platforms

manage, and its own logo too if they can. This can be healthy, creating new brand wealth. But unless it is controlled, it is also a recipe for brand chaos, confused customers, lowered quality impressions, excessive marketing budgets and ultimately a diminished corporate brand.

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Should a proposed business (product, service or unit) be descriptively named under the corporate brand? Does it need a descriptive name with a

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®, perhaps distanced from the parent? The best answer is almost always a question of optimum balance, between the product or unit's legitimate

creative twist, just distinctive enough to claim a "TM" designation? Or should it stand more freely under its own unique proprietary name, ed

Decision Trees

business interests and the corporation's strategic and communications interests.

Naming >

It is futile to attack such questions as merely a "logo cop," acting on self-directed principle. You need the of clear, unarguable policy that

Guidelines And Standards Manuals

everyone from product manager to CEO understands and accepts. The Decision Tree is a magical tool that makes this almost easy. >

Fortunately, to get a good fix on the best strategic branding balance in any given business situation, there are only four or five questions that need to

Implementation Checklist >

be asked. I think these following four question are universal... applicable in all industries. (In a multi-brand company, a fifth question can help... is the proposed offering best thought of an extension of an existing brand family? See Engelhard example, below.) And each question, as it happens, has three possible answers.

[ Site Map ]

z Question 1:

Is the business [product, service, whatever] fully controlled by our management?

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21 { Yes (proceed to question 2 ), { No (can't use our brand! save for required legal disclosure, in small print) -- Or it's a cooperative or t venture, under contract, in

which case a separate set of brand policy guidelines [not discussed here] comes into play. z Question 2:

Is management committed, long term, to this initiative? { Yes... { Not yet (for example it's a learning experience or market test) { No (a rare answer... applies to one-time opportunity businesses)

z Question 3:

How do we think this business will impact our master brand? { It will reinforce our current brand image { It will help to expand our brand in desired directions { Its effect on our master brand will be neutral, possibly even negative. (And as a practical matter 'neutral' is also

negative, to the extent that any further stretching of the master brand will tend to dilute it.) z Question 4:

Only then, ask how the corporate or master brand will impact the proposed business. Again there are three choices... { Positive. The master brand will help launch/establish/ the business. { Positive if secondary. It will help, but only if it's in a secondary role as sponsor, as ultimate parent and endorser; the business

needs to feature its own 'flag.' { Neutral or negative impact. The master brand is not an asset for the proposed product or business

And that's it. With these four questions, you can construct your own "Branding and Naming Decision Tree." Each situation, each "branch," will lead to a logical and understandable approved signature type... that is, the kind of name (and visual presence) that makes strategic sense for the offering, and its verbal and/or visual association to the parent brand. (Although there are some twenty-four possible branches, there may be only a handful of signature options, six or seven at most. Engelhard, below, offers five options.)

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22 Why is this "tree" approach effective, in gaining for (often) an ultimately tougher branding discipline? I think it clarifies the issue of balance, between corporate and business-level perspectives. The two 'impact' questions -- impact of the brand and impact on the brand -- are fair and reasonable. They make room for legitimate business marketing initiatives, while reminding everyone of the equally legitimate corporate reputation interests in the business's success.

A real-world example (PDF):

Engelhard Decision Tree

In 2001 and 2002 Michael Williams, Senior Manager Business Communications, led a comprehensive re-thinking and redesign of the diversified Engelhard identity, to refocus it on a more unified vision of a "surface and materials science company." He was ed by my friends and associates at BrandLogic. In 2003, with a clearer, stronger Engelhard brand in place, Mike was ready to tackle the messy nomenclature heritage of the corporation's uncontrolled creativity..."several hundred product trademarks that weren't ed with marketing resources and didn't the idea of building equity in the Engelhard brand." The process of constructing and explaining a new decision-tree process won broad management and employee for clearing out this underbrush, and brought order and discipline to naming-branding decisions.

(c) Tony Spaeth / Identity

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Identityworks: Tools - Naming

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Home > Tools > Naming

Overview > Components Of Identity > Corporate Identity Process

Our Naming Services For many reasons but especially product proliferation, global marketing and the Web, the naming of products and companies is increasingly difficult. Yet because of the cost and clutter of communications, the importance of an effective name is more critical than ever. Brainstorming and good luck are no longer a prudent alternative to disciplined, experienced professional naming services.

> Corporate Brand Platforms

Our process increases the chances of success. It is predicated on especially rigorous, >

disciplined planning, on the development of very large quantities of options, on creative collaboration with experienced intellectual property counsel, and on full client

Decision Trees >

involvement in all key judgements.

