Brett Macfarlane talks about brands behaving badly. Excess content. The lack of meaning.

What is the Coke side of life?

Isn’t brand more than colour and logo? Do brands really care?

Where are the guys saying: Let’s not suck. Let’s be good.

Your brand does not equal your identity (name, logo, colour scheme). What a brand really stands for is a bundle of meaning. And it’s a bundle that is completely out of your hands. It’s in the hands of the people.

Brett says the king of brands is Nike.

Building Brand

1. Who’s really interested in what you’re trying to do? Who is the actual audience?
Ok, so now you have a demographic.

2. Now what do you stand for? What’s the tangible value and meaning here?
You might not have anything meaningful behind you. “If you stand for something, you’ll have some people for you and some people against you. If you stand for nothing, you have neither people for you or against you.” Indeed.

3. What makes you you? What’s your point of difference?

4. A lot comes through in your tone of voice?
Should we be optimistic? How optimistic? Hmm, what does that mean. The fluff, the fabrication are done. Tell your story well. Then we’ll gravitate towards you.

(Monocle magazine: Check it out.)

5. Storytelling.
There’s a shortage of good stories told well. People want to believe in something, support something.

ACTION

Blogs that Brett likes as brands.

Russell Davies
Miss604
TechCrunch
Adbusters (They are influential to ad agencies, agencies have these kicking around. The art direction is great. They do not waiver.)
Innocent (Juice company with a bigger purpose: healthy shouldn’t be hard. Great, open tone of voice.)
Nike Running blog

These examples all follow this:
Know your audience. Stand for something. Authenticity. Speak like a human being. Try not to suck.

Hey Brett, what’s your brand?
“Ah that sucks …
“Being informed and independent. Think what you really think. Personally that frankness is in deficit. I like risks. I like be open, honest and frank.”