A GREAT BRAND KNOWS HOW TO CONNECT THE DOTS AND COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINE. SO SHOULD YOU.

Last month, I got the opportunity to join Professor Galloway's Section 4 Brand Strategy Sprint. I simply wanted to unlearn what I know about branding in order to relearn and learn from Professor Galloway and other fellow sprinters. Of course I got what I wanted as the sprint broaden my professional perspective to reframe my strategic thinking. The best part about the sprint, however, came at the last final lecture on personal branding where I realized that personal branding is about connecting your own dots professionally and personally.

Section4 Clock Model & Personal Branding

My first super shallow thought is that personal branding often is meant for people who want to be well-known and get publicity, since

I don't plan to be in the spotlight so I guess I will just become aware of it, but it is probably not for me. Then I unlearned what I think I know and really start to relearn and learn from the lecture. I came to realize that personal branding is about self awareness and self learning, regardless of how you will execute your branding, it is important that you know your brand really well so you don't lose your core value of who you are.

Brand is not difficult to create, but a great brand is. A great brand knows how to color outside the line for meaningful reason. A great brand differentiates itself outside the norm not just to be cool, but to be relevant with its audience. A great brand goes extra miles to make sure that it can sustain the differentiation and relevancy over time. A great brand competes for its customers and not over its competitors. A great brand is like a great human being, professionally and personally. We often don't brand ourselves well enough to really invest in what our core values are. We just don't give ourselves enough time to really think about our brands in our lives. I believe we should connect our dots draw our own lines where we stand today and start coloring around it. How well do you see yourself today matters because it impacts how well you really see others.

Before joining the sprint in , I was writing about Stupid Brand & The Law of Brand Decency out of my own curiosity that I got inspired from The Prof G Show's The Stupid. Professor Galloway referred to Professor Cipolla and The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity (1976), and he was talking it in different context and non-business related in the episode. I then took it into a branding context before the sprint, by saying that "nobody is deserved to be called stupid, honestly, neither does a brand," and I am still standing with that thought now that I am taking it into a personal branding context. I really believe that decency is definitely a choice professionally and personally.

Personal Branding & The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

I am now more aware of my own line from connecting the dots of core value and competencies. My line is a bit curvy at a moment and I probably leave the coloring out of it for the time being as I am figuring it out my next meaningful stop, or should I say meaningful dot. As long as I can be useful and kind to myself and others, I am definitely happy with my line.

Like great brand that we all admire and have respect for, we all have similar traits of greatness within ourselves, too. Let's connect the dots and color outside to the lines!

Mindful Branding Lesson from Mailchimp: Big Change Starts Small

As a consumer, you may be wondering why brands care so much about your data since they hardly use them in a way that benefit you literally! As a brand, you may be wondering why consumers don't care much about your brand. As a human being, I clearly see why; there is no relationship between the two of you.

Any human relationship starts with good conversation, then it grows into a better and more trustworthy one. Brand often shows how they can do things before telling us why do we need what they have to offer. Brand often put what they want from us such as data, or what they have to offer such as technology or service solution before what we need, or our human value.

I will save another thoughts on why marketing and IT persons don't communicate so well for some other time, but for those who have some experiences with platform engagement or digital transformation in any corporations definitely understand what I mean. Regardless of what industries you are in, always put the human value first, easily said than done, however, today's article will hopefully open your mind about the possibility that it definitely can be done.

Ask the right question of what do we human wants from any relationship, and let's start there.

Earn Trust with a Clear Value of Interaction.

Brand loves to talk, consumers love to be listened to or talk to, a key missing piece here is the conversation, a genuine one which should be coming from why consumers should care about your brand to begin with. Mailchimp, a marketing automation platform company, has been having a great conversation with their customers since 2001, and the recent campaign "Big Change Starts Small," has reconfirmed us how mindful Mailchimp is.

Mailchimp is one of many great examples of a brand that really cares and what mindful brand looks like. Its purpose is all about helping the small businesses grow, supporting the underdog and really makes the real impact for everyone. Though it is in a technology and software platform business, its branding couldn't be more human than I could have asked for. This is different a great brand from a good one, it really speaks to a human!

credit: https://bigchangestartssmall.com/

"Big Change Starts Small," really nailed every details of the first four key elements of Mindful Branding and earning the brand a trust from their audiences; small businesses. Mailchimp has always given a clear value of interaction for the small businesses and that's why they have been having a real and meaningful conversation; that's why the small businesses customers do care about what Mailchimp has to say. Because Mailchimp does really care about what it creates, who it serves, and how it can do all of those better overtime. This recent launch, however, has elevated its meaningful purpose and extended to the other part of the ecosystem, the local community change makers.

