In Which I Assess Branding…Creatively

So, if branding is, as proposed earlier in this blog, the creation of associative memory so that thought “A” leads distinctly and inevitably to feeling “B,” how does one assess the efficacy of a brand? How does one create or solidify a brand? And how does one build brand equity?
I’m so glad you asked!
A very talented brand manager I know says, “Your brand identity should answer three questions: Who are you, what do you do, and why should I care?” This remains the best (or at least the most concise) description of brand identity I’ve come across.
Therefore, a branding (or a re-branding) isn’t at all about changing who you are or what you do…it’s about clarifying those two things and placing them within a powerful “Why you should care” messaging vehicle.
The answers to these questions are the reason that the same brand identity can encompass a wide array of products. Could Harley Davidson start marketing a whiskey without compromising the Harley brand? Of course…that brand identity of rough, tough, and self-destructive can easily apply to a whiskey.
However, solidly establishing a brand identity does place some limits on what you can do with your organization. Imagine that Harley Davidson, with its current brand identity, wanted to market upscale lady’s wear a la Laura Ashley.
A lot of small businesses want to be able to offer solutions for everything – so they try to market Laura Ashley even though they’re Harley Davidson. Branding and re-branding are about helping businesses claim their Harley…or their Laura…and project it consistently, compellingly, and creatively.

In Which I Demystify Publicity (Part 2)

(Soapbox continued.) Journalists like people who make their lives easy. You can be one of those people by doing your homework – reading the publication that you’re submitting to and really thinking about ways you can pitch stories that fit is a great first step. Or, conversely, if you make a list of all of the things about you that are interesting, and develop story hooks, you can match publications to the hook instead of the other way around.
Additionally, you want to make sure that:
The publication didn’t just run a story similar to yours.
You send a one page query letter (not a full article) to the appropriate individual (turnover at magazines and newspapers is notoriously high).
Not just you story but also your writing style is appropriate to the publication.
3.) Use the web. As the web becomes a more interactive marketing tool (see the June 25th posting on this blog), the daily need for content rises. You can capitalize on this need by producing free content about your area of expertise and offering it to established newsletters if they will run your short bio after it every time they use it. There also your own website and blog.
4.) Finally, develop a language around your service. A theory, a philosophy, an acronym, whatever. For instance, David Bach wouldn’t be the Smart Women guy without his “3 Baskets” approach. The Dummies series wouldn’t be as big without the call-outs it includes (these change slightly as to be appropriate for each book topic, but the format is the same). And so on.

In Which I Demystify Publicity (Part 1)

OK, so you want to be famous. The good news is that you don’t have to be a genius, or a love-goddess, or even a guru. You just have to be crafty and shrewd and tireless…or even just hire someone who is.
Obviously (and since you’re already crafty and shrewd I’m sure this will come as no surprise to you), the way to be famous is to get people to talk about you. To spark the public imagination. To do a metaphorical fan-dance in front of an adoring public. So, where to begin.
1.) Use everything you have. This can be frightening, because it means taking full ownership of exactly who you are and exposing that to public view. Obviously, you want to expose it in the best possible light…but that’s not duplicity it’s just publicity. So, whatever sets you apart from other people – your race, your gender, your ethnicity, your class-background, your sexual orientation, your politics, family history, even your drug history (provided you’ve subsequently cleaned up your act) – all of these can be used IN ADDITION to whatever you’re marketing yourself as. Now, if you’re using some aspect of your identity as the marketing hook itself, it’ll have to be a pretty interesting identity (think Augusten Burroughs-interesting). But if you’re using it to complement the financial-genius, self-help-guru, or ace-insurance-agent inside of you, it can offer new slants to newstories…and journalists are always looking for new slants.
2.) Find those journalists, and let them know they love you. You can hire a publicist (or a media-savvy writer) to do this for you, or you can do it on your own. You can do this either by pitching your favorite magazines stories (with interesting angles!) about you, or through a leads service such as PR Leads.
Obviously, this entry is turning into a soapbox. Check back later this week for Part 2 of the harangue!

In Which I Ponder the Platform

A whole bunch of people come to me and say, “I have written this book. Can you clean up the wording and make it sound good so that I can get it published?”
And I hem and haw a bit before asking them, “How’s your platform?” Because, it’s unfortunate but true, see…your idea doesn’t really matter. The quality of your writing (above a fairly basic level) doesn’t matter. What matters, in the publishing world, is how effectively you’ve established yourself as an expert on your subject.
So, how do you establish yourself as an expert? This, fortunately, is more straightforward than you might think. It is, essentially, a publicity campaign – and therefore exhausting, stupefying, and exhilarating in turns…but trust me, it ain’t rocket scientist.
Here’s how ya get started:
1.) Create a website and blog for the book. Yes, before it’s written. Yes, before the proposal is written. If you can get the book a website when it’s still just a gleam in your eye…do it.
2.) Start giving speeches and talks about the topics you will be covering in your book. Make the language of the book a part of the way you talk. Try out the concepts before they are set in stone…err…print.
3.) Get you name in print, either online or on paper, as an expert in the field. (This is not difficult, it just requires a comprehensive plan that I’ll detail in a later post.)
4.) Create a proposal for the book that highlights the marketing you’ve already done, and the response you’ve gotten. This will make it MUCH easier for you to sell the book to a reputable publisher.
5.) Once you’ve sold the book, you have to write it (or hire someone to write it)…but you have to maintain your publicity machine at the same time. It may be 2-7 years before your book actually comes out, and you want the buzz to do a build up to the release date, not start and stop and stumble and drop. It takes a lot less for the momentum to build than it does to restart it.