The Quest for Heart and Soul in Branding
While it’s been suggested by some that “brands can’t have a soul,” it might be proffered that the inherent intimacy of branding to humanity imparts that they have a character that is imbued with a soul-like intentionality — they move forward with heart, the psychical character of brand, and the spirit that wraps around them.
The comes from
the heart of the leadership
and what passion [another inherent legacy to humanity] that they bring to the proposition of building and relating brand storytelling,
and what might be
held in that storytelling.
Every brand is built by a human.
For humans.
To that positioning, the more passionate one’s relationship [or relating] to a brand might be, new or old, will be around how people connect, inside [teams] and out, to that passion.
Passion as a word, and in a working context, is related to patience and pain [Latin pati,] and true persistence — the steadfast stride of the journey forward [Latin persistere.]
Hold steady in the pain of process.
Keep going on.
Try.
Evolve.
Improve.
Change.
Deploy.
Brands are not overnight affairs, they take time to build — operationally and logistically, as well as in the alignment of product to relevance, resonance in and around the building of their relationships [for no brand shall survive without relationships].
Patience —
commitment to practice what your brand is preaching.
Persistence —
a dogged focus on retaining that set of principles, daily, hourly, every minute.
Passion —
as well documented in the writings of
brand strategist and marketer, Kate Newlin;
it comes down to building a team that
loves what they do,
love what they’re working on,
and love the brand that they’re building.
The internal brand team must love what they do to the degree that this
spirit could be evidenced in the building of the brand externally.
That brand reflectivity, like a story well-told,
the internal team loves the brand, and so, too, shall the community come to connect with the brand presuming there is truth.
In the beginning and the end, it will always come down to one thing:
do
what
you
love
and
others
will follow.
It’s what you believe in — and that holds true to the sense of the ancient history of believe, be-lief, which deconstructed would be:
“be love.”
For
if you’re not doing what you love,
then
what are you doing?
In all my working journeys to brands around the world — you can sense that inner commitment, from the leadership down, and that vibe will ripple out.
Like the waves from some distant shore, now
lapping at your feet.
And to brand spirit —
spiritus is breath,
the breathing and indwelling of energy, breathing life into a proposition, a story, told in a practiced intention.
Shu Uemura with a GIRVIN spirit leaf
t i m | decatur island studios
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WHY BRANDS ARE LOVED:
Girvin strategies of memory +
enchantment = audience engagement
http://bit.ly/h9kJdW