Check your coat

A few months ago, a client thanked me for facilitating a brand visioning exercise, saying, “I always thought that branding an organization was just a matter of choosing and then putting on a new coat.” I was pleased he had grasped the fundamentals of what we were trying to do, that branding is a matter of reflecting what’s at the heart of an organization, not simply selecting something from a rack of stylish options. After all, your brand is about authenticity. Branding requires you to discern what is true about your organization, why that matters to your audience, and how to communicate those truths in the things you say and do. And yet, it is about the coat, too…

Most of us pay at least some attention to the clothes we wear. In general we want them to reflect something about the kinds of people we are, our character, values and personality. Sometimes we want them to say specific things about ourselves: Look at me and know that I am a professional, a cowboy, a vampire…. Stacy and Clinton from TLC’s What Not to Wear tell us that many people get it wrong. So wrong. Instead of creative and trendy, they appear flaky and dated; instead of vibrant and youthful we get tarty and will you pu-lease grow up. The truth is, some people do not care what they wear or how they dress, some dress to project qualities they admire but do not possess, and yet others reflect characteristics quite different from what they intend.

It’s not a lot different from the way many organizations treat their brands:
• some don’t think about their brand or place any value in branding
• some have chosen brand values they admire but cannot emulate – ever
• some know what their brand values are, but communicate them with little insight

The problem these organizations face is bigger than simply being raided by the fashion police. Rather than Stacy and Clinton, they have to stand up to the scrutiny of their (gasp) audience!

If you don’t take care of branding your organization, your audience will brand it for you. And your brand may be “the dis-organization that doesn’t care.”

If you simply choose a set of admirable brand values, your audience will spot the fake. Your brand may become “the organization that can’t really be trusted.”

If you know your brand values, but mis-communicate them, your audience will be confused. Your brand will be “the organization that…I’m sorry, which one are you again?”

Brand articulation is hard work. It requires structure, honesty, deep insight, passion and creativity. And that’s just the start. But the rewards can be immediate and, over time, powerful. I hope to share some of those with you, as well as how we get there and what branding processes and models look like, over the course of the next few months. Or years; it’s a big subject.

Speaking of coats, as we subtly segue to us, have a listen to what that old bluegrass master Ralph Stanley had to say about them:

Two coats were before me, an old and a new…
I’ll tell you the best thing I ever did do,
I put off the old coat and put on the new.

If you’re unsure about the coat you’re wearing, you know who to call…
—Al Aasman
 

My perspective challenged

October 6th was Challenge Day at F.H. Collins. I was there as one of the twenty-five facilitators, with 100 grade eight students and 40 student mentors. It was a day of breaking down barriers, playing get-to-know-each-other games, small group sharing "if you really knew me, you would know that...”, and finally a revealing of very personal issues in a crossing-the-line activity. You might ask why a brand communications strategist would be there whooping and hollering “I feel good,” giving out hundreds of hugs and sharing the love and tears of the day. I did ask myself that in the morning, but as the day went on I was totally caught up in the event. To learn more about what actually happened, visit www.challengeday.org

I am always challenged by how to communicate so that you are heard, understood, and able to change someone’s mind or attitude. We are working on a project targeting graduating students with the message to have a substance-free grad. After much research on underage drinking and the inevitable parties that surround graduation time, I was beginning to despair about developing a successful campaign concept. Despite the fact that there is so much information and messaging already about the consequences of binge drinking, our teens still do it.

F.H. Collins vice-principal, Christine Klaassen St. Pierre, invited me to facilitate up-coming Challenge Day when I was interviewing her for this project. That’s how it happened that I was there breaking down my own barriers and judgments, learning to understand, respect and, yes, love our youth. I came to believe that they are good, smart, and that they have the capacity to change and make the right choices. Fear, separation, isolation, and loneliness are so much a part of their lives and the root of almost every destructive behaviour.

“Knowing our audience” has a whole new meaning for me. We need to open our human side, and realize the issues are deeper than we think. A dialogue with the audience that comes from acceptance, love and respect gives a whole new perspective and hope on which to build a message that has potential to make a difference.

Does paper fly?

 In mid September, as a technical specialist, I travelled with our client to Saskatoon to oversee the printing of Yukon’s largest annual publishing project – the 2010 Yukon Vacation Planner. This was a 3 day-and-night process.

Printing 170,000 copies on a web press involves printing a 16-page section of the 120-page book in one pass. On the far left end of the press (see video) are four-foot-wide rolls of magazine grade paper fed through five printing towers. The “web” aspect of this kind of press is that one continuous roll of paper runs through the printing towers, a 35-footlong drying “oven” to dry the ink, then through a large folding unit at the end of the press.

And yes, paper does fly. Just check out (and hear) the speed of the press. The guy at the end of this massive printing press is actually called the “flyer” as his job is to offload the finished sections of the project, stacking them on pallets for the next stage of collating and finishing.

Branding with Dennis

They say the shoemaker's kids run around barefoot. What about brand communications firms—do they run around brandless? We’re so busy clarifying brands for our clients, do we ever take time to examine our own?

We put the old proverb to the test July 14 when we engaged in an internal study session, taking advantage of a rare opportunity to share brand communication strategies with Dennis de la Haye.

Formerly a senior brand consultant with the renowned branding agency MetaDesign in Berlin, Dennis spent an afternoon with our agency, sharing with us his understanding of the value of a brand, corporate identity versus image, and brand modeling. He also led us through a couple of exercises that had us examine our own brand and brand values, and left us with some ideas around prioritizing future brand values.

By the end of the day, we had discovered a number of things about ourselves, and drawn these conclusions:

• Dennis should come to work for us
• The 3 C’s of successful branding really are consistency, consistency and consistency
• Through engagement in the workshop exercises, our core brand values were confirmed
• Except for that “radical” thing…we’ll be examining that further
• Our brand strategists are well shod. Every one of them.

In his opening remarks, Dennis stated his belief that good design is good business, and that a strong brand image is based on a strong identity. We share those beliefs and strive to reflect them in our own agency and in the work we do for our clients.

After the workshop, we learned one more valuable lesson—you actually can have a successful barbeque in your parking lot on a hot summer’s evening.

Meeting the Queen

A terrific new exhibit was unveiled May 27th at the Yukon Transportation Museum. Everyone was there: the Minister, the curator, dignitaries and numerous guests. And, oh yeah, the Queen was there too.

“Barnstorming With the Queen: A Tale of Adventure and Friendship Aboard the Queen of the Yukon II” is a photographic exhibit that tells the story of two dashing young men who, in the summer of 1929, ferried the Queen of the Yukon II up the west coast to the Yukon for the territory’s first commercial airline.

What made the opening particularly meaningful is that relatives of Gordon Stewart, one of the two pilots, were in attendance—Jeremy, his grand-son, June, his daughter-in-law, and Ella, his great-granddaughter.

The exhibit will be on display for the remainder of the season.

It was also an opportunity to showcase aasman’s recent branding work for the museum, including its new identity, colour schemes and exhibit panels.

Check out Our Work for more on our collaboration with YTM.