Project leaders who embrace a brand mindset will be in a stronger position to achieve their goals and deliver on the organization’s business strategy.
As the competitive landscape grows tougher, project leaders must sequence, time and articulate core messaging about their projects in much the same way a marketing manager would organize an external customer-facing branding effort to promote a company’s products and services. And therein lies an opportunity; brand your projects in order to gain an edge in obtaining funds and the best staff.
Just as product branding creates awareness and sustains value in the minds of an organization’s external customers, shareholders, and constituents, a brand mindset can empower a project leader to develop strategically-timed messages to create visibility and engagement among key targets. Depending on the stage of the project, different project brand audiences may include senior business leaders, project sponsors, and team members with primary allegiances to vertical functions, as well as network partners external to the home organization. The savvy project leader will ensure that all parties up, down, across, and outside the organization understand, internalize, and embrace the promise of the project brand, agree on goals, and employ steadfast support for the initiative through its completion.
11 Comments On: Why Every Project Needs a Brand (and How to Create One)
Good article…the 5P’s can be applied to business development efforts related to sales territory management projects for achieving sales goals….Anthony, Bussinees Development Execiutive, IBM
The key is managing is the performance phase of the project. Would have appreciated some more information on this.. because here is where many a good projects wither on the vine.
A learning worth sharing about this phase – The perception of broader base of impacted team-members regarding how senior management perceives and interacts with the Project leader and her team is vital. Its important that they exude confidence, while acknowledging setbacks.
For projects that depend on external providers/ consultative Project Leaders – treat them well – even though they may be charging a lot for their time
-Rakesh Sharma, Zyom, Inc.
A very useful article. I immediately shared the idea with colleagues. A simple idea, but a brilliant one.
the project should becomes unforgettable moment for a team, since it is a symbol of competency and commitment. it is the task for project leader to make every person involved, have the same commitment and vision
A very good article which is drawing the analogy of Brand management to the Project management principles. A new perspective ..
its from project to project that an organization builds trust, and its apt that the branding efforts are also aligned. This would not only shape the brand personality of the company but also create greater bonding with the customers… an aspect mostly ignored by PMs and Marketing teams!!
Based on my own experience as a project manager for a large organization, I noticed successful projects had the following characteristics:
* A good project title that conveyed the essence of what the project was about
* graphic design to accompany the title
* Frequent and clear communications inside and outside of the project team
* Recognized priority within the organization
These projects had a lot of momentum and challenge. People wanted to be on the team!
Good article, performance is assured when transparent information are available about the product of any project to public.
Muhammad Naeem ul Fateh, PhD
“BRANDS. PRODUCTS HAVE THEM. Services have them. Organizations have them. Even people have them (think Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey or Frank Gehry)”
I’ll add Michael Phelps and Brad VanAuken.
Project branding is one thing I learned in MBA as well. However there are different project methodologies and branding may not work in some. For example, in Agile methodology or lean scrumban there would be continuous delivery of functionalities or enhancements to existing systems over a very short period of time (typically in weeks). In such cases I do not think branding will work. However project branding could work in a large waterfall based project where the timeline is longer and there is a need to continuously market the project and motivate the team members.Lean scrumban eliminates the need for branding as business will quickly see the results and determine if any changes are needed further. It has its own disadvantages though.
Project Branding is essential in corporate environments with numerous other projects or programs competing for the same human and capital resources. Our Online training program covers project tools and templates that can help not only brand projects but also structure and execute them. feel free to check it out and contact us with any questions; leansigmacorporation.com