Santa’s Brand versus Your Brand
According to the number of times Lori has scolded me, I’d say I’m about 2-3 weeks late on my blog post. Which is why I was so delighted to discover this awesome Brand Map for Santa that a friend of mine shared with me yesterday evening. She and I were having dinner, let’s just call her Freedom for anonymity sake, and she told me about this hilarious brand guidelines book that an agency in the UK had created for Santa. They were able to share an interesting video of this process as well!
Anyone in the marketing or agency world has spent time either reading or creating one of these. And you also know that the process on either side is highly beneficial (although often painful).
Surprisingly when you dissect ‘what words fit our brand’, ‘what colors represent our culture’ and ‘what images represent our core values’ you discover the entire platform to your larger message.
Looking at Santa’s brand guidelines, the 1st response is to chuckle (in a jolly sort of way). The 2nd response is to examine the process. While reviewing the schematic showing ‘people occupying Santa’s space’ on a grid where fattiness and ‘beardiness’ are measured, we see Miley Cyrus at the lower far left and Santa is at the top right. The very act of reviewing who competes in your space and how they rank on values of your brand is huge – and often overlooked by smaller, growing businesses. That’s a mistake.
So as we look ahead, this is indeed the perfect time to create your company and personal brand guidelines. It doesn’t have to be polished and pretty – just sketch it out so you know where you stand, what’s important, and ultimately you get a sense of where you need to be focused.
Have a wonderful Christmas season everyone!
