What does it mean to Brand, and in this case, reBrand an identity? As one ‘inside' the industry, this topic is one of rich fascination for me. There are many near magical quotes that are far more fluent than I could ascribe to be such as:
Mass advertising can help build brands, but authenticity is what makes them last. If people believe they share values with a company, they will stay loyal to the brand.”
― Howard Schultz, CEO Starbucks
and:
A brand is the essence of one’s own unique story. This is as true for personal branding as it is for business branding. The key, though, is reaching down and pulling out the authentic, unique “you”. Otherwise, your brand will just be a facade.
― Paul Biedermann – re:DESIGN
My favorite definitions describe Brand as the ‘experience' of a person or company. Think about the way that you experience a particular close friend of yours. Imagine that person in your mind (humor me, really visualize them for 2 seconds). Picture the way that they walk into a room, the clothes and colors they tend to wear. The tone, volume and pace of their voice and the common vernacular they use in discussion with you. The types of shared interests you have and how frequently you do these things together. The way they make you feel both when you are with them as well as the magnetic pull they have on you to want to connect again.
You experience the Brand of a company in similar ways.
On the flip side of that experience is the organization itself consciously defining and creating in unison what they desire that experience to be. This is the deep, challenging, rewarding and fun process that we here at Anchor Wave have carefully walked through over the past several months. (yes, it can take months 🙂
Countless meaningful conversations have occurred. Assumptions were evaluated. New language was created to understand and agree on service promises and guiding principles. We reached beyond what we saw in our day-to-day as well as our well-worn habits in order to cast vision together as to what we Will become as a united team. While much of that will serve as internal brand power(a critical component), several of the external assets and outcomes of that process are now being shared, and we invite you to explore, interact with, and share the reBrand of Anchor Wave as you experience it.
“Behind the Tagline” below is one such attribute of our identity – we invite your feed-forward comments!
evolve.
We believe that you can not achieve new levels of awesomeness if you repeat the same way you’ve always done things. You must at some point take a leap of faith, elevate your game, or make that calculated risk in order to become the improved version of yourself. The next model of business. We challenge our team and our clients to advance their technology, skills or vision to help them transform.
grow.
Once you’ve made the jump, the investment, the step forward towards your future – it’s time to expand into that new promise. Learn, hustle, produce great stuff. Lean into the lessons and the opportunities in this new playing field. We embrace celebrating the win of a goal reached as well as all the micro-achievements and learning moments along the way.
succeed.
There are as many versions of success as there are unique ways of achieving it. It’s our goal to partner with like-minded companies to realize all kinds of success. We hold that this ultimately results in lives changed to contain greater personal happiness and freedom – both for our team, and for yours.
What is the next step you will take to evolve, grow or succeed in your personal or business brand?
