What's in a brand.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: Includes related articles on high-tech branding - Corporate identity and brand enhancement campaigns

a corporate identity by any other name might not smell so sweet.

Creation of a red logo, reminiscent of a yin-yang symbol with an "S" in the center. Implementation of a flashy national ad campaign. Umpteen board meetings and brainstorming sessions aimed at aligning corporate communications with a vision of the future.

These are just a few of the aspects of StorageTek's recent $25 million corporate identity and brand enhancement campaign. Unveiled in March, the Louisville-based computer storage giant kicked off its campaign simultaneously with its move into the market for storage area networks.

It's no coincidence: StorageTek's reputation was built on tape storage, not network storage.

"We want the outside image to match the inside changes we have made," said Valerie Hausladen, director of integrated marketing at StorageTek. "We wanted to be a little more bold. We wanted to be a little more unexpected."

StorageTek's revamp was big but not unusual. Countless product introductions, startups, bankruptcies, and mergers and acquisitions have made it increasingly difficult to create a memorable brand and corporate identity. That's why branding consultants are the hottest figures in today's corporate communications arena. Far from the glitz of the Big Apple, brand consultancies are making their mark on Colorado's Front Range.

Branding specialists rethink a company's existing brand or help develop a new one. The term "brand" comes from cattle ranching. But the concept has come a long way since Bonanza.

"A brand is an expectation of who you are, what you do and how well you do it," said Hank Fisher, a Denver branding consultant who does business as Transum Business Solutions. Fisher noted that a brand is defined by both the consumer and the producer; it's an interaction between buyer and seller that "supersedes the product itself." Thus a brand can be attached to a myriad of products and be a signal of quality, integrity or value at a given price point.

Observers usually think that a brand is just a memorable name and a catchy graphic; a brand strategist will beg to differ. Brand strategy, said Fisher, is the management of a brand's contact with the public, aimed at influencing people to buy, donate or otherwise listen to a message. Every company, from "Microsoft to Dunkin' Donuts," competes for the consumer's attention span, noted Fisher. "The key is to differentiate your message," he said of brand strategy.

Many Colorado companies look to a...