49:44
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
brand, company, people, product, customers, market, evolved, important, overarching, clients, priscilla, employees, decisions, logo, test, big, therapy, pitfall, world, nike
SPEAKERS
Damon Pistulka, Priscilla Blanchot
Damon Pistulka 00:03
All right, everyone, welcome once again to the faces of business. I’m your host, Damon Pistulka. And with me today, I have Priscilla Glenn show. From carte blanche. We’re going to be talking about branding strategies that produce results. Thanks so much Priscilla for being here today.
Priscilla Blanchot 00:22
Thank you so much for having me, Damon.
Damon Pistulka 00:25
Awesome. Well, I’m excited to talk about this, because the world of branding to someone like me, is kind of like a black box of unknown. So I’m hoping we can take an expose some of this, so more people can use it. So let’s, let’s hear a little bit about your background. Priscilla, because you’ve, you’ve been doing this for a little bit. And you’ve been doing it for some pretty big company. So let’s talk about your branding history and how you got kind of doing what you’re doing today.
Priscilla Blanchot 00:59
Yes, so I’m originally from France, but I’m now located in the US in Utah, Salt Lake City of all places. And I studied, I studied undergrad in Paris, and then found myself in the US in Atlanta, did graduate commercial art school. And then I started working in, in New York, in, in an agency, a large agency. And we did have amazing clients, I worked a lot for Unilever, IBM, Victoria’s Secret, all these big, big names.
And then found myself in Utah and, and shifted a little bit I went from working for an agency setting to in house working for a brand that was representing and had a lot of what we call a house of brand, which is a big umbrella company, we lots of sub brands of vitamin and sub food supplement Utah being a very dry state, they have a lot of these companies here because it’s ideal for storing and working with all these nice ingredients and herbs.
Okay, so anyway, I went from agency setting to in house and then went back to an agency setting, working with financial industry of all places to financial companies and, and the world of finances, and then create my company, officially in January of 2020. But with these didn’t have experiences, I had a chance of seeing and knowing how an agency work versus also how an in house and the in house thinking of managing brands work as well. And how all these teams within a company function.
And that got me to the offering that I like to give my clients right now, which is, in reality, anybody can do really pretty designed, but does it really connect with your customer? Does it really connect with the company purpose and, and what the company is doing? Because what branding is, it’s, it’s a logo, it’s not your car, it’s not a style guide, your product, branding is more the overarching ecosystem of the whole company, it’s that meaning that people attach to your company, people in your company and people out your customers, right?
So you have to consider these two sides. And every touchpoint and every effort, your marketing is part of branding. There is a lot of confusion sometimes what’s the difference between branding and marketing, branding is sharing love is constructing is all these different efforts. This culture and this idea of the company, the marketing are the actionable steps that you’re going to use a new going to do to promote that, that meaning and that feeling and, and the values and the culture and so forth.
So that’s the big difference. And so the world of branding has evolved a lot. A lot of people are much more with the internet and all the information out there. They’re much more in tune with what’s happening. And now you also I mean, marketing has evolved as well. Like just even like the influencers back then, you know, they’re noble. He’s in reality, and then suddenly they’re able to build their own brand and become somebody that has some power. And some say that influences in an enough big group that people take them seriously.
So is that is all what Randy is. And so when you do need some branding, or when you want to invest in it, it’s really looking at all these little pieces, your customers, your employees,, your product service, the future of the company, the vision of the company, the evolution of the market, within your, your market, where you’re at, it’s really encompassing all this anticipating, and building on the vision.
And so what is very important is aligning the C suite or division, aligning the team that are working with you, when you have a new employee that comes in, in your office, you know, I, I had this where it was like, sat in front of an office, and I was on a desk with a computer and just told like, Okay, you’re gonna be doing this, this and that. And then that was it, like, there was no soul right?
To like, let us tell you what we are all about, right? And let us meet. And now there’s amazing ideas that I hear out there of companies doing, involve their customers, and involve their employees with customers or involved if there’s a very large company involve employees from one department to another that would never meet. So those are this is all thinking of building that feeling. And that meaning that the brand is. So that was a long answer. To your short, no.
Damon Pistulka 06:59
But I was writing a lot of notes during this. Because first of all, you most people talk about branding, and I think about it when I do it’s like How do things look? What kind of what kind of feelings do you want to evoke? Because the way things look but while you’re talking and just said that branding is not only how things look, but it’s how we act. It’s our history, it’s our legacy that we want to create, and a lot of other things that it’s all wrapped together to create the brand.
