Category: Branding

If your brand were a person, how would he or she talk? 

If your brand were a theme park, what would it look like? What would the rides be called?

If your brand were a muffin, what kind would it be? Triple chocolate? Pumpkin spice? Sugar-free bran?

While these questions may seem like Zen riddles, they are actually a way to begin thinking about your brand in a deeper way in order to create more engaging brand experiences.

Let’s back up. What is brand experience, anyway?

A 2009 article in the Journal of Marketing defines brand experience like this: 

“Brand experience is conceptualized as sensations, feelings, cognitions and behavioral responses evoked by brand-related stimuli that are part of a brand‘s design and identity, packaging, communications and environments.”

Translation: Every time someone encounters or interacts with anything associated with your brand, it’s an opportunity to create a brand experience. Take advantage of every opportunity.

Here are three brilliant ways to bring your brand to life, illustrated with three genius examples.

1. Ambient / Guerrilla Ad

What it is: Ambient or guerrilla ads are notoriously hard to define, but you know them when you see them. 

Genius example: Bloody elevator doors promoting Resident Evil: Extinction.

Comments: While some might argue this ad installation crosses a line of good taste, you can’t deny that it is intriguing, gritty, gory and alarming. Just like the movie it is promoting.

Not only do effective ambient ads make an emotional impression on the people who encounter them, they also tend to attract media attention—which is a free, if unpredictable, way to magnify the impact of your marketing dollars.

2. Event

What it is: A happening that allows people to participate in or experience some aspect of your brand. This can be a one-time event, a series or an ongoing brand activation (like Nike’s House of Mamba). 

Genius example: Moose Madness Family Festival in Cook County, MN

Comments: Cook County, Minnesota, is known for a lot of things, including its portion of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, moose population, family-friendliness, and artsy, quirky character.

(Full disclosure: Visit Cook County is a Giant Voices client.)

The annual Moose Madness Family Festival celebrates and embodies these characteristics with a weekend of moose-themed crafts, races, story readings, a treasure hunt and photo ops with a wandering moose mascot.

Moose Madness has garnered coverage in major media outlets, including the Chicago Tribune. 

3. Microcopy

What it is: This is the instructional and functional text on your website. Think button labels, error messages, signup forms and checkout pages.

A Smashing Magazine feature on microcopy describes it as “the little text that can make or break your user experience.”

Give your microcopy some personality consistent with your brand. Good microcopy not only clearly explains what the user needs to do in order to attain a desired result, it also rewards the user with moments of delight.

Genius example: Pottermore, J.K.Rowling’s online Harry Potter experience

Comments: When you complete the initial registration process at Pottermore.com, you don’t get the usual dry-as-toast “registration successful” message you get at a lot of sites.

Instead, you see the message every young Potter fan dreams of receiving—“Congratulations! You are magical”—and your name displayed on a “List of magical folk” along with Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and other characters from the books.

Why does this matter?

Your brand is more than just a label. It’s a look, a voice, an attitude, and an experience—all crafted to powerfully appeal to your target audience.

With strategy, creativity and deep knowledge of your audience, you can make every marketing opportunity and encounter a brand experience they’ll appreciate. 

When you think of Giant brands, we bet brands like Apple, McDonald’s, Coke or Ford come to mind. While those companies indeed have created Giant brands, we don’t think you need to have a Giant company in order to have Giant brand.

How does an organization create a Giant brand? By following our five top tips.

Five Tips For Creating a Giant Brand

1. Define what differentiates you.

This is easier said than done. Your brand should represent you and you alone. Dig deep and create a position in the marketplace that sets your organization apart from your competition.

Take Giant Voices, for example. We are an AMBITION-based marketing firm. We choose to work with clients who have something significant to achieve, and know they need expert help to succeed.

When companies want a new brochure, they call our competition. When they want to close a substantial revenue gap, they call us. There are eight common differentiation strategies to consider, stay tuned for an upcoming blog on differentiation.

2. Know what your target audience cares about.

This should not be news, but not everyone in the world should be considered part of your target market. To create a Giant brand, you will need to clearly define a target audience, and most importantly understand what specifically they care about regarding your product or service offering.

How will what you are selling affect their concerns? Define that and you are on your way to creating a Giant group of brand advocates.

To learn more about defining your target audience, check out our blog post The Ten Commandments of Naming Your New Business, Brand or Blog.

3. Brand from the inside out.

Too often leaders think about their brand externally before thinking about it internally. One of the most important things you can do to create a Giant brand is promote everyone inside your organization to brand manager.

Your internal team, meaning everyone from the cleaning crew to the C-level, should understand your brand characteristics and promises BEFORE you begin marketing your brand to the external marketplace.

4. Give your brand a personality.

When working with Giant clients to strengthen their brand, we first begin by determining a unique voice for their organization. Typically this consists of generating approximately five brand characteristics that describe the personality of the company.

If your brand were a person, what kind of a self would this person be? Would they be clever? Sophisticated? Youthful? Energetic? Conservative?

If you took your brand out for coffee, what kind of conversations would you have? Would you enjoy the experience or would rather have coffee with your competitor?

5. Plan accordingly.

You want a Giant brand? Then invest in the planning, creation and management of it today and well into the future. A comprehensive marketing plan should tie all of your marketing strategies and advertising tactics around your brand with a beautiful bow.

After all, is a tweet really any different than a sales presentation? The answer is no. Every story relating to your brand whether spoken, printed or hashtagged should reflect your brand image and unique position in the marketplace.

Want to learn how to create and manage an effective brand? Get in touch with our team. We’re here to help.