Heroes in Business - Reflecting Your Company Brand Identity

Episode Date: July 6, 2021

In part three of a four-part miniseries on how to build a brand, learn how to organize your company around your desired brand identity. We include fun examples of brands to give you ideas to ponder in this episode of Social Media on Steroids with Dan Shinder  

Hi, and welcome to the Social Media on Steroids podcast. I'm Dan Schindler, and I created the Social Media on Steroids brand of education, training, consulting, and services to help others learn from my experience of achieving extraordinary results with content marketing on social. I attracted a following of over 1 million people and reach millions more online each month, 100% organically. In this series, I share the strategies that helped me cross all the milestones it took to get there and that we still use. And please, before we dive in, take down my email address in case you have questions. I answer all questions and I take suggestions for topics to be covered in this

series. You can reach me directly at dan at advancedsocialmarketing.com. And of course, the website is the same URL. Follow the blog there and the Advanced Social Marketing YouTube YouTube channel. Okay, let's jump in. Okay, welcome to episode 13. Organize your company around the desired identity. Lucky episode 13. This is part three of a four-part miniseries on how to build a brand. It began with episode 11 of the Social Media on Steroids podcast, Your Logo is Not Your Brand. So, for a bit of review, we talked in that episode about the fact that your logo is not your brand. Branding is not your brand.

Merchandising items with your logo on it, like shirts, hats, pens, and other swag, is not your brand. In that episode, I gave a ridiculous but true example of someone I hear say over and over how they claim to have created a brand for this person and that person and they are a graphic artist they believe that just because they created a logo and some swag that they created a brand no it's just branding the brand is created by the business by the entrepreneur whose business it is a brand is the promise the company makes to its consumers with what it provides and what it has to live up to regarding that promise that's what a brand is we will get regarding that promise. That's what a brand is. We will get into that promise in this episode and how to depict that promise and submit it, how to put it forth, basically. And we also covered in that episode the 12 archetypes of brands developed by Carl Jung, such as the jester,

the hero, the explorer, and so on. Yeah, and that's a good episode to listen to, if you haven't already, to really think about what brand are you. My founding brand, Drum Talk TV, is definitely the jester. It's silly, it's playful, it's friendly. So check that episode out. In episode 12, defining your market, we covered exactly that. Breaking down your market by gender, age ranges, cultural demographics, interests, and much more. Because a one-size-fits-all marketing plan just doesn't work. People need to see themselves in the advertising and promoting of the products and services you offer. And that's different from marketing. Marketing is the underlying constant foundation representing a brand, and it gives

people a reason to respond and act on the advertising and promoting. So regarding the one-size-fits-all marketing method not being effective, here's my boot example again. Imagine if I had a boot brand called Dan's Boot. Get the boot. Imagine. And if all my television commercials and videos on social media all showed 18 to 24-year-olds hiking with that boot, senior citizens like me might look at that and say, oh, those boots are for the youngsters. I need boots for my rickety ass old feet with all the mileage on them. Or if all the

videos had nothing but seniors, then the youngsters would say, oh, those boots are for old people. I'm going on a real hike. I'm nimble. I'm spry. But they're the same boot. So that's what I mean when people need to see themselves in your advertising and promoting materials. I hope that makes sense. So in this episode, organize your company around the desired identity. That really comes down to the promise you make to the consumers, not the logo. Then you have to deliver on that promise. But when it comes to representing the promise and submitting it, putting it forth, think of what you think of regarding some of your favorite brands. When you see their logo, when you hear their name, when you see their sign, what do you think of?

