The Engaging Brand

Social Media is to business, as a canvas was to Picasso!

Look you have been reading this blog for a while, you know my train of thought is odd!

Today, I was thinking about branding and what we can learn from Picasso. Think of it....Picasso was a huge brand with many followers...so how did he create a world wide brand that continues to have brand evangelists even after his death.
P= Paint a vision of what you are seeing in your mind so that others can see what you are thinking.
I = It is not the medium that is important it is how you portray it, with your values...your character.
C =Create a premium through talent. Picasso once charged 100's of pounds for a quick sketch of a dog..the lady complained and said it only took you 5 minutes...Picasso said 'No, that took me a lifetime to create'
A= A canvas was needed to show the world. Ideas are great but unless you find a way to share the idea then no one will see it, no one will buy into it...social media is to business as a canvas was to Picasso!
S= Strong definition of your style differentiates you from others...you may lose some potential followers but the ones who love your work will evangelise about it.
S= Spot other talent than yourself...and cherish it. Picasso collected other artists like Matisse...he didn't ignore the competition he bought it!
O= Only through the brush, the paint, the canvas, the easel coming together with Picasso was the painting born. No matter how talented you always need a diverse set of resources around you to bring the dream alive

Behave, Yes!...Conform, Never!

I love a JFK quote that says

"Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth"

I could not agree more...to build a brand - leadership, employer or consumer - you need to push boundaries, push to a higher level of customer or employee experience.

Pushing means redefining, means thinking differently, means changing the rules....it means reforming expectation rather than conforming to them.

Of course, all this should be done with the rules of life... acting ethically, with humanity and in a trustworthy way...but for me that is behaving like a great human being whilst never accepting the status quo.

A successful brand promises a brighter future by improving on the present reality.

A thought on life....and branding

To get the most from our short time on this earth, I believe growth and development is so important.... when I was a teenager people said I had "stopped growing", now I know they meant my height, but how wrong they were  -  my mind never stops growing.

I believe in living in a state of perpetual beta. There is no perfection in humans...there is only the search...and I think that is true for strong consumer brands as well. When you look at Coke...it too is in perpetual beta, evolving over time.....Strong personal brands as well as strong consumer brands understand the power of......"Perpetual Beta"....(musings from a tired traveller!)

It's a mind game, not a money game

So says the accountant! However, building brands now at a corporate or a personal level is not about how big your budget is, it is how big your imagination is...

In the past we used to see mind games as political, something that was wrong in some way...ut now I see brand building as the ultimate mind game..

Mind because you need creativity, freshness, disruption, personalised, thinking, ..you need the power of imagination.

Game because of course there are boundaries, there are winners/losers, it can be fun, entertaining...it requires skills to be developed over time.

How are you at mind games ? Do you see the new social media tools as just an unsolvable puzzle or do you see it as an opportunity to let your imagination escape to capture the minds of your consumers, a test of your ability to throw away your traditional rules and invent new ones that engage people?

Don't be scared of the wrong answer as with many mind games there are different paths to take, different solutions even....the low outlay means you can try, learn, evolve, enjoy, try, learn, evolve, engage and enjoy!

A Brand for all Reasons

When you think of a brand, you think of it's promise, of it's desire to deliver value to its consumer. A brand needs to predict, it needs to give hope, it needs to give a commitment to the people it interacts with that the future will be brighter through the relationship.

A strong brand not only delivers the obvious needs of its consumers, the "seen" needs of its consumers...it looks for and understands the "unseen" needs of its consumers.

If you take this into the work context then as a leader or as an employer, to keep your employees surprised by the employer brand

• Read widely - look for and learn to predict,demographic trends that are coming up, that are affecting society. For instance the desire for older workers to provide value to business after 65...
• Listen to the corridor conversations, what are the concerns or desires in people's lives....then try and provide solutions...these do not have to be high cost. I remember I delivered a "How to Get your Spending Under Control seminar when we became aware that many people were struggling with debt...it was hugely popular. We even got our bank to support the initiative and local government. Cost nothing but the value was high. People felt that we understood and cared for their well being...we supported them in their hardest times.
• Subscribe to trend blogs, as a way of looking for unseen needs.
• Listen to local college students, maybe even invite them to run a blog for you...looking at what they are looking for from their career, their prospective employer etc
• Build commitment to keeping promises into the appraisal structure...a promise needs two people to deliver, make sure that the managers and employees are held accountable for their part.

A brand values the relationship, a brand provides value to the relationship. An Employer brand or a personal brand is no different to a product....people will give their loyalty to the one that delivers outstanding value, day in day out - a value that they did not expect. As a leader you are the ultimate fortune teller - work with me and this is how your life will change!

