Strategy & Brand

What are your favorite taglines? Least favorite?

My favorite is “Live Free or Die”, the official motto of the U.S. state of New Hampshire, adopted in 1945.

I like “Don’t just watch TV; Direct TV”

I loved the Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Christmas Campaign in 2010: “When you put money into our Kettles, Expect Change”

The following reflect some of the most notorious tag lines:

Got milk? (1993) California Milk Processor Board

Just do it. (1988) Nike

Ring around the collar. (1968) Wisk Laundry Detergent

Where’s the beef? (1984) Wendy’s

Don’t leave home without it. (1975) American Express

It’s not a job. It’s an adventure. (1980s) U.S. Navy

Takes a licking and keeps on ticking. (1956) Timex

What happens here, stays here. (2002) Las Vegas

Pork. The other white meat. (1986) National Pork Board

It keeps going, and going, and going… (1989) Energizer Batteries

Friends don’t let friends drive drunk. (1992) U.S. Dept. of Transportation

The toughest job you’ll ever love. (1970s) U.S. Peace Corps

It’s not your father’s Oldsmobile… (1980s) Oldsmobile

(It was memorable but it did break the rules; after all “old”smobile has always been our fathers…and grandfather’s car)

As for least favorites: Never reward bad behavior…If it’s not worth repeating, don’t.

Everything that you say says something about you.

Your brand narrative is how you tell your story. It runs deeper than a marketing rollout or an advertising campaign.  Your brand narrative is told in and through newsletters, press releases, promotions, CRM, sales, programming, products, annual reports, and internal communications- day in and day out. Your ongoing narrative should reflect your brand vision and purpose, your strategic direction, your operational tactics, your intent and partnerships. If crafting your brand narrative isn’t a constant, grueling, and tedious ongoing process, then it’s likely you’re producing ineffective noise.

Wrestling your brand narrative into focus requires skill and authenticity. Calling yourself cool doesn’t make you cool and calling your brand relevant doesn’t make it relevant. Drop the ego, the corporate-bologna, and the stuffy verbiage from your self-promotions and figure out how to reflect who you really are and what you really have to offer. Narrativity is not vague or generic.

Meticulously crafted brand narratives connect with people; they gracefully distinguish your unique interests, voice, differentiators, and the powerful benefits that genuinely matter to clients and customers. Brands that make a connection, reinforce their relevance, and speak to people are identified immediately as the must-have solution; the real deal, second to none. Your brand narrative should convey the personality, style, and strengths that enliven your collective organization.

Your communications are a reflection of your brand identity and directly contribute to your brand image, whether you intended them to be or not.

Here are a few questions to help you do a quick audit of your Brand Narrative:

• Do your messages accurately communicate your story?
• Are your messages genuine and authentic or just feel-good self-compliments and well-worded spin?
• Does your brand’s spunk, funk, credibility, attitude, personality, sensitivity, or vibe shine through your messages?
• How do your messages reflect your brand identity, values, and strategy?
• Are your messages clear and concise?
• Do your messages speak to the real issues that concern your audience?
• Do your messages reflect the values of your audience?
• Are you addressing the relevant issues on the minds and the immediate ‘To-Do’ lists of your customers?

If your brand is irreverent, your brochure should be too. Conscious design should be applied to more than just your color schemes and typography. Every billboard you put up and business card you hand out should reflect the essence of your brand.

One of the secrets to attaining true cohesion between all of your messages and mediums is a solid copy strategy. Your copy strategy helps your web content, brochures, letterhead, business cards, signage, speeches by company spokespersons, advertisements, and email signatures to all convey the same brand. Not its third cousin, not its twin, not its look alike- the exact same brand- from its look and feel, to its verbiage and its values.

Your copy strategy outlines whether or not you’ll use oxford commas, put periods at the end of bulleted sentences, use conjugations (like it’s in place of it is), use dots or dashes between breaks in phone numbers… It lays out which terms and phrases you’ll use and which ones you’ll avoid. It’s a clear and simple, explicit guide that outlines how your brand looks and sounds on paper.

A good copy strategy depends on a rock solid brand identity. Your brand identity is who you are, what you do, why you do it, how you do it, and how you want to be experienced. Your Brand Identity is how you conceive of your brand. Without a clearly defined Brand Identity, communications from different departments or for different mediums can seem disjointed and blur the brand narrative.

Make art- not advertising. Whether it’s a two page spread in a print publication or a vertical banner on a website, at BlackDog, we believe if the ad you’re placing isn’t as interesting, attractive, and useful to readers as the content it’s sandwiched between, you’ve missed the Big Idea. 
Promotions that are irrelevant or out of sync, campaigns that are boring, interstitial ads (the frustrating ads that hijack your attention by forcing you to watch an ad before a page will load), floating ads (the in-your-face ads that float across your screen to block the page and raise your blood pressure), ads that blink, pop-ups, and awareness initiatives that annoy your viewer all impact the way your brand is perceived and experienced.

