Posts Tagged vision
Change or be changed.
Posted by Peter in Uncategorized, branding, creative process, leadership, storytelling on March 7, 2012
Since my last post I’ve separated from my wife, moved to a new part of town, am having a ten-minute play produced by Fells Point Corner Theater, and I’m writing and directing a new original one-act play called BREADWinners.
I’ve completed three full branding engagements: a leading edge program within the school of Social Work at the University of Maryland, a nationally recognized (60Minutes) public school debate league, and a beloved Baltimore cultural center. I also completed a focus group with the board of a regarded classical orchestra.
I’ve been writing a theater column for What Weekly, an online magazine documenting Baltimore’s culture and art renaissance.
What Weekly interview with Kwame Kei-Armah
The concept for the column is conversations with talented, smart, passionate people who tell stories mostly in a theater or in a theater style. Actually, the conversations are more like interviews. And the interviews are more about branding, leadership and vision, than they are about theater. Which leads to some interesting theater insights.
The branding engagements overlapped. My mind was continuously occupied with the branding process, which leans heavily on synthesis as its driver. I invited a talented theater performer and director Barbara Geary to work with me as an associate. She attended the orchestra focus group and helped me document, highlight and synthesize what was said. This was new and it worked.
In one of the engagements I re-learned the wisdom of silence and the value of patience. A client asked a difficult question I had no answer to. I asked for a moment to think about it. We were silent for almost 2 full minutes. 30-seconds into the silence I was beginning to panic. I was desperate for something smart to say. I kept breathing and hoping something would bubble up. I tried to remember the exact question. I couldn’t. Then I concentrated on the client as a person, and as a leader. Finally, I changed the subject. I gave her a compliment about the way she navigated politics and bureaucracy. She was grateful, and restated what I had said in a much different context. Bang! In a shot the conversation was now alive with new insight and energy, and we got around to a place where she could finally see that her power comes from her gift for strategy, not her heartfelt earnestness.
Meanwhile, the separation has been difficult. You divvy up memories, stuff, money and friends. And to make the most of it, I enlist the Universe for help. I make reasonable requests every now and then, and sometimes when strange and contrasting things work well together or something logistically or sequentially too-convenient happens. I think the Universe really is listening.
Case Study: Branding Water
Step #1 — Uncover your Brand DNA
Do research…Find people who have a relationship with water and ask them to choose words, phrases and concepts that best describe water. They might say that water is:
Liquid
Useful
Gives life
Cleans
Erodes
Floods
Powerful force
Gentle healer
Contradictions abound as they do in people and organizations. Many I hear include: Are we about classic plays or cutting edge theater? Are we about funding, programming, or education? Is it our founder or our mission that is compelling? Do we have to choose one over the other in order to clarify our brand?
While water is many things, at its core, it is two hydrogen molecules and one oxygen molecule. This fact will never change. Water is H2O
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Step #2 — Elevate your purpose
Everything in nature has a purpose. What is water’s purpose? To help grow crops? Clean wounds? Quench thirst? Carve canyons? Wipe out coastal villages? Sink the Titanic?
Some of these are applications of water in its various forms, and some are byproducts of a higher purpose. Water’s purpose is to return to the sea.
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Step #3 — Boldly declare your difference
What makes water unique? What can water claim other non mineral essential elements cannot?
Water, when faced with an obstacle, changes direction. When faced with circumstances beyond its control, like heat or cold, changes form to mist, steam, or ice. Water yields to problems. Water is both yeilding and unstoppable. Water always finds its way to the sea. When it arrives it starts the journey over again. Water is unstoppable!
Step #4 — Create a compelling brand driver
The fact of water is H2O. Water’s purpose is to return to the sea. Water’s difference is being unstoppable.
In water’s case, what does it mean to be unstoppable? What is water’s strategy? What drives its unstoppable march to the sea?
Water changes what it encounters. If it cannot, it changes itself. Water has the power to change the shape of the Earth. It can be a destructive force or a gentle healer. Water is a source of energy and a mode of transportation. Water can be inspirational, physical, mysterious, multi-dimensional, and metaphorical. Water is always changing.
More on the Brand Driver…
Brand Driver establishes difference:
By clearly defining your relevant differentiation in the marketplace, the Brand Driver gives your brand a unique and ownable focus.
Brand Driver focuses strategy:
It directs all strategic and creative expressions of your brand
Brand Driver hones vision:
It establishes clear goals for the future and sets guidelines for getting there.
Brand Driver propels transformation:
It shows how the organization must change in order to deliver on the brand promise.
What about logos and tag lines? You’re not there yet. Logos, tag lines, symbols, message points, and communications strategies all spring from the brand well. Do steps #1 -#4 (dig the well) and then you can begin to establish the parameters of your brand. And then you can execute strategies and tactics. Your brand platform will be the well from which you draw your communications strategies and marketing campaigns over time.
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