When I send a questionnaire to begin the onboarding process of new clients, I have a question that asks, what do you want people to think of when they read, see, or hear your brand? So to exemplify what companies do to create, what they want people to think of or feel about their brand, it's all in the slogan and tagline, et cetera. The mission statement, the vision statement, and so on. For my first brand, Drum Talk TV, our tagline is the heartbeat of the global drumming community. Our first one was insightful interviews in the world of drumming. So we ended up changing it because the business morphed

and it is okay to pivot because you just might evolve. And that's what the next installment's gonna be in episode 14, so stay tuned for that. By the way, the difference between a tagline and a slogan is this. Taglines are more permanent and reinforce your brand by conveying the tone and feeling you want for your products and services, the way you want to be perceived by the consumer. And a slogan is often more temporary and more specific to a marketing effort, a campaign, if you will. So just for fun, let's look at some brands and their taglines and see what those taglines

say about those brands. And by the way, I got this from examples.com. So I'm going to scoot through what they say are the top like 109. That's a weird number to come up with, right? 109. What about 110? Nope. We couldn't find another one. Why don't we just round it off at 100? Nope. These other nine really matter. I'm not going to cover all of them, but here's a few. I'll just scoot through and find some that I'm sure you've probably heard of. Acer, the computer company, I've got a couple of laptops that are Acer's. Theirs is empowering technology. Acer is a multinational electronics and hardware company. And isn't their tagline rather fitting? We can

learn from this example. While broad concepts about quality are okay, relevance is better. So empowering technology. And it's really short too. How about Adidas? Impossible is nothing. It sounds a little ambiguous, but it does pretty much ooze ambition, determination, and confidence in three words and note how adidas draws attention to an attitude of the ideal athlete than the fact that they sell sports gear so let's look at how about ajax here's a interesting factor i'm gonna have fun with so ajax stronger than dirt that That is powerful. You kind of picture exactly what that does. But what examples.com did, and no offense, folks, at examples.com, it says, and what housewife wouldn't want such a hero to the rescue? This is 2021 as I'm recording this. I think that's a little sexist for these days. And I use Ajax myself and I'm not a housewife. Yes, I have over

a million followers on the Drum Talk TV Facebook page. We reach millions of people each week. And yes, I do scrub our toilets with Ajax. And I changed the cat litter box, by the way, as well. It's actually in my official title. Dan Schindler, Drum Talk TV founder, CEO, executive producer, and cat litter box changer. Watch our interviews. It's actually on there. How about this one? American Airlines, something special in the air. And they even have that sing-songy thing that they do on the commercials, right? Something special in the air. Probably wouldn't want that for a tagline for a chili dog shack. Anyways, so that's a way to paint yourself out as something different. What's in the sky? A bird, a plane, like Superman, right? How about Apple? Here's a simple one. You've all

heard of Apple. Think different. Now, shouldn't that be think differently? But you get the idea. How about this one? Avon, the company for women. They're just putting it out there. Not a company for women, not a women's company, the company for women. It's from women for women, and they're appealing to the solidarity and belonging. That's the sense that they're appealing to. BMW, I love this one, the ultimate driving machine. We're not effing around. Okay, I added that last part, but that's what that says, right? It doesn't get much better than ultimate, even though every car is basically a driving machine. Let's look at Burger King, have it your way. There you go. That pretty much says it. Now, if there was ever a customer empowering tagline out there, that's it. Let's take,

this is cool, Canon, the camera company and printer and whatnot. Canon, ready? There's his delighting you always. This camera company understands the importance of client-centric service and the joy of the art of video and photography. And again, they do also make printers. You know, is Chuck E. Cheese is still around? In America, we have a chain. I think they're out of business. They were a pizza chain that was totally family-oriented. It's not where the guys went to hang out for beers after the bowling game. I don't even know if they're around, but their tagline was, where a kid can be a kid. So that's highlighting the fun atmosphere instead of the food. And that company really knew what their strongest points were.

And that's what you want to do. Think of yours. If you have one, does it emphasize your strongest points? Does it convey what you want your consumers, your target market, your audience, your fans to think about you? And if not, guess what? It's okay to redo it. Don't worry about the fact that, oh, but it's on our brochures. It's on our cards. Don't even worry about that. Just make it more effective. That's what it's

all about. Let me scoot through and find just a couple more. Coca-Cola. It's the real thing. They've been saying that forever. I remember the, the commercials when I was a little kid in the sixties, it's the real thing. Coca-Cola is big enough to just tout its long established authenticity. It is a legacy brand and the iconic complexity of its flavor. Hmm. Complexity. I don't know about that. No offense, Coca-Cola. Build on the confidence you've earned from your loyal customers to rope in even more. So leverage what you have, okay?

