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June 5, 2008
Finding Personality Early On
Posted by Brad Abare | Filed under: Brand & Identity
Danielle Sacks wrote a great article about Alex Bogusky in the June 2008 issue of Fast Company. Alex is the Bogusky in Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the brains behind some of the great ad campaigns in recent years: Mini Cooper, Burger King, the Truth campaign, and starting this summer, Microsoft. That should be interesting.
One of the lines that stood out to me was when Alex talked about how they hope to really figure out the story of Microsoft, beyond it's big profitable corporate machine image.
"A big part of positioning [products] is being there in those early stages, knowing what the engineers think the story is, so the story doesn't get lost." "Apple is probably sharing stuff that maybe it's afraid to share, but that allows the agency [Chiat\Day] to get in at a level where it can produce work like that."
He's right on. In order for great advertising/marketing to work, you gotta know the story. You gotta know the personality. And finding that personality starts at the beginning.
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May 29, 2008
You Don't Need a New Logo
Posted by Brad Abare | Filed under: Brand & Identity
Earlier this week, I reviewed the brilliant work of Hamid Bouchikhi and John R. Kimberly, The Soul of the Corporation. The book definitely deserves more than one blog entry, especially because it is so closely tied to the work we do at Personality™.
When I consult with clients, it's frustrating how often they attempt to manipulate branding and image design to communicate the very essence and soul of their organization. As Bouchikhi and Kimberly rightly observe, "Ask a senior executive what it means to change a firm's identity, and he or she will most likely talk about redesigning the logo and visual materials and, occasionally, changing the company's name."
The logo and imaging stuff is easy when you know who you are. It's much more difficult when you don't. "Corporate identity change or rebranding is analogous to changing an individual's appearance by changing the clothing or makeup the person wears, cosmetic surgery, and, in extreme cases, by changing the individual's name."
In contrast, real identity transformation "reaches much deeper, to the heart and soul of an individual, and does not necessarily require altering the individual's appearance." The authors continue, "Although the two types of change may sometimes support each other," it's important that surface-level change and deeper change are not transposable prescriptions.
It's definitely OK to update the skins (logo, colors, etc.) of the organization, but it can't be done without the deeper soul in full view at all times during change.
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May 27, 2008
The Soul of the Corporation
Posted by Brad Abare | Filed under: Philosophy
In their book, The Soul of the Corporation: How To Manage The Identity of Your Company, Hamid Bouchikhi and John R. Kimberly do a masterful job arguing why the future of your organization comes down to how well you manage its soul. Consider their opening thesis:
We are in the midst of a transition on a global scale from an era in which the vast majority of individuals and human groups lived with a sense of clarity, continuity and consistency about their identity--their notion of who they are and how others view them--to an era in which identity is increasingly problematic across all levels of human organization, from the individual person to entire nations or civilizations.The result of this identity crisis, perhaps unintentionally, is that organizations have now become suppliers of individual and collective identity.
In traditional societies, individuals inherited much of their own identity from the social milieu (family, place of birth, tribe, religion) into which they were born. In an organizational society, individuals are defined by the organizations in which they participate. When people draw much of their sense of self from belonging to, or buying from, a particular organization, they tend to be anxious about and resist changes that may alter what, in their eyes, is the very soul of that organization.
"[Identity] is not a private matter; it is a social construction."
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Who are we as a company?
- How do our customers see us?
- To what extent will our identity enable us to thrive in the future?
Continue reading "The Soul of the Corporation"
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May 13, 2008
Branding Tags
Posted by Shawn Stewart | Filed under: Brand & Identity
I found this cool little social experiment through my Twitter friend, Ryan Moede at Viget Labs.
Brandtags was created by Noah Brier and is a fascinating lesson in branding. This simple site randomly loads a logo in place and asks you to type in the first word or phrase that comes to mind. It's simple word association. You can do that to as many logos as ya like. You can also see what others have said about any of the companies featured on the site.
When you click on it, you'll see all kinds of words pop up. The larger the word or phrase, the more people entered that word or phrase. Take for instance McDonald's, the words most often associated are: mcdonalds, burger, bigmac, fat, fastfood, greasy, grease, junk, unhealthy, food, evil, arches, etc.
These words make up the unspoken definitions in the minds of thousands of people! Those definitions make up the brand, regardless of what McDonald's is saying (looks like most people aren't "Lovin' It").
This is a great lesson in what branding is all about. It's way more than a logo!
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May 7, 2008
Finishing What You Start
Posted by Shawn Stewart | Filed under: E-mail Newsletter
There's Something To Be Said for Follow Through
Q: What do basketball and marketing have in common?
A: If you don't follow through, you won't do well.
Allow me to explain.
I remember basketball summer camp like it was yesterday. That's where Mr. Urcheck taught me the correct way to shoot a basketball. I learned how to position my legs—shoulder-width apart, body angled toward the basket. I learned how to hold the ball—shooting arm in a C-shape, palm facing up and ball resting on the fingertips.
I can still hear Mr. Urcheck barking out instructions: "Bend your knees, extend your arm, follow through!" I also remember having to run laps for not following through on my shot!
He was trying to make us realize that one of the most important factors for a shot's success happened after the ball was released—aka the "follow through." We were told that a correct follow through involved pretending we were sticking our fingers down into the hoop after we let go of the ball at the top of our shot. The purpose? To ensure the shot was as targeted as it could be and the rotation of the ball was correct. In short, it helped ensure the ball had everything it needed for its journey toward two points (or even three!).
