Tag Archives: Marketing

Brand New Expectations

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In the last week I’ve heard about a million people use the term “Brand” to beat up on people that aren’t properly protecting the “Brand”.  Let’s get one thing straight, a brand isn’t a thing it’s an attitude.   Coca-Cola isn’t just the “real thing” it conveys a sense of belonging, tradition, and maybe even ubiquity.  Coke will be where you are.  It is the safe reliable choice.  Coca-Cola’s brand is not the old fashioned script of the logo, it’s the feeling that script evokes.  Pepsi’s Logo isn’t it’s brand.  The Pepsi brand is the choice of a new generation.  It’s young, it’s hip, it’s cool, it’s not Coke.   That is the Pepsi brand.

Brands are not defined by a logo, letterhead or typeface.  Those may be parts of the branding process but they are not the Brand.  If you want to be hip like Pepsi then don’t use a script font like Coke.  You don’t protect a brand by adding a trademark notice.  All that does is protect your legal rights it doesn’t build your brand. 

Seth Godin who has far more experience in this than me puts it much more elegantly than I can so I’ll just quote him here:

The Brand Formula
[Prediction of what to expect] times [emotional power of that expectation].

What I believe Mr. Godin and I are saying is that a brand has emotional power.  Without that emotional power all the graphic design, policy manuals and usage rules will just add up to great design but not a great brand.  Instead of saying “I’m going to protect our brand” start saying “I’m going to reinforce the emotions our business promises”.

Business Card Lessons

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I’m stitting at my desk and under my monitor there is a small pile of business cards.  I’m sure most people that interact with others in a business setting end up with a similar pile of business cards.  Over the years seeing all these business cards has taught me a few things.  Here’s my list of business lessons gleaned from a business card. 

  1. Why make it hard to find the information I really care about?  What I want from a business card is contact name, phone number and email address.  If I want all your address information I’ll use a piece of software to extract contact details from emails and put it directly into my address book.  If your business card doesn’t clearly communicate its intended message then I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to either. 
  2. Business cards are boring, as they should be, so why do people try and make them exciting?  Vertically oriented business cards suck!  Don’t ever make these kinds of cards.  The only message you are conveying with these kinds of cards is that you don’t care about conventions and you’ll do it your way regardless of how that impacts your operation.  Don’t believe me?  Just try flipping through your stack of cards to find a number and having to turn it to get the number from a vertically oriented card.  Worse it is if you actually put your cards in a card binder.   
  3. I know I’m in for an ego trip the minute I see the title Founder on a business card.   There is nothing in the title Founder that hints at what that person’s role might be.   Having founder as a title also tells me your business is too small to have a staff big enough to have defined roles.  Is that the message you want o convey when you give someone their business card?  I do my best to avoid doing business with people who list their title as founder. 

This is a pretty short list of business lessons I’ve learned from business cards.   Feel free to add a comment with what you’ve learned from business cards.