Strategy & Brand

As a general rule, BlackDog doesn’t brand upstarts. Here are some resources to help get your brand new brand off the ground though…

If you can’t find the answer to the brand query you’re muddling over, puzzling out, and Googling till the cows come home, send it our way. BlackDog’s 365 blog is an ongoing, evolving, question and answer guide developed to help business owners and entrepreneurs understand and hone their brands. Submit your questions on brand, branding, or branders to BlackDog and we’ll send you a personal response with the answer. An anonymous and confidential version of your question and our response will then be posted on BlackDog’s 365 blog to help out your fellow ponderers.

What’s a Brand?

• The Big Idea
• Logo vs Brand
• Who Defines a Brand?
• Brand Success – Just a Marketing Plan?
• Brand vs Advertising

Do You Need a Brand?

• Why Do I Need a Brand?

Naming Your Brand:

• How to Name a Startup
• 10 Ways to Name Your Company or Product
• Types of company and product names — A field guide

Slinging a Slogan:

• What’s The Difference: Good Tagline vs Bad Tagline

Picking a great URL:

• How to Find a Good URL without Having a Brain Hemorrhage

Finding Your Big Idea:

• The Big Idea

Differentiating Your brand:

• Differentiators…Let me count the ways
• Crazy. Inspired. Bold. Successful.
• How Do We Crate an Iconic Brand?
• Strip Away All the Filler…

Missions and Visions:

• Is Our Mission Our Brand Promise?

Components of a Brand Strategy:

• 19 Components of a Brand Strategy

Identifying Your Customer:

• Who Is Our Customer?

Identifying Your Brand Touch Points:

• What’s a brand touch point?

The Best Brand Book for Startups:

• Is There a Brand Book For Startups?

The Best Brand Books Period:

• Do You Have a Favorite Brand Book?

How to Write a Business Plan:

• Writing a Business Plan

Identifying Core Values:

• How Important are “Core Values”?
• Changing the World… One Brand at a Time

Developing Brand Standards:

• Hey, I Have Standards

Sponsorship  & Strategic Partnership Standards:

• Banners, logos, & Neon Lights, oh my!

Diversifying into New Markets:

• How Does A Brand Diversify Into New Markets?

The Truth About Brand Loyalty:

• Do You Believe in Brand Loyalty?

Synching Your Brand with Your Brand Experience:

• How do you sync brand and brand experience?

On Relevance, Transparency, & Avoiding Bullshit

• Do you ever get over whelmed by finding ways or trying to be inventive and original?
• The Better You Are, The Better You Look

Do Charitable Actions & Social Giving Build Brand Equity?

• Do Charitable Actions Build Brand Equity?
• Redux – Do Charitable Actions Build Brand Equity?

Bringing Your Humanity to Work:

• Brand Is An Inside Job

Communicating your Differentiated Brand:

• We Don’t Brand Bullshit: How BlackDog Does Communications
• Narrativity: You’re Too Good For Boring
• How Buff is Your Brand Narrative?
• Crafting Content out of Fingerprints
• Top Shelf: Communications Reads We Recommend
• Top Shelf Part II: More Communications Reads We Recommend

Brand & Social Media:

• Social Media – The Prize Inside
• The Rolling Stones Didn’t Have to Bribe THEIR Groupies
• Twitter, the Medium is the Message
• Social Media Masterminds: Facebook Pages that Are Getting it Right!

Narrativity: [nar-uh-tiv-uh-tee]: 1.) the degree to which your brand spunk, funk, credibility, attitude, and vibe shines through your messaging. 2.) Your voice, your verbiage, your tone.

While preparing for a wine-touring camping trip to Watkins Glen, I began perusing the websites of the nearby Seneca Lake wineries and plotting my prioritized must-see, must-visit list for the alcohol-inspired excursion. I was frustrated to find that, with a mere handful of exceptions, every winery’s website looked and sounded the same, and they all lacked personality, pizzazz, and panache. Armed with an adventurous spirit, I finally gave up pre-planning my wine trail route, and decided to wing the whole experience. I visited several wineries I liked, several I very much didn’t, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d accidentally by chance driven right past my dream winery and missed my one chance at true varietal bliss.