Priscilla Blanchot 07:41
Yes, right. You got it exactly. And you can see infinity we always compare with this gigantic companies because we in the news, but when they do they have a mitt up here of them and then we judge them right? So these big companies like Johnson and Johnson and the Starbucks and Amazon and so forth.
Anything they do they’re analyzed by media they are reacted, you know, their customers react and now with social media with also don’t you think that we are bombarded with anything you do now you are you’re asking to review, you know, how many star would you give us like this is being this is branding, this is being in contact, direct contact with your customers, and getting the feedback live in a sense of their experience and how they’ve liked it.
So, what’s important is to take every step in a meaningful way. It’s important, I don’t think it that’s where it complicates a lot, right? Because yeah, sometimes you don’t realize that maybe one action might have a snowball effect. So you want to be meaningful and think ahead before you maybe add a process to your onboarding or whatever that can be. Everything has a repercussion in your market.
Damon Pistulka 09:23
Yeah. Well, you brought up a really good example like something in your onboarding, you can say, hey, we’re going to be onboarding a whole bunch of people this year. Let’s automate the training process. So it’s videos and people sit and watch videos or read get a bunch of YouTube videos and they watch them. But that takes the personalization out of it. It takes the human element out of it, maybe that can change their perception of your company in their connection with your company, and therefore your brand, the image changes. So
Priscilla Blanchot 09:57
it’s exactly I I know somebody who has a hotel, for example, and they’re having a big problems with the front desk to hiring somebody and, and keeping and details. And, and so they’re the answer like, oh, let’s just put an electronic kiosk because now there’s services that do that. But just this action might completely change the feel your clients are having coming to this hotel, it is it upgrading or downgrading the, the hotel in the mind of your customer like so.
So this is one example of many for companies. And I know, you know, managers and CEOs are always all day long making decisions. And this is where brand strategy is crucial, because when there is a good alignment of your team, and there is a solid brand strategy, then these people can make more meaningful, educated decision because they know where the vision of the company is going.
Damon Pistulka 11:11
Yeah, that’s a great point. Because if you lay that out and have it well communicated, a people are going to understand it. Because I don’t think that a lot of companies take the time to talk about their brand as our brand is this and go through the steps of what it is with each employee to go, this is our brand. We do this, because of this, this is our history. This is why we do this, we want to create in the future. And I think that you brought up a great point, if you took the time to develop your brand to that extent, yes, you are going to have a much more cohesive company. Yes, not just a brand, but you have a more cohesive company and your brand.
Because your brand is, as we talked about, it’s all these pieces together, you’ve tied those pieces together in something that’s easy to understand. Exactly, it gives these people a framework from within they can operate because if your brand says we are always going to be honest with our customers, and whatever that’s people understand what that means. And they’re just things that’s really cool, how you can tie that all together.
Priscilla Blanchot 12:27
And you have also you brought in a good point, like for example, honesty, right, like transparency, like, there are trends that come and go, but there are ones that stay and transparency, openness, honesty, honesty, not only with your customer, but also with your employees. I think with so much of the digital world, anyone can educate themselves on anything. So your different ID employee can find a lot of information.
And so if there is an honest base, then maybe the understand the decisions that the company are making and why we’re making such and such decision. And then and then they’ll feel part of those decisions instead of like this granted, because I don’t know, my office got moved and I don’t have a window anymore.
Damon Pistulka 13:24
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that’s a great point that it gives. It gives owners executives, leaders the opportunity by putting the brand strategy together, right, it allows them to share a common message with everyone, internally and externally, like you said, because it’s the overarching ecosystem for inside and out. And in today’s world, with the employment as it is, and as hard as it is to find good employees, that branding is what can set you apart and keep people coming to you to work. Rather than not
Priscilla Blanchot 14:05
exactly, I bet you I don’t know that. You know, I bet you Nike just has enough people wanting to work for them that they’re never really looking
Damon Pistulka 14:15
make a great point. You make a great point. It is like that. So what were some of the things that you learned working with these large companies because I mean, when you talk about IB, IBM or Victoria’s Secrets, you know, ever a little bit differently, but what were some of the overarching things you learned, because I say Unilever a little different because that’s got a lot of different products under it, but what are like Victoria’s Secrets I mean, because I mean, they’re a clothing line, they’re a special kind of thing.
