Don’t let the grind of running your company keep your business from having a personality.
Written by: Rob TinsmanVice President and Creative Director
It’s been said that people do business with people — yet many companies struggle to survive by simply doing the job they were hired to do, and leave it at that. So what's wrong with that? They've either forgotten about or never considered the essential role personality plays in the success and well-being of a company. Yes, a businesses can have a personality. Actually it’s the business’ brand that has the personality. I'm not talking about the logo; the brand is much more than a logo. It's everything you think of when you perceive a company (logo, colors, ads, photos, people, office building, ambiance, dress code, etc.). The important thing to know is that you have control over how your business is perceived, but it takes some work and intentional thought.
A business personality can be clever/funny (Geico, Go Daddy), genuine (Berkshire Hathaway, George Brazil), caring and responsible (Red Cross, Toms), customer intimate (Nordstrom, Viking River Cruises), adventurous (Harley Davidson, Red Bull), etc. The point is the personality helps your brand have a voice. And this voice is the verbal part of your brand presentation: the words you use, the tone your copywriting takes, the way you answer the phone, the design of your website and a hundred other things.
Avenue 25’s brand personality is a mix of creative problem solving and fun. As much as we’re skilled at helping businesses effectively market themselves, we make it fun to be at work; you might find an award-winning barbecue recipe on our website or catch the entire office staff doing a weekend obstacle course race (just finished the ROC Race last Sunday.) We ran it last year too. It's that fun personality that we incorporate into everything we do.
Have you encountered a business and didn’t really know what they do? Who they are? Just kind of an unknown-ish sort of vibe? That’s a major failure in branding. So does your company have an an identity crisis? It's time to take control and identify who you are. Read below for a good start on your path to discovery. No need to worry though, there’s no right or wrong answers here. Just like people, your corporate personality can include a mixture of traits.
Your business might be:
• very personable and friendly or much more corporate and professional
• spontaneous, high energy or more careful thinking, planning
• modern and high tech or more classic and traditional
• cutting edge or more established
• fun or more serious
• accessible to all or more upscale
You don't need to change everything about your business, but identifying these traits is the first step to developing your internal personality — and eventually a humanistic appeal to present to your marketplace.
We can help businesses discover their brand personality and create a new communication strategy with a very clear focus.