Content Marketing Workshop: Online Branding

This article describes the attributes of the Navigator Consulting brand, using the methodology provided in a recent Content Marketing workshop in Cyprus. It's provided here as an example of how we approach online branding, both for the seminar participants as well as for our wider public.

 

Brand Attributes

​

Pick 5 positive attributes that your brand represents:

​

Positive attributes are formally expressed by our mission, which is prominently displayed on our website and on corporate documents such as proposals:

​

Our mission is to guide companies through the process of strategic change. We support strategic and tactical corporate responses to the challenges and opportunities posed by globalisation, technology and competition. Our role is to act as a trusted advisor, providing objective and results-oriented analysis, solutions and implementation.

​

The Navigator brand is reinforced by our slogan, which is “Guiding Companies Through Change”.

​

Finally, our brand is expressed by our core values, which are:

​

• Honesty and Objectivity: We approach our work in an objective, scientific way. We do not alter our research or analysis to suit non-transparent objectives.

​

• Intellectual Rigour: We design and apply in-depth analytical and problem-solving techniques. Our approach is rooted in empirical, replicable findings that lead to consistent results. We approach each project as a unique case that merits a unique solution, arrived at independently.

​

• Value Creation: We exist to create value. Our consultancy interventions lead to a real benefit for our clients. We honour our commitments.

​

• Consideration and Respect: Our work and personal behaviour are governed by consideration and respect for our clients, colleagues and competitors. We contribute the wider sustainable and equitable social and environmental context in which we work and live.

​

• Ethics: We work in an ethical and transparent manner. We create a balanced, motivating and rewarding environment for our consultants, enabling them to achieve success. We work fairly with clients, and never compromise client data or information.

​

• Knowledge: We base our work on knowledge acquired through our own experience as well as through that of other consultants, managers and practitioners. We continually invest in the development of our in-house knowledge base, our consultants and our ability to perform.

​

Beyond the core values, we chose the company name “Navigator” and the slogan “Guiding Companies through Change” as a means of demonstrating our strategic intention to:

​

• Implement complex, strategically-critical, multi-functional / multi-disciplinary consulting projects which provide real benefit to clients;

​

• Undertake a long-term commitment to clients;

​

• Undertake a long-term commitment to navigating, adapting to and mastering technological and systems change, which is the underlying theme of the times we find ourselves in;

​

• Prepare for internationalisation and the role of globalisation in the world;

​

• Deliver consulting services as a form of long-term process or journey, in which both the consultant and the client are called upon to be a learning organisation.

​

When we started our company in 1995, the first major web browser (Netscape) was just invented, and online operations were in their infancy. Now, the world is truly smaller (and larger) due to the internet and the accompanying technological changes which it has caused, and which simultaneously drive it. Globalisation is another underlying theme to our brand. The Berlin Wall fell in 1989, signalling a massive restructuring of formerly planned economies in the Soviet Union, China and later India. China fully joined the WTO in 1998, leading to a revolution in global trade.

​

When we started our company, there were few “Navigators” in the consultancy field, let alone the general environment. Since then, it’s become a very crowded segment. There are famous brands, like the Lincoln Navigator or the Netscape Navigator. There are now hundreds of companies (all of them online) with the name Navigator in their corporate name. As a result, it has become even more important for us to invest in our brand and positioning.

 

Customer Segments, Needs and Wants

​

Now think about your customers and customer segments. What do they need? What do they want?

​

Three segments are completed as an example: