Brand Development
A boss in a new job asked me to partner with the consultants who were developing our brand.
I went in cynical. To me, brand was the sinister magic that transforms social, economic, and environmental harm into carefully sanitized needs like family, friends, food, and the freedom awaiting some of us behind the wheel of a large truck.
I saw no place for this destructive sleight-of-hand in my professional life.
So imagine my surprise to discover that developing a brand can be an exercise in empathy and community building.
We identified our people. We asked why they cared about our work. We distilled our Why and our How into emotional touchpoints that aligned with the values our people shared. And when we finished, we’d built a powerful tool that equipped our people to embrace our work as part of their identities.
Brand, I discovered, connects us with the people who already want to help us succeed.
Q: What’s this work?
A: Finding the heart that brings your work to life for your people.
We identify your potential or actual supporters and find the beliefs, values, and needs that your work fulfills for them. That’s your brand.
Then we find visual, verbal, and contextual avenues to carry your brand into the places where you share your work. Along the way, we create opportunities for your people to connect with what you do.
Q: Who’s it for?
A: For people and organizations who want to strengthen the connection between their work and their people.
Q: How does it happen?
A: My team and I learn about your work, focusing on your plans, strategies, goals, opportunities, and other defining elements. We suggest a process for developing your brand. You help us fine-tune it.
We keep your people at the center of every step. Who are they? What are their lives like? What do they care about? What does your work mean to them? We find and name the emotional footholds that connect them with what you do.
We also explore the perspectives of other stakeholders who can help us understand your work, who it matters to, and why. This includes board members, leadership teams, key staff, business partners, investors, donors, and allies.
In some projects, especially with artists and other creators, a partner and I develop a brand in a team of two.
Q: What’s it done for your partners externally?
A: By itself, a brand does nothing. It makes a difference when it’s integrated into the places where a partner shares their work. It shows up most prominently in designs, words, and communication strategy.
Designers have used my partners’ brands as the foundation for effective logos, web and other digital designs, collateral, event materials, and other visual media.
We also name the key elements of the voices and tones that evoke a developing brand. This helps partners continue to communicate in ways that express the brand.
Visual and verbal expressions of brand -- like your logo, website, and the words on it -- connect your audience with the emotional touchpoints that draw them to your work. They also bring polish and a consistent feel to external communication, preparing your people to embrace and absorb content. This strengthens every invitation for your people to connect with your work, including:
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Presentations
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Proposals
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Reports
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Taglines
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Fundraising campaigns
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Marketing promotions
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Position statements
Q: What’s it done for your partners internally?
A: A strong brand is a financial asset that can increase the value of a business and capture the attention and imagination of investors. By clarifying and conveying key elements of identity, it can also help an organization attract team members who share your calling, strengthening a team's commitment and cohesion and keeping it connected with its vision. A strong brand also equips leaders and teams to be more effective ambassadors for their work.
Q: But my work is art, not business. . .
A: A carefully developed brand is informed by the defining elements of a body of work: its inspiration, origin, context, process, evolution, relationship with a community, and more. This can strengthen the projects that support a creative career – websites, content, and artist’s statements; designs and illustrations; appeals for support; presentations; and proposals for grants, exhibitions, and public works.
But yes: some creative work explores dimensions beyond the reach of words. And some work is composed entirely of words chosen with such exquisite care and skill that distilling them into a brand would change their meaning and compromise their value. The reduction inherent to a brand can alter work that must stand on its own.
When a creator opens a discussion of any potential project, I keep in mind the delicate concerns that accompany creativity and artistic identity. I approach these conversations with a single objective in mind: to support artists’ efforts to make informed choices about whether, when, and how to describe their work on their terms.