Global Brands « Merriam Associates, Inc. Brand Strategies

Merriam Associates specializes in branding that gets results. Everything we do systematically generates leads, closes sales, boosts profits, and builds a solid reputation for your company and your products or services. Our background combines the rigor of global Fortune 500 companies with the tenacity of successful entrepreneurs.

Lisa Merriam NPR Interview on BP

Lisa Merriam interviewed on NPR about the fate of the BP brand

Scott Neuman of NPR asked me about the possible boycotts of BP. I explained that brand is not a driver for people buying gas. Location is most important. People will literally not drive across a median to reach a gas station on the [...]

Brand Architecture: Strategic Considerations

What is the best structure for your brand portfolio? The answer depends on a number of strategic considerations:

Audience Diversity
What are the target segments for your brand? Is the brand focused on just one audience or must it appeal to many?

Brand Elasticity
How far can each of the brands stretch to cover different [...]

Approaches to Brand Architecture

Companies manage their brand portfolios through a number of brand architecture structures, driven by company culture, markets and customers, and goals.

Single Unitary Brand Architecture
One brand creates a single powerful image, sometimes with a descriptor.

Marketing is more efficient. With one brand front and center, cross selling and cooperation are easier. The brand can lose [...]

Heavy Equipment Branding

While buying a steam roller is very different from buying a can of soda, brand still matters. We talked to heavy equipment operators at work sites around the Chicago area to gather their opinions about construction equipment brands.

How Do the Brands Compare?
Caterpillar and John Deere are the dominant brands. While competitors have multiplied and [...]

Visual Systems Strengthen Brand and Cut Costs

Taking a systematic approach to your visuals, whether for your web site, brochures, business cards, even videos, will dramatically strengthen the power of your brand while cutting your production costs.

Promote Uganda: Focusing The Brand Message

Focusing The Message of an NGO Brand
Promote Uganda is a non-governmental-organization (NGO) founded by successful ex-patriot Ugandans with the goal of improving the economic lot of people in Uganda. The organization is an ambitious one. We helped them organize and articulate their agenda around several key initiatives:

Providing tourists information about travel to Uganda
Helping researchers or [...]

Creating Iconic Brands in China

Lisa Merriam, New York brand strategy expert advises top Chinese marketers on how to efficiently create global brands

Originally published in the Beijing Business Herald, October 21, 2006

Branding may still be a relatively new concept in China, but the nation can be expected to reach a high level of sophistication in a relatively short period of [...]

The Changing Role of Brands

How can you tell if your brand is or will be memorable? You can’t spot memorability simply by looking . Since memorability is so all-important, getting it right in the beginning is critical. You can move forward with reasonable assurance that your brand will be memorable if you consider the following six factors…