Everyone gets asked what they do. Meeting friends of friends, or in business contexts, or even, if you’re British, whilst queuing (and that’s always when you’ve got something terrible in the trolley).
For me, the exchange usually goes something like this:
Them: So, Jo, what do you do then?
Me: I help businesses with branding
Them: Ah, so you’re a designer or something like that are you?
Me: Well, no, I’m not. I deal with the parts of a brand that you may not necessarily be able to see…
This is the divisive point. People either run for the hills, fast, or they suddenly get interested. The former are those who believe that a brand is a logo and a font and a set of colours. The latter – well they’re like you, if you’re still reading this (nice work, we’re probably on a similar wavelength). I’ll explain what I mean.
Your brand is the sum of many parts – every interaction your organisation has with a person is an opportunity to reinforce a particular feeling. Your website, your sales people, what you say on a speaker platform, the opinions you share, the things you sell. All of this adds up to something. Your brand. The problem is, many organisations don’t understand that these things all need structuring and in a very particular way, so that your brand really stands for something memorable.
Long, long, before anything visual happens, you should have a clear idea about three particular things. And this is what so many businesses miss. So here they are, your three easy steps to brand nirvana*.
- Why do you do what you do? Anyone can manufacture socks – what makes you do it? This is where you can spark interest and create distance between your organisation and the next sock maker along. Get your why in place and your story will begin to take shape, it’ll give you a feeling different from the rest.
- How do you do it? Step two in getting your company to stand out is setting out how you go about things differently from the pack. In the same way as no two humans are alike, so no two organisations are either: the chemistry of the team, your shared experience, it all adds up to something. Harness it and tell people what it is.
- What do you do? This is the part you think that you know. But are you fixated on your product, or your service or have you ever taken the time to step back and consider what it is about them that makes a difference? Why should they choose your socks and not those of some other sock maker?
Like this idea? Don’t know where to start? Run Jump Fly holds regular workshops for businesses to help them figure this stuff out. Not only are they great fun, you’ll leave invigorated, with a spring in your brand step – or we give you your money back. Give us a shout.
jo@runjumpfly.co.uk
*If you’d like to know more about this, check out Simon Sinek’s TED talk. It’s brilliant.