by Steve Adubato, PhD

Successful branding is a product of many factors. However, much of the branding game comes down to how individuals and organizations communicate to key stakeholders. While many advertising and marketing professionals obsess over an organization’s name, branding is about a lot more than what you are called.

Consider the case of TD Bank, a large financial institution that is the product of a merger between Commerce Bank and TD Banknorth. While choosing the name TD Bank along with its tagline, “America’s most convenient bank,” was crucial, the ability to brand this organization in a highly competitive marketplace goes well beyond a name change and a shift in colors from Commerce red to TD green. Successful branding, especially in a merged organization, includes the following;

--Employee attitudes that shape a customer’s impression of a bank and its brand. According to Nick Miceli, Market President for TD Bank, branding has a lot to do with the people you hire in your organization. “We hire for attitude. You can teach a person to be a banker, but you cannot teach someone to have the right attitude. The people are the brand; the culture is the brand. Your people must be unified in delivering that same message. We call it ‘retail-tainment.’ We want customers to be blown away by the service. It happens so often that we coined the phrase that we are going to ‘Wow’ you, which creates ‘Fans’ not ‘Customers.’”

You can have the best logo, the coolest name and colors that stand out on a billboard or in an ad, but if your people have a bad attitude, none of that is going to matter. You rarely get a second chance to make a first impression.

--Branding is also about off the charts, “Wow,” customer service. Clearly this item goes hand in hand with employee attitude. At TD Bank, they conduct what are called “Wow Shops” which, according to Miceli, are designed to get immediate feedback on how its Stores are doing. Says Miceli; “I get my information within 24 hours so that I can go back and reinforce what the employees are doing. If they don’t have a great wow shop, I can go and ask them what was going on and how we can make it better. It is all about quickly addressing both the good and the bad.”

--Clearly, great branding is also about following up and following through. There can be no detail that is too small. In fact, it is often what we consider the smallest things that make the biggest impression upon us, from an employee’s smile to a penny arcade coin counting machine at TD Bank, which kids and adults really enjoy.

--While branding is about a lot more than a name, it is still important to have a great slogan that is also credible or customers and prospects will bad mouth you in the marketplace. Consider Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s Slogan; “Pick Enterprise, We’ll Pick You Up!” We are talking about a car rental company that actually DOES pick you up. If they didn’t or it was difficult to get picked up, the brand would be seriously hurt.

The same thing is true when you say your doors will be open, but your performance in this area is inconsistent. Simply put, if an organization isn’t absolutely committed to living out and practicing what they preach, the brand is going to take a big hit.