Your brand is the ‘horse,’ your marketing the ‘cart.’ Avoid placing the cart before the horse. It’s amazing how much money businesses seem willing to spend on marketing and advertising, but how hesitant we can be to spend dollars on brand development and documentation. A documented brand sets a qualifying standard for integrated marketing and communications. Integration in marketing strategies creates synergy and is proven to enhance brand performance, while potentially reducing costs and improving results. Next >

FORTHGEAR specializes in brand positioning and can help direct you through this process. We create, maintain, refresh, support and/or strengthen brands. Part art, part science — branding is about creating a consistent, emotional connection (or relationship) with your customers (see Brand Definition). We'll help you navigate this path with a proven process to sustain, enhance and grow your brand. < Back

Brand is the essence of a marketable relationship. Meaning — your promise, your performance and their loyalty. It is the promise you make to your customer, your ability to perform on that promise and the loyalty your customer brings back to you. Brands are active, not passive — stimulating emotions and invoking responses. An effective brand creates motion, attracting some while perhaps repelling others. What’s important is that you attract your target, then engage and hold them through promise and performance. A clearly defined brand will state what you do, whom you serve, and why they chose you. A brand image is established through the communication vehicles that we use to develop meaningful and valued relationships with our customers. That said, can the importance of your brand image (or "look and feel") be overemphasized? Next >

People want to buy experiences rather than "just products or services." Effective brands are cultures with definable experiences. Brands are really about benefits rather than features. Benefits can come in the form of performance (intangibles) and relationships (tangibles). People want to connect with brands they identify with. In order to help them connect, we have to take brand to the emotional level of relationship. How do people feel when they navigate your website, talk to a company representative on the phone or see your advertising? Brands are experienced through various encounters (or touch points). Each represents an opportunity to influence how people view, feel or talk about your brand, which should affirm and reaffirm a concise, consistent and compelling message. < Back

INTEGRATED MARKETING, COMMUNICATIONS & DESIGN

Profit-generating results that establish brand, capture market share, increase customer loyalty and support business objectives.

In business since 1995, FORTHGEAR helps companies attract, excite, surprise and delight customers in an increasingly complex and competitive business landscape. We first gain a thorough understanding of our clients’ business objectives and then develop strategies that convey and reinforce the promise of their brand. Download the FORTHGEAR Performa.