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Tony Spaeth has personally directed naming programs like:

DETAILS: 1. Process >

Naming Guidelines And Standards Manuals > Implementation Checklist

z Alacra, formerly Portal B and its parent, Data Downlink Corporation

z Celera Genomics, the DNA decoding company

> z Chartway Technologies, formerly Sage Systems (software)

2. Planning > 3. Generation > 4. Selection > 5. Time & Costs >

z Flowserve, the merger of BW/IP and Durco industrial pump companies

[ Site Map ] z Footstar, the corporate parent of Footaction and Kmart shoe operations

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z Identrus, the consortium of world banks providing identity trust for e-

commerce. z Inrange Technologies, formerly General Signal’s Networks division

z Pentegra, formerly Financial Institutions Retirement Fund

z Primis Custom Publishing Services, a McGraw-Hill business

z Provis, repositioning a medical peer review organization

z Scirex, a new leader in pharmaceutical clinical trials management

In earlier tenures, at NWAyer Spaeth found and proposed the name Absolut for a new vodka brand and at the firm Anspach Grossman Portugal, directed naming of the Optima card among many other brands and companies.

(c) Tony Spaeth / Identity

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Identityworks: Tools - Naming - Process

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Home > Tools > Naming > Process

Overview >

Our Naming Services NAMING PROCESS OVERVIEW

Components Of Identity > Corporate Identity Process > Corporate Brand Platforms

Little is proprietary in the overall nature and sequence of naming steps: 1.

Fact-finding

2.

Naming Plan

3.

Generation of ‘master list’ of candidate names

4.

First cut selections, by consultant

5.

Second cut selections, with client

6.

Preliminary legal-availability search

7.

Triage and ‘short list’ selection

8.

Linguistic evaluation

9.

Comprehensive searches

> Decision Trees > Naming > Guidelines And Standards Manuals > Implementation Checklist >

[ Site Map ]

10.

Oral/aural evaluation

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11.

Graphic demonstration and evaluation

12.

Market research evaluation (when appropriate)

13.

Final legal risk evaluation

14.

Name decision

Any naming activity must in some way incorporate these steps. Our confidence of a successful result derives from our quantitative push for diversity and creativity in generation, and especially from the thoroughness of our planning discipline. proceed to Planning >

(c) Tony Spaeth / Identity

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Home > Tools > Naming > Planning

Overview >

Our Naming Services THE PLANNING COMPONENT

Components Of Identity > Corporate Identity Process

The Naming Plan channels creative efforts in the most promising, constructive directions. (Sometimes, however, the most important function of the Naming Plan is to enforce greater clarity in the underlying business proposition.) Our naming plans have nine sections:

>

1.

Corporate Brand Platforms

Objects First, what are the primary and secondary "objects of the name?" That is, defined in of the noun it designates, what are we primarily

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naming? (This is not always self evident, and can be the key to breakthroughs in positioning as well as in naming.)

Decision Trees >

2.

s Next, who are the priority s of the name, the occasions of use, and the needs and feelings of the s on those occasions? This discipline

Naming > Guidelines And Standards Manuals >

puts us in the mind of the customer, not the namer. 3.

Media In what special media must the name function, and with what implications?

Implementation Checklist >

4.

Nomenclature What other language, or nomenclature, will surround the name? Nomenclature can include language such as a generic descriptor, a companion product, corporate and brand endorsement, principal business unit names or other subcomponent names, and slogans or theme lines. Understand or create these and naming becomes easier.

[ Site Map ]

5.

Function Functional considerations are legal availability (category, geography), distinctiveness, phonetics, linguistic attributes, brevity, and required

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28 communicative functionality. 6.

Image What tone, or style should the name convey? Image and personality criteria should come from a clear understanding of the product, brand or institutional personality, as articulated in the identity platform. They can be rich sources of solution ideas.

7.

Type There are many kinds of names. The naming plan indicates which types are most likely to meet the functional and image criteria, to help focus creative effort. The universe of name types includes preexisting names, real words capable of use in a different way, and coined or created inventions:

Proper PersonPlace

Dictionary

Created

Descriptive

Real-sounding

Imagistic

Combination

Arbitrary

Acronym

Imported

Alphanumeric Abstract

8.

Content Can the name do its essential job (which is merely to designate) and also convey some kind of information? The category or industry, perhaps? Geography? Size? A distinctive attribute? If so, what kinds of information are potentially most useful? This list can be a rich source of naming ideas.

9.

Directions The naming plan ends with a starting list of directional naming ideas. These help to give our name-generating team (which includes the client) their work assignments. After approval of the naming plan, name generation begins.

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Home > Tools > Naming > Generation

Overview >

Our Naming Services MASTERLIST GENERATION

Components Of Identity > Corporate Identity Process

As a general rule, name generation hasn't even begun until 300 candidates have been generated, and we occasionally are more comfortable with 1,000. Master lists for some of our programs have exceeded 2,000 candidate names.

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Quantity serves several purposes. It helps to force creativity in ever expanding directions, in turn stimulating new ideas; it demonstrates that this has been done; it provides a backup resource should a restart become necessary.

Corporate Brand Platforms >

The exception, when quantity is less important than precision, is the business situation in which a non-proprietary descriptive name best meets the criteria.

Decision Trees >

Name generation techniques can include:

Naming >

z Individual creativity of experienced namers, on staff and recruited on assignment.