Leverage your reality, as Laurie Shube says. Dell, another computer company. I never knew this. Easy as Dell. That's great. I love that. DHL, we move the world. That's a good one. Disneyland, the happiest place on earth, pretty much says it. It's a grand promise that explains the millions of visitors flocking to this magical place every year from around the world i might add ebay ready for ebay buy it sell it love it they're just saying it how it is i love that three short sentences two words each a classic three-part slogan spelled out the scope of the service and the value it adds to one's life.

I don't think that's a slogan. I think that's more of a tagline. Energizer, we're familiar with the battery company. It keeps going and going and going. Like the Energizer bunny. Hmm, wonder how they thought of that. So Facebook changed theirs theirs used to be when they first came out and for the first few years facebook a place to share photos with your friends but it evolved into a completely

different monster they added video oh so many features um now it's helps you connect and share with the people in your life and argue about oh never mind i won't go there ford ready for ford go further it's a double entendre and double entendres are always welcome this automobile giant has had a succession of slogans over the years including the clever customer-centric line, everything we do is driven by you. That's pretty cool. I like that one a lot. Let's just do a couple more. Wow, I never knew this one either. Google. This is cool. Google's is, ready? Don't be evil. Google's is, ready? Don't be evil. Okay. So what does examples.com have to say about that? This actually is Google's corporate code of conduct. They've turned it into their tagline as well. Their corporate code of conduct. Aren't you glad the world's largest search engine isn't

maliciously plotting to sell your data behind your back. So that's pretty cool. Don't be evil. That should be everybody's corporate conduct code. I'm going to pick one more. Ah, one of my favorite brands, actually. Harley Davidson. American by birth, rebel by choice.

That's a good one. There's tons of these, 109 on this one list alone. Go to examples.com slash business slash famous hyphen company hyphen taglines hyphen slogans. Very cool. I'm just scrolling through. There's so many of these we grew up, well, I grew up with people around my age, 60-ish and older, grew up with. This kind of stuff is fun. There's all sorts of things. So really what I'd like you to do is be very mindful of how your brand is designed around the desired outcome of how you want people to perceive who you are and what you do, and most importantly, what you provide. This is extremely important because the topic organizing your company around the desired identity, a tagline's a big part of it. But a tagline's also

part of the branding, just like the logo. Your brand is the promise. Say it with me. It's the promise you make to your consumers. That's the brand, not the logo. Can we all agree on this? Except maybe that one person. can we get this straight okay so you've got to settle on what the promise is this is the promise you're making to the consumer and be sure that it's represented in a tagline as well as other marketing promotional and advertising materials and then of course follow through and provide that promise. That's a brand. The logo is not. All right. So this is a short one, hopefully very impactful. It is part three of a four-part series on how to build a brand. As I mentioned, four parts coming next in episode 14,

and that is all about basically that it's okay to pivot. It's okay to evolve. And when you evolve, you need to make sure that your branding reflects that evolution and where you are now in your brand's journey, okay? Your promise can change, just don't break any promises. All right, thanks for joining me on this. Want to learn more?

Need your team trained? Need a service provider who knows how it really works? I know a guy. Wink. Or if you just have questions, reach out. Pop me an email. Reach out on LinkedIn. And there's one more thing.

What? Oh, yeah. Cue the music. So remember, if you're serious about what you do, get serious about how you market it. Sign up for my newsletter and get my six steps to daily success PDF at advanced social marketing dot com and get notifications about my free workshops and other learning opportunities, as well as the wacky changes on the major platforms. Stay up to date and see how I can help you further at the same URL. Check out the blog there and follow the Advanced Social Marketing YouTube channel as well. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn at linkedin.com slash in slash Dan Schindler.

Happy marketing.