The Most Important Idea

Found on pinterestShelly and I have branding coming out our ears these days. We've got The Brand of You talk at CCE in a couple weeks, we've taken on a few new clients that are at the beginning stages of figuring out their brand, and we're putting together an e-course that we hope to launch in September on... you guessed it, branding. And because I'm constantly looking at how we can communicate with our target market better I started to read Made To Stick by Chip and Dan Heath, a must read if you haven't done so already.

So what I've found myself focusing on for Lightbox SF and then passing on to our clients is the idea of a guiding concept. By that I mean what is the most important thing you do? If you could get only one message across to your customers what would it be?

Sounds easy enough right? But think about it, one core concept that can be communicated in a simple sentence. You want people to be able to share it easily and get the same point across every time, a branding statement or tagline.

So I've been asking myself, what is the most important thing we do for our clients and I challenge you to do the same. Is it the experience you give them, your unique skill, they way you use your chosen material, or your off-beat perspective?

This is where examples are handy. I'll use Lightbox first. I find myself thinking in the direction of "We show you your unique strengths" or "You already know all you need to, we just show you how to use it". They still need a lot of fine-tuning, but you get the idea. Yes, we teach marketing and branding. Yes, we teach social media skills. Yes, we teach time-management and organization. But what we really do is more than any of those one things or all of them combined. We work with who you are to help you stand out. Maybe that's the tagline we'll end up using.

Another example is a new client who is a photographer that specializes in portraits of queer and alternative individuals and families as well as small events. However, what we discussed as her core idea was her ability to capture unconventional beauty and how well she works with people who are shy and uncomfortable in front of the camera.

Think about it terms of what you do best or the one thing you want everyone to know you for. How does that translate into a guiding concept for your business?