Allowing these lackluster intrusions degrades the visitor’s experience, cheapens your brand image, devalues your ad space by diminishing your advertisers’ return on investment, and leaves your  viewers feeling as though (by tolerating all of the unwanted messaging they’ve been subjected to in exchange for the content provided) they’ve already paid for their subscription.

Here are a few characteristics of a good advertisement:
-A good ad is art- it is crafted, it utilizes design principles, it has meaning, it has relevance. The ultimate compliment a print ad can receive isn’t a marketing award- it’s when a reader carefully tears the ad out so they can keep it somewhere more visible (on their fridge, in a frame, etc.).

-A good ad is bold- it captures a viewer’s attention. Bland ads rob readers and visitors by taking up space that should have been allotted to more appealing content. Leave your ski mask and slim jim at home and give us ads worth looking at.

-A good ad is a mutually beneficial exchange for advertiser and viewer- it provides information that the reader actually wants, which, in turn, significantly increases the return on investment for the advertiser.

Dr. Cliff Arnall, a Cardiff University researcher has identified “Blue Monday”, January 25, as the most depressing day of 2010. A pseudo-scientific formula weighing and measuring human experience ratios isolates today, “Blue Monday” as the figurative day of resignation and defeat. With a wave of   arms thrown in the air or silent acts of desperation apparently today is the day, if we haven’t caved already, that hope is abandoned and goals are forsaken.
Rather than stand by and watch hope be damned we have mounted an  effort to resurrect all those New Year’s resolutions set to be sacrificed on the altar of setbacks, unexpected interruptions, and will power fatigue. We offer industrial strength goal and motivation energizers, proverbial armor to gird and champion your will onward. All we are saying is…give change a chance!

WHY? WHY to the power of 40?
Are the goals that you have chosen worthy of your effort?
Is the goal an answer to a sincere need or deep desire?
Would your life lack meaning, verve or quality without the adoption of this new challenge?
This is important to assess as there will come a time that you will be forced to make decisions that could derail your progress or leave you feeling selfish.
There will be moments and blocks of time ahead that will challenge your need to invest in this goal or work so hard.     
Why did you start this to begin with? Why is it important?
Keep asking “Why?” until all the excuses are answered, validations outlined and motivations revealed.

Time to change
For everything there is a season.
What’s driving you to address this NOW?
You’ve solidified the value of the goal. How about the timing? Is this the right effort to invest in right now?
Do you hurt enough to implement change? Want change enough to suffer the transition?
Did you start this without considering the other real life conflicts that interfere?

Chart the Course
Walk the particular change process out. Step by diligent step. Establish markers and measures on a calendar that will help you to keep track of progress and distinguish points of celebration.
Break the big plan down into bite sized accomplishments that get celebrated.
This detailed plan will be incredibly rewarding and motivating. There is nothing so compelling as a progress report to motivate change onward.
Setbacks will happen. Readjust and plug on. It’s all part of the adventure.
Remember to mix things up.

Trouble knocks too 
Problems will pop-up. Be ready with a back-up plan, perhaps even a back-up plan to your back-up plan.
As you outline your plan identify and troubleshoot the limitations and target potential pitfalls that could interfere with fulfilling your agenda.
Planning with all the possible obstacles in mind eliminates a lot of the problems that derail success.
Create solutions to make meeting your goals easier.

Pace matters
Gusto has led all of us down a path of frazzled exhaustion at one point or another.
Perhaps you started your change management effort by jumping in, full force and all systems ago.
And now you are confronted with the reality that you can’t manage your real life demands and the aggressive plan that you innovated under the influence of so much unbridled enthusiasm.
Quitting now won’t resolve the tensions. Re-engineer a working solution with all the needs in mind.
Implement a plan of action that increases over time allowing for a comfortable and sustainable integration.
Establish dates and objectives that will serve as measures marking your success.

Work the plan
Establish a working and consistent schedule that reflects the goals and priorities in your life.
A carefully created schedule, with built in flexibility will cultivate a sense of order in your transition chaos.
Follow the plan, even when you don’t feel like it.
 
Peer pressure
Most of us will find unlimited reserves of resolve to do what we said we would do if we have put our credibility on the line, if everyone we know is watching us to see if we are doing what we vowed to do.
Who wants to disappoint others? Who wants to eat humble pie?
Openly commit to your goals. Tell colleagues, friends, family and co-workers about your plans. Share your progress and your slumps.

