BLOG

A lot of different elements go into making a business a success. When it comes to running a successful business or organization I see two things: product and brand.

A product doesn’t have to be a physical object. It might be a service like home health care. Or wetland preservation. It’s whatever your customer, client, or member gets when money exchanges hands.
That service also has a feeling: such as a sense of well-being, for example, for having contributed to protecting an endangered species.

And the importance of emotion is true for physical products as well. Your product should inspire something— a feeling of confidence, or excitement, belonging, safety, modernity, or potential.

Which brings me to the subject of brand. Brand is the feeling that they purchase when money exchanges hands. It’s attached to your company rather than to your product. Nike may sell shoes and shirts and hats; but the feeling you get is having joined a group of dedicated athletes… that you share the court with Michael Jordan. They could sell smoothies and still deliver that same feeling of teams-men-ship.

Emotions are created by design

In this internet-oriented, social media connected world, video has become the most powerful tool at your fingertips for building a successful company. But it’s virtually worthless if you don’t how to use video to give your product a feeling. Wetland preservation donors want to feel a certain way when they give money. Too many executive directors of nonprofits believe that the ACT of donating will elicit that feeling, but it’s not automatic. I’ve served on the boards of three nonprofits and I’ll tell you that that feeling has to created before they contribute, and reinforced afterwards. Wristwatch customers want to feel a certain way when they buy a Speedy— they want to feel sophisticated, hip, modern, affluent and that’s not automatic either. Those emotions, as well as the desire to be connected to you, are created by design.

The feeling you want people to have, that is your brand, that makes them want your product or service not now but yesterday… has to present in every detail of the work.

This may sound disappointingly obvious, but it’s where companies fall down. The feeling has to be bold and compelling but never stated.

Nike wants you to feel like your sitting on the bench during the NBA finals, waiting to go on. Fulfilling a potential you always dreamed you had inside of you… alongside people who are as passionate and dynamic as you. The connection between sneakers and athletes is obvious.

But Absolut Vodka spends millions funding music festivals. And that connection is more oblique but equally powerful. They don’t want to just be your party drink, they want to be the party in your mind: you will become fun, irreverent, loud, carefree, living to the max in the day-today.

McDonalds wants you to be a clown…

No. Wait. That’s a leftover from previous marketing effort they can’t shake. No, they want to be the movies. Fun, effortless, repeatable, entertaining. Whatever the opposite of nutritious is…. They’re not selling food so much as a temporary, frivolous fix.

Is it bold, clear, and obvious?

Nike pays millions to feature athletics. Absolut Vodka spends millions to sponsor music festivals. McDonalds spends millions to connect with Disney.

Everything that your customer, client, or member sees has to create the same feeling. Look at your colors. Your font. Your logo. The music and sounds. How you’re connected to your local community. The energy and tone. And ask if they all create the same emotion. Is it bold, clear, and obvious.

Is it passionate, because no successful company got to where they are without exuding passion.

Then look at your product, or service, or cause, and ask if that is the best emotion for what you do.