Everything Speaks

What can we Lady Gaga teach us about branding and marketing? Quite a bit, it seems.  Commenting on an Advertising Age article about Lady Gaga’s marketing savvy, research consulting Hartman Group captured the essence of Lady Gaga’s marketing success on their blog. They comment, “like most successful brands and marketing campaigns, it starts with a story.” Lady Gaga doesn’t just sing and entertain.  She has connected people on an emotional level and has developed a Gaga “tribe” through story.

The Hartman Group boiled it down to three important elements of a successful brand that Lady Gaga has captured.

1. Keep storytelling a key ingredient of your brand – tell a soulful story and customize your communication.  This will enhance your brand experience and help you build connections.  Gaga has woven hers throughout social media and traditional media.

2.  Create community – Lady Gaga’s fans know her story that takes her from awkward teen to dancer to mega star.  But creating community doesn’t happen with a once-and-done approach. She continually stays connected through social media channels (twitter and facebook).  As a result, her fans can relate to her and to one another.

3. Consumers crave authenticity – in an age of increasing cynicism, people are looking for the real deal.  You can’t just make something up and expect to build a tribe.  Branding is a two-way relationship.  You must deliver on what you promise.  Define who you are, be clear and consistent in every way you communicate that.

These three steps are a great foundation for establishing and maintaining a brand identity that can build your tribe. Whether or not you like Lady Gaga as an entertainer, you have to acknowledge that her brand and messaging are strong.  And her tribe continues to grow.

What is a logo anyway?  Is it a colorful shape, an interesting design, a stylized font?  Well, it may be any of those things, but it is much more. A well done logo tells a story, is memorable and helps to build a visual connection with an organization. A logo is an essential element of an organization’s brand.  It’s not just a picture, it is a mark that represents the identity and promise – the story behind the brand.  Stories capture people’s minds, hearts and imaginations.  And your brand is a way to tell your story visually.

Yesterday, William Vanderbloemen officially launched a focused ministry search organization, The Vanderbloemen Search Group.  The focus?  Creating connections between the right people and the right ministries. When William contacted Auxano to design the logo for his new company, our creative team including designer Jessica McCartney and  Creative Director James Bethany, couldn’t wait to get started. The result of our collaboration is the logo you see above.

So, what’s the story behind the design?  We began with the essence of the organization, “creating connections” as our conceptual launching pad. Along with that, we wanted to communicate the group’s commitment to conduct a thorough search to find the “right people for the right ministry.”    The outward facing “V”s (from Vanderbloemen) resemble searchlights and represent the team’s commitment to scan the landscape of their relationships to find “the right people.”  Notice that the points of the “V” are connected.  This was done to symbolically show the essence of the story, creating connections. There is one more subtle message in the mark.  The image of the connecting “V”s is moving into the defined space of the blue square indicating that when the connection is made, the people and the ministry fit together in a complete whole.

Think about the impressions your favorite brands have on you. Does your brand have a memorable affect? If you have not made the investment to clarify and develop a unique visual expression of your identity, consider the opportunity you have to tell your story and create connections in people’s hearts and minds.

See more examples from Auxano’s design portfolio here.

What makes people enthusiastic about work?  Past pundits and management theorists have asserted that recognition is the most powerful motivator and progress is the least influential. Recent research, however, turns that notion upside down.  Progress, it’s been shown, is the most powerful motivator.

As highlighted as one of the Breakthrough Ideas for 2010 in Harvard Business Review, the research shows that when people feel they are contributing to results, their drive peaks and they experience a positive emotional state.  In other words, people are happy and productive. When this happens, you also create a dynamic organizational culture in which people are fully engaged with your mission.

Current models demonstrate that enthusiasm and motivation are strongest when the organization’s culture is infused with:

• Clarity with clearly defined goals (people want to know where we are going)
• Resources and support (help people clarify and achieve short-term and long-range goals)
• A culture of helpfulness (build strong teams that work together toward the clear goals)
• Celebrate progress! (recognition and compensation remain important.  But are subservient to the first three and has more meaning when the first three exist in the culture)

Yes, people do respond to recognition,  but in the context of contributing to real progress, its meaning multiplies.  Because it’s genuine. As a leader, assess how well you are doing not just motivating people, but creating a meaningful culture. Is there an area where you can  improve?  Be sure you begin with clarity, empower people,help them set milestones so they can see progress, strengthen team culture, and celebrate. See what kind of cultural momentum you can get started.

In a series of articles I recently discovered, ThisIsInspired magazine is exploring the 7 Principles of Japanese Aesthetics. The first article introduced a term I was not familiar with – Kanso (簡素). Kanso means “simplicity and/or elimination of clutter.” The article explains that by definition, Kanso is when things are expressed in a simple, natural manner. But Kanso must be thought of beyond merely decoration. More importantly, it refers to clarity – a clarity that emerges by removing everything that is non-essential. By doing so, you create greater accessibility.

The article actually applies the concept to web design (good advice if you are in that process now). It occurred to me that it is also an important concept to apply across all organizational communications. Often, there are so many competing and inconsistent messages that what is seen, heard and experienced on a week-to-week basis only creates confusion. The competing messages actually become roadblocks to our messages being received.  Essentially, the complexity tunes people out.

If you want to reach people and get them talking about the essence of who you are, make yourself accessible. Practice Kanso.

Keep in mind that this is about simplification as opposed to oversimplification. People want and need identity, context, cues, understanding and to establish a relationship with your brand – with you.
The key is clarity + simplicity. Here are a few thoughts to help you get started.

• Clarify and articulate your vision
• Establish your brand identity
• Eliminate competing and non-essential messages
• Maintain consistency across all of your communications
• Inspire by reinforcing your vision through every sensory experience

Kanso.

A brand, well done, will reinforce its identity every time you encounter it – even in a split second.  We all know that the Super Bowl is part football, part advertising buzz.  In Fast Company Magazine online, Ken Carbone put together this rapid fire video. How many brands do you recognize?  Have some fun with your friends and see who gets the most.

Yes, these are the big players, but it make me think about how every organization could and should be more intentional about developing a recognizable brand identity by telling their story relentlessly.