Archive for October, 2006
Corporate Branding- If Pinwheel Were at a Party
Friday, October 27th, 2006 | Rants & Raves | No Comments
For the past two weeks visions of pinwheels have been whirling through my head as I try to uncover that combination of lines that encapsulates all that Pinwheel is. When I attempt to explain this dilemma to some, they look at me as if I’d just asked, “What color is that red wagon?”
“Shouldn’t your logo just be a pinwheel?” they ask. The answer is yes and no. Yes, it should be a pinwheel. No, it shouldn’t just be a pinwheel. When people see our logo, they can’t just see a pinwheel. They need to see Pinwheel.
One reason the logo process has dragged on so long is its importance in defining the Pinwheel brand. Recognizing this importance and its impact on our future marketing tactics, I asked our marketing advisor if she had any thoughts. Her immediate reaction- “Don’t do anything creative until we talk. There are things you need to do first.” The major thing we needed to do, it turned out, was define our brand values.
By defining our brand values we can be stewards of our brand and maintain coherence. It will ensure that we are always communicating clearly what Pinwheel is as opposed to letting our different personalities convolute the message. To establish these values, our advisor recommended an exercise- imagine Pinwheel as a person, and if this Pinwheel person were at a party, who would he be? The goal of the activity is to come up with four adjectives to describe Pinwheel. The words should be personality driven and distinct. Defining a brand as elegant, stylish, timeless and classy is not very helpful. Elegant, adventurous, light-hearted and authentic, however, give a very good sense of a brand.
While the activity is meant to be fun, it isn’t easy. Capturing the essence of anything in four words is a difficult task, much less something that has come to consume the vast majority of your waking hours of thought. Making it even more difficult, they can’t just be your words. Everyone involved in the project must agree on the words. And when you think you have it and go to sleep with a contented smile, you wake up the next morning only to realize that two or three of the words just don’t sit quite right anymore. Like most things in life other than oatmeal, it’s not easy and it’s not instant, which is why Pinwheel is still at the party.
