Los Angeles Branding Agency Articulated Brands® was asked to help re-imagine the branding and positioning for the worldwide leader in license plate recognition technology.

The Message-centric Branding® process

Through the brand discovery process, branding consultant Silverman learned not only about the company’s superior performance in border protection but about the many other applications of their license plate recognition software and equipment. Silverman proposed naming the equipment for each individual market it was serving and highlighting, in print and web, why it was the best solution for each need. Discovery included a competitive analysis and a review of extant marketing materials also revealed that this was a company with a strong sense of purpose, integrity and ingenuity, but this just wasn’t coming through in the right way.

The creative services deliverables and their results

A new website, new names for each of its sales/service groups, tradeshow displays, a banner ad campaign and a series of whitepapers and infographics were all part of the brand development and brand activation initiatives. From the digital efforts alone (banner ads and website), the company experienced a seven-fold increase in inbound leads.

One of the most exciting marketing pieces to come out of this work was a one-sheet with a die-cut percentage sign. The purpose of this: to demonstrate a more transparent approach and that the company wasn’t going to stand for competitor’s claims of more accurate read rates, especially when the formulas behind their percentage claims were intrinsically flawed. A whitepaper on the same subject became a popular download in the industry.

Your key branding takeaways

Technology companies and product/manufacturing companies are often infused with an engineering mindset. While they certainly need a partner on the creative side, even more beneficial is to work with someone who can pinpoint where there is skepticism and lack of buy-in. Branding consultant Silverman loves building relationships with engineering types and illustrating, point by point, that he’s only 20% kook — there’s a little more logical method behind his “brand madness” than they were expecting. How is this a learning takeaway and not a self-serving sale point? Fair point. The bigger picture lesson is this: genuine branding is an intense process that requires back-and-forth, candor, open-mindedness and trust. Industry experience doesn’t matter, but experience with the fundamental issues and resistance points absolutely do.