If every brand looks and sounds the same, has same perspective, purpose, product, it doesn’t matter which winery you visit or which brand you choose. The one is as good as the other, and if you’ve had one you’ve had them all. If you’re distinct, worthy of note, and you hide behind  the same humdrum look, feel, sound, and practice as everyone else, no one will ever know you’re worthy of their time or attention. When everyone is just a different shade of beige, popped from the same drone mold, we’re all being robbed of an opportunity for preference and our worlds all have a little less color in them. Boring is thievery by complacency.

Narrativity is one of the ways bold brands with a story to tell differentiate their experience, brighten their color spectrum, and tell their too-good-for-boring tale. Your brand’s story is made up of your brand’s real-life, day to day, actions, decisions, products, events, partnerships, sponsors. It’s who you are, how you work, what you do, and why you do it.  Narrativity is the voice, tone, and verbiage you use to tell that vivid, appealing, authentic story. Narrativity is like a person’s distinct vocabulary and speech pattern. It’s the words and phrases you own, and it’s what makes you sound like you, instead of just like everybody else.

Here are a few examples of vibrant, saucy brands that have high degree of Narrativity:

Urban Daddy: A racy, random, irreverent city guide for liquor drinking, women loving, wannabe jet owning, good humored James Bond types the world over. After reading an article or three from Urban Daddy, you and your grandmother could both pick their work out of a line up blind-folded (if it was being read aloud).

Harley-Davidson: Harley doesn’t sell motorcycles, they sell freedom, self-expression, great escapes, and the open road. Harley’s “grab life by the bars”, “leave well enough behind”, “out to free the world” attitude is captured in and on everything from their advertisements to their annual reports.

Kraken Rum: This edge-of-the-world nautical brand is steeped in legend and only distilled for the fearless, seafaring, adventuring, unshaven at spirit. Once you’ve heard a Kraken ad, you can’t help but read the Kraken bottle and the Kraken story using their narrator’s speech pattern- it’s that alluring and distinctive. Kraken’s tone is so consistently conveyed with such a distinctive verve that their narrator’s voice and their content’s verbiage isn’t ever separate from the story, it’s part of their story.

For a sneak peek at Kraken’s vivid storytelling in action, check out their tale of the man-eating, ship-wreaking, sea-monster The Kraken, via their website.

Coffee Fool: Coffee Fool comes with a warning: their coffee is so fresh and delicious, everything else will taste bland and stale in comparison. What the warning doesn’t mention is that everything’ll look and sound bland in comparison as well. While other coffee roasters talk in coffee-speak about notes and tones and soils and geographies, these guys have a style all their own…. An example: the description for their only-brewed-on-Fridays flavor, Vanillamykahlua, proclaims it: “Tastes just like it sounds, with a little Hawaiian rumble in the jungle.” And the description for their knock-your-socks off bacon-flavored brew: “If everything tastes better with bacon, then why not coffee too? Our bacon flavor is not just roasted – it’s spit roasted. It’s so aromatic, you’ll be instant friends with your work colleagues and … any neighborhood dogs.”

It has been surprising to realize just how many business leaders are struggling with the same question: “What’s the point?” The question, asked any number of ways, is usually followed by a long  list of reasons and arguments for convincing the working masses to show up every day to do what “should” be done, that is, produce something that someone else wants to buy.

Organizations must exist to contribute positively to the human experience…that is benefit one’s quality of life, culture, and community. Quite simply work should empower people in their quest and pursuit of happiness as they labor, contribute, and create. Anything less and the business will flounder. The uninspired, overtaxed working community will struggle to maintain momentum and sustain passion in transactional cultures. Focus will wane, mission creep will set in, morale, productivity, and value will slide.

The current economic crisis is a reflection of our human crisis. We unequivocally must bring our humanity to work. Our work should reinforce our sense of purpose, our value, and feed our very human need to build and create. It’s that simple. It’s that complicated. Work is not an add on.

The quality of our work changes when we see it as a vocation and a service. Watch the quick clip of Rainn Wilson describing his role as Dwight Schrute as a “service” on Big Think.

http://bit.ly/quNKwm

Breakaway brand successes occur when brands with something to say begin speaking to audiences outside their close-knit school of thought.

Far too often, brands spend their all their communications efforts on preaching to the choir. Over, and over, and over again.

