There is always more than one dimension to what a customer experiences. Take for example a website you visit — first there are the words and images that you see — and then there is what you perceive beyond this. in effective websites, that motivate you to take action, return for more and give you a sense of belonging, these multi-dimensions are congruent. The essence of the brand and the knowledge that is presented are aligned with the values, the personality and the ‘inner’ profile of the brand.
An excellent reference work to support you to get clear about the ‘brand within’ is The Hero and The Outlaw by Margaret Mark and Carol Pearson. This inspiring book gives a very powerful roadmap to building extraordinary brands through the power of archetypes – the mythical and cultural symbols and images that drive ongoing meaning and actions in our lives. Some well known brands ‘get it’ more than others… for example Apple’s logo – the apple with a bite out of it harks all the way back to the Garden of Eden – the archetype that Apple continues to express – the Rebel. Nike = the Hero, Victoria’s Secret = the Lover, Amex = the Ruler.
What stories define your business? What archetype are you living out? How could you be more congruent with this?
All too often there is too much navel gazing for entrepreneurs about ‘what is my message?’ - especially when it comes to your brand focus.
in the busy world of online marketing extreme focus is always required. How do you know if you are on track? I found this great tool today – Wordle.net which will take the words from any RSS feed you give it and create an amazing graphic representation of them – arranged how you like (hours of fun/distraction if you like) with unlimited colors and arrangements.
importantly, the hierarchy and consistency of your message becomes clear – in a flash. Here’s an example of a client we are working with – Christine Mullins of Children’s Miracle Music. Christine has a great message and solution for home organization and getting kids chores done – automatically! All the chores get done, morning and evening without nagging or any requests… really. Here is Christine’s blog where she tells the in and out of it all: kidshousekeeping.com
Now for the fun part from Wordle. It creates a ‘word cloud’. Words with greater frequency on the blog show up in larger size. You can get a potent and instant feeling for the message — and the brand.
So how can you use this tool to sharpen your branding and marketing?
Answer these questions when you look at your word cloud…
- What does your word cloud say about your message? You can check it in a single glance.
- Is the hierarchy of words right – or do you need to sharpen your focus and frequency of core messages?
- Is your knowledge marketing on track to educate your audience – your ‘tribe’?
- Does your brand story come through? There should at least be strong hints based on the words you use.
- Do a word cloud for a competitor (is there really such a thing?) and see what they are saying.
- Is your keyword focus on track for the SEO results you want?
Here is the word cloud for this Brandwithin blog. Hopefully the story comes through – and I see that Twitter is now a rising star in the ongoing knowledge marketing story.
Wordle is a breakthrough for fun – allowing your right brain inform your left brain so you can strategize the next evolution of your brand.
You can publish your Wordle word clouds on the amazing Wordle Gallery – and share your links.
Do share your comments and word cloud links in the comments here too.
Update: Seems Jayne Johnson got inspired by word play too. Check out her take on the Zen of Wordle at her Clearing Sight Blog. An inspiring new direction and useful instructions. And now I know who the real Anonymous is at Ode To Baseball!
Technorati Tags: Branding, keywords, knowledge marketing, SEO, Wordle
There is a wonderful 
Lavazza coffee lounge in Chicago – and their story is refreshingly different to Starbucks.
Full of life – and the art of coffee – in larger than life pictures, as well as an engaging slide show to inform you of their back story on the ‘real’ coffee… (espresso is never translated, how crema makes the difference to taste…)
How simple it is to tell your story with a few pictures and the story that you know so well.
The Lavazza ‘theme park’ was doing a brisk trade in coffee and related breakfast fare, at the same time as entertaining and informing customers. A great way to build customer loyalty.
There is a usually a captive moment in any business transaction – always a good time to inform, entertain, engage and build the relationship with customers. Lavazza is doing a great job here.
Knowledge marketing with fun and sex appeal!
The 2008 election is a serious matter, politically. We can only hope that every eligible voter will get involved. The result will impact not only America, but the whole world.
Meanwhile, the whole thing is a ton of fun to watch if you’re in the marketing business — which you are if you’re in business at all. The current nomination battle is a massively expensive personal branding exercise that has two virtues: extreme transparency, and rapidly visible results. There is little you cannot learn about brand positioning from watching the candidates duke it out in state after state.
For anyone interested, I’m running a commentary — professional, not political — at my marketing blog. Take a peak, and share your thoughts!
Tapping into the new waves of social conscience, FreeRice.com proves that a great idea can travel fast.
Raising awareness and resources to fight hunger, this site motivates game players to make a difference as well play and learn at the same time. This smart PIP has become a worldwide phenomenon.
Here we see how words get around – in more ways than one.
Even my 82 year old mother is an enthusiastic game player on FreeRice.com. “I need to keep my brain active” she says.
Precession occurs in many remarkable ways – and usually it takes some attention to see the effects that are occurring all around us.
I’m asked whether to use Blogger or WordPress.
Short answer: WordPress, with your own URL.
There are so many creative minds putting energy into WordPress, you don’t want to miss out on the possibilities growing there. I just adopted a template for my Marketing Action Journal which has a “blogsite” character — a blog that feels more like a web site. It was created by Cory Miller, who has some great input on WordPress.
Blogger is nice and easy to use, and I still have my first blog there, which I am copying piece by piece to the Journal. No question, though, WordPress is the way to go.
