Here is Jeremiah Gardners posting on his blog regarding Brand Resolutions for 2014. He takes a path much different from many, but shares values that we should consider in the evaluation of our brand planning for 2014.
BRANDS, RESOLVE TO SHIFT YOUR FOCUS IN 2014
GET OUTSIDE YOUR BUILDING, CREATE DYNAMIC ARTIFACTS, BE DELIGHTFUL, AND FREE YOUR STORY.
Jeremiah Gardner
So, in this year of the horse, here are some starting points for your brand’s New Year’s resolution:
1. Resolve To Get Outside of Your Building.
Planning, strategy, devising, outlining, meeting, scheming, and calculating are probably the majority of your activities as a steward of your brand. But they uniquely keep you trapped inside of your building and worse, take you away from physical proximity to the people that matter the most — your customers.
That’s why I say, get outside of your building, get outside of your meetings, planning sessions, and board rooms and get in contact with customers. Yes, that actually means interacting in a relational way with your audience. This isn’t a promotional tool. It isn’t a PR stunt. It isn’t a trade show. In fact, it isn’t about you at all! It’s about them. Be quiet, listen, relate, learn, and observe. For 2014, brands that focus on getting outside of their buildings and in contact with their customers will thrive.
2. Resolve To Be More Human.
At the heart of your brand is a living, breathing relationship that will evolve as you grow and pivot and evolve. Your brand has to have the flexibility to grow with you. Otherwise it becomes obsolete. The answer isn’t to simply begin a new process, wholesale, once again. Instead, the answer is in how you approach your brand from the start.
Become more human. Relate in a human way. Shirk the process and embrace the humanity within your brand. For 2014, brands that focus on becoming more human will thrive.
3. Resolve To Create More Dynamic Artifacts.
Artifacts are anything that “live” in the real world and point back to the relationship you share with your audience. Most artifacts are static, meaning, they are one-dimensional, immobile, and passive expressions of your brand. Logos, color schemes, billboards, and TV commercials are static. Stop putting so much trust in your static artifacts! The challenge is to create dynamic artifacts.
Dynamic artifacts are interactive, activating, and magnetic expressions of your brand that invite your customers to join in rather than observe. And the best dynamic artifacts take into account all five of our senses. Don’t worry about the longevity of these artifacts, worry about the remark-ability of them. What does a dynamic expression of your brand that engages all five human senses look like? I don’t know, but I’m willing to bet it’d be pretty amazing. For 2014, brands that focus on creating remarkable dynamic artifacts will thrive.
4. Resolve To Be Delightful, Not Disruptive.
Being disruptive isn’t a strategy. In fact, it’s an anti-strategy. Shock and awe brands fail to sustain their connection with real people because people don’t connect with disruption, they connect with delight. Think about it. Do you want to be disrupted by a brand? Or would you rather be delighted? Which one of the “d” words draws you in?
Delight is about finding spaces beyond your brand promise to create joy and surprise. The point is to define the moment of delight and align your brand to release it to your audience. For 2014, brands that focus on fostering delight, not disruption, will thrive.
5. Resolve To Free Your Story.
Stories are powerful. They have the power to engage, delight, and relate to your audience in a way that creates traction in the marketplace. Yet, we often segment out our story to a narrow aspect of our overall brand experience. This is a big mistake. Your story is the single most powerful and distinguishing asset you own. Stop burying your story in mission statements, brand promises, messaging matrixes, and vision statements.
Get intimately in touch with your story. Start with the WHY, and align everything back to it. Set your story free from the confines of structure and process, and allow it room to breathe, to grow, and to become meaningful once again. For 2014, brands that focus on freeing their story will thrive.
The Spirit of the Horse
2014 is the Year of the Horse in the Chinese Zodiac. The spirit of the horse is recognized to be our ethos — making unremitting efforts to improve oneself. It is energetic, bright, warm-hearted, intelligent and able. If you shift your focus to becoming more human, getting outside your building, creating dynamic artifacts, being delightful, and freeing your story; 2014 is sure to be an energetic, bright, warm-hearted, intelligent, and able year.
– See more at: http://jeremiahgardner.com/read/brands-resolve-to-shift-your-focus-in-2014/#sthash.Ckd57en8.dpuf
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