Remember our Outside Perspective blog? The disruptive technologies that radically move markets forward typically come from outside industries specifically because they have an outside perspective. The music industry didn’t imagine the ipod, airlines didn’t conjure up “go-to-meetings”, and TiVo wasn’t the brain child of the cable company.

When brands with valuable insights, unique perspectives, and innovative solutions only speak to other like-minded industry experts (who live within the same close-knit school of thought) or only speak to a group of devoutly loyal existing converts, their messages and their influence are limited and constricted. Speaking to the overlapping issues and the different audiences that are empowered to impact change and advance your cause moves your brand out of a category and into relevance…

Let’s take University Brands as our example. Through BlackDog’s activist foundation, Serious Play for Serious Girls, we frequently encounter academic researchers who report that their research is their contribution to their field and to the world at large. These researchers often find themselves frustrated that their research fails to reach the layman audiences who are positioned and empowered to affect the issues said research is helping address: social policy, corporate initiatives, education practices, environmental regulations, the list goes on. Unfortunately, researchers often find that professional networking and having to act as their own public relations advocates diverts too much time and energy away from actually conducting their research- which is the part of their work worth talking about in the first place…

One solution to this dilemma would be to provide researchers with networking and pr advocates who could help their work move beyond the peer community of fellow researchers and into the hands of professionals and activists positioned to impact change.  In addition to the outstanding societal benefits, these advocacy positions can help strengthen the university’s brand recognition, improve the brand image, improve the University’s working culture, increase the amount of outside funding available to researchers at the institution, and help the university to maintain ongoing relevance.

Another outstanding solution would be University Publications- trade journals, industry-oriented magazines, and community-centric industry-oriented blogs. Communications Arts isn’t published by Columbia or the Rhode Island School of Design, Vogue isn’t curated by Parsons, and Wired isn’t produced by MIT.  Examples of universities whose publications are actually speaking to their industries and contributing to the broader conversation are rare exceptions rather than the norm: Rotman, Harvard Business Review, The Journal of Pediatric Psychology…

What operational issues are reining your message in and holding your organization back? Here’s a quick self-audit check list to help identify if the broader audiences you’re positioned to speak to:

Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

What relevant issues is your brand positioned to speak to?

Which audiences would benefit from or appreciate the issues you’re positioned to speak to?

If you could speak to anyone, which audiences would you choose to speak to?

Why would these audiences care about your brand? What about you is relevant to them?

Who else is targeting the attention of these audiences? How will this interfere with your ability to reach them?

What would you have to do differently to reach these audiences?

What are the biggest obstacles holding your message back?

What creative solutions could help reduce or completely eliminate these obstacles?

There are so many companies with so many brands that it is hard to believe there is much “new” out there. Do you ever get over whelmed by finding ways or trying to be inventive and original?

Finding ways to help relevant, authentic brands tell a unique story is rarely overwhelming, in fact it is energizing and inspiring.  Organizations with energy, curiosity, courage and chutzpah that are willing to take on the challenges of driving their brand forward are a joy to work with.

That isn’t to say there aren’t obstacles. The most common, and most difficult, challenge is in establishing a brand’s positioning. It’s thorny ubiquity stems from two realities.

The first reality is that very few organizations truly understand differentiation. They are so ensconced in their day to day world, that they cannot lift their eyes up to see what makes them special. They typically don’t want to do the hard work of excavating that which makes them different… the essence of their brand.  And, even after doing the hard work, they often have a hard time embracing their differentiation, because the results are rarely what they anticipated and most often are significantly different from anyone elses in the market. Which they should be.

The second reality compounds the first. The vast majority of organizations, despite their vociferous claims of wanting to stand out, be different and unique, in the end just want to do the same old thing. They want to do and say what everyone else says and does. Unfortunately for them, imitation has never been a form of flattery; it’s always been boring and it’s really overdone. You cannot fake brand relevance, it’s not cheap or easy; it can’t be copied or bought.  It is hard earned and hard won.

It is in that hard work, the excavation and research, missteps and do-overs, thoughtful days and restless nights that the obstacles are overcome… and a brand emerges.  In the end the challenge isn’t a shortage of creativity; it is invigorating everyone to set their creativity, innovation, and ultimately their brand, free.

We can’t seem to get a handle on just who our customer is to create a customer profile. We aren’t sure how to determine who our customer is without revealing that we don’t have a clue. Does it matter if sales are consistent?

