So how do you get it? Is it a rite of passage for companies who pass their 10-year or 20-year anniversary mark? Frankly, no. Brand power is not something you can buy off a shelf or accumulate with careful shopping. Rather, it’s earned through conscientious hard work by companies who understand their vision and mission and deliver it constantly to their customers!

I am deeply impressed by companies who understand this and they can be tiny companies with enormous ideas like www.jimcollins.com or gigantic companies like Smurfit-Stone www.smurfit.com. Both types can be excellently branded with a clear image and, more importantly, a clear path to success. Let’s take a look at how Smufit-Stone packages itself.

Positioning
Their company is designed to drive change and deliver results using their combined resources and expertise under the banner of “solving it from all sides.” Of course, we are talking about one of the world’s largest packaging companies.

It is a fantastic, inviting, strategic platform for a company with immense resources to make available to its customers. This makes for an interesting ongoing marketing campaign that can be use with a wide variety of brand images that inspire, excite, and most importantly drive home their brand strategy throughout all of its marketing communications.

Solving it from all sides is not only an extremely powerful positioning and strategic headliner for the company it does many other things…

  • It’s a brand story and gesture that can be demonstrated in the everyday (see Altoids image) which reinforces they are a leader doing business with customers who are leaders.
  • It’s a direct expression of the corporate story that includes facts such as $7.042 Billion 2008 Sales, Experienced Management Team in 15 mills, 89 corrugator plants, 19 sheet plants, 3 sheet feeder plants and 27 recycling plants.

All of these facts and the many others they can provide shows how their brand strategy: We’ve got you covered from all sides, isn’t just a creative line, it’s what happens when you start doing business with Smurfit-Stone.

As I said earlier, smaller companies can also create their own brand power by understanding their value proposition and presenting it in persuasive ways.