Branding lessons from a 5-year-old

As a mother to two little girls, ages 5 and 13 months, I am simply amazed every single day by what they know, what they learn, and how their personalities progress. It’s like getting a surprise everyday…whether it’s something good or bad.

Just over the past few weeks, my pre-schooler suddenly started having real conversations with me…not the usual one-word answers when I ask a question, or her ignoring me when I’m asking her to do something she should have already done. So this past weekend I was in total awe of her while we were on our way to my surprise Mother’s Day picnic.

We’re riding along in the car, the girls are in the back, and the baby drops one of her toys on the floor. We’ve had this toy since my 5-year-old was a baby so it’s nothing new. It has a cloth strap with Velcro that you can strap onto a stroller, shopping cart, or whatever. The strap is white with black, outlined circles scattered around. My preschooler said, “Mommy, did we buy that toy at Target?”  As I turned around to look at it, I said, “I don’t remember sweetie.” She immediately says, in an authoritative voice, “Mommy, I KNOW we must have got it at Target because it has circles just like Target.” I looked at my husband and told him I felt a blog post coming on!

Remember when my daughter mentioned the circles on the toy and immediately associated it with Target? The circles on the toy were not red, they were black. There are also other colored circles that resemble a target. She knows her colors, but she does not know how to spell other than her name and a couple of other short, easy words. She knows Target because we shop there a few times per month. But the fact that a 5 year old can associate thick circles with Target stores says a LOT about branding. It’s way more significant than her recognizing a McDonald’s from a mile away…which she can because of the big, yellow arches towering over everything else in sight and the fact that she would probably eat there every day if we let her.

Another example that didn’t hit me until this weekend with the whole Target branding was a few months back, when she was still 4, told me daily that she wanted Yelly Kelly shoes. I had no idea what she was talking about and started doing research online for these shoes that she saw on TV. I couldn’t find anything and then remembered that sometimes she has a problem correctly pronouncing certain letters. After a few days I thought, oh they must be Jelly Kelly’s because she sometimes pronounces the letter “J” like a “Y”.

So I did some more research and came up with nothing. The only thing she could tell me about them was that they had Strawberry Shortcake on them (one of her favorite characters) and sparkled like jewels (she is her mother’s daughter!) Finally one day I happen to be in the room with her when the commercial came on…for Lelli Kelly. The commercial featured a few young girls sporting the adorable Lelli Kelly shoes with a cute little ditty that my daughter had been humming for weeks. They have a ton of styles from hi-tops to boots to sandals to pumps.

First, the shoes she mentioned that had Strawberry Shortcake…didn’t have anything to do with the character at all. They simply had cute little strawberries all over the canvas shoes…another example of associating an item, the strawberries, with a character, Strawberry Shortcake. Needless to say my research on the shoes proved to be a disappointment for my daughter because I’m not willing to pay $70 for 1 pair of shoes for a 4 year old that she’ll only wear a few months at best no matter how darn cute they are. But one day we were at JC Penney’s to shop for a spring wardrobe and she spotted a pair of Lelli Kelly shoes…or so she thought. They actually weren’t Lelli Kelly’s at all, but Sketchers that looked very similar. But as far as she was concerned, they were Lelli Kelly shoes and wanted them badly.

In business, we are not only defined by our products or services and how we conduct our business, but sometimes business owners forget that our branding is just as important. It is all about the image whether you choose to believe it or not – even an iconic symbol that can be recognized worldwide like the red circles of Target’s logo. It doesn’t even matter if you use the product or service of a particular company because their image stays with you. If you see a swoosh symbol, chances are you immediately think Nike. If you see an apple, then you think…Apple of course.

Have you ever noticed that you recognize those companies by their icons alone? Nike and Apple don’t use their name in their logos at all, probably a couple of the only companies to do this, yet they are both recognized throughout the world. And if you visit Target.com, you’ll notice they only use their icon, not their name on the website.

So does your business need an iconic image as part of your logo? Not necessarily. There are plenty of well-renowned companies out there with textural logos: Google, FedEx and Yahoo to name a few.

Are you making the same mistake as many business owners do by trying to over-complicate things? Can you apply the wisdom of a 5-year-old into your business? Look at your logo from a 5-year-old’s perspective. Is it visually striking? Is it memorable? Is it simple? Because if not you should go back to the drawing board? Or, of course, I’d be happy to help!

By the way, my 5-year-old graduated from pre-school today and I am one PROUD momma!

Try Before You Buy Promotional Products

Promotional products are a popular marketing tool for many businesses. I’m sure you have 1 or even 50 items lying around your desk, office, and home right now. From pens to mouse pads to notepads to drinkware to rulers to stress balls. So how many of these items do you deem to be of high quality? How many did you think were so flimsy and cheap that you threw them in the garbage?

Many business owners aren’t aware they can request samples of promotional products prior to purchasing them, but reputable promotional companies offer just that. And there’s a very good reason why you should be taking advantage of it.

If you plan to order personalized pens bearing your company’s message for a trade show, request samples of an assortment of pens in advance. You want to be able to see, touch and inspect them for quality. Determine which ones don’t write well, break easily or are just cheap looking.

Same goes for any promo product you have in mind. If you’re considering paying $4 for a leather bound notebook to give out to your event attendees don’t you want to make sure it isn’t a piece of crap before you order 4000 of them?