The older I get the more I see the importance of follow through in every aspect of life. Your marketing is no different.
Continue reading "Finishing What You Start"
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May 6, 2008
Stanley Hainsworth Exits Stage Left
Posted by Shawn Stewart | Filed under: Brand & Identity
Stanley Hainsworth has left Starbucks. Perhaps many of you don't realize how big a deal that is. Stanley has been the Global Creative Director and creative genius behind the Starbucks brand for the last four years. If you like the brighter colors that greet you at your local Starbucks or if you're a fan of their beautiful Christmas packaging and promotions--thank Stanley.
When he took the creative reigns, Starbucks' image was controlled by all things dark--dark brown, dark blue, dark green and dark rust. The stores felt kind of like a private study. It was still a nice look, but it gave you the feeling that you should be wearing a smoking jacket, or at any moment you might be shhh'd by the librarian.
Enter Mr. Hainsworth ...
Continue reading "Stanley Hainsworth Exits Stage Left"
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May 5, 2008
Your Personality Is There, Deep Down
Posted by Brad Abare | Filed under: Brand & Identity
I was on the phone with a potential client two weeks ago and he was trying to make a case for why it would be nearly impossible to identify the personality of their business. After discussing the "trace your roots" approach, he blithely responded that the roots of his particular division--they're part of a $10 billion global healthcare provider--go back to an investment holding firm. In other words, their DNA comes from a long strand of profit mongers.
I didn't buy it and I didn't let him off the hook that easy. "Let's look at the DNA of the particular products you are selling," I suggested. This approach quickly returned results of big-hearted scientists and inventors that wanted to save lives and improve the quality of living. Now we were getting somewhere.
I predict that in the coming years, we're going hear an insurgence of conversations about finding and returning to our roots. I blogged last month about Starbucks' current quest and today I bumped into a comment by Nelson Peltz, CEO of Trian Fund Management, former owner of the Snapple brand before they sold it in 2000 to Cadbury Schweppes. Referencing the success Trian had with increasing Snapple sales, Peltz said, "We returned to our roots by winning back the local delis and pizza parlors that first made the brand a success."
Warren Buffet had a similar thought. In response to a reporter's question about how people can know when it's safe to invest when the big financial institutions don't seem to know what's in their portfolio, Buffet said, "They can't, they can't. They've got to, in effect, try to read the DNA of the people running the companies."
Finding your roots. Tracing your DNA. It's all part of identifying your personality.
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May 1, 2008
Confidence Evaluation Tool Is Up
Posted by Shawn Stewart | Filed under: Marketing
We sent out a tool earlier this week to our Think subscribers that measures the current confidence level within an organization as it relates to their ability to communicate and market themselves. So far so good! It's been interesting to see the results so far.
We've been encouraged that many have told us that the evaluation has been helpful in bringing things to the surface that need to be fixed and also accurately framed up their organization's current position.
We're opening up this tool and placing it on our site for everyone to access. You can download it here.
Some people have begun sharing it with their employees and coworkers and even employers to gain an even more accurate picture of where their company is at. Please feel free to share it with others, that's what it's for!
When you submit your results back to us, we'll send you back a free report that sheds even more light about your score and what you can do to improve it. we hope you'll find it as helpful as those who've already taken it and responded.
P.S. - The download is a dynamic PDF and you'll need Adobe Acrobat 7.0 to see it. And as always, we don't share or rent or sell out your information in anyway shape or form.
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April 28, 2008
Personality Not Included by Rohit Bhargava
Posted by Brad Abare | Filed under: Marketing
When I first heard about Rohit Bhargava's new book, Personality Not Included: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity--And How Great Brands Get it Back, I got a little nervous. What would his philosophy be? Would our approach differ? What if he's right and we're wrong? Yep, I had all the typical fears and jealousies you'd expect from an entrepreneur who has built his entire company on the idea of personality-based communication!
Up until recently, the conversation about companies having personality has been for the most part silent. And while I am not so naive to think that we here at Personality™ have a corner on the conversation, it has been a little lonely. Thanks to Rohit's book, we may be meeting some new friends.
I've got to say up front, unfortunately, that I read Personality Not Included with a bit of skepticism because of how engrossed in the idea of organizational personality I have been for the last several years. While I don't apologize for the bias, it does temper my enthusiasm because a lot of Rohit's ideas are echoes.
That aside, the book is indeed a decent read. It's divided into two sections. The first section is comprised of just six chapters because, says Rohit, of the more than 100 marketing and business books on his shelf, "Chapter 6 is the sweet spot." The second section of the book is packed with techniques, guides and tools that work alongside the first half's six chapters. Combined, the book is an argument for why personality matters in your company and how to go about doing something about it.
Continue reading "Personality Not Included by Rohit Bhargava"
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April 25, 2008
Developing A Confidence Evaluation Tool
Posted by Brad Abare | Filed under: Personality News
Personality™ is all about giving companies the confidence to communicate clearly. For the last couple of months, we've been developing a tool that measures the current confidence level within an organization as it relates to their ability to communicate and move people to action. We've narrowed it down to eight questions that we believe speak to the core issues of confident communication.
In the next week, we'll roll out the evaluation tool to our Think subscribers, along with an accompanying guide that helps companies interpret their score and figure out how to increase their confidence factor.
It's just one of the many things we're working on here at Personality™.
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