random musings of bee tong

In a past life I used to be uber brand concious.  Primarily for attention.  Remember the days when all girls wore GUESS and the boys wore anything with Michael Jordan?  Fast forward to my San Francisco-hippie stage where I shopped at thrift stores and the glorification of non-branding.  Naively, I presumed I had overcome the superficiality of branding.  Fast forward to a few years ago…on a “break” (from paying attention at work), I flipped to my iPhone and started playing one of the many app games.  This one flashed me a picture associated with 20 “All-American brands without the name”.  The Challenge: Name that brand.  60 seconds.  Apple…Nike….Mr. Peanut…Jolly Green Giant…McDonalds…Finished with 20 seconds to go…I felt caught with my hand in the cookie jar.  “Baaazinga’d by brand managers nationwide.”

A long time big nerd, I feel as though I’ve recently morphed into a branding geek.

How does a brand morph into awesomeness?

* Simple, is often sweet.  Rapid association of your product/company with…An icon. An image. A quote. A color. A song.  …A swoosh. Golden Arches.  Apple’s white background.  Budweiser’ epic quotes.  Even 2 letters, V-L. 

* The Power of Positivity…from THE customer…(by THE I mean whoever you would bank on from).  When the customer sees your brand.  They think Rockstar thoughts about you.

* You know you got it when…As Akon says…dolla dolla bill, yo!  Your competition may be hot on your tail, but when the data comes out, your brand wins the customer, and convinces the damsel in distress that they should buy more, pay higher prices, or stay loyal to you.

At church they say preachers should keep everything to a three-point-sermon.  So I will end here.  See ya next Sunday.