The Heart of an Employer Brand

I like to say that what brings a brand alive is ....Heart

H= Health. A heart needs to be looked after to keep strong and fight off internal disease....A business needs to look after the people to ensure that the internal disease of mediocrity does not hit....stretch them, exercise their minds, feed them a vision.
E= Emotional Intelligence. Leaders need to have more than core technical skills. Leadership is about leading people, people have emotions, so do you. Develop your ability to manage emotions - both inside of you and being aware of those around you.
A= Arteries and Veins. A heart needs blood flow...a business needs a flow of communication...in and out, up and down, side to side.
R= Rate. There needs to be a strong beat to inspire action, but also an understanding that the speed will need to change  - the need to slow to assess, the need to quicken to succeed.
T= Team Player. A heart is required but so are the rest of the organs...the heart feeds the oxygen, feeds the energy but as central as the heart is....the body would not function without all the parts. A leader is the heart, the employees the soul of the company.

Colour Branding - The Meaning of the Colours

I love the idea of colour in building your employer brand. I was reading a great post at Brand Curve about what the colours mean. For instance, The Engaging Brand logo is based on red and black. So I was interested to read that these colours show

"Red: Red activates your pituitary gland, increasing your heart rate and causing you to breathe more rapidly. This visceral response makes red aggressive, energetic, provocative and attention-grabbing. Count on red to evoke a passionate response, albeit not always a favorable one. For example, red can represent danger or indebtedness."

"Black: Black is serious, bold, powerful and classic. It creates drama and connotes sophistication. Black works well for expensive products, but can also make a product look heavy."

Mmm so in future be aware of the health issues of reading this blog....your heart rate increases and has danger associated with it. I was a bit worried about the black making me look heavy...like every woman I would hate that!

Employer Branding is about Experience

Again today I got asked by a potential client - why do you feel employer branding is important?

Well, I think that people sometimes get hung up with the phrase...for me it is about managing your reputation as an Employer...whatever you want to call that.

The question is similar to your products - do you want to sell coffee or the experience you get in Starbucks? Do you want to want an airline ticket or do you want to fly Southwest?

Effectively a job is a job...it is not easily differentiated. If you are an accountant in a business you will do a similar job for a similar pay in various companies. What I am talking about is creating an employment experience that surprises, that respects, that is inclusive, that inspires, that helps people feel valued. To attract talent you need to create an experience that differentiates you from your competitors.....an experience that brings out the best in people, an experience that inspires people to give more than normal.

Why? To get the best talent that will come up with the best ideas that people will pay a premium for....

The Most Important Part of Branding

I was reminded last night of a conversation with my dear old dad. We were talking about branding one day, a concept that he didn't totally agree with, he preferred to believe you shouldn't have a department to look after the brand, EVERYBODY should look after the brand....but he said something that has stuck in my mind

"What is the most important aspect of a brand, Anna?"

"Go on, Dad I will buy it what is it?"

" The fact it starts with 'b', you need to be the brand. Be an exemplar of the values, the promise....to be or not to be that is the leadership question!"

That may have been 10 years ago, but it stayed with me. A brand is not something that is separate, it exists through the people.

Blog Carnival on Employer Branding

The blog carnival is building and I would love more entries for the next issue. To become an employer of choice is a key part of attracting the right talent - here are the latest posts that will help you achieve this aim. At the end there is a link for you to submit your entry for the next blog carnival

David Maister presents Stylists (Staff Turnover and Customer Retention) posted at Passion, People and Principles, saying, "Who really "owns" your customers? Is your brand strong enough to withstand employee turnover?"

Christopher J. Brunner presents Learning from Google HR Techniques posted at The Small Business Buzz, saying, "Thank you for considering my submission for inclusion in this month's edition of CoEB.  Michelle Cramer"

David Maister presents Lessons from a Natural Manager - new careers podcast episode posted at Passion, People and Principles, saying, "Jerry Labbate's intuitive management style includes key strategies for hiring the *right* people, and then keeping them engaged and performing."

Erek Ostrowski presents Organizational Culture: The Keys to the Kingdom posted at Verve Coaching, saying, "Understanding the role that culture plays in defining an organization’s potential gives you the keys to the proverbial kingdom."

Sagar Satapathy presents Top 10 Largest Databases in the World posted at Business Intelligence Lowdown.

Jack Yoest presents Exxon and Global Warming and Capitalism posted at Reasoned Audacity, saying, ""Exxon, the sign of the double cross," quipped one leftist wag. The oil energy giant is often maligned by anarchists, non-capitalists and environmentalists. No matter what a Fortune 500 does, it will be maligned by socialists. And now the tree-spikers/tree huggers are even madder. Or are celebrating. It is sometimes hard to tell the difference. Two items:"

David Maister presents What Managers Do Least Well posted at Passion, People and Principles, saying, "Managers that fail to address their underperformers risk losing their top performers over it."

MabelandHarry presents Self Confidence posted at MabelandHarry saying it is important to understand how self confidence can be overcome for employees

David Chase presents 10 Employee Behaviors Bosses Hate Most posted at NBRI BLOG, saying, "Fun read about common behaviors us employees do that make our boss boil over."

Sagar Satapathy presents Getting Organized: Lesson #1 for Small Business Owners posted at Management Strategies: 18 Tips to Manage Your Blog Network.

Praveen presents MINTing A Brand posted at My Simple Trading System.

That concludes this edition.  Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of employer branding using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.