Clearly, not everyone requests samples because I’ve gotten a lot of junky stuff from various events in my day. And I’m not the only one. I’ve heard from many business owners who were quite unhappy with the promotional products they ordered, but there’s not much you can do when they didn’t request a sample before making that investment. If you think it’s a waste of time, consider how your giveaway fares when your audience receives a t-shirt where the printing faded almost completely off after one washing, or the magnet that doesn’t actually stick to anything. (true stories)

Marketing dollars for small businesses have to be wisely spent, and while promotional products are fun and can help establish your brand or support your current campaign, it can also give your company a negative impression if you didn’t do your research. And well…you don’t want to be known as the company that always gives away the crappiest stuff now do you?

Seriously if you’re going to spend hundreds or thousands or dollars on a giveaway item to promote your company, how would you feel if you knew that every single one of those items ended up in the trash because everyone thought it was crappy? What a waste of money that would be, not to mention the negativity you generated for your company.

Penguins & Preschoolers: A lesson for business owners

I know what you’re thinking. Connie’s lost it. What on Earth do penguins and preschoolers have to do with business? At first glance, maybe nothing. I mean preschoolers are like 4 years old and we’re…well…older and supposedly wiser.

I love to read a good blog and one of my favorites is the Mann Made Blog by Jaime Lee Mann. It amazes me how she can spin an everyday happening or event into a blog post that teaches you a life or business lesson. Seriously. She can be cooking, gardening, playing with her children or visiting a local coffee shop and she thinks of something about the situation that sparks a great blog post about business. Things we already know, but forget or choose to ignore.

Jaime’s latest entry revolves around her 4 year old preschooler bringing home a picture of a penguin she drew, or so Jaime thought. You’ll have to read the whole story over at Jaime’s blog, but the morale of the story involves copying off of someone else. Something that happens way too often in business.

I couldn’t tell you how many business owners, many have been potential clients, literally want me to copy someone else’s logo, website, marketing piece, or even web content. This is something I cannot wrap my head around because it simply isn’t something I would do. For many reasons. And the fact of the matter is, I have morals and blatant copying is just plain wrong.

Some people think imitation is the highest form of flattery, but it feels more like a slap in the face. It happened to me a couple of years ago when someone decided to not only copy my website content…word for word mind you that also included my personal bio…but this individual also decided to steal my design.

Think about how that felt. This was something that I poured my heart and soul into. I spent many hours, weeks, and months working hard to set myself apart from other business owners in my industry. Do you think I was flattered that my copy and design was so good that they wanted to copy it? Hardly. Not to mention that this person didn’t even have the decency to apologize when I contacted them to remove it immediately.

Jaime makes an excellent point and one that everyone should pay attention to. It is the same thing I preach to my own clients and they love me for it. I push them to think past their own comfort zone, to set themselves apart, to be the one that their potential clients want to work with. But Jaime said it right on target: “Market with your own personality. Be authentic. Be yourself. Make your own unique, individual mark on the world and be proud of it.”

So what are you doing to set yourself apart from your competitors?

There Can Be Only One

Remember that phrase from The Matrix? There can be only one.

umbrellaThere can be only one of you and your brand which is why you should always hire an actual graphic designer (ahem) when it comes to developing your brand.

You don’t have to look very far to see the work of a wannabe “designer.” Every time you see a piece of clipart in a website header or a brochure, that’s the work of someone who might aspire to be a designer one day, but has found a way to make a buck in the meantime by piecing together pretty fonts and clipart and calling it design.

That is not a true designer and you don’t want this person mucking around with your brand.

Someone like this might have fun playing with design elements and that’s fine if it’s kept as a personal hobby. I think it’s great. I encourage it. But, I don’t think it’s cool when someone like this decides to call him or herself a designer and starts offering to design logos and websites and taking money for it.

See, design is a lot more technical than most people think.

Besides the tremendous amount of forethought required, you need a firm grasp on color analogy and some sort of background that helps you understand why you’re incorporating certain elements into a design.

A real designer never uses clipart or a template. One problem with doing so is that these are free images that a million other people (with bad taste or a bad “designer”) could conceivably be using in their own “branding.” To brand yourself is to set your business apart from your competitors and the world by portraying an identifiable icon or design that directly identifies with you and your company. Clipart totally defeats the purpose.

A designer who specializes in branding knows how to use professional design software. They understand color and fonts and how to make different elements work together. They know what file formats you need for different applications.

When you trust your brand to a real graphic designer (ahem) – a professional artist rather than a wannabe – you will be blown away by your own corporate image because it will seem as though your designer has been inside your head.

That’s because they’re going to ask you questions and probe a lot about your business and your aspirations for the future. Branding is about the whole picture. The big picture. And it’s about making your image match your mission and your goals, all the while resonating with your target audience.

Don’t put your business into the hands of a serial clipart user. It’s not worth it.

It can cost more up front to hire a professional designer to develop your brand, but it will work out to be more cost-effective in the long run because you won’t end up hiring someone to redo it when the day comes and you realize your image sucks or you don’t have one at all.

Remember, there is only one. One chance to get it right. One chance to stand out. One chance to make your impression. Do it right or don’t do it at all.

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