Branding Workshop

Some of the best branding workshops are the ones that make us partake in analogies. The building blocks of branding are emotions - identifying who we are as individuals, companies, our missions, our values - and then turning those intrinsic beliefs into something visual that conjures up the emotion.

But what are those beliefs and emotions?

If we take a moment to compare ourselves to our competitors, and even something fun that Chip Conley has done for his hotel chain - picking a magazine on which his hotel brand is built - forces us to answer questions like, "How do I perceive myself?" and "How do I want others to perceive me?"

I've also seen this done by gathering a group of logos - from cars to restaurants to clothing lines to cities. The point is to compare how you identify one vs. the other and why you feel you identify with one more than the other.

If Piccadilly Arts were a magazine, what would it be? Something that spoke to authentic traditional art forms...combined with modern eco-friendliness. I must visit my local Borders to hunt down this allusive magazine.

So Long

It has been shamefully long since I wrote...but with good reason. I am a new mom. Actually, at nearly 10 months, "new" maybe isn't the write adjective although every day is a new adventure. My son, Mitchell, was born last May and hands down is my pride and joy. I took some time off last summer and took a break from freelancing to get acclimated to my new role as a mom.

Probably the most useful skills I've acquired (or brushed up) in recent months have been prioritizing, multi-tasking, and chunking projects. It takes me back to a time management class I took when I first started high school. Things do get accomplished...in their own time.

There is a new fresh website for Piccadilly. My focus is on helping clients with branding and marketing. Let me help you tell your story. What makes your company so great and how do we share the emotional stories, build excitement and increase your company's visibility?

I'm still working within the arts and culture but there is a clear link between the arts and sustainability. Nonprofits, specifically artists and arts orgs, know how to do a lot on a dime...how to pull resources, and by their very missions, be about something greater than themselves. I'd like to reach out to other companies - both for profit and nonprofit - that are driven by sustainability and social responsibility. We share this commitment so please contact me for branding and marketing services!

Digital advertising...the new way to brand?

Here's a link to an interesting article published in the NY Times today. I find this intriguing because I do believe, like our corporate mongol David W. Kenny, the chairman and chief executive of Digitas, the advertising agency in Boston that was acquired by the Publicis Groupe, that all advertising will be digital and personalized in the coming years.

I like where he's going...or rather where the global economy is headed. Another executive makes the point of reminding us how annoyed we become after seeing the same commercial or ad over and over and wouldn't it be nice to have a series of ads? Not only targeted to me and my tastes but also taking me to a new level each time? Not only allowing me to interact and experience the product or service, but because of that, building an emotional attachment to it too. Building awareness and becoming emotionally involved - the keys to branding anything.

I wonder though, in the case of the phone (a more personal experience than the TV or Internet, although slowly becoming a media outlet like the aforementioned), will digital advertising reach us no matter what phone we use? Will only certain phones have the ability to receive these messages? Will such phones be like the iPhone and ludicrously expensive making it hard for the target markets to obtain the phone and see the personalized messages and ads? What about those of us who abhor any sort of technological interference? Who merely want to call their friends without pop up advertising? Will it get annoying or will there be a way to enable it if we want it?

Lots of questions...