Or the IBM it’s kind of a series of products. What are some of the things you really learned from doing branding with those Large corporations that are going to spend the time to really think about that.
Priscilla Blanchot 15:06
So it’s interesting because the companies and Unilever is one of them, I spent over a year working their product. They, it was interesting because they have all these different brands, but that was actually working with the department, the innovation department, they were getting funded by other brands. And we were searching for the next bath and body products actually back then that’s what we were working on. And it was the start of customization.
And it’s so interesting, because 20 years later, now I see on social media, all these products, especially in the beauty industry and makeup and all that, where they’re asking these women to take these tests, and then you get like a customized product at your door. And it’s supposed to be you know, so customers to either it’s, it’s wonderful. We were doing this 20 years ago, we had, we had developed this concept with Unilever, and worked. And so that department, it was about testing and seeing how it worked. And when I think about it now, it’s interesting how it evolved, because we were we so we, we conceptualized a whole kiosk.
And we had a little test of people answering, you know, what the skin type was, what their hair type was, and so forth. And then it would spit out a little recipe. And then there was somebody with comps, filling up the bottles, shaking them up. And then we had these little labels. And it was very interesting, because originally we said we want to reach women, maybe moms from 30, up and so forth. And because it was very kind of playful, we ended up attracting teenagers. And also because all these teens were a lot more in the malls hanging out.
Yeah, then moms were so we had switched on, find and then and also completely change the look and feel because before we were very colorful than the next, the next situation, we were more like muted colors. And we spent a year a year and a half on that concept until Unilever decided that it was a concept to follow through and they shut it down. But they have these big companies they have funding that they can spend the money to explore this concept and see you know, and test the market and see how people react.
But it’s interesting now looking back how the concept is now very interesting and very much in the beauty industry. But it’s even worse now. It’s all online. Its marketing and influencers that will and even just the customers that will jump on Tik Tok or Instagram or Facebook and say oh my gosh, like, I’ve taken this test and this foundation is perfect to my skin. And I don’t even understand now, AI also the market that the artificial intelligence we’ve done in 20 years, like leaps of progress.
So that also revolutionizes your market. So I don’t know if Unilever specific products that out. But it’s interesting. That one thing too is when you so working in an agency with these large companies, you had a team that was doing the brand strategy and the brand thinking with the client, before the brief came onto the desk of the designers. So when we got briefed on the project, we knew who they were targeting, what was interesting to them, the market the competitors, we knew all this, but this is why it’s very important to do that background information.
This is what I bring in my agency is doing that background in research and deep analysis. It doesn’t it becomes like a puzzle where you know what you need to do because the answers are logical because now you know your market now you know your competitors. You also have talked about the future of the product or the business And the market and where it’s going in market.
So you can anticipate what you can. The best if you don’t have this background work, you know that expression of throwing spaghetti at the wall, you’re throwing a lot of money. There is going to be testing no matter what you need to test to see, at least gathered information, see if customers are ready for a new product or you know, a new, a new ingredients or new look. But you are minimizing the risk from at least analyzing in depth what you’re trying to build next.
Damon Pistulka 20:43
Yeah, that is interesting, because you’re testing out these brand concepts, constantly revising before they even start to go to the market overall. So because as
Priscilla Blanchot 20:58
well, yeah, oh, I was just gonna say and everything is always a test. I mean, yeah, you know, you can’t, you can’t think that you’re going to bring out a product, and then just stay like this for the rest of your life and bang, bang from it. Right. So you have to bring another product and be innovator and evolve your product. Because we are the market we people we are going it’s going so fast now so fast.
Damon Pistulka 21:28
Yes. Yes. So that, you know, in those examples, were a lot of b2c clients. Are you helping more b2c clients now? Or are you doing b2b and b2c clients?
Priscilla Blanchot 21:42
And more doing B to C? to B is the same foundation you know, instead of looking at customers, you’re looking at the other businesses you’re working with and also anticipating, am I really answering the problem that they have? And is my business? How’s my business going to evolve? Once I have them? For example? Right? Yeah. And to become so that they so that I my business becomes? Oh, how you say you can’t live without it? Yeah, right. Yeah.
Damon Pistulka 22:21
Yeah, we become that must have.
