Words are powerful.  They send messages, convey emotions and bring people to action.  In my post about Lululemon and their remarkable social media efforts I touched on the core words that clearly define who they are.

A quick visit to their website and you will find the words – goals, outgoing, upbeat, energetic and fun – permeate the site.  Here’s the really cool thing – had I only ever gone to their Facebook fan page, blog or Twitter feed I still would have received that message.

I want to revisit that thought.  Think of one of your favorite brands.  What words come to mind?  Do these words come from the root of who they are?  To more clearly demonstrate what I mean, I took three brands (Apple, Harley Davidson and Richard Branson’s Virgin) and matched them up to their core words – many of them taken directly off of their own websites.  Here’s what I found:

Apple – creative, fun, user friendly, cool, revolutionary

Harley Davidson – rebel, American, tough, distinct, power, bold

Richard Branson’s Virgin – rule breaker, innovative, quality, fun

Now step back and think about it.  These companies use the words that define them to clearly send out their message.  They stay true to their definitions and use them as a guide to help them see what paths to take.  The definitions of themselves are their core and everything else radiates from that point.  Those words are the foundation for everything that follows.  Defining yourself is a fabulous thing!  It helps you narrow down the choices when making decisions.  The choice is either part of who you are or it isn’t.

Now take a look at your own business.  What words define you?  Are you being true to that definition?  Do you keep that definition in the forefront of your mind when you make new business decisions?  I think you’ll find that if you have a clear definition and stay true to that definition, the decisions that follow will be much easier to make.  Now go grab pen and paper and start defining!

A few weeks ago I was out to dinner with a fabulous group of people.  I happened to sit down next to a dynamic fun woman, who with her husband, recently bought an established thriving business.  Over the evening, you could tell that she and her husband are passionate about what they do and having fun.  We were talking about their branding and marketing and where they wanted to bring the company. Part way through the discussion, she turned to me and said “The branding that’s in place is working – it’s bringing clients in.  The only thing is, it’s not us.”

With this statement, a million different questions popped in to my head; who is their best client, who do they want to serve etc… Basic marketing questions. With each question she didn’t have a clear answer but she could tell me what she wasn’t – what she didn’t like about the current branding. As dinner conversations go, we moved on to a different topic and didn’t get to delve in as deep as I would have liked.

If you read my previous post – Your Story is Your Brand – you would know that I work off the basis that every company has a story, a vision to help lead them. In a recent blog post Bernadette Doyle stated it beautifully.

Vision is a powerful thing.

It’s one of the most important tools you have to move you from where your business currently is, to where you want it to be. If you have a picture in your mind of what you want your business to look like, you’ll find that it’s much easier to bring this vision into being.

If you don’t know where you want to go, how will you know what to do? You don’t jump into your car and start driving, with no destination in mind. Before you start the engine, you have in your mind where you want to go so you know whether to turn left or right at the bottom of the driveway. The same principle applies to your business.

I believe, whenever someone goes into business, they have a vision whether they are conscious of it or not.  It’s actually very common for people to not know how to put their vision into words, but I can bet you they know exactly what they’re not.  I would love to sit down with the above couple and have them list everything they know they’re not.  Doing this doing this exercise will help them narrow down and focus on who they and their company are, giving them a more direct route to where they want to go.  Sometimes listing what your not brings a clearer more focused vision of what you are.

Back when I was first starting Jennie Sjursen Photography (it no longer exists but that’s a story for another day) every where I turned people talked about “getting a brand”.  I thought to myself “I need to get me one of those!”  Yep, you read right, I thought I needed to get one.  At the time, to me and many other people I’ve since come across, a brand is synonymous with getting a logo – literally getting branded like cattle.  You get yourself a well designed logo, put it everywhere you can possibly imagine and you have your self a brand!  I couldn’t have been more wrong.

A brand is the well crafted story of your business.  Let me explain.  When reading a really great book the writer takes you on a journey – giving you the details and pieces along the way to move the story forward.  All the details of the story are devised to support the main theme and give a more complete telling.  In a business the details of the story are the touch points.  Literally the things that touch a ‘reader’ – be it physically or emotionally – how you answer the phone, the colors you use, websites, office decor, packaging and yes logos. In the process of telling your story you give clues to your ‘reader’ on how to interact with you, what they can expect from you and what is expected of them.  However, if the book your reading has no central theme or there is a complete disconnect in the details (those times when your reading something and you have absolutely no idea why it pertains to the story) you never invest in it.  More often than not you’ll find the whole thing to confusing or hard to read, put the book down and never come back.

What is the story you or your business is trying to tell?  Does it engage your ‘reader’, bringing them in closer and giving them a better understanding of who you are and what’s expected of them?  Does it invite them to take the journey with you or does it confuse them and leave them shaking their head in bemusement?