BRANDING & COMMUNICATIONS

Defined as “impressing your image into the mind of the market and consumers through the use of various media; the art of distilling your company’s value into repeatable and impression-generating tactics,” branding and communications represent the most internally and externally visible element of marketing.  For non-marketing professionals, the catch phrase of “marketing communications” has become a simple way of boiling down one of the most critical elements of marketing into an afterthought.  However, if you look at the world’s most successful brands, Coca-Cola^® and Microsoft^® in 2005, or at other globally recognized brands such as Apple^®, Marlboro^®, Xerox^® and Kleenex^®, there is little doubt that the branding and communications efforts of these companies have dominated not only the consumer’s consciousness, but also the bottom line.

Developing a winning brand relies heavily on a company’s ability to communicate consistently – not just verbally but also graphically and in some cases in an auditory fashion (think the Intel^® sound or the pin dropping for MCI^®).  Branding is more than simply developing an attractive logo or website, but permeates the fiber of a company and manifests itself in all communication vehicles employed.  A brand is the representation the market, consumers and employees use to judge the value of what your company offers, the key elements of the company and the philosophy which moves the wheels of business.

Towards the end of the 1990s branding was the new marketing buzz word and the practice of valuating a brand emerged.  According to BusinessWeek, in 2005 the Coca-Cola brand was worth $67B and the Microsoft brand was worth $60B.  Granted, these are household, consumer goods, but the methodologies utilized to achieve these results can easily be used by small to medium businesses targeting smaller market segments.  Successfully developing a brand is part art, part science and Hexagon^EC is prepared to leverage our experience with branding and all facets of communications to propel your company to the next level.

Hexagon^EC has identified six facets of branding and communications which any organization interested in optimizing their market recognition and revenue should consider.  These areas are identified in the mouse over image on the right along with a small sample of the solutions Hexagon^EC offers.  Please contact us for a complete list of solutions or a customized project at: firststep@hexagonec.com