Branding Workshops Help Companies Set a Course for the Future

Most companies have but one opportunity to define and articulate a brand identity. Despite diminished marketing budgets, some businesses are choosing to invest time and resources in an externally-guided strategic marketing assessment rather than rely on their own, sometimes narrow, perspective. Here's an example of how one Silicon Valley marketing firm is assisting companies with this crucial step.

San Jose, CA (PRWEB) March 19, 2004 --Though many businesses have scaled down advertising and marketing expenditures, the need for brand analysis and strategy development remains an indispensable, if not critical, ingredient for survival in the current economic climate.

According to experts at Cintara Corp., a nationally-known integrated branding and marketing agency, it is especially important in tough times like these for companies to go beyond their own intuition and best guess decision making and seek the help of outside professionals who can apply objective insight, knowledge and expertise to the strategic marketing process.

Four years ago, Cintara developed a series of proprietary Brand Strategy Workshops to help companies address their strategic marketing initiatives by uncovering critical decision making information. The workshops remain one of the agencys high demand services, despite diminishing marketing budgets.

For established companies, the workshops provide a fresh perspective on changes in their market and how they will need to adjust to stay competitive," said Cintara CEO Lisa Tollner. For early stage and emerging companies, they ensure that plans, actions and strategies are aligned with goals."

Recently, anti-spam technology leader Brightmail, Inc. participated in a Branding Workshop conducted and facilitated by Cintara. Through worksheet questionnaires and a live, interactive session, Cintara experts helped Brightmail executives define brand identity attributes and construct an overall strategic brand analysis. Some of the challenges addressed during the workshop process dealt with product differentiation, communications consistency, trust and stability reinforcement and the enhancement of Brightmail's image as the anti-spam leader.

"Our goal is to continue to build a strong brand identity that reflects the leadership position Brightmail has established in the anti-spam marketplace," said Brightmail Vice President of
Marketing Francois Lavaste. "The workshop gave us the tools to see our brand on a broader scope and construct a more precise marketing strategy."

Trumeta, one of the largest fencing and gate companies in California, asked Cintara to help develop a brand strategy that would position the company for growth as it expands nationally. Cintara worked with the executive team in Camarillo, California to first establish a foundation for their brand and then define a roll-out strategy tailored to meet Trumetas business and budget objectives. Cintaras work sessions helped us determine how we will differentiate our company from our competitors. Marketing goals are now clear and that will save us time and dollars as we roll out each phase of our program," said Trumeta CEO, Mark Maldonado.

Ericsson, the worlds largest supplier of mobile systems, recently brought a Cintara workshop to its headquarters in Lund, Sweden, to assist in positioning and brand development for a new initiative. The workshop took the Ericsson team through a number of customized exercises designed to pinpoint key positions Ericsson already owned in their market and new positions that showed greatest promise. The process built a solid strategic foundation for future decision-making and for the initial needs of a naming project for the new initiative.

Underwriters Laboratories Inc., the worlds largest not-for-profit product safety company, was preparing to launch a new commercial testing division that took many of their testing solutions to a new level. Using Cintaras Key Messaging Workshop, messages to the right customers were clearly defined, enabling the initial marketing campaigns to deliver the desired objectives. Cintaras workshops helped us get on course and to market quickly," said Shari Hunter, Manager of Engineering at UL's Santa Clara facility.

A well articulated brand identity can help an organization achieve its potential and protect it against vulnerable market forces of undifferentiated products and price competition. To be effective, a brand needs to resonate with customers, differentiate from competitors and represent what the organization can and will do over time.

Cintara is a full-service branding agency headquartered in San Jose, California with offices in Portland and Los Angeles. Cintara clients range from high technology industries in computers, software, Internet, semiconductors, and networking to consumer products, sports, entertainment, financial, and healthcare. Contact Cintara at 800-854-8814 or www.cintara.com.

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Contact:
Joan Citelli, 408-559-4409
Lisa Tollner, 408-293-5300