1) MEANINGFUL PURPOSE: Have a meaningful purpose that resonates with small businesses by helping them marketing smarter.

2) INTERBEING: Be part of the ecosystem and be in it for a long term. The program initiatives have covered several social impact area which aim to create a better ecosystem for everyone.

3) NOWNESS over newness; focus on the current on-going needs of the local communities whom may be underserved by giving the attention they deserve. The need for community betterment is not new news, neither a trending topic, but it is the most important need for the now given the pandemic outbreak and the uncertainty it has caused.

4) DIFFERENTIATION by really doing it, and staying true to the purpose. Mailchimp's 2020 Annual Report has really walked the walk celebrating many successful cases of their customers.

Mindful branding 101: Be Meaningful by putting human before data throughout every details from product, people, process, policy, and practice. Every value of interaction matters, it creates a real trust for the brand.

Stupid Brand & The Law of Brand Decency

Earlier this week, I watched The Prof G Show's episode called "The Stupid," and it kept me thinking until now that if there were so-called stupid people in this world according to Professor Cipolla and The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity (1976), there were likely stupid brands out there? Since brand is created by people, so it would be likely that the stupidity of it all has everything to do with the people behind it.

Be Mindful or Be Stupid.

It is as simple as that. According to Professor Cipolla and his book, we can categorize people into 5 different types; the intelligence, the bandits, the helpless, the ineffectual and the stupid. I would agree with Professor Galloway that the helpless should be renamed to the artist or the dreamer of some sorts as I can see a lot of youngsters who put their hearts and souls into something for others before themselves, which sometimes could cause them harm unfortunately.

I couldn't help but try to apply this law and find some useful implications for my mindful branding concept. The idea is that if you were to mindfully create meaningful values for your brands and businesses, there is no way you could fall into the lower left quadrant. If you really craft your brand and business beyond yourself, there is no way you could harm others or yourself. Your brand or business might fail or not head to where you want it to be, but that's a learning with purpose, that's not the intention to cause others or yourself harm.

Mindful Branding Implications: Have a meaningful value for a healthier ecosystem

Be Mindful or Be Stupid

Just out of my curiosity, and forget the types predefined by the original idea for a second. I plotted brands that I could think of in no particular order into the context. My personal collection of mindful branding brands (patagonia, airbnb, sweetgreen, headspace, and lemonade) are obviously clustered in the top right quadrant; these are brands that from the scratch, mindfully at their cores to be part of the whole ecosystem, and be in it for a long-term with a real value of what they offer, no bogus. While I am skeptical of where should I put Amazon (my all time favorite as a brand and business inspiration), and Snap (my admiration of its authenticity and commitment on wellbeing for its audiences. I probably have to put them together with all the big techs giants, the typical capitalism institutions like the Government and the Media?

The Hopeful: The Artists and Visionary

I would rename this quadrant as I am hopeful that eventually, the good bandits will be reaching out to help those who may not have enough capital or resources to accomplish their dreams and impacts for others. Also I believe that most of the innovators and disruptive technology might start out here in this quadrant before scaling out to the right either remaining in the top right quadrant or moving into the lower right. Here I put Blake Mycoskie's two businesses, TOMS and MadeFor, as they reflected his visionary to give positive impacts for others. TOMS may not be the ideal brand in term of its growth and business model at the moment, but its "Buy One, Give One" model really put many into the maps including Warby Parker. Meanwhile MadeFor is just getting started so we just have to wait and see how far up and to the right of the quadrant.

The Bad, Bad, Bad, Bandits

The obvious bottom right quadrant however is reserved for the Bandits, and I would refer to Professor Cipolla's definition on this, "those who pursue their own self-interest even when doing so poses a net detriment to societal welfare." Recent examples would be the startup scam of Theranos and the controversial valuation of WeWork and its We trademark.

The Law of Brand Decency: Be Mindful

I believe that good brand is like a good human being, you can't just think the world will evolve around you because in reality it doesn't. A good brand cares about its surrounding and the impacts it has on others. A good brand takes responsibility for what it creates. A good brand mindfully thinks of an outcome and not just an output. Do yourself a favor, move far far away from the bottom left quadrant and help reinforce the law of brand decency. Nobody is deserved to be called stupid, honestly, neither does a brand.