Priscilla Blanchot 22:24
Yeah, I think what happens too, is, and this happens to all of us, we are too much in our head. So when you when you have no, I guess, brand therapy, that you have somebody outside of you that knows little about your hair is history and hasn’t, you know, gone through it with you, so they can ask meaningful questions, to really see what have you learned? Where’s your head out? At? And where’s the head of the company at right? Like, where are you going in? Where you really mean to go? And is your, your employees and the rest of the team in that same track with you? Sometimes departments don’t even have time to their plate? That time is important.
Damon Pistulka 23:18
Yeah, and you touched on a little bit. You mentioned this on your, website, you talked about transformative brain therapy. So our brand therapy, not brain therapy, branded therapy. Can you explain that a little bit? You started there? So what do you mean by that, because brand therapy is not a concept that, that I familiar with?
Priscilla Blanchot 23:39
So often, you work with, there is in the team, there’s always the one person that has been there the longest, right? And very often it’s the founder, it’s the original or it’s somebody that inherited from the family or whatever the case may be. So it’s very personal to them. And you know, I’ll take the analogy of a house right when you live in your house, you are you customize it your own way you kind of make it your own right and then somebody else will come if you put it on the market and be budging, you’re in there and then they will have another vision right.
So, when you are in the company, and you’re so involved in it, you have this emotional attachment, it is hard to take some hard decisions sometimes it is hard to realize that maybe you as the owner had this specific idea, but the rest of the team wants to take it somewhere else or are in disagreement and, and so the or also you have to make a decision as to okay this product that we launched with is no longer a popular product, and we should let it go because we’ve evolved to something else or our clients are asking to get go to something else. So that is where the therapy comes. I often have clients that that, you know, it gets emotional sometimes.
Damon Pistulka 25:25
Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, it’s like you said, this could be a Legacy product that’s been theirs for a very long time. But the market has changed. Yes. And, and there. So you’re helping them then understand how their brand needs to evolve, or the products need to evolve to meet the real market?
Priscilla Blanchot 25:48
Well, and I, yeah, and they actually through the workshops, they get there themselves, in a sense, I’m just there as a guide, where it’s like, okay, what are we trying to do? What are we? What has worked? What hasn’t worked? What do we want more of? What’s the exit strategy of your company like, writing? You know, imagining the, how I want to exit, you know, like, what are you envisioning? And then kind of go backwards from there? Because this is your ultimate goal.
Damon Pistulka 26:26
Yeah, yeah. And that’s what the, in what we do that kind of therapy is very common, we have to say, Okay, we’re, what how do you want to exit? You know, whether it’s value? It’s time it’s, you know, what do you want to look like, Who do you want to, to succeed or sell the company to, you really have to understand that and that, and similar to a product or brand change? You really have to think about that? It’s a big question. It’s a big question.
Priscilla Blanchot 26:57
It is a big question. And, you know, I don’t know if you’ve thought of your exit, but I don’t have a clear answer to my exits yet.
Damon Pistulka 27:05
Oh, yes, we have we have. So that’s one of the things that we get asked all the time, and we have so that’s,
Priscilla Blanchot 27:12
that’s good. Yeah. Yeah, we
Damon Pistulka 27:15
do we do the what are some of the common branding challenges that you see companies make? or challenges that you see companies facing? Excuse me, I use them
Priscilla Blanchot 27:33
or sometimes they make a dish its decision without having thought everything through and then kind of backfires at them or they will sometimes not even address a problem and then that will become a bigger issue. There is so solutions to every problem you have to just think it through but branding issues to mean a pitfall that sometimes what will happen is there’ll be influenced by the market and you’ve seen this, again always taking the big examples because those are the ones in the media that everybody can relate to. But we’ve seen evolution of logos like Google’s logos GAAP Starbucks, I mean, so forth. Nikes logo has withstand the for long time now switch, right.
So one of the pitfall I see is that companies will want to be more trendy, but they’ll go too far where very quickly that trend, that visual trend will go out of style, and then they will have spent the money for nothing. So you need it’s hard to get a very long lasting logo, but you can’t a pitfall too is to change too much and then people can recognize you where’s the brand awareness is gone because suddenly Oh, perfect example. I don’t know if you remember this was a few years back. Tropicana is known for the packaging with the orange and then the straw in the orange.
