Eat your brand: Recognizing your brand’s influence on you
Posted on 21. Mar, 2010 by Kelly Hobkirk in Branding, Personal Branding.
Your brand is kind of like breakfast, the most important meal of the day. Your brand is the motivational fuel that gets your business through each day.
Take it in, each and every morning, just like the eggs and toast, protein shake or coffee you crave at the start of each day. Each of us interacts with our brand every single day, whether it’s Monday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday.
Monday-Friday, you have a relationship with your brand. You think about it, you see it, you interact with it. Saturday, that relationship probably changes. Your brand relationship on Sunday is very likely different from Mon-Sat.
As you drive to work, you may be thinking about a ton of things, but chances are that some of your thoughts are centered on some part of your company’s brand.
Monday is the day I use to set the tone for the week. I generally get a ton of work planned and started. Monday is the day that Train of Thought is in my mind all day, from the moment I wake until I put the computer to sleep late in the day.
Tuesday is most often the day when I connect with my craft. I sit at the drafting table and draw or paint. Traditional craft one of the big differences that sets my brand apart.
Wednesday through Friday I work my tail off. Saturday and Sunday are days I use to recharge my soul. It’s time away from my corporate brand, days used to connect with what makes me, well, me.
All week long, when I see my logo, I know what it stands for, and as a result, I am reminded of what I stand for. Train of Thought’s identity provides motivation, it tells me why I need to stay on task, and it reinforces the importance of following the creative path, practices and procedures that have led to our success.
Exercise: Get a clear picture of how you interact with your brand each day.
1. Carry a pad of paper and pen all day.
2. Write down every single way you interact with your company’s brand. If you think about work, write down your thought. If you imagine your office, write down how you imagine it. If you have positive or negative thoughts about how a meeting will go, write them down. If you think about a person you have to interact with, write down your thoughts about the person and the interaction. Is your identity on your company car? Write it down. Does the paint in your office match your identity? Write it down. Do you think about how your efforts need to reflect your company’s reputation? Write it down. Each and every time you see your company’s logo or identity characteristics, write it down. Think about the feelings your brand identity evokes.
By day’s end, if you are writing down every single thought that has to do with your brand, you should have at least 70-100 entries. If you have significantly less than that, you may be taking your brand touch points for granted, not staying true to your brand, or you’re not engaged in your marketing.
This exercise works for both corporate and personal brands. Give it a try. You might be surprised at just how much your own identity is wrapped around your brand. If you try it, and you find the results surprising, add a comment below.
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