What is Project branding?

Almost all communications in the project can be attributed to three main groups: mandatory, working and marketing. Probably, in your project there will always be mandatory communications, for example, status reporting. If your project is large enough, you may need to organize a special exchange of working information (working communications). 

 

Marketing communications arise when it is necessary to "correctly submit" the project and its results in order to create a certain positive attitude of stakeholders to them, most often - future users of the delivered result. Since the role of marketing communications is growing every day, in one way or another, branding can be useful to your project.

Branding occupies a special place among marketing communications. Its goal is to create emotional or sensual associations with the project. This is exactly the same thing that a marketing service tries to do when creating a brand for a new product. 

 

For example, the Coca-Cola Company believes that you will remove a bottle of its drink from a crowded supermarket shelf, because you like not only the color and design of its stickers, but also the emotions that you have associated with its trademark. Perhaps it is. 

 

Remember. If you brought chilled jars of Coca-Cola or Sprite to a picnic, you were sure in advance of the favorability of the impression made on others. On the other hand, carrying a bag of little-known or even nameless bottles with you, most likely, you would experience some embarrassment. If that was the case, then Coca-Cola's branding towards you was successful.


The branding of the project has the same meaning. Its purpose is to achieve positive associations among the target audience when it hears about your project. This is probably not a matter of particular concern for most projects. However, ask yourself a few questions about the impact of your project on the organization.

• Will it affect the interests of a large number of people or, worse, your entire company?
• Will it entail a change in corporate culture or the order in which employees perform their work?
• Will your project make people worry? For example, will it lead to increased productivity, which will allow fewer employees to do the same work?

If you answer at least one of the questions in the affirmative, your project is a candidate for branding.

What would you like people to think about when they hear about your project: the benefits that the project will bring to the company, or the fact that one of them may well lose their jobs? About the company's response to challenges from competitors or about the discomfort associated with the need to change the usual order of work? When people hear about a big project, it necessarily evokes some thoughts and associations in them. Branding is designed to help you set up these thoughts and associations in a project-friendly way. Naturally, this takes time. Therefore, branding is real only in long-term projects.

If you are lucky enough to work in a company with a well-established marketing service, you can gather a round table with its specialists and take out a lot of ideas about what activities can be planned and implemented to create a positive brand for your project. If you do not have such an opportunity, you can come up with them yourself. Some of these activities may include the following:

1. Come up with a positive name for the project. For example, a project called Mercury is likely to evoke fewer negative associations than the same project, but called the Marketing Process Improvement Initiative. It's a good idea to also come up with a catchy, memorable acronym or abbreviation for the project name.
2. Come up with an emblem (logo) for the project. A large project simply must have its own logo. This logo must also be aesthetically pleasing and positive and must be found on all documents coming from the project team.
3. Release "branded" souvenirs. Place the name and emblem of the project on badges, T-shirts, pens, toys, etc. Reward people with souvenirs with the logo of the project when they achieve good results in something.
4. Arrange face-to-face meetings. Take the time to meet as many people as possible, either in person or in small groups, especially at the beginning of a project. There is no normal person who would prefer to perceive information about things that are important to them only by e-mail. This "cheapens" the project in their minds.
5. Other ideas include joint dinners or tea parties, a slogan that fits the symbolism of the project, collecting feedback from satisfied users (consumers) and distributing them to staff, etc. Find positive signals from your project and pass them on to people.

Of course, all of the above should be only part of the continuous flow of information emanating from the project. Such a flow in combination with positive signals and with the addition of branding information will help your project to develop successfully, reducing its negative perception by people.