Yeah, they went very modern, very clean and they removed that. They went from like their plastic bottle with the green lid to squirt bottle and the lid had like it was kind of it was in plastic, but it was representing half of an orange anyway, to design. Check it out online. The rebrand of Tropicana that failed the design were so far from what it was that people didn’t realize it was the same product and they lost customer on it because it was just too far out. So this Since this is a pitfall is to not get yourself too influenced by trends, it could be very hard at the moment, but you need to stay true to what your customers know who you are for. So that’s a big pitfall
Damon Pistulka 30:19
that is be true to what your customers know you for.
Priscilla Blanchot 30:23
Yeah, exactly.
Damon Pistulka 30:25
Write that down. It’s a great example. Because yeah, I think Google’s done it several times in the last five years, they’ve adjusted their logo, adjusted their logo, it’s kind of like, and the thing to me is yes, you can tell if you are a designer looking at it, but overall didn’t really do anything.
Priscilla Blanchot 30:50
No, but you see, for example, Starbucks, if they went away with the, the mermaid, they would lose their customers. Right. So that is something they can refine her as much as they can. But she will be there constant icon for a long time. Yeah, you
Damon Pistulka 31:07
see the mermaid with the green and white? And you know what it is? Yeah, I see it my head and
Priscilla Blanchot 31:14
yeah, yeah, exactly. And that’s the thing to a good brand. I would say Nike is a great brand, because they have withstand the times and, and, and their tagline, just do it as well, as we stand the time. Fine. I will say something that’s very important to me, too, in branding, and I think a lot of people would agree is a good name. But I think your companies are all pretty established. But a good name is very important.
If you have something that is too long, or acronyms that are not resonant, like IBM became IBM, because it was international business machine. That is just such a mouthful to say. But now we are it’s, it takes more time to create brand awareness was an acronym, because people hear you know, HVCA.
And they’ll be like, what is that right, and then little by little after hearing it and it will finally sink in. But if you have a name that is recognizable, that is short, you can also be memorable in some way and create that brand around it that develops these easy ways for people to remember. That is something that will always stay with your business. So it’s a very important aspect that people might not think of it all the time.
Damon Pistulka 33:02
Yeah, well, because it’s an afterthought. A lot of times, it’s a what, sorry, it’s an afterthought. They don’t think about Yeah, it’s like, oh, what should we call the business? And they go, Oh, this, this, put three names on the wall and flip a coin and see which one wins?
Priscilla Blanchot 33:17
Yes. And that’s unfortunate. I had somebody contact me once. And I wanted to he wanted a service. And I was looking and I said, Oh, you do this? And he’s like, Oh, no, we get this a lot. But no, we don’t do that. And it was his name. That was misleading. And, you know, I said, I told him, I don’t think you’d like to hear this. But I think you need to change your name before it’s too late. Because if you already know that you’re getting the reaction from the clients. Why keep in this wrong direction? Yeah, just write what? Well, that’s always what we’re doing. We’re like readjusting. Yes. Until Nike of the world. Yeah.
Damon Pistulka 34:04
Well, you bring up I mean, Nike, as you think about it. They have stood the test of time. Yes, there are a few of them. I mean, I think target hasn’t changed the whole lot. Walmart’s changed. I mean, that’s a huge brand. They’ve done a lot of groundwork. And you just go through the big companies, like you said, and some of them changed a lot. Some of them have stayed pretty solid, but the majority keep changing to change with the times I think. But yeah, Nike is just the What’s another one you can think of like Nike that’s just stayed the same forever. Oh,
Priscilla Blanchot 34:44
gosh, you know, they’ve all learned pretty well. It’s in the logo is still pretty recent. But you know what? We’re talking Yeah. 20 or something years. But I don’t know because you look at Instagrams involved. Yeah, craft has evolved.
Damon Pistulka 35:05
There’s just this.
Priscilla Blanchot 35:06
Unilever has evolved. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Which shows you that branding is not static, you have to evolve in your market. You know, like the biggest, the most. The most there in reality the most is they’ve all evolved over the years, right? Yeah, they
Damon Pistulka 35:31
- They do. So there’s really a kind of a unicorn. That’s interesting. So then, a lot of times Well, first of all, what are some bad brand examples that you talked about? One when the name didn’t describe a company? Oh, Gosh, gosh,
Priscilla Blanchot 35:55
I try to forget these I don’t know. Because this would be more like, obscure, because usually, if they fail, then you don’t hear them. But I will tell you in the world of, of startups, if you have a bad name, and you’re looking for funding or in a bad brand, you know, then you can go in for a presentation. But then the next guy behind you will have a great name and something weedy and it will be a cool presentation. And there’s a clear winner. So that’s the power of design and naming for you. So I don’t have a bad name that I would. But the you know, I will tell you the trick of a name too, is if you’re too narrow, then you stuck yourself in, in, in, in an area, for example, the Dollar Shave Club.
