One of my favorite aspects of my work focuses on helping high-growth businesses and non-profits home in on their brand.
It's exciting work, rampant with potential. I especially love doing this with the specific clients I work with. Typically staff of a non-profit or small business that is facing monumental and rapid growth never thought of their mission, service, or product as a brand, and they definitely never thought of themselves as one either.
As an entity, a business does not have a beating heart, conscious thought, opinions, or a sense of humor. The act of applying these things to a non-living fixture is called personification, and it's how much of the population begins to build trust with something that does not have the emotional structure to create trust in the first place. The way this happens is if the people behind the business have great personalities.
The folks providing exceptional customer service; the writers behind website copy; the creators of social media content; graphic designers; product designers; photographers; event coordinators; PR specialists; field coordinators; development directors and others are the brand ambassadors for the businesses and non-profits they work for.
When the passion a staff-person has for the mission of the non-profit they're working for is palpable or the belief an employee has in the product or service their selling doesn't cIock out at 5:00pm; those feelings can be felt beyond just the framework of the business' four walls, and the W-2 their names are on.
They bring this passion to dinner with them, where they share with their friends about an exciting new project they're working on.
They bring it to the farmers market, where they share about new software coming out that can help streamline services to the vendor they're buying from.
They bring it to an event they're attending and mention the importance of their company's work to a potential donor.
They bring it to the brewery where they're enjoying a tasting and casually mentions an idea for a potential collaboration to the owner.
When they share, mention, or show to a network outside of their business's email list, they're perpetuating the brand of the company or non-profit they work for, and informally planting seeds for potential partnerships, opportunities, or the creation of loyal patrons or donors. They're also doing this without even meaning to. Passive selling like that, is when you know the pieces of your brand is in alignment.
Businesses have brands because the people that operate them have charisma.
Yes, a brand's components - font, colors, media filters, - can be perpetuated without an exuberant human being, but a brand is so much more than that. A brand is they way in which your business or non-profit is internalized. It's how it makes people feel when they come in contact with it, and it influences said business' and non-profit's reputation.
So when it comes to homing in on brand of a business or non-profit it's imperative and exciting to determine what makes it distinct.
The branding process clients undergo when working with Pressed (me) is the very first part of the work we do together. Inevitably I run into similar questions each time I work with a client. At its essence when the staff describe the work they do and the reason they do it, they are filled with passion. They use sentences that are declarative, and leave no room for doubt. They effortlessly throw down tag-lines that create real call-to-actions, and an urgency to join their movement, work, or mission. As I gather this information, and the conversation winds down, the staff members bring an end to the discussion made electric by their passion, by saying "we can't use any of that."
When I ask why, they say it's too pointed. It uses language that might overwhelm someone who doesn't already believe in the work they do. It's too bold.
Clarity will always be key in spreading the message of a brand, and in my opinion if something feels bold, it probably feels clear.
Trying to manipulate a message to ensure it gets the point-across without ruffling too many feathers, yet providing a platform for people get excited about and to come together on is a waste of time. It's a methodology that cancels the other out, and I call it "pursuing neutrality."
If we as leaders in business and non-profits try to formulate a brand that stays within the lines of achieving a perfect balance, it will not stand out. The world is so saturated with ideas and marketing platforms have all, but become scream rooms with everyone's voices trying to compete, the only way to stand out is to buck the norm; to say what you really mean, and to say it boldly.
A definite brand, a bright message, a tag-line that clearly lights the way - bold brand elements make for a team that is rooted in the work they're doing and why. It makes them brave, and resolute in their work, and are personality attributes that follow an employee wherever they go - making space for them to build trust on behalf of the business on and off the clock.
Branding is made up of many things - the people perpetuating it, what they're saying, how they're saying it, and how they're making people feel. And no one ever felt anything by feeling neutral.