Brand Management

 
Our approach to branding is rooted in the teachings of Ries & Trout, whose groundbreaking book, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, is recommended reading for all our new clients.

Essentially, Ries & Trout argue that your brand is the commonly held perception that your customers, prospects and the general public have of your company, its products and services.

While many of their observations revolve around how best to introduce a new product or re-introduce an old product to win a competitive position in the mind of prospects, we at Nation Ranch believe that the virtual age of your brand is the most important factor when determining your marketing communications strategy.

Whether your brand is brand new or has been around for 100 years, the virtual age of your brand will fall into one of six categories:


The most precious of all ages, pre-natal brands represent product or service categories that don’t even exist in the minds of consumers. Owners of these brands have the opportunity to be first to market with their product or service, instantly establishing category leadership and becoming the odds-on favorite to dominate that category for years to come.


New products and services fall into this age. Just as a newborn must be properly nurtured, an infant brand must be carefully introduced to the world so that it’s prepared to attract customers and win market share.


After its successful introduction, a young brand must learn to walk and talk and grow its share of the market.


Every brand experiences growing pains. What may have once been a small and fleet afoot entrepreneurial venture may become a victim of its own success. Customers and employees may not recognize the larger, more established corporation you’re becoming. These brands need the proper guidance to stay focused and make the transition from childhood to adulthood.


Mature brands generally enjoy a solid share of the market and a roster of loyal clients, but these brands are susceptible to their younger and quicker competitors. These brands need to protect what is theirs without compromising their core strengths. Adulthood also brings two choices that could affect perception of your brand:

  • Marriage. Perhaps you’re joining forces with another company through a merger or acquisition. How do you introduce your “new” company to the marketplace? Just as real-life marriages often beget children, mergers and acquisitions often beget infant brands, requiring you to re-introduce your company, products and services to the market.
  • Parenthood. There may come a time when your company adds new products or services. How do you introduce these new offerings to the market without diluting your core brand or hurting sales of your existing products and services?


Every product and service has a lifespan. As our culture changes and new products and technologies are introduced, your brand image will be viewed through the prism of changing public perceptions. Older brands require thoughtful care, lest your company, products and services become extinct.

At Nation Ranch, we conduct in-depth research and work with your marketing team to assess both the virtual age of your brand and also the virtual age of your brand relative to the overall brand category.

We then develop a marketing communications plan designed to guide your company toward greater sales, employee and customer retention and profits.

 

Public Relations

 


We establish a clear identity for our clients, their products, people and services in the minds of all key audiences — customers, employees, shareholders and the communities where our clients conduct business.

Branding begins by first generating awareness for our clients and then ensuring that we deliver a clear and consistent message to key audiences over time.

In many cases, our approach to branding assignments is through traditional media relations strategies and tactics — more commonly known as “publicity.”

However, we believe that branding is a 24/7 proposition, and that it’s vital for a marketer to provide the latest news and information about the company, its products and people at all times. Public relations materials, such as press releases, fact sheets, photo images and executives’ biographies can be easily re-purposed and posted to the Web for easy reference.


We create specialized communications programs to help companies reinforce their brands from the inside out.

Articulating your goals throughout the company — and making those goals meaningful and believable to your employees — is the most important step in building that community.

Every single person who’s a part of your company has the potential to become your proudest and most vocal supporter. We will assist you in building your brand from the inside out, including programs to inform employees of your goals and to instill a sense of pride and purpose as they strive to reach them.


From time to time, our clients may become engaged in contentious public debates — such as labor disputes, health/safety issues, etc. — that require their swift response.

In such cases, we supplement our conventional media relations services with a special “push technology” program that enables us to e-mail our clients’ response directly to the key individuals who have identified themselves as being concerned about the issue at hand.


The image of your company’s chief executive often becomes synonymous with the image of your company. While one message from the top could inspire employees toward greater achievement, yet another could cause stock prices to plummet overnight.

Great leaders are not always great communicators, but great communicators are often great leaders. We work with top executives to understand their unique styles, harness their energy and prepare them to communicate their vision and enhance their leadership capabilities.

Nation Ranch frequently creates high-impact speeches, letters to key constituencies and presentations for corporate executives.

 

Crisis Communications 

News travels fast and bad news travels even faster. To minimize the impact of crises to our clients’ brand images and bottom lines, we create crisis communications plans and provide ongoing consulting services to help management and employees respond to these threats.

We have extensive experience in the field, having managed several dozen crises in the service of John Q. Hammons Hotels, inc., the Missouri Division of Tourism and various other accounts in the hospitality industry.

Additionally, company president Bill Patterson is the author of the crisis communications plans for three different hotel companies, the Missouri Division of Tourism and the Kansas City Aviation Department.

Because response times are key, we have developed a separate Crisis Communications Web site system that can be used to communicate with the news media and other key publics in the event of a crisis. Each site is developed for use by the client’s internal response team and/or their designated public relations counsel.