That feeling when the alarm goes off at 6:00 a.m.! Luckily I'm an early bird so it was out of bed, a quick smoothie, shower and off to HumberLaunch's [breakfast] Summer Workshop Series (Herb Communications joined the business incubator a month or so ago).
Today's session was presented by Jacqueline Spicer, Founder of !nk Tank in Toronto. She talked about Branding Your Business.
Jacqueline shared some excellent insights and tips from her many years of experience helping brands of all shapes and sizes, from a variety of industries.
One comment she said that resonated with me [paraphrasing]: "You have a logo, website and are on social media, so you think you have a brand. No. You just have the tools, not the brand."
Yes! Been saying that for ages. It's just a tool, don't be nervous of it. A telephone, fax machine, e-mail that people use all the time = just tools. People are the brands.
"Know that brands are people too," she says. So we both agree on that.
There's a lot of, shall we say, "borrowing of ideas" from the Internet. Jacqueline mentioned that brands sometimes get stuck in their ways. As they say to her: "It's always been done that way and we don't want to break that mold because it's dangerous."
One point I disagreed on is that social media is not for everybody [please see Jacqueline's comments below for clarification on this point]. As I mention here, I believe it can be adapted to help most brands. There's the simple basics of monitoring your industry and competitors, to a full-on campaign of outreach and discussion with your customers.
She mentioned a quote from Simon Sinek, who I'm embarrassed to say is a new name to me: "People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it." Now I plan to read more about Simon.
Lastly, we had to sum up our story in six words. Tricky ... but I think, "Twenty years of knowledge helping others" is close to what I'm striving for.
It's great to be part of a business incubator, get out for a while and listen/learn/chat with others in the same boat.
John.
[Updated with reference to Jacqueline's feedback below.]