Writing Sample: "Living the Brand"

I wrote the following article as part of a larger effort to stimulate interest, understanding and support among AMD employees with regards to the company's brand strategy. The story was published in print (newsletter) and online (Intranet) for all AMD employees.


Living the AMD brand everyday, in every action

"Branding is not an initiative, it's a way of doing business." —Hector Ruiz

The barista hands the paper coffee cup, with the familiar round green logo on the side, across the counter to an eager customer. The customer knows that the café latte he's about to drink will taste the same as the one he bought at the Starbucks in San Francisco a week earlier, or the one from the Starbucks he visited while traveling on business in Tokyo last month.

In fact, without even thinking about it, he knows that anywhere in the world, if he sees that familiar round logo, his café latte will taste just as good as the last one, and he is willing to pay a little more for that assurance. And that little extra goes straight to Starbucks' bottom line and increases the value of the company. Here's the reason: the brand. And it's more than the name, the logo, or the coffee itself, that establishes the brand for the world's largest coffeehouse chain.

One of the world's renowned advertising copywriters and ad agency founder David Ogilvy defines brand as "the intangible sum of a product's attributes: its name, packaging, and price, its history, its reputation, and the way it's advertised."

Although product brands, slogans, logos, trademarks, and advertising campaigns contribute to and are reflective of the brand, they alone do not establish or define the corporate brand. A corporate brand represents the feelings, perceptions, and beliefs that people have about a company. A successful brand is one that brings to mind positive, relevant, and distinctive images and attributes.

Like many Fortune 500 companies, AMD is refocusing its corporate brand to help ensure its continued success, and in turn, the success of its partners and customers. The rollout is the result of the AMD Brand Task Force's efforts, utilizing input from AMDers worldwide and from leading market research.

"The AMD brand is an asset that demands management," said Bob Kennedy, director of corporate branding. "If it is ignored, then it is open to be controlled by those who do not share AMD's goals, particularly our competitors. While market research shows AMD enjoys product familiarity among members of its target markets, AMD as a company does not. This lack of familiarity with AMD creates a barrier to bringing new products to market successfully."

What does a refocused brand mean for AMDers? "First, it means that AMD has a clarified brand that speaks in a unified voice worldwide so that business strategies, marketing and sales efforts work in sync to add value and complement each other," said Bob. "It also means that AMD now has a set of tools and guidelines that will help build up the strength of its brand, and every AMDer needs to contribute to this effort."

The success of the refocused brand depends on AMDers worldwide. Each employee is a brand ambassador. The AMD brand is reflected by employees' words and deeds, whether they are interfacing with customers, vendors, partners, communities, or the public in general. Even in social situations, once an employee is known as an AMDer, his or her words and actions reflect, in part, on the AMD brand, and what he or she says about the company can contribute to or detract from the success of the AMD brand.

One of the most visible and tangible results of AMD brand management is seen in AMD's latest communication campaigns, marketing collateral and sales materials. In general, the materials are people-focused, to express the determined, strong and passionate way in which AMD products engage users and empower them to lead more productive lives. Further brand unification is achieved by the use of selective typefaces across all materials. Some recent examples include the 2001 Annual Report, sales collateral used in support of the AMD Athlon™ XP processor and this issue of Dialog. Additionally, positioning statements and brand attributes (see sidebar) used in these efforts lend support to the verbal communication of the AMD
brand.

"Brand is more than just 'look and feel,'" said Bob. "It's about people's actions everyday." With the branding guidelines in place, the Brand Task Force has established a "Living the Brand" team, to evaluate how the many facets of AMD's operations align with the brand and will make recommendations accordingly. Comparing AMD activities with the brand to ensure alignment is an effort that will continue for years to come. "AMDers should keep in mind that building the strength of the AMD brand in this way is a long-term commitment and will take time to gain
momentum," Bob said.

An online brand "book" is now available at http://amdonline/brand. "Employees should familiarize themselves with the positioning statements and brand attributes that are available on the Web site and keep these ideas in mind in everything that they do," Bob said.

In the coming months, AMD Internal Communications will continually communicate information on branding efforts and "Living the Brand" actions.