One of my favorite magazines, UTNE Reader published an excerpt of an article from imprint that I think addresses this question adequately.

Spray Tips

by Caleb Neelon, from imprint

Spray paint dates to about the 1920s, but the history of the spray paint can in its familiar form begins in the early 1960s. By the early 1970s, it was an art medium in the hands of New York kids, who quickly figured out that swapping out the factory nozzle for one from a can of oven cleaner gives a fatter, cleaner line. They also found that nozzles from cans of spray fixative give a narrow, clean line perfect for detailing. By the mid-1990s, enterprising graffiti writers had figured out how to bulk-order these spray tips and were reselling them to other graffiti writers.

Then there were the paints themselves. In the mid-1990s, European spray paint brands such as Belton and Montana really paid attention to graffiti writers, sponsoring projects and even giving star graffiti writers their own signature color of paint. Graffiti writers knew all the nuances of spray paint—coverage, overspray, color intensity, compatibility with other brands—and all of those other details that no weekend warrior out spray-painting his metal deck furniture is ever going to see.

The two main American spray paint companies, Rust-Oleum and Krylon, have always played blind to graffiti. While Belton and Montana each have several hundred colors, Rusto and Krylon have kept their color palettes to about a dozen or two at a time, forcing graffiti writers to shop at out-of-the-way discount stores to stock up on colors  available only for a season or two. Since you can’t mix spray paint colors without a lot of fuss, this is annoying. Krylon, a onetime favorite, has been so watered down that it’s simply useless. Along the way, they switched to a “fan” spray tip—the worst for any kind of artistic use—and even worse, made the fan tip more difficult to replace. Graffiti writers pay close attention to nozzle quality and its ability to accommodate a variety of nozzles. Krylon simply removed itself from the artistic-use market with this one move.

American graffiti writers are fiercely loyal to Rust-Oleum, however. Rusto is legendary as the thickest and most durable of all spray paints. It’s not for finesse: The thickness of the stuff precludes detail work, but there’s nothing that’ll last like it. Unfortunately, Rust-Oleum is busily making a switch to a “female” cap—one where the little post between nozzle and can is connected to the can, not the nozzle. It’s a small detail, but they wouldn’t have done it if they had listened to the people who know their products best.

European spray paints took a while to arrive in U.S. markets, but they’re here now and easy to find. American graffiti writers who would go through hundreds of cans of Rusto in a year are now using Belton, Montana, and a new arrival, Ironlak. These European spray paints can cost twice as much as their American counterparts, but artists are artists and they’ll pay the price to make their work.

Excerpted from imprint, the content-rich online outlet of Print, a bimonthly magazine about visual culture and design. http://imprint.printmag.com
Read more>>

Garland Pollard, a writer, web editor and SEO consultant writes “Is there too much branding?

He continues, “… must we all be so concerned with branding? Isn’t a good brand really the result of a moral, well-run company? Isn’t it better that hospitals focus on patients, and let the “branding” speak for itself? Do churches really need to “brand” themselves, or is it better that they focus on saving souls? Do we really need for banks to have visual identities, or do we want them to treat us properly when we make a deposit? Is the most recent mania for branding yet another management fad that we use to obscure coercion, duplicity and manipulation?”

Taking those in bite size pieces:

“Is there too much branding?”

A.) No, there is not “too much branding” anymore than there are too many interesting, purpose driven people making honorable contributions to the world.  There is far too much talk about branding and too many quick fix, faux solutions applied that actually distort the power of brand.

“Must we all be so concerned with branding?”

B.) Yes, in global and competitive markets we should all be concerned with branding; differentiating our organizational value in a memorable way is critical to vitality.

“Isn’t a good brand really the result of a moral, well-run company?”

C.) Yes, exactly! A good brand is the result of a moral, well-run company. But how does a working community define a moral company and align a well-run company without a shared identity and concerted purpose?

“Isn’t it better that hospitals focus on patients, and let the “branding” speak for itself?”

D.) Yes, hospitals should focus on patients. Healthy “brand philosophies” align the operating objectives of hospitals with the patient needs and expectations.

Appreciating that everyone, from patients to our nation as a whole, expects more than just advanced health-care today demands that hospitals offer more than quality recovery.

