“Elegance is refusal.” Coco Chanel
Brands make a big mistake when starting out.
Many brands or companies start out with a very specific offering, maybe one or two products or services. The problem arises when their brand (and its scope) outgrows their branding roots.
It works like this: Eventually, the brand starts to grow. Or, the brand expands its scope and, all of a sudden, the brand embraces so much more than it had embraced before.
At these points, the brand needs to be reevaluated. Reassessed.
It needs to have a big enough reason for being that can encompass all of its new offerings.
The Big Mistake
Some companies build their brands or names around a technology which becomes outmoded (i.e., Radio Shack).
Others build their brands around something transient like CD Baby (which is a site I love, but their company is about independent music, not the medium the music is delivered upon).
In short, you never build your company around something fleeting (or limiting); you build it around something bigger that embraces the overall impulse or aspiration. You build it around something timeless, something that isn’t prone to becoming outdated.
Inside Starbucks, Apple, Dominos
Wondering why all these big corporations are dropping certain words from their brands (Starbucks replacing Starbucks Coffee, Apple Inc replacing Apple Computers, Dominos replacing Dominos Pizza)?
Now you know.
A Skin Care Brand Gets Smarter
Previously, I shared with you the brand launch of UNDEW and many found this very insightful, enjoying its video and case study.
After all, the UNDEW brand was about the ability and desire to “undo” the stresses of life (to restore what had previously been forfeited in the busy-ness of living) embracing what Coco Chanel said above, “Elegance is refusal.”
Then recently, I shared with you the story of a Midwest Consumer Cooperative with over 70,000 members that took control of its Brand Vocabulary using many branding tools, in the right way, and the medium of video.
Well, UNDEW which started out with one product had now expanded its line.
While the line was expanding, it was getting harder for the company to wrap its arms around what it now stood for.
So we decided to create a video that established everything the brand stood for without referring to any specific product, providing the foundation for any and every product in its current lineup or on the horizon.
How?
By establishing the reason WHY the brand was created and clearly conveying its role in the world and its purpose for its clients. Best-selling author and speaker, Simon Sinek, said it best:
“Entrepreneurs must be practical experts. They needn’t set out to be subject matter experts in what they do; they must set out to solve a problem or pursue some cause or purpose greater than themselves.”
This new video written and created for UNDEW achieves that goal of clearly establishing WHY their brand exists, providing the necessary foundation for all its current and future products.
The key question every brand needs to ask is this: Does your brand have the foundation and core purpose of WHY it exists to really stand the test of time?