So they just did got overnight fame because of their amazing advertising, right with the sky that was going I mean, it was the owner and the founder, right in such a funny way. I mean, they were the instigator of that style of advertising. Because after you had like all the copycats. Problem was the Dollar Shave Club. Is that what is the name say? It’s a shave club, Dollar Shave, right? Like, then you got Harris behind that. I don’t know if it’s a sub brand. But Harris came in and competed, right with them with shaving tools. But then they offered you know, health products, I mean, a hair products and soaps and all sorts of health and beauty products.
And the Dollar Shave Club is still seen as just a shaving club. So they when this happens, then you know you have waste then he then you create this, this house of brands where you then develop another brand name, but for it to be attached to the Dollar Shave Club that’s still a tough one and had a great idea. He went all in on this hunch and build a great company. But then he got stuck with this name. Everybody knows him now there’s definitely brand awareness. But he’s now stuck with that name. So his only choice is to just create other companies to expand.
Damon Pistulka 38:33
Yeah, yeah, that’s cool. That’s a great example. Because you know, you really need to think about today and into the future
Priscilla Blanchot 38:42
and into the future. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that’s, that is a fun and you know, also something on if you’re first in the market doing something, then right away, you’re gonna come on top of people’s brand recognition. So he was the first to do these fun advertising and after you had all these people copying, so he can be proud of that because he was the first in that so this is where like that brand thinking that brainstorming and that brand therapy first to see where you’re at the sometimes your origins is what is important to bring back up front.
And you just kind of forgot them because they’re with you for so long. But that’s where that golden nugget is that orange funnel story. And maybe this is what will bring you up in people’s memory. This is a way to maybe pivot your brand and do something completely new within your market. But it doesn’t come on its own you have to do the work to get there.
Damon Pistulka 39:54
Yeah, great writing this down because you talked about sometimes the origin should be brought to the front All right. And that is, that is key because I think as over time, people can get off, you know, the brand, the company moves. But like you said, sometimes going starting back at the beginning or bringing it to the front, as you said, this is where the real value is in that round is bringing legacy and things like that.
Priscilla Blanchot 40:22
And I think that is, to me, it’s I don’t want to call it a trend because I think it’s staying but the Orient, with climate change, and was fossil fuel and renewable energy coming back, and this whole discussion and put in public political situations, that I do think that legacy origin things going back to nature, this is something this is a trend that is staying because we are all concern, we only have one planet, right.
So we’re all concerned about what’s going to happen with this. So the if, if a company now brings in these values, and these concerns, I think that’s already helping them level up their brand into this market that we’re getting into, into the new generation, they are asking for that. So it’s important for companies to work on this and leverage this.
And that comes that kind of comes full circle with transparency, right? So if you can, if you’re a manufacturer of something, and you can think ahead of like the full cycle of your product, all the way through how to dispose of it in a meaningful way. That is already exposing your brand. Now you can market this and just from that start having clients that are interested in in your product, because there are more and more of these clients, no matter what the product is like, how is this gonna? My conservation, how’s my consumption going to affect the earth is going to be the new thing?
Damon Pistulka 42:05
That’s a great point. Right that? So as you’re doing this, what are how do you really I, when you’re talking about brand, and you’re talking about logos, I’ve always there’s boys been interesting to me as to how a logo can exude feelings, how the colors, the shapes, the styles, all that. I mean? Well, is that just a feeling? Or is that? I mean, are there? Did I just do the science behind color? But that’s really the only
Priscilla Blanchot 42:45
thing? Well, there’s science behind colors, right? Like, and also let’s not forget if a company is international versus just local, right? Because red in, in the US is, is power, but it could also read in finances bad because there’s something wrong, right? But then in China, it’s life. Right? So you have to this also comes with the brand strategy, you have to think where are your where’s your business, currently at isn’t going to do business in other places in the world.
