Does your brand need a polish?
From a bright yellow Jeep (destroyed in a head-on with a bull elk), to a shiny red one, I was forced to readjust part of my personal brand overnight. Thankfully, for me and my team, it’s our forte to build brands that are resilient and can stand the test of time barring unforeseen changes. Not allowing for adaptation can harm or even kill your brand. Whether it’s a bump in the road or one you encounter on the road, a brand built on a solid foundation can take a hit and move on.
So what do I mean by “take a hit”? Well, fortunately for me, not so for Mr Elk (I gotta move on), after much soul searching and Jeep hunting, I was able to find a replacement for the Twinkie-mobile. If you who don’t know what I’m referring to by calling my Jeep a Twinkie, I’ll just let you ponder that.
Initially, realising how difficult it would be to find its twin, I contemplated replacing it with another vehicle brand. A purple VW Beetle? My wife, boss of AdMaki, Tanya, and my creative partner, Kate, slapped me to my senses pointing out all the brand equity I had built with the yellow Jeep. They reminded me how it reflected on our business of building brands. Yup. I needed to stay on course and stick with a Jeep. Its uniqueness is what attracted me to one 30+ years ago. The challenge was to find one that wasn’t black, grey or white, which in my humble opinion (IMHO for my younger audience members), meant “middle of the road”, where the elk and I collided.
As the title of this article alludes to, something as simple as the colour of my Jeep plays a huge part of my personal brand. I like bright. Can you say ‘extrovert’? I am in the business of making business’ products/services stand out amongst its competitors, so it doesn’t hurt to walk the walk.
Are your products/services standing out for you? Are you standing out for your products/services? Uniqueness gets eyes. You want your brand to be memorable because boring ones get forgotten. If your brand took a hit, would you be able to adjust quickly without skipping a beat?
How quickly would you be able to get back in the right lane?
There are many reasons why a brand needs correction. Look at Kodak (film cameras!!). Or Block Buster (video rentals!!!). Black Berry (hello!!!!). You see, although the change may not be sudden, change happens, and you must adjust accordingly. Nintendo is a good case study – did you know they originally sold playing cards? In the late ’50s they started seeing falling sales of cards as the nation grew interested in other newer pastimes. They pivoted in the late ’60s, investing into the brand new electronic gaming sphere that made them into the Nintendo video game company we know today.
Other mega-companies like McDonald’s, Jeep, 7-Eleven and Disney have been zigzagging for decades and that’s why they’re still around to this day. Other reasons to have to revisit your brand might be in a merger/acquisition, your customers’ age, market changes, etc. Now might be a good time to reflect on your brand to see if it needs a polish. Or possibly a new coat of paint?
All the best to you and yours this festive season.
Cheers, mark.
