Which brands exemplify the true meaning of authenticity?

What a great question! You are on the right track. First, lets define Avatar as "An icon or figure representing a particular person." In business application, an avatar is a representation of your ideal client/customer. A business may have multiple avatars representing several target demographics. Some prefer to distill this down to one person as an “avatar.” I recently interviewed super entreprenuer John Lee Dumas of EOfire.com and he has a very clear Avatar he calls "Jimmy" that he uses for business decisions you may want to check out. I hope that you have already gone through the exercise of your UVP, or Unique Value Proposition. If not, may I suggest the worksheet on this page, first: http://bit.ly/1kYTLbf Ok, so once you've clarified the why choose me, then start working on your Avatar, that's the who, or as we marketers like to call them: personas that represent segments from your target market. You have to start somewhere, right? So do. Are you going to first focus locally in your zip code and surrounding area? That can be one piece in helping you visualize your Avatar's lifestyle. Target marketing has to do with breaking your potential global audience into segments, specifically only the potential buyers of our product, service, or cause. As much as we might be tempted, we can’t be all things to all people. We have to commit and put some stakes in the ground. Are you ready to write your personal ad? Who are you looking for? Some of the most basic questions you should ask in forming an idea of Customer Segmentation has to do with what these people want, need, think, and feel. No time is wasted from this exercise because it will ultimately lead you to where and with who they hang out (their tribe.) Why is that our desired end point? Because that virtual or real (coffee shop, tradeshow, website, search engine, twitter feed, health fair, street location, podcast, meetup, traditional media) is where I should be hanging out with my product, service or cause and shouting my UVP from the rooftops as part of the conversation! Taking this thought experiment all the way through will also assist you in the critical understanding of whether the segment is large enough for you to be successful. I like using the Personas app (available on iPad) to put forth a visual representation of my potential target markets, but a white board works too! Literally put in a photo representation of your Avatar with a Name, and start brainstorming out: Think and Feel? See? Hear? Say and Do? Hangs out with/where? For you, offering your B2B services, maybe explore linked in to find where your peeps hang out and get a clearer idea of, let's call her, Samantha. Samantha is a small business owner of a growing service business whose revenues just got in the black. She has two employees and she's looking to hire another. She is struggling with getting her website up and mobile friendly and feels like she needs to be more effective in communicating what she does. She is overworked, in her mid 40s and recently divorced with 2 boys ages 10, 12. She has little time for fluff and needs guidance in creating a system that will help run her business. Can you help Samantha? :-) If you'd like to get more tips that sound like this, I'd be tickled if you let me know if Sell Local. Think Global. speaks to you. It's my first book and I'm feeling very vulnerable putting myself out there! eep! Available now on Amazon: http://bit.ly/olgasbook

Your strategy should encompass at least four components: (A) Complete Visual/verbal/social/technical audit to find/create needed assets for transition: know which assets need to be retired or replaced and what transitional assets are needed to bridge the gap. Prioritize: not everything always needs to change at once and the more you have the longer it will take or cost. Plan to convert brand book concepts/guidelines into tangible or digital deployables: how much "stuff" do you need?; vendor selection; budgeting; designing production files; ordering; quality assurance etc... (B) Internal (team) awareness & asset deployment program and monitoring compliance. (C) External publicity plan: aimed at existing clients & prospects, and any other stakeholders: social networks, media, affiliate partners, etc... Timing should be coordinated with industry / sector calendar (trade shows, if applicable), and major app update for maximum effectiveness. Do you need specialized short term PR/AD help? How can you leverage your 10K+ users to buy in / get the word out? (D) Technical migration & Monitoring Plan: seo strategy & tracking including all affected url redirects, landing pages, email changes, whatever is affected. Monitoring & analytics to see how effective the transition is (compared to old name stats) and when transitional assets can be retired.

As former CMO of Expedia I can tell you that being focused will trump any theoretical upside of having different names. To this day there's a struggle to build daylight in meaning between Hotels.com and Expedia's core hotel business - and there have literally been billions spent on trying to do that over the years. Get clear on who you're for, the problem you solve, what insight you are building against and your positioning against that. There's enough work there on its' own - believe me. Good luck.

Your question is very interesting and gives me a feeling you have a real commitment for success because it makes me feel you care for your team. If this question could be fully answered in a couple of lines, you can imagine all managers and executives would lead their teams successfully. The 2 key principles to remember are: 1. Everyone is different: you have to adapt to each individual. It is time consuming but pays off in the long run because everyone has their own learning styles, speed and attitude. Take the time to have 1:1 conversations about them as individuals: likes and dislikes, under what conditions they perform best, how they learn most easily and about their career goals. 2. Create a team spirit. This is the exact opposite of point 1: as much as you recognize everyone as individuals, you have to also build unity and cohesion. There has to be standardized rules of behavior, common values and a shared vision. You have to take time with your team as a whole. This will lead you to create: 1. A personal development plan for each individual in your team, which helps you develop a tailored approach for each person, create reward & recognition systems and monitor people's happiness and performance. This helps you understand your team from a micro-perspective. 2. An organizational development plan for your start-up to give you a more global vision of the talents you need to acquire, retain and grow. This helps you understand your team from a macro-perspective. Team building requires taking time for all the different aspects of bonding: forming, storming, norming, performing, mourning. It's always about balancing two extremes: On one hand you want to take time to work together and alone, to learn & grow, to brainstorm, to create, to plan, to prepare, to research and to measure performance. On the other hand you, you also want to take time away from the office to stop & think, take time to have fun, take time to get to know each other, take time to rest & relax. Do you need any guidance to build individual and organizational development plans that will support growth and team building for your start-up?

Many people in consumerist countries buy on emotion. It isn't the same at the lower end of the market, so brands lose out massively in that space, but they aren't really too worried about it given the disposable income available elsewhere. Branding involves understanding how your 'badge' makes your customers feel. There has to be a congruence between what they see and thus imagine. Oddly, this can also include what they can almost smell and taste! Even though those are not at any point defined in the brand strategy per se. The first thing is to identify your market segment. In the example you gave, ask yourself what is it you do? How old are you? Do you have children? What sort of job do you do? Are you happy with it? How much do you make? What sort of house do you live in? What other things do you like? etc. etc. etc. these all form what is known as a 'customer persona'. You may even help yourself along by cutting out items from magazines which help visualise answer to those questions or even create and cut out a large cut-out of that archetype. I do this a lot in different capacities, especially in IT and tech, since that is the market I revolve in most. I can definitely help with the strategy, but I'm going to say something quite odd. If you are thinking to, DO NOT contact me about manifesting it ;) As you can probably tell, there are two parts to this. The first is the strategy which I can do with my eyes closed. The second is the branding exercise, which involves the folk focussed on the emotional aspect of the process, even if they lack the strategic oversight or plan. If I were you, I'd find someone who has both. The strategic 'cognition' and the emotional/EQ skill. That is the sort of person you need or you can find people that work well together and use them both. Very best of luck!