Having thought about brand migration yesterday in the context of Santander(http://www.thevalueengineers.com/2009/05/27/banks-and-brand-migration-alex-comments-on-santander-for-the-bbc/), I thought it might be worth setting out some of the key issues brand owners might want to consider before setting out on a similar exercise.

- Why are you doing this? Simple question to start with but a good one to check before you start the journey. Inevitably there will be benefits of synergy, costs savings in rationalisation and so on, but you also have to ask yourself what is the benefit from a branding perspective? How will the new destination brand be a bigger and better brand vision than where you are now – rather than just replacing one name with another?

- What is in it for your end consumer? Consumers can be very cynical about brand name changes and will always ask “What is in it for me?” In order to take them with you on the journey you have to offer them the benefits of coming with you – whether that is better product, better service, or better value.

- What are the risks involved? Which customers are you likely to lose along the way and do the benefits of the new brand in attracting new customers outweigh that loss? How do you mitigate against the risks through effective marketing?

- How do you tell the right story about the brand migration? You can position a brand name change in the same way you do a brand – who am I targetting? what is the benefit? why should they believe it? Once you have that you need to tell the story powerfully and convicingly.

- Do you have enough resource to really get behind it? Changing a name is not just about new livery and letterheads but also about the resource commitment for communicating the change to your customers and building a vision for the new brand in people’s minds. This does not come cheap – just imagine the cost of the recent Norwich Union to Aviva campaign.

The first in an occasional series of useful thoughts collected from our Capabilities team.

Working with marketing teams from organisations around the world, we are fortunate to be exposed to many different styles and pick up new ways of thinking about common marketing issues.

New product development is often a tricky area – particularly when you’re suffering from Innovator’s Block! So why not try some of these alternative, tried-and-tested ways of thinking around the problem?

1. Make the challenge MORE difficult

A loose innovation brief can often constrain creativity, so make the task easier by making it more difficult – define the boundaries, tighten the scope and force yourself to find a creative way out of the problem.

2. Meet up with old friends

Go and interview an ex-client/customer and ask him to tell you what you should do better. They will be more honest and open about talking about barriers and issues when out of the formal relationship – you should not be afraid to listen to criticism and act on it!

3. Are we nearly there yet? 

As well as asking questions like a four year old, why not ask a child their opinion? This is a test of how simply and easily you can explain your idea and its benefits. Can you explain your innovation idea to your children so that is clear, easy to understand and they get the benefits? Often an idea that cannot be explained simply, cannot be explained at all…

4. Bedtime writing

Keep a notebook and pen by your bed, you never know when a great idea might strike and it is easy to forget something if it’s either late at night or first thing in the morning!

5. Hire a celebrity innovation board

Put together a dream team of celebrity innovators to help you with your challenge, then imagine how they would approach the problem. How would Madonna or Gordon Ramsay see it differently?

6. Take time to consider

Creativity is not a linear process. Sometimes it’s good to stop, take time out and let your brain think about the problem while you’re doing something quite different … It’s amazing how creative you can be when you’re not even trying. So, if a workshop has reached a point where the creativity has dried up, or the problem seems too difficult to solve, get everyone to go for a walk outside and just chat about it.