Brand as a Memory

There is a school of thought that defines a brand as a promise. Or an expectation. That thinking has always resonated with me.

Lately I've been thinking about that expectation and realize that it is based on all past experiences with the brand (perhaps the category). Said another way, the brand becomes your collective memory of past interactions.

That memory could be from advertising, word of mouth, actual use, observed, etc. All those interactions have functional and emotional dimensions....and consequences. It's all in the mental blender and part of what comes to mind and heart when you think of a brand.

When we inherit stewardship of a brand, we inherit all the memories...good and bad and absent. And for me...when I think about memories, I think about FEELINGS (cue Morris Albert  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRaI7ZOmTr4 )
How does a memory make me feel? (Remember the old adage about speeches? They won't remember what you said, they will remember how you made them feel?)

As a marketer I think a lot about the present and future of brands. But doesn't the future begin in the past? 

So I'm wondering, what do they remember about my brands? How do those memories make them feel? Whatever message they see from us today...it will have to climb through those memories, those feelings.

If they don't have a specific memory of the brand...what will they pull from to set context? To judge.  To decide.  Category memories?  The last time they tried a new product?  What do we want to attach our memories to?

Brand reputation or equity is a phrase I have thrown around loosely, lately its taken a deeper importance when I think of it as a memory.  

It's hard to change a memory.

What Do You Work For?

What if it wasn't just about commerce.  Or the quarterly results.  Or feeding the never ending procession of managers and shareholders that want nothing but short term return and their career advancement.  

What if it was about building a brand you wanted to work on.  Building a company where you wanted to work.  Working with people you respected and wanted to work with.  

What if it was about being challenged everyday by the opportunity of the business, the difficulty in the challenge, and the personal improvement that comes from trying really hard ....alongside other people who are trying really hard.  

What if it was about legacy and lasting significance.  

Oh I care about quarterly earnings, but I know that the right long term vision and motivation will fuel quarterly earnings.  Not vice verse.

Honestly, I work for myself now.  For my own internal purposes.  To feed a drive that does not go quietly into mediocrity.  

I'm harder on myself than anyone else can be, because only I can measure my true effort and passion.  And I can't be content until both are spent.

Artful Branding

I've spent a career in marketing and branding.  I've done some work I'm not proud of...for reasons that were nearsighted and self promoting.  Crass commercial crap.

But in this mid-season of life, I have found a compass point that inspires me.  It takes the commercial job of marketing and marries it to the arts.  I'm calling it artful branding.  It's my new standard for work:

Artful Branding: The use of skill & imagination in the creation of commercial objects or experiences that exalt the senses, mind or spirit.

And my close friend said, "Good luck with that".

What Will February Mean To You?

They say... innovation is something new that adds value.

I ask...value to whom?

To you?  To us?  To the collective we?

My answer is yes....to all.

Any time you innovate...at home, at work, where ever...you are strengthening a skill that serves not just you, but everyone you touch.  And everything you do.

New.  Different.

An idea...envisioned anew or stolen... but tried by you for the first time.  

A new approach. 

Purposely discarding a proven method to evaluate something that might be better.

Oh, it's inefficient as hell.  

It's often unfruitful.

It's unappreciated.

It brings risk.

It's damn hard.

Yet it's ultimately what our business... and your role... demands.

Because it is ultimately the only way we grow.  

As people, as marketers, as a business.

Are you being innovative at work? at home? anywhere?

Marketing is a creative field, what are you creating? 

2013 is the year we create.

We find new ideas.

We try new ideas.

We fail at new ideas.

We learn from failure.

We succeed.

January is gone.

In 31 days February will be past.

Will it slip away, or will it be the month when a new idea changed your course.

Your new idea.