What is your brand promise?

[Diana Crites]

Do you have a brand promise? It's bad practice to have "accidental branding." Trust me.

A brand promise is a shortcut for your customer. Out of all the commerce clutter and confusion, how will they remember you? What makes you stand out? What do you deliver?

How you simply and effectively communicate your brand's message is vital. On Etsy, your forums, your banners, avatars, logo, communication. But what is primary to that is more key:what is your brand promise?

If you haven't mulled that over, now's a good time.

It should be concise, easily digestible, and resonate with your audience. It should be core to your process.

Let's try an exercise, if you're game! Tell me what you do and give me a brand promise or three.

What I do:
I consider myself a fine artist. I produce original art: mostly oils, but am branching out.

My brand promise: (I'm toying with a few)
"everyday dread"
"accessible surrealism"
or the short and sweet "creepy"

My goal in all of my marketing efforts is to revolve around this central brand promise. This is what I do, it's memorable, and people respond to it. And remember it. It's working for me.

How about you?

[D'arcy]

Good point to bring up, Spincus

I started my main blog not knowing what to do with it. It started out being a place to show items from my store, but it didn't feel right.

I decided to start doing things a bit different.

When I first started our web site, I wanted to have a personal feel to it. I talked a bit about us and had some fun pictures of us, and our company car (our hearse, Lily). Over time, my partner and I decided the site should be a bit more professional, so we took off the pics and whatnot.

The blog needed some substance, other than a marketing tool, so I put up my first humorous blog. This seems to be received better, and people are actually commenting on the story. I have my links on there, so if they choose to go see more, they can.

I'm in the process of putting together a tutorial for the blog. I'm not an expert on anything, but if I can help someone else get started on something that interests them, that's cool! They can also ask me questions they might have, etc.

What you have said is very relevant to what I'm going through right now. I remember when magazines had most of the ads in the back, now they are all the way through the mag.

Thanks for going off topic!
D'arcy

[D'arcy]

Ok, I'll give it a shot

What we do: We handcraft, and retail items that are on the darker side, (Monsters, horror, goth, etc.) Jewelry, bags, buttons and the like.

On our website, the front page is set up like you're entering a very mysterious and somewhat spooky village of old. You are first met by "Little Owl", perching in front of the welcome sign. What you see is, "Little Salem", Est. 10-31-2005, and just under that are the Latin words:

Frigus Vix Res translation: Cool, creepy stuff

Little Owl has become our logo. We've done booths at horror conventions, and we have a large backdrop which includes the words "Cool Creepy Stuff".

However, the other term we always use is: "Unique Gifts and Collectables of an Unusual Nature"

I'm learning about the whole branding thing. It's not a clear (to me) to know exactly what it means, but we've found that people are starting to remember us. We've also had people say "hey, I've heard of you guys!", so I think, at least locally, word is starting to slowly get out.

Is this what is considered branding?

The other thing I've been having a hard time with is the spelling of 'collectable'. Most times you see it with an I: collectible. I prefer it with an a. The dictionary has both spellings as being correct.

This is a very interesting topic!
Thanks!
D'arcy

ps. I like "connecting people, one cookie at a time"

[Pam Hawk]

(Thanks, D'arcy!)
-Pam

[Spincus]

Ok It has been almost two weeks since this thread started and I have been thinking about it the whole time. Here is my brand promise. I do not think it is in final words yet still cleaning up but I can tell I am close. I would really like some feed back on this.

Art colors my mind
I was born to not see all the colors very well
Silver is black and white, textures are my color pallet in this media
Composition, form, framing and contrasts are also integral to my unique perspective
I do not see colors well,
But Art colors my mind
Come see art through my eyes

[Spincus]

changing the last line from come see art through my eyes to:
I invite you to explore my art, enjoy

[D'arcy]

Or you could combine the two and say,

I invite you to explore art through my eyes

[Spincus]

yes i like the more personal nature of this. Thanks pam and d'arcy for the suggestion. It feels much better this way.

[Pam Hawk]

You know, I think my favorite phrases in this are actually "Textures are my color pallet" and "Come see art through my eyes."

The impression I get about where you are going with this is that you are explaining your limited use of color in your work, letting the metal textures and other elements make up the beauty of each piece. Is that close?

The feeling I have from the two where you state you don't see colors well makes the little voice in the back of my head ask, "Why? What's wrong with his eyes?" Those phrases, while maybe true that you don't see colors well, may send the reader's (customer's) attention in the wrong direction. An example: my husband, who is a trained chef, and also happens to be hearing impaired (he does not hear anything at all) has never liked calling himself The Deaf Chef. While true, and catchy, he thinks the phrase will make people feel sorry for him and just pretend to like his food, or they will avoid him because they think that a "handicapped" guy couldn't possibly cook well.

And while your last line (below) is a nice invitation to explore your art, personally I prefer your invitation to see it through your eyes. To me, that difference is like seeing your art in a gallery (exploring) vs. having you point out each piece to me. It's more personal.

Overall, I like your approach with this.
-Pam

[Spincus]

I worried about the negative for a long while. What you see is my best guess at the way to present it.

It is important to me. What I am saying is the old concept that if we are weak in one area, like color or math, we make up in another area, like textures and language. What I am saying is that my lack of color vision makes me hypersensitive to other areas like texture and form, framing, composition, shape, balance. That type of thing.

So yes pam your second paragraph is right on.

When i say i was born to not see color very well, it is a positive on what could be a negative, but I spin it back to the positive by saying what it gave me in exchange;namely hypersensitivity to other elements of art.

Like color is for other artists, textures are my pallet.

The rest of my words are mostly poetically tying in my opening premise, of art colors my mind (and the unspoken, I do not see color well)

Thanks for the feed back. I am still very open as to how to get this branding promise across. I am not happy with the flow of my words yet. But I will get there adventualy, I am sure. :)

[D'arcy]

Art colors my mind
Silver is black and white, textures are my color pallet in this media
Composition, form, framing and contrasts are also integral to my unique perspective
Come see art through my eyes

These are my favorites.

[Albina Rose]

I like short, sweet and to the point.

Textures are my pallet. Come explore "color" through my eyes.

I still don't have one for myself and am struggling to come up with one. As soon as I have some ideas, I'll post here for feedback.

Sylvie

[Spincus]

Ok two or three weeks latter after my last post here i revisted my shop announcement and brand promise with fresh eyes; Always a good thing to do often. Here is my new announcement. I think I may have it right.



Art colors my mind
I was born to not see all colors very well.

I sculpt in Silver because it is a black and white medium; texture is silver's color palette of choice. The result of my unique perspective is an appealing emphasis in composition, form, framing and contrast.

I do not see colors well,
But Art colors my mind
I invite you to explore art through my eyes, enjoy.

This is original, made by hand art. I am not a traditional jeweler; I am an art metal sculptor capturing beauty in stunning metal forms. It is art you can wear with your blue jeans on.


See Profile for store policies and artist statement.