Brands Born In The Conference Room Die In The Street
In our world of new media marketing, there still some fixtures of consistency that withstand the gale force winds of modern convention; fixtures like branding and brand identity. Looking beyond modern tactical trends, thoughtful branding efforts can be traced back to the origins of commerce (like centuries old brewery Weihenstephan). From pride in craftsmanship to competitive differentiation, branding continues as a fundamental strategic component for many organizations (profit and non-profit, B2B and B2C).Branding? Oh Yeah, We’ve Got This!
With so much history, we [marketers] should have this branding thing pretty much perfected, right?Not quite. Sure, brand identity is a fixture but our targeted audiences’ attitudes, needs, associations, and engagement continue to evolve...often ahead of our branding efforts and concepts.For example, last year Gap’s release of its new logo was met with violent criticism from customers and, subsequently (and quickly), rolled back.
With so much history, we [marketers] should have this branding thing pretty much perfected, right?Not quite. Sure, brand identity is a fixture but our targeted audiences’ attitudes, needs, associations, and engagement continue to evolve...often ahead of our branding efforts and concepts.For example, last year Gap’s release of its new logo was met with violent criticism from customers and, subsequently (and quickly), rolled back.
What Thrift Stores Have To Do With Enterprise Brand Identity Efforts
There was a significant amount of root cause speculation in the press regarding the Gap-logo-crisis, but the fact is that there is no single component of brand success. Maintaining and evolving a brand requires continual investment. So while there is no single solution, I believe we need to take part of our brand identity work out of the conference room, out of deep SPSS analysis, away from focus groups, and into our local thrift stores for some ‘Brand Archeology’.Brand Archeology - Learning From Our Branding Past
Okay, so I might be ‘marketing’ this one up a little bit...but essentially Brand Archeology is a physical, visceral, and tactile brand identity exercise that expands our thinking beyond market research, Illustrator, and design meetings.By elevating your bargain-shopping-thinking you will find your local thrift store is a rich ‘marketectural dig’. More than ‘good deals’, it is full of the brand identities of consumer and business products that have come before.Decades old logos, campaign art work, mascots, and brand identities wait for an opportunity to teach us about brand history.
There was a significant amount of root cause speculation in the press regarding the Gap-logo-crisis, but the fact is that there is no single component of brand success. Maintaining and evolving a brand requires continual investment. So while there is no single solution, I believe we need to take part of our brand identity work out of the conference room, out of deep SPSS analysis, away from focus groups, and into our local thrift stores for some ‘Brand Archeology’.Brand Archeology - Learning From Our Branding Past
Okay, so I might be ‘marketing’ this one up a little bit...but essentially Brand Archeology is a physical, visceral, and tactile brand identity exercise that expands our thinking beyond market research, Illustrator, and design meetings.By elevating your bargain-shopping-thinking you will find your local thrift store is a rich ‘marketectural dig’. More than ‘good deals’, it is full of the brand identities of consumer and business products that have come before.Decades old logos, campaign art work, mascots, and brand identities wait for an opportunity to teach us about brand history.
How To: Embarking On An Archaeological Brand Dig
For your next brand identity effort, schedule an outing to a local thrift store (those of you in large cities have zero excuses) for some deep brand immersion.Invite a broad, cross-discipline team to participate in this exercise and use the following structure to keep the time productive:
For your next brand identity effort, schedule an outing to a local thrift store (those of you in large cities have zero excuses) for some deep brand immersion.Invite a broad, cross-discipline team to participate in this exercise and use the following structure to keep the time productive:
- Focus: prior to the ‘dig’ highlight the key considerations for your branding effort; consumer tastes, competitive landscape, internal changes, etc.
- Document: mobile devices should be at the ready; have your team capture what they see and why they find it interesting.
- Discover: this activity should result in your team matching their finds up to the core considerations of your branding effort (e.g. how a parallel can be drawn between Coke’s use of Max Headroom and your current effort to capitalize on current youth sub-cultures).
- Share: now it’s safe to enter a conference room...have the team share their findings and how they suggest using that knowledge in your current brand/identity efforts.
Yes, I know you can use images.google.com in a similar effort but brands are ultimately visceral...even in the world of ecommerce. You and your team(s) need to experience brands in person under the glow of industrial fluorescent light of the thrift store or in the daylight of the open-air swap meet.Certainly we should not stop meeting, researching, and designing during our branding exercises but perhaps we should add just a little visceral nostalgia and kitsch into the mix.
