Branding Demystified

What Is A Brand?Brand is the promise, the big idea, and the expectations that reside within each customer’s mind about a product, service or company. Brand is the personality of an organization.

A Brand is not aLogoCorporate IdentityProductCompanyStrategy

Why Have Brands Become Important?Bottom line: good brands build companies and add value.

Products are created in the factory. Brands are created in the mind.Walter LandorFounder Landor Associates

Brand TouchpointsEach touchpoint is an opportunity to strengthen a brandand communicate its meaning.

When Is A Brand Needed ?

What a new identity can do

• Express the kind of organization you are• Reassure the public that you are who you say you are• Connect your organization to images and ideas• Serve as the consistent element that builds equity over time• Provide consistency over communications channel

What a new identity can’t do

• Make people act• Change people’s minds• Make new friends• Embody every message to everyone• Respond to current events

Why Invest In Brand Identity?Make it easier for the customer to buy Make it easier for the sales force to sell Make it easier to build brand equity

Brands help customers cut through the proliferation of choices available in every product or service category.Scott M. DavisBrand Asset Management

Ideals OverviewThese ideals hold true whether launching a new brand, resetting on older brand, or as a result of a merger.

vision

coherence

differentiation

flexibility

meaning

authenticity

sustainability

commitment

value

VisionA compelling vision by an effective, articulate, and passionate leader is the foundation and inspiration for the best brands.

MeaningThe best brands stand for something; a big idea, a defined set of values and a voice that stands apart.

SustainabilitySustainability is the capacity of a brand identity to last in an ever-changing environment.

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CommitmentAn effective brand identity is tied directly to management’s desire to nurture it. Identity systems must be clearly supported by the company’s management and be enforced, and monitored when necessary.

We recognize the value of a disciplined approach to building, protecting and enhancing our brand.

David GuerraBrand Management DirectorErnst & Young

ValueWithin a company a brand identity has value when it is viewed by senior management as an important asset.

A Strong Brand Commands A PremiumValue as a symbol Value as an asset Commitment to value is ongoing Value is preserved through legal protection Valued by marketing

Our BeliefA brand that makes consumers experience a positive feeling is the one that makes them open their hearts, and their wallets.

A Brand. My Brand.

Our Past & Present Work

Advertising CampaignWells Fargo

Advertising CampaignHometown Health

Ad & Brochure

Postcard& Billboard

Advertising CampaignIGT

get out in front.

You try to keep up, but life has other ideas. You read more, you talk to people. You know that the future is an open network, but will you be ready when it arrives?

Reality is closer than you think. Only IGT offers the open architecture, networked floor and server-based gaming vision and functionality all designed to make your games and systems work together seamlessly.

You have an appointment with the future. Don’t be late.

The Right Vision.Right now & for the future.

To learn more about IGT’s vision of the networked gaming future, visit: www.IGT.com/Openor call 702-669-7777© 2008 IGT. All rights reserved.

Thank You

Contact Kevin Melahn kevin@melahncreative.com 775.544.9920

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About Us

Kevin Melahn

Kevin Melahn has been part of the communications design revolution of the last quarter century fromletterpress to Wordpress®. With a BFA in Communications Design from the prestigious Parsons School of Design, he started his career as an art director at Ogilvy & Mather in New York, working on print and television advertising for Merrill Lynch, Owens Corning and Bosch.

Since moving to northern Nevada, Kevin went on to work as a Senior Art Director at DRGM Advertising, whose clients included Bally’s, Nevada Economic Development, the Nevada State Commission on Tourism, and the RSCVA. Kevin then went onto serving as Associate Creative at Trahan, Burden & Charles, where he led in the rebranding of Harrah’s Casino.

Prior to starting Melahn Creative, Kevin was the Creative Director at International Game Technology in Reno. There he led a creative team that evolved the company’s marketing communications department from a technical services group into a full-service in-house enterprise focused on brand development.

Since leaving IGT, Kevin has begun a brand development consultancy, Melahn Creative. Using his 35 years of branding, advertising and design experience, Kevin Melahn works with large or small organizations in analyzing their brand, and offer solutions to move their brand forward. This may include logo development, recommendations of various media platforms and social networking opportunities and other services. Kevin also has a network of talented designers, copywriters, photographers, and web developers who join the creative effort as needed.