August, 2008No branding, no problem
Lately, we’ve had a few potential clients ask us for copywriting help. They’ll send us a shitload of “brand documents” and ask us to give their words some personality, or voice. Mostly, these are smaller clients who have very little budget, and just want their copy to sound good. And that’s fine. But here’s the thing: if you’re really having a hard time getting your words to express who you are, what you do, and why it matters, you can be pretty sure it’s not the words that need help. It’s the brand.
Of course, it costs a lot of money and time and work to create a brand strategy you can actually use. There’s flailing around in the muck of what-does-it-all-mean. There’s banging-of-head against the walls of fear. There’s a lot of lostness in the woods of self-observation. And once you’ve got something that seems right, there’s still the whole problem of execution.
The good news is that it’s okay if maybe you’re not ready for that yet, if maybe you just want to get your stuff out there and start doing whatever it is you do. There’s a lot of learning in the doing. And many organizations (especially in the earlier stages) change more rapidly than they can be defined. It might be a bad idea to get locked in to one strategy too early in the game.
There is one caveat, however. If you don’t have your brand stuff resolved, then it’s not a good idea to use the language of branding to present what you do. This means no talk of mission statements, no communication about what you “stand for” or what you “believe in.” Instead talk about the work you do in specific concrete terms. Tell them that you make housecleaning robots, not that you deliver “lifestyle evolution solutions.”
At some point, you’ll have to deal with your brand because it will take on a life of its own. But when that happens, you’ll be ready for it.
