Lessons from fashion on a construction site.

Your brand. It’s what people feel when nobody’s there to explain it to them.

The first rule is to know and respect your own authentic story. If you do, your audience will too. When we create a new identity from scratch, refresh an outdated vibe, or empower an underperforming brand, first we lean into discovering the story, then we elaborate on it. When you define your boundaries you know where the brand can stretch and where it can’t without endangering current sales. 

Years ago, Carhartt wanted to increase sales by expanding their brand to fashion-forward hipsters. They thought that because John Deere had crossed over in some areas, they could too. But this would kill their authenticity with their traditional blue collar audience. That audience believes in function, not fashion. Fashion for them was the dirt and concrete and mud and sometimes blood that makes their Carhartt’s their own. So, where could the brand stretch? Instead of trading in their blue collar values they could appeal to people embracing these values in their freetime, the accountants working in their yards and changing their oil on the weekends. They didn’t do this by showing accountant-like guys changing oil, they just showed blue collar guys changing their oil. The accountants didn’t have to see themselves, they needed to see what they aspired to be.  

How do you get your story straight? Listen constantly, and as the story comes together employ Brand Guidelines and Message Maps with authentic language that lays out the story to each audience. These living, breathing documents evolve over time as the market and the brand itself evolves.

A great Brand Guide is as unique as a fingerprint and completely authentic. Laying out a tone of voice, look and feel, these offer a roadmap for creating communications to any  stakeholder. Consumers, partners, the channel, the media, government. Each channel needs to be spoken to from the brand’s POV, but with their own needs in mind. 

Some standard pieces included in brand guides are:

Your Mission and Vision statements

Logo, Wordmark,iconography, Favicon, and guidelines for use

A Manifesto that digs into your brand’s headspace

Pillars outlining what the brand stands for

Guidelines for how to communicate with customers both visually and through copy