lets kill-some-common-myths-about-branding
TRANSCRIPT
LET’S KILL SOME COMMON MYTHS
ABOUT BRANDINGPrimal Branding® is a registed trademark.
“Branding” has existed for thousands of years. In the beginning, it was an identifying mark to help buyers recognize they were buying a pot that wouldn’t break in the cooking fire. Or to help identify livestock. As production lines and technologies evolved over the last 200 years, consumerist societies developed; today, quality and quantity have become assured.
In the beginning.
LET’S KILL SOME COMMON MYTHS ABOUT BRANDING
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Primal Branding® is a registed trademark.
Today, “Brand” is not about what you companies have to say about their product and services, but what people have to say about those companies. “Brand” even refers to the people who surround (and buy) those products and services.
LET’S KILL SOME COMMON MYTHS ABOUT BRANDING
The notion of “Brand” has evolved, too.
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Primal Branding® is a registed trademark.
Your fans.
LET’S KILL SOME COMMON MYTHS ABOUT BRANDING
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Primal Branding® is a registed trademark.
Today, it’s not only the quality of the product you build that dictates success, but the quality of the community you build around that product.
LET’S KILL SOME COMMON MYTHS ABOUT BRANDING
What’s changed.
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Primal Branding® is a registed trademark.
The new mission is to create a community that becomes so passionate about your success, they create it themselves.
The new mission.
LET’S KILL SOME COMMON MYTHS ABOUT BRANDING
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Primal Branding® is a registed trademark.
Today, your brand is your fan community.
A thought. From this evolved perspective, your “Brand” is the community of fans who talk about you, advocate you, endorse you, and “thumbs up”. These fans are not idle—whether they feel they like Apple, Nike, Brooklyn, Burning Man or the New York Yankees, entry into these communities require repeat involvement and intense consideration.
LET’S KILL SOME COMMON MYTHS ABOUT BRANDING
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Primal Branding® is a registed trademark.
Your brand community is users, advocates, people who buy into you.
In other words, your “brand community” is not some flimsy feel-good concept. Instead, these zealots are your users, consumers, customers: they are the core of your business.
LET’S KILL SOME COMMON MYTHS ABOUT BRANDING
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Primal Branding® is a registed trademark.
We’re all part of the same tribe.
Your brand means something to them. When that meaning aligns with the values and beliefs of others, your brand grows. We enjoy the like-minded community of others who have also bought and bought into the Brand. It doesn’t take much to realize that many of us have an affinity for others drinking Starbucks, using an iPhone 6, listening on Beats headphones, or bingeing on Netflix. We’re all part of the same clan or tribe.
LET’S KILL SOME COMMON MYTHS ABOUT BRANDING
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Primal Branding® is a registed trademark.
Here are some common misperceptions regarding what a “Brand” is. If you agree with any of the statements in boldface, you might want to pivot and readjust your thinking. Do so quickly, or in today’s fast-moving world you might become a dodo.
LET’S KILL SOME COMMON MYTHS ABOUT BRANDING
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Primal Branding® is a registed trademark.
Brands are trying to sell me something. Brands are no longer evil empires trying to trick you into buying something. The “Mad Men” of yesteryear are so yesterday. Today, “Brands” belong to the fan communities that create them: clusters of people connected together by the same beliefs, same values and common trust. They talk alike, walk alike, act alike, and use a system of identifiers to signify who they are. They are members of the same tribe, cult, enthusiasts, advocates, citizens and crowd. And if you want to be a part of them, you must understand the system of words, rituals, icons, and narrative they celebrate.
LET’S KILL SOME COMMON MYTHS ABOUT BRANDING
MYTH:®
Primal Branding® is a registed trademark.
We just redesigned our logo and website. So, our brand is done. No. Many people misunderstand their corporate identity program as their “Branding”. This is so wrong. Your Brand is the way you act and the way people feel about you. Your brand is also your packaging, product design, your HQ office and store experiences. Your brand is also the language that describes you (iced grande skinny decaf latte); what you look like, smell like, sound like; your brand is not only who you are, but also what you’re not and never want to become; and the strategic narrative that strings it all together. Your logo and website are a part of your brand only in that they help people find you.