Guidelines And Standards Manuals >

z Group creativity, when budget permits, applying our "Synectics" brainstorming training.

Implementation Checklist >

z Search of our proprietary archive of many thousand name ideas from previous programs, coded by direction.

z Computerized name generation, using proprietary as well as published software.

[ Site Map ]

z Sometimes, a client employee ‘contest.’

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30 Contests are tricky. With or without a contest, clients are urged to contribute candidates throughout the process. (Normally no record is kept of contributors; pride of authorship belongs to the process, rather than the idea generator.) proceed to Selection >

(c) Tony Spaeth / Identity

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Identityworks: Tools - Naming - Selection

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Home > Tools > Naming > Selection

Overview >

Our Naming Services SELECTION, SCREENING AND CLEARANCE

Components Of Identity > Corporate Identity Process

The client receives our suggested first cut list, along with the backup candidates and the two combined, the alphabetized master list. We often categorize the candidates in the first cut list by naming direction.

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With client participation, we then tly select from 20 to as many as 40 potentially viable solutions (the quantity depending on the legal profile of

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the category), for preliminary availability screening. >

Clients are responsible, with counsel, for all legal judgments. Often, however, to minimize time and costs this first screening step is performed for

Decision Trees >

our client by a leading specialist counsel experienced in working with us… R. J. Heher, of the San Francisco firm of Fenwick & West, and overseas associates as required. tly we craft a legal search strategy to balance search costs and time requirements.

Naming >

In triage fashion, candidates are identified as probably, possibly, and probably not available, and a "short list" selected from the first two

Guidelines And Standards Manuals > Implementation Checklist

categories. In addition to full legal search, the short list is then evaluated for linguistic safety, phonetic clarity and graphic potential, to assist in final name

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recommendations. We make every effort to present at least two and preferably three final, available options for client selection. Consumer or other-audience research can be an invaluable assistance in intermediate and final screening of name candidates for products and services. In the naming of companies, as a practical matter consumer research is less often of value; better decisions are likely to be made on the

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basis of the technical and strategic merits of the candidate names than on the basis of audience reaction. We encourage focus groups or similar research when the name is primarily for marketing use. We can assist as desired in research design, sourcing, direction and interpretation.

http://www.identityworks.com/tools/naming_selection.htm

3-2-2005

Identityworks: Tools - Naming - Time and costs

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Home > Tools > Naming > Time & Costs

Overview >

Our Naming Services TIME & COST CONSIDERATIONS

Components Of Identity > Corporate Identity Process

The naming process can take as little as five weeks (assuming availability of the necessary participants and prompt decisions). Eight to ten weeks should be sufficient in most cases, excluding market research. This includes preliminary legal search, which today can be a 24-hour proposition, and

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a round of comprehensive U.S. final and international preliminary search. Full international search requires additional time. Professional service fees must vary, of course, in proportion to the required complexity of the fact finding and planning phase, category conditions,

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the economic and strategic load that the name must carry, and client decision and approvals process requirements. We have provided naming services ranging from $12,000 to $40,000 (legal costs not included). We are pleased to provide more specific estimates, together with professional

Decision Trees >

references, on request.

Naming > Guidelines And Standards Manuals

This section on naming can be ed and printed using Adobe Acrobat Reader software. >

Click here for the PDF file:

Tony_Spaeth_Naming.pdf

Implementation Checklist >

( Adobe Acrobat Reader) proceed to Page >

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http://www.identityworks.com/tools/naming_time_and_costs.htm

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Corporate Identity Implementation Checklist

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Tony Spaeth / Identity Stationery and istrative Letterheads + Envelopes – Standard – Personalized – Monarch Business Cards (Regular & Executive) Fax Cover Sheet Mailing Labels Large Envelopes Forms - e.g., Purchase Orders Bills / Invoices Checks – for s Payable – for Payroll Note Pads Visitor Badge Binders Presentation Slide Formats Web Sites Internet Intranet Extranet PR / IR Communications News Release Press Kit Folder Stock Certificate Dividend Check Annual / Quarterly Report Signatures Institutional Ad Signatures HR Communications Recruitment Material Formats / Signatures Benefit Booklet Format Employee Publication Mastheads Recruitment ad format Facilities Signs External Primary Signs (Monument or Bldg. Mounted) Entrance / Door Sign Exterior Directional Interior Directional Vehicles Cars Vans Trucks Marketing / Sales Print Ad Signature Electronic Presentation Formats [Powerpoint etc.] Marcomm Signatures (Brochures, Direct Mail, etc.) Product Identification Product Literature Formats / Signatures Broadcast / Video Signature Identity Guidelines Graphic Standards manual, printed or Web-based Electronic Templates Logo Sheets and Color Chips Visual 'Voice' Brochure Identity Introduction Launch Brochure Video Gifts Internal (Hats, Shirts, Ties, Pins, etc.) Gifts External (Lucite Blocks, Pens, etc.)

Corporate

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