E.) Strong brands rarely, if ever just emerge from the operational routine to speak explicitly and align strategically.

“Do churches really need to “brand” themselves, or is it better that they focus on saving souls?”

F.) This not an either or proposition. Churches most certainly need to distinguish one from another in an effort to save souls. Churches passionate about their “call” want to speak beyond the pulpit to the people that are hoping for a message of hope and membership. Pentecostal? Down-to-earth? Fiscally transparent and accountable? Humanitarian outreach focused? Missions supportive? What a church represents is a story worth telling.

“Do we really need for banks to have visual identities, or do we want them to treat us properly when we make a deposit?”

G.) Yes, yes, and yes. A compelling brand ensures that your teller will treat you properly when making a deposit. The goal is to align what you do and how you do it around a simple, relevant and meaningful concept (brand promise) that can be delivered consistently provokes interest and woos customers.

I attempted to make a deposit with the wrong paperwork just recently. A logo on the slip would have been time saving for everyone waiting in line.

“Is the most recent mania for branding yet another management fad that we use to obscure coercion, duplicity and manipulation?”

H.) Identity matters. Buyers report that a cohesive brand for a relevant product/service eliminates the mental tug of war that they face when they make buying decisions.

Prescient, timeless and oft quipped, Marshall McLuhan’s Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man  and its iconic quote [1] are as relevant today as when it was penned in 1964.  Here are ten examples of McLuhan’s foresight in action:

@YesIamPrecious
The personified tweets of cross-country fundraising cyclist Janeen McCrae’s (@thenoodleator) bike. As the technologically savvy ventriloquist Janeen peddled across the US for LIVESTRONG, she and her bike tweeted their tales, their banter, and their milestones. This high-energy duo kept track of their hard-earned miles, their flat tires, the roadkill they passed, and the all the other tweet-worthy experiences they had along the way. @YesIamPrecious and @TheNoodleator are excellent examples of twitters that are getting it right!  

@RustyRockets
Russell Brand’s tweets make us laugh out loud. Literally. He keeps us updated on his tour dates and details, his care package needs from his mother, and the more colorful elements of his celebrity lifestyle. Russell gets his audience, he really captures his personality, and he doesn’t ever sound like an advertisement- even when he’s blatantly promoting himself.
Our favorite thing about Russell’s tweets: he gets the @. The tweets he’s addressing to specific people are always meant to be read and appreciated by his entire viewership. He might not be talking specifically to us, but we always feel like we’re in on the joke- or at least enough of it to be amused. Your @’s shouldn’t ever exclude followers. If a tweet will only make sense and be interesting to the person you’re replying to, send it as a DM.  

@GOOD
GOOD’s tweets connect people who give a damn to the news and information they care about, the activists they support, and the organizations that are making a difference. GOOD ‘gets’ far more than just twitter, GOOD ‘gets’ community. Our favorite part of GOOD’s twitter, besides all the awesome article links, is the daily GOODasks question. Everyday GOOD asks a question and their followers get to weigh in on the answer by replying to @GOOD and including the hashtag #GOODasks. The following day, they post their favorite responses on their website and tweet us a link to the article. GOOD is actively engaging with its fans and followers instead of just bribing and cajoling their followers to be more engaged with them. Big Difference.   

@Arjunbasu
Author Arjun Basu uses twitter to weave vibrant, compelling, creative stories in 140 characters or less. His short tales make us laugh, question, ponder, smile, doubt and rediscover our faith in humanity, and so much more… His tweets are fresh, original, and inspired.
We wouldn’t have found Arjun without his twitter- and now we want to read his book. His tweets help him connect with his audience in a way that a pr firm or his publishing house just couldn’t. Arjun gets twitter.  

@TheEllenShow
Ellen uses her tweets to share her vibrant thoughts, her revelations on the eco impact of plastic bags, and behind the scenes peeks into the making of her show. She gets her audience, and she gets audience participation. Ellen rocks at starting conversations. She encourages feedback, she rallies support for great causes, and she really knows how to plug that hash tag! What impresses us most about Ellen, is how approachable and accessible she makes herself via twitter.  

