Your Brand is Alive!
Every business, every person, whether they know it or not, is a brand. Sometimes your brand is you, your employees, your products, or an intangible, like amazing service. People mistake a brand to be a “thing”, relegated only to the universe of marketing, but at Élan Marketing and Events, we believe that a great brand is a living breathing being, an entity that can communicate, that you can love, that you can take with you and confide in. It can be a best friend, a loved one, or a family member. It is shaped by the gut feeling your customers have about your product, your service, or your company. A true brand is not merely a “thing”, but represents a body if ideas and beliefs that inspires a culture and drives your company’s relationship to the world.
Through the decades…
People have connected with a car, a cup of coffee, a fragrance, or an idea and have strong, tribal, emotional connections to it. Once upon a time, we, as consumers, eagerly waited by the radio to listen to our favorite program and purchased what we were told to…limited by the options of the mass market. Today, we live in a social world, where we, as consumers, have all the control and our options are limitless. With more buying choices, customers are choosing in favor of the beauty, simplicity and “tribal” identity of their favorite brands. Everything has become a commodity. So how do you remain relevant, unique, memorable and NOT become a commodity? By being a great brand…owning a space between the heart and the mind with your customers, whoever they are.
There are only two main components for business success: brands and delivery. All other activities – finance, manufacturing, marketing, sales, communication, human relations, and investor relations – are subcomponents.
Your Living Brand Must Be:
- Nurtured. Many, many brands aren’t living. They’re stagnant, dead or dying. Sometimes they’re forgotten, outgrown or neglected by their “parents” and thus never develop and mature. Your Living Brand must be nurtured, cultivated and allowed to develop and grow.
- Charismatic. It must be likeable. People should believe there’s no substitute for it…this forms an unbreachable barrier to competition in the era of cutthroat pricing.
- Adaptable. Just like people, a Living Brand should be able to adapt to its environment over time, growing with the needs of your customers and remaining relevant.
- Idealistic. Your brand must have values, what it finds important above all else. These same values should match the values that your customers hold dear.
- Vocal. An introverted, socially awkward brand cannot voice with confidence who it is and what it has to offer to an audience. Your Living Brand must have a voice and be able to speak clearly, confidently and directly.
- Self-Aware. Fulfillment and success for people comes from discovering and knowing who they are. The same is true for your brand…it must know what it is and its reasons for existing.
Here’s Where We Come In…
The team members at Élan Marketing and Events has worked with leading manufacturers, progressive distributors, and top salons, to design and launch many of the industry’s most innovative and successful products and programs. Our company’s unique experience and insight allow for the creation or rebirth of your Living Brand comprised of differentiated products and services to delight your customers.
