One on One with Lippincott's Rick Wise

The world of branding has changed. Where the focus was once centered around design, logos and communication, brands today are looking for ways to differentiate themselves in how they reach customers. A big part of that is offering customers an experience unique to their brand that makes them feel emotionally connected to it. In other words, brands are looking to show they have heart. In the case of a recent engagement with Southwest Airlines, Lippincott took that literally, including in its redesign a large heart painted on the bellies of Southwest's jets as a nod to its Love Field origins. Consulting sat down with Rick Wise, CEO of Lippincott, to discuss the state of branding consulting and learn more about its acquisition of Bonfire Communications, its first in the firm's 70-year history.

Consulting: How is a successful brand built today?

Wise: The Lippincott view on it is that it has to be broader than in previous generations. Brands are increasingly experienced in a variety of ways that are much broader than traditional communications. We really focus on how do we take a brand, turn it into a really compelling story about the company, what it does and why and then translate that into experience, both the more traditional communications experience but also the actual delivered experience in terms of what customer is seeing and feeling around the brand. Also the experience employees have and how the brand actually frames the way they think about and interact with the company, such that it also supports and aligns them around the experience they need to deliver to customers.

Consulting: You recently worked with Southwest Airlines and Black & Decker, two very different brands, what were some of the goals of these engagements?

Wise: In each case there was a specific set of objectives for the rebranding. In Black & Decker's case it was how do we take a brand that has traditionally been a mid-priced tool brand and reconceive it so it can play a much bigger role and we can drive more growth in the home and home appliance arena. Also how do we change it so it feels slicker and a little more modern? In that category years ago, nobody cared much about what the product looked like. But with Dyson bringing design to ordinary appliances and some of the European brands doing so as well, Black & Decker wanted to move from the toolshed to the kitchen right next to the coffee maker. The notion was to make it a little more modern and fashion-forward.