@Mental_Floss
Mental Floss calls itself the magazine “where knowledge junkies get their fix.” Via their twitter, they share random daily mind-bending factoids that brighten our day and engage our minds. @mental_floss is the caffeine free, minty-fresh, mind-restoring, creativity inspiring alternative to a coffee break. Our favorite part of their twitter is their content, but the reason they made this list is their focus. They picked a targeted focus that would resonate with their “knowledge junkie” audience and they never lost track of that focus.  

@GladstoneHotel
The Gladstone redefines hotel art… and elevator music… and how destination brands use social media. This Toronto-based hotel is an excellent example of a destination brand that embraces community. We love that The Gladstone thinks of itself as an “incubator of culture on the web, in the community and beyond.” They provide more than just a bed for their out of town guests, they’re creating reasons to come to town in the first place. From their art fairs to their special events, the folks at the Gladstone get community, get culture, and know how to use social media to help connect the two.  

@Dictionarycom
If you thought Dictionary.com was just for definitions, you clearly haven’t seen The Hot Word Blog or @Dictionarycom. Dictionary.com’s blog and tweets help tell the stories behind the words we’re all searching for, help encourage our inner lexicographers, help keep the dictionary relevant in our technological googable world, and gives breaking news an exciting rhetorical lilt. This is an outstanding example of a brand that uses twitter as a contribution, as a means of helping maintain brand relevance, as a way to shift the way people perceive of the brand (because dictionary.com has more than just definitions), and to help increase advertising revenue without relying on those awful floating ads (By driving attention to the blog and increasing site traffic, they make more in advertising revenue).  

@BigGayIceCream
This adult-themed ice cream truck sells ice cream to grown ups in grown up neighborhoods. Lawyers in suits and heels probably wouldn’t go chasing an ice cream truck down the street, so these ice cream guys post their truck’s estimated route on their website, use their twitter to give live updates, and use their foursquare to pinpoint the truck’s exact locale. Plus- the twitter design scheme simultaneously captures their brand AND matches their SpreadShirt site (https://biggayicecreamtruck.spreadshirt.com/)! Three cheers for coordination. @BigGayIceCream does lose a few points with us for their tone- it lacks pizzaz, AND, they reply to other tweeters so frequently that we can’t just take a quick peek at their profile to see where they’re at.  

@WheresLloyd
Lloyd’s taco truck roams the streets of Buffalo, New York, bringing delicious hot tacos to hard-working hungry folk. @WheresLloyd is how the citizens of Buffalo know where and when Lloyd’ll be rolling past their offices, construction sites, and dog parks. Their t-shirt page isn’t as fancy as @BigGayIceCream’s, but these guys have their twitter tone down pat! They do an excellent job of conveying their brand through their tweets and a quick peek at their profile tells us exactly where they are and where they’ll be.  

[1] http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/article_mediumisthemessage.htm 

Images

WhaleFail copyright Yiyinlu www.yiyinglu.com/sc/illustration 

Book cover courtesy Library and Archives Canada http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/innis-mcluhan/030003-2040-e.html

Here’s one plan…innovate a dynamic, new product; one that can change staid perspectives and whole industries…and then place it in the hands of people who only know and understand how to do what has always been done…and you will get predictable results.

Here’s another…innovate a dynamic, new product; one that can change staid perspectives and whole industries…one that explores the limits, plays at the boundaries, and harnesses the unique competencies that will disrupt business as usual creating new possibilities and offering a completely new experience.

In other words…“Stand out. Be conspicuous, at all cost. Make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colorful, more mysterious than the bland and timid masses” (Robert Greene. The 48 Laws of Power) or blend into the blandness.

Inspired by functional design, engaged by practical innovation, and driven by a brand that sees the needs of people not a consumer market, truly innovative new products have the power to persuade and invigorate the tired, tried and true methodology with a bold approach that reinforces  uniqueness and sparks intrigue.

The humanizing nature of the offering itself, paired with a brand worth believing, and an introduction that dazzles should make room for whole markets and select buyers to find their own detailed story in the buying experience. Through and through the offering should stand apart and stick in the minds of ‘creatures of habit’ as an unapologetically,  vivid, healthy, sustainable, durable, and flexible departure from the mundane.

Ease the resistance, seduce, command attention, and never forget that everything is judged by appearance…so keep it real and dream big. When the stakes are high, timidity is risky business.  

So, are there examples of bold thinking… inspired moves… wildly successful crazy ideas?