And now a few words from our sponsor…
A word of encouragement can go a long way. You’ve taken the time to start this; it makes good sense to support yourself to the finish.
Right now while you are hepped up and enthused write down your goals with an inspired emphasis on the end in mind.
Remind yourself what you are striving for in quotes that speak to you or pictures that inspire.
Hide, place and post your purposes on your calendar or on the refrigerator; where ever most helpful as a constant motivator or to avert a moment of weakness.
Keeping motivations running high is the biggest challenge to realizing goals.  Amp up your own supports.

Follow the plan, not your mojo
At some point your enthusiasm will sell out and your motivation will fail, abandoning you on the road to change.
You aren’t always going to want to follow through on your big plans and high hopes.
Face it, admit it, and own it. Plug on without them. Ride out the emotional and inspirational lulls adhering to the plan that you built when you were thinking clearly. 
Do what you know to do, regardless of how it is that you feel. Motivation will follow.

Feed your inspiration, starve your doubts
What you think, say and listen to is incredibly persuasive.
Clean up your self talk. Monitor your own thoughts for self defeating and negative scripts that run uninvited through your mind.
Eliminate “I can’t do this”, “what was I thinking?”, “I don’t have time for this” and all other lies and distractions that pop up automatically and challenge your commitment.
Devote energies to replacing negative thoughts with a new and improved reality.

Fine tune the focus
Change is hard.
There is a time for scrutinizing the detailed process of change…In the beginning, when you are determining if this change makes sense now and while framing a dedicated plan to follow.
Obsessing over the dedicated details, length of time, tasks and steps involved to realize your ambitions will make the change process heavier.
Once you’ve committed to a plan of change refocus your thoughts on the wanted outcome. Rather than thinking about what you can’t eat on your weight loss plan, write a list of what you can eat and visualize what you are going to look like as a slimmer shade of yourself.

Read all about it
Reading enhances awareness, broader perspective, education, tools, insights, personal success narratives and all the motivation that anyone would need to remain focused and immersed in the change and adoption process.
Read books, blogs and supports to strengthen your goal every day.
Feeling equipped and knowledgeable builds confidence and impacts success ratios.

Find a few great minds
Find someone else that shares your passion for this particular goal.
Who is the authority on this topic? Who has mastered what you want to achieve? Who is doing it in your own community?
Meet them. Inspiration is harnessed and the goal is made more real as you incorporate the change you want into your life.
Some goals can’t be achieved alone. Find the supports that you need through networks or online, before you need them. 

Accountability Partner
More often than not goals are disadvantaged from the start, lacking the supports necessary to be integrated.
If you are serious about instituting change find an accountability partner. Someone that will challenge, inspire, brainstorm, educate, provoke and celebrate your evolution.
The American College of Sports Medicine found that working out with a partner resulted in 34 more minutes of exercise.

Just Plain Backwards…. that is the only way to look at how most organizations understand brand.

A brand is a guide, a way forward, the point man holding the torch, the organization following bravely on the path ahead.  A Driven Brand has a forward looking vision and a destination to pursue. History, positioning and purpose steer the course of this committed company onward and upward. Clarity guides the decision making and navigates the opportunities, circumstances and challenges along the way.

Reality is: most organizations put their most important asset in stasis.  They design a look, some “words” and leave the real strength, the “mojo”, to gather dust.  They don’t speak brand, don’t train brand, don’t refine it, review it, update it, parade it, blog it, make it or live it. 

Style Guides are a great example.  In the desire to be sure to protect the brand, strict rules on image use, color, how to put it on letter head, who can use it, who can change, etc. etc. etc. are codified, then filed.  Scribd has more than 137,000 documents posted on the term “style guide”!  The end result is reduced creativity, a dulling of the brand and to much focus on the image and not enough on substance.

Yes, you spent a bunch of money getting the azure (or turquoise, or spiced pumpkin) just so.  And a whole bunch more writing the do’s and don’ts.  Why not keep the logo and tag line you already have (psst… people already know it and recognize it) and spend the money training your staff how to work with customers … how to be creative and innovative. 

Simple question Ia): will you buy a Pepsi on the way home today because Pepsi spent millions of dollars to refresh their logo, and change all their packaging, and all of their marketing and all of their corporate stationary, ad infinitum? Will the “gravitational pull” of the new logo lead you to the cooler in the back of the store?

Simple question Ib): Would you buy a Pepsi on the way home today  if Pepsi had taken all of that money and instead used it to bring refrigeration to an underdeveloped country?  or to clean dirty waterways outside of a bottling plant? or to install a desalination plant in the middle east? or….

Just askin’…………..