LET’S KILL SOME COMMON MYTHS ABOUT BRANDING
MYTH:®
Primal Branding® is a registed trademark.
LET’S KILL SOME COMMON MYTHS ABOUT BRANDING
MYTH:
Brands are logos. No. Logos are identifying marks that signal your Brand tribe or clan. People know instantly whether they should approach or avoid, whether you are just like me, or not for me. Logos are icons (packaging, product design, and other senses including taste, touch, sound and smell are also iconic), just one part of your brand belief system that also includes rituals, creation story, creed, a special lexicon, nonbelievers and leader.
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Primal Branding® is a registed trademark.
LET’S KILL SOME COMMON MYTHS ABOUT BRANDING
MYTH:
Only big companies can brand themselves. While it is true that, historically, big companies had an edge over smaller companies (it took somewhere between seven to twenty million dollars to “launch” a new product over traditional national television), today the new schoolyard reality is that digital media and technology have flattened the playing field. Today, individuals like PewDiePie, NigaHiga and Jenna Marbles have become popular brands surrounded by millions of followers just like Samsung, Coke and Nike.
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Primal Branding® is a registed trademark.
LET’S KILL SOME COMMON MYTHS ABOUT BRANDING
MYTH:
Only products and services can be Brands. Not so. If you think of Brands as communities, you know that communities surround people, places and things. Those as Brands, too. Kanye West is a Brand, as are Madonna, Oprah, Nelson Mandela, and Obama. You are also a brand--surrounded by your community of family, friends, co-workers, and others. Civic communities are also Brands: Not just cities like New York City, Paris, London, Melbourne, Mumbai or Beijing. These places embody values, environments and experiences that attract others who share (and prefer) those same lifestyle choices.
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Primal Branding® is a registed trademark.
LET’S KILL SOME COMMON MYTHS ABOUT BRANDING
Combining each of these pieces into a holistic brand narrative—and then distributing those pieces through content in traditional and social media—is the challenge (or opportunity) for everyone who wants to create a Brand community.
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Primal Branding® is a registed trademark.
LET’S KILL SOME COMMON MYTHS ABOUT BRANDING
Treated appropriately, people with the same likes and dislikes become your fans. They become your advocates and your Brand community. They like you. They not only buy you, they buy into you. And that’s one of the best things about being a Brand.
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Primal Branding® is a registed trademark.
LET’S KILL SOME COMMON MYTHS ABOUT BRANDING
If you liked this, you might like the books “Primal Branding” (which has been required reading at YouTube) and “The Social Code”.
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Primal Branding® is a registed trademark.
LET’S KILL SOME COMMON MYTHS ABOUT BRANDING
The writer is currently featured as ‘brand expert’ in the 10-part documentary series “The Kennedy Files. Acknowledged as one of the top brand transformation practitioners in the world, Patrick Hanlon’s book Primal Branding: Create Zealots for Your Brand, Your Company And Your Future is mandatory reading at YouTube Next Labs, the largest social engagement platform on the planet. In addition to working with Fortune 100 clients, he has been a guest speaker at IDEO, New York University, Urban Land Institute, HP Brand Innovation Series, TEDx and more. His latest book The Social Code is a build on Primal Branding and takes us deep into the digital age where communities are created online. Hanlon is also a writer for Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., and has appeared CNBC, FOX, as well as popular podcasts and radio.
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Primal Branding® is a registed trademark.
LET’S KILL SOME COMMON MYTHS ABOUT BRANDING
Our construct has been ratified and is actively endorsed by the largest social engagement community on the planet as their recommended method for creating Brand narrative and growing your community online.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEj2iqsQLqw
PRIMAL BRANDING®
PRIMAL BRANDING®
@hanlonpatrick
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Primal Branding® is a registed trademark.