• In 1950 Dunkin’ Donuts was born. Tim Hortons went live in 1964. One thing for sure… people loved their coffee, and paying a buck for a cup of joe was apparently right on the money. The market was happy… business was growing. So why would an entrepreneur in the early 80’s decide that a new category was possible, one that would change the coffee landscape forever? Because he was inspired by what he knew was possible. And out of that instinct to act, to be bold, came his mission statement: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time. Starbucks knew it was different, and they were told it was crazy… it would never work. The naysayers questioned who the heck would pay $4 for a cup of coffee? Starbucks separated themselves from the pack and you know the rest of the story. Crazy. Inspired. Bold. Successful.
• A bra is a bra is a bra… so why start a lingerie store when bras and panties were available everywhere in 1977? Victoria Secrets’ products were not uniquely different, but placed in a comfortable, male-friendly environment, an amazing phenomenon was born. Stand-alone stores and the Internet of its day- mail order catalogs created the foundation for this $5B giant today. Crazy. Inspired. Bold. Successful.
• Everybody buys a vacuum cleaner at one time or another. And then they buy bags and more bags… often. The bag industry is a $500M business… why would anyone interfere  with the magic of the razor/razor blade, keep’em coming back for more, classic approach? It’s no surprise that when James Dyson invented a bag-less vacuum cleaner in the late 70s big manufacturers didn’t get turned on, but rather turned him and his design away. Dyson and his crazy, inspired and bold innovation threatened to destroy  dependable revenue streams. Today Dyson is a $10B behemoth and much bigger than the bag industry it threatened. Crazy. Inspired. Bold. Successful.

Crazy. Inspired. Bold. Successful.

First, they were crazy. Did anyone really believe that the human spirit was worth the cost of an expensive cup of coffee made from beans in distant and exotic lands? Did anyone really want to be seen buying the aura of sex in the form of underwear in a larger than life, too-hot-to-handle, glitzy lingerie showroom? And why do women pay twice as much for a “cyclone” vacuum cleaner in outrageous colors, designed around “ball technology” that redistributes the center of gravity for easier maneuverability that uses a filter rather than a bag? What is known is that these are great ideas turned break-a-way successes because the founders turned an audacious perspective into a larger than life reality that woos people to them.

Second, they were inspired. The inventors, the backers, the founders, the employees… and the market all wanted more than a dose of bitter reality on the way to work and under her suit. The Dyson vacuum worked for people that didn’t expect to suction bowling balls and did hope for a practical life in living color that rolled along smoothly. As it turns out wanting more and paying for it was exactly what a large market segment has hoping for all along in each category. People have been gravitating to products and brands that mine deep and go big in lieu of what has always been available and ordinary, time and time again.

Third, they were bold. They broke the rules, invented new ones and disrupted the market in grand style. They knew success meant sticking to their ideals. Undaunted by the popular world view; the successes that get talked about refuse to pay lip service to lofty missions or shallow pursuits. These are the visionaries that fearlessly parted from the herd and refused to be homogenized. They were different; they created value in a style that was all their own. They were the masters of their own experience and hence, the experience of others, driving  customer loyalty unlike any advertising scheme or shallow gimmick.

And then they became successful!  These geniuses created new categories because they were just crazy enough to do what they believed in despite the disbelievers, inspired enough by the possibilities and willing to act bold when the time was right. Success came because they did something different and weren’t  persuaded or engaged by those that see through the lens of what can’t be done.

We want to be a part of the crazy, inspired, bold, successful stories. All others need not apply.

A Bold Brand Is A Necessity

A Vague Brand Is A Liability

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We came across a newsletter this week that actually said: “‘like’ our Facebook page and receive an exclusive offer.” We’re not sure what the offer was, because we’re not interested in being bribed, manhandled, or coerced into social media engagement (…but we’re guessing it’s free shipping or a discount promo code).

Social media revolves around community and conversations. It’s a place for art, expression, and contribution – not advertising. Facebook isn’t just another notch in your touch-point belt, so have some respect.

You don’t need the gimmicks if you’re doing something that’s actually worthy of people’s time, interest, and attention. Real groupies- genuinely impassioned and impressed followers- aren’t bought; they’re earned.

Before you go out and set up a fan page or start a promo campaign to non-organically grow your following, read our social media guide: Social Media- The Prize Inside