Brand Audience: Bored or floored?
June 20th, 2010 § 2 Comments
The other day I posted about how important stakeholders are in the place branding process. Now chances are, if you found my blog, you already know the huge role that audience plays in any branding or communication effort. But here’s the thing, in branding the audience is so essential that they are the brand. If your audience doesn’t buy your brand, then they wont live it. And if they won’t live it, other people won’t catch wind of it. And if it isn’t being lived or spread, it’s dead.
This is troubling to some people– especially people who have dedicated their time (or even lives) to brands that have failed– because your audience is not always apparent. You may not know who they are, what they look like or what they want, and that makes failing very easy. If your audience doesn’t like your brand, it could mean back to the drawing board. Sometimes the brand needs some tweaking and can be re-released. Sometimes the brand is dead and a new approach needs to be taken. In either of the cases, your audience should be the one behind the wheel, telling you what route to go and why. Here’s an interesting post on the differences in branding, albeit not place branding, between Microsoft and Apple. Why does one brand struggle while the other flourishes? I’d say its the understanding of the audience.
This idea of audience plays an important role in our own lives, as well. Personal brands are something that have been coming up more and more in recent conversations, especially with the job market the way that it is. Your personal brand is becoming a way for you to open doors, or close them, and should be given the same type of consideration as a place brand or product brand would be. It is important to take your stakeholders into perspective when building a personal brand, because you never know what is coming next. You may think that it won’t matter that you posted pictures of binge drinking (buzz word) on Facebook until you don’t get a job because of it. Or that you ranted and raved in the comment section of a blog until you find out that blog is written by a client. You get the idea. Brands are meant to be enjoyed, lived and spread. Stakeholders are the medium through which that happens. Do right by your place (product, etc.) AND your audience in most any branding situation, and success will follow shortly behind.
[...] Brand Audience: Bored or floored? June 2010 5 [...]
[...] to life via engaging visuals and copy will take you a long way (refer to several of my old posts Brand Audience: Bored or Floored, for example). However, catchy will get you nowhere if your material is not read. As marketers, it [...]