The brand that’s made me the happiest this year is Wolfgang’s Vault. I go there on a regular basis, often on Friday afternoons when I’m finishing up administrative tasks and need some ear candy. The more I listen, the more often I return. I’ve heard concerts by artists I wish I’d gone to and concerts from the same tours I saw “back in the day” by artists that hadn’t made it big yet. I started going to the site a couple of years ago to relive some great musical moments in my life—but now I’m getting much more.

I love that the Vault has branched out to newer artists and more recent concerts. Their A to Z list of performers is huge and inclusive, so I can experiment. There are artist interviews as well as concerts. There are lots of free downloads as well as ones you have to pay for. Plus concert listings in my area.

The website has improved steadily. It’s become increasingly easy to use and what Wolfgang’s Vault is adding, I’m enjoying. I must be in their target demographic—they’re hitting me in my soft spot and I love it!

What’s the brand lesson? Do one thing really well and build from there. Innovate around what you know and give your customers and fans an easy path to follow as you lead the way. If the substance is there and you demonstrate that you’re listening, you’ll keep your die-hards and win new ones.

Have a great 2010!

Beth Woolley

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Screenshot from Google Sidewiki

What would you like people to say about your website (now that they can more publicly)?

–Jen Travis

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A recent client of ours has almost twenty loosely related sub-brands, making their website difficult to navigate and leading to confusion in the marketplace.  The company was pushing the master brand, but consumers were left clueless as to what the master brand actually did and how it all fit together.

Purchasing decisions are complicated enough without making it hard for people to understand who you are and why you do it. If you can zero in on the specific role you play, you make the decision making process one step easier.  A defined brand strategy and brand architecture can enhance focus and clarity. As an added bonus, you can internally focus your budgets and energy more strategically.

So, how to get focused?

1. Ask yourself the fundamental questions of brand architecture:  is the right strategy to create a strong corporate brand or is it to create a portfolio of strong sub-brands—or a combo of both?  Always look at your brand architecture from the point of view of the customer, not how you are internally organized.
2. Clarify (for both employees and consumers) the roles that the various brands play and how they interplay.
3. Lastly, use your website’s navigation as a visual guide to communicate this road map.

-Bianca Abate

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American Airlines' current home page

Your web site says more about your brand than you think–as evidenced in this article about American Airlines.

–Jen Travis

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Yikes. That’s a lot to think about. But, when filtered through the lens of your brand—your unique value and promise—it is much easier, because you already have the road map, you just need to make sure you manage the stops along the way (the trip, if you will). How do you ensure that your online presence delivers your unique brand experience?

1. Know your users: Who is coming to your web site or following you on Twitter? What tribes do they belong to and what are their motivations, needs and online behaviors as a result? Segment them, profile them and think about how they would engage with you online.
2. Benchmark your online brand equity: What do your current site analytics tell you about your visitors’ interests and how they found you? What is the current murmuring about your brand in blogs, on Twitter, around Facebook? Review and analyze this to gain an understanding of where you are now and what is currently working (or not working).
3. Collect and categorize your content: What can (and do) you offer your customers? Is it thought leadership? Tools? Resources? Humor? What? Inventory organizational content (intellectual property, images, video, etc.), filter it through your brand, and develop a content development and repurposing strategy to deliver this content on your site and social media channels.
4. Map it all out: How will you organize your content to demonstrate your brand and meet your user’s needs? Conceptually and diagrammatically map out how users will use your content and how that experience demonstrates your brand value.
5. Implement and measure it: Design, deploy and measure it against your benchmark, using criteria and metrics that help you define the brand equity gained or lost, increase in awareness, connections, and of course, conversions.

With 74.4% of the North American population using the Internet, it’s more important than ever that you differentiate, engage and deliver online.

–Jen Travis

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1) the discipline not to pitch your products/services while you’re thought leading, and
2) actual thought leadership .

If you meet those two requirements, then it’s time to bring it to the web. Online thought leadership is necessary today, because that’s where people get their information. These days, online means much more than a blog. Your brand promise now extends to how you show up in Twitter, email, Facebook, ebooks, Linked In, website, blog, podcasts, webinars, vlogs, wikis and wherever your target audiences are.

Overwhelming, right?

So start with an online strategy. Map out where your audience gets its information. Figure out where your brand will suffer if you don’t do it—and which social media or online distribution channels can best convey your message. And start with your own website—looking at how your thought leadership is represented there and how you can beef it up.

Once you have your strategy, create content once and repurpose it. Then, refresh it regularly. Think deeply and lead wisely.

-Lynn Parker

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