And we need to anticipate to consider this. And that gets really complicated after Oh yeah, then you need to analyze, you know, in each country and each culture, whatever the color, the meaning of colors, but designers are trained for that. The thing also is to take in consideration your competitive landscape. If you have a competitor that uses red, and you’re gonna start using red, and you’re starting to what we call brand confusion, right? Yeah. So you want to say okay, well, I’m going to be different. But you know, I’m not just going to take purple then because what’s what, why am I taking purple?
Like, we need to look into what makes sense between the name, what the value of the company is the market, the competitor, and that and this is kind of an all overarching it is what I call it’s mattering in the it’s mattering in your market, it’s taking all these different observations, and then you’re coming to a conclusion and that’s when I was telling you earlier, it kind of becomes a puzzle where you’re like, we shouldn’t be red and we shouldn’t be purple.
What are other colors we could be what other maybe some sub brands we’re going to build and in this case also your product you know depending what you are selling and representing then you, you can’t, it becomes an equation of like, okay, we should go with yellow, for example.
But what’s interesting is if you can take your leadership team through this decision, then it becomes a lot more powerful for them because they understand that decision. And that is what is on so important to just the transparency and involving everybody. Evidently, it takes time. But there was a time where, you know, the C suite didn’t want to know about the nitty gritty decisions, but that now they’re a lot more in tune with what’s happening. And, and a brand strategy becomes guiding principles for, for all your other decisions, it becomes a foundation.
And then from there, you can make more educated decisions. So every department can make more educated decision marketing department understands to there’s a lot of overlap with the brand strategy. But the marketing people are always thinking of an action step we want to and to click on the button or to go on this website or to do this. And on the brand, we’re gonna see, okay, how we can develop any sort of injury so that we actually call people in oh, I want to learn more about this. So that’s imagery. And obviously messaging as well. The more intentional your messaging is, and the more you start just bringing people in.
Damon Pistulka 46:43
Yeah. Wow, this is incredible. We’re running out of time here, Priscilla. But learning about brands and branding, and how these branding strategies could how they can really produce the results. It’s been awesome talking to you, because I’ve learned a tremendous amount here about a that branding is really an overarching thing. It’s not just a logo. It’s not just a feeling, but it’s about you know, how you do business? Yes, it’s the colors you use. Yes, it’s the way you treat people, the way customers, suppliers, and employees all interact. And it’s an overarching thing, which is so important, because it’s kind of a guiding light for that for everybody that interacts with the organization.
Priscilla Blanchot 47:33
Guiding Light.
Damon Pistulka 47:35
All right, if you said something that made sense today, there’s so this Guiding Light, but then you turn around and you go in the name, like you brought the Dollar Shave Club, this, that anybody that’s thinking about starting a company or potentially wanting to rebranding, it’s like, Wow, you really need to think about this name. Because there’s, you know, some people I’ve been around people that like to name companies like Latin names, just pick Latin names that nobody knows and pick a company like that, right? Or make up a name.
And I’m like, Whoa, that’s really hard to do if you’re gonna make up a name and do those kinds of things. But, but when you’re brand new, your name and everything else comes around that this is great information, event sharing.
Priscilla Blanchot 48:23
And Nike the name Nike is actually the goddess of victory. Now, I can’t remember if it’s Latin or Greek, but it’s the goddess of victory Nike, so yeah, it was intentional. You don’t spend it was. Wow.
Damon Pistulka 48:39
Yeah. Another great piece of information. Today. Priscilla? I am. I am so thrilled that we got this chance to talk and you know, today on the face of business, we’ve been talking with Priscilla blunt show. From carte blanche. Priscilla, where’s the best place if somebody wants to get a hold of you and talk more? What’s the best place to get hold these
Priscilla Blanchot 49:02
two spots? I’m on LinkedIn on the preceding show. And then I am also at we are carte blanche.com.
Damon Pistulka 49:11
Very good. So Priscilla blood show. We are carte blanche.com. Thanks so much for being here. Thanks, everyone for listening today. Thank you, Priscilla. Well, thank
Priscilla Blanchot 49:22
you, Damon. This was really a pleasure. I really enjoyed myself too. So thank you for giving me this opportunity.
Damon Pistulka 49:30
Yes, yes. Well, thanks so much, everyone for being here. We will be back again with other great guests sharing information that hopefully helps you out and gives you some direction. Thanks, everyone.
