Ever since I can remember, I have been developing brands based on words and stories. At high school, I worked on a project with a buddy, creating the brand identity of “Unicorn Bricks”. Back then I didn’t know much about what I was doing – but we covered the foundations.
We had a logo – an amazing unicorn horn centred in geometric design. It took us dozens of iterations to refine the logo – starting from a full unicorn’s body, down to the head and horn – and eventually we ended up only with a horn with a star base.
We drew so many of these by hand, the muscle memory still remains decades later.
But even as we were drawing horse after horse, unicorn horn star after unicorn star, we knew we needed more. We needed values. A strap line. We needed a story about how this wonderful brick business came about.
We needed a vision and a mission.
Brand physics – the hard realities of bringing brands to life
Decades later, I continue to work the same way. Seeking out the core values of a brand (whether it is an early stage startup or a large enterprise). Remarkably, the process is mostly the same. We dive into core values and beliefs – not only of the founders but of the staff and customers. We look for overlaps and shared values. We look at customer journeys and touchpoints and we look at future visions, plans for growth and the language that is going to take us there.
Often we call this the “value proposition” but almost always it is more. Even in this highly connected “digital world”, we (brands, partners, customers, suppliers etc) seek out something beyond the intangible. We seek the physical – the high tech meets high touch reality of our lives. And this is where Brand Physics comes into play.
Brand Physics is our latest handbook that we will soon make available to participants in our accelerator programs and to premium members of the Disruptor’s community. It’s a brief, insightful approach that takes your mission and vision to a whole new level.