Brand conscious: How is your company or product thought of?

• Author: McKimmie, Kathy
• Position: Media & Marketing - Branding and marketing strategies

We've asked some of Indiana's top marketing and communications execs to share an example of how they've helped brand a company or product, and they've told their stories--from working with a start-up dot.com to rebranding products that have been around for decades.

VIRTUAL BRANDING

Until icorn.com was formed two years ago, seeds were sold the old-fashioned way, person to person, salesman to farmer. To Chris Wirthwein, CEO of 5MetaCom, an Indianapolis marketing communications company, helping create the brand identity for a start-up virtual company was a rare and exciting opportunity. "Most companies have some baggage," he says. "We started with a blank sheet of paper and engineered and built this brand from scratch."

The most important thing was the name, and the selection of icorn.com instantly conveyed the product and how to get to the store--just type it in your computer. "It's the name we're trying to burn in the memory," he says, so the colorful corn logo is key in the marketing effort which includes advertising, displays at Midwest trade shows--where customers can see there's a human behind the product--and even the use of traditional roadside signage.

But once the potential customer is led to the Web site, building that all-important trust comes next with an extensive section on the quality of the corn, the value of the brand and the service to customers. And the information is in more detail, says Wirthwein, than a typical salesman will convey in a casual in-person pitch. "icorn.com shows you everything you get, without the stuff you don't like (meeting with sales people). You're in control, and it's every bit as good as you can get somewhere else."

REFRESHING THE BRAND

Taking Arnett Clinic, a household name in the Lafayette area, and reenergizing it was Bob St. Claire's challenge last year. "It was around for decades," says the president of Indianapolis-based St. Claire Cisco Group, specializing in health-care and energy marketing. "The Arnett brand existed on some level, but had lain dormant."

Leveraging the name recognition of the 156-member physician group, St. Claire launched a multimedia campaign around the theme: "The name you know. The care you trust. Arnett Clinic," winning an Addy Award for the effort.

"All the imagery supported trust," says St. Claire, like the mother and baby in a soft, caring pose, and two elderly gentlemen playing chess. "In any personal relationship you have, trust is key," he says. Getting that...