Im watching the Republican CNN/YouTube Debates. Its interesting to see how each candidate tries to differentiate themselves from each other. Its also interesting to see myself try and determine which candidate is really telling me the truth, the most authentic. This is essentially branding.

Uniquely, in a presidential debate you have all the options available to you. Every brand for president is on stage vying for you vote. Just like boxes of cereal on the grocery shelves. Which one do you choose? If you'd never had cereal before which would you buy? On what would you base your decision?

In the end, Im still not sure.

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I had an interesting experience at a restaurant I ate at the other night. Its a place close to my house that I've been to before. The first time I went I didn't like it at all. It was a bit more pricey for sandwiches and was trying to be a high-end specialty kind of place, but I definitely didn't get that vibe on my first visit. I left feeling like I overpaid, and could have just stayed home and made something better myself. I didn't think I would return.

We were in a rush the other night, and for pure convenience sake, decided we'd go back to the restaurant. We walked in and were greeted by an employee who immediately got my attention. She seemed excited to have us there, a genuine kind of excitement, not a fake sales approach. The first thing she told us was that it was cold outside, and she thought we might like to try the soup they had that night. She brought us out a really generous portion to try, and me and my wife both had more than enough. She was really interested in our enjoyment of it and talked about how good she thought it was. We both ordered some along with a sandwich and she made sure we took what was left of the sample back to the table with us while we waited for our food. The entire time, she engaged us not just with information or "helpfulness", but her love of the products they were serving. Her personal enjoyment of the food translated into our belief that it would be good, and next thing you know, she was completely changing my perspective on the place. I'll be going back to the 5th Earl again, and because of her belief, I'm a believer too.

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I love Threadless.com They have figured out how to build a wildly successful company and base it around a community. If you don’t know Threadless, it is an ongoing online t-shirt design competition. Users create and submit designs, then vote on which ones they like, and then Threadless prints and sells the shirts. Along with exposure, notoriety, etc… for the designers they get some pretty rad prizes and cash. The reason it works is because Threadless isn’t just selling shirts like the millions of other online t-shirt companies. They are actively engaging and participating with their audience.

Your customers will always be more satisfied and subsequently buy more from you if they feel that they are part of something and getting more than just a product for their hard earned money. At Threadless you are not only getting a shirt, but you are getting an experience and a community for your money. If you haven’t already get on over to Threadless.com, vote for your favorite designs and buy some new shirts. I would recommend my personal favorite, X-Ray Goggles Work.

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I'm often asked about the difference between marketing and branding.

This morning I did a google image search on "branding" and this popped up (no, the original didn't have the fun addition – thanks bowles). It is a great visual for what branding truly is.

Branding is about learning to standout. It is not a program, it is a position. It's not a doing, it's a being. Do your customers see you this clearly?

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Email signatures are a great way to communicate your brand. They are the nice little party at the end of your email that say hi, hello, and thanks for reading my email. As great as they are, they can also be misused terribly.

Here are some suggestions to avoid email signature suicide:

1. Try adding a small logo to add color and life to a very cold medium such as email

2. Try adding a quote. It can speak tons to your deep intellectual side and value added to a client, customer, or friend.
ex. "‘Cheap is the last refuge of a product developer or marketer who is out of great ideas‘ – Seth Godin"

3. Simple updates can work. A simple statement serves as a great way to update clients on new happenings.
ex. "Matchstic Rapping Paper Party I Dec. 12th"

4. Keep it short and sweet. This is not a platform to broadcast your values, degrees, or mission statement. The netiquette guideline, called McQuary Limit, recommends no more than 4 simple concise lines for an email signature. Here's an actual example I've seen (I removed the actual name and contact info):

=================
Lenny Longwind
CEO/CFO

***** WE HAVE MOVED*****
We have tripling our warehouse space.
Please note our new address!

Longwinded Service, Inc
4758 Longwind Road Suite 303
Longville, GA 30000

Office: 555-555-555 ext 5 (if calling, leave message if no answer)
Fax: COMING SOON

Spring Office Hours: ***
Monday – 10am – 6:30pm
Tuesday – Friday – 8am – 6:30pm
Saturday – 9am – 3pm
Sunday we are closed
*Office visits by appointment only*

world wide web: http://www.llongwindedbiz.com
email: lenny@longwindbiz..com

"Longwind Service is a company of longwinded professionals whose number one goal is taking care of your investment by offering both quality service and products at affordable prices."

=================

Seriously? WOW!

Overall, treat your email sign off with care! Think about how much interaction and exposure it could have (not to mention it could end up on some blog as a "Don't Do" Example)! With that, Dr. Frasier Crane signing off.

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Wanted to take this entry to publicly state how thankful I am for everyone at Matchstic. I honestly can't think of a group of guys I'd rather be on a team with than Blake, Nick, John, Dustin, and Gern. When we're all together, it doesn't feel like work to me one bit. Just living with passion.

Oh, and I must credit Dustin with the nice Matchstic Rockwell piece. Who says project managers can't be creative…

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One of our clients (and also my brother), A Bryan Photo, is traveling taking pictures in Africa right now. He was very moved by a school they visited there today and is doing all he can to raise a few bucks for the school before he leaves.

Every year we do a new t-shirt design for him for him to give his clients as gifts. Trust me, he locks these things up unless you are a client. But he is selling them for the next 2 days to raise money for the school. If you don't want the shirt, at least go and donate $5 to the school.

Click Here to go read more and buy a shirt and/or donate.

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Sixthman is one of our favorite clients. They produce amazing Music experiences that engage fans on every level, including exclusive cruises. They also have amazing confidence and trust in us to try new things. Earlier this year, we worked with Sixthman to develop a campaign for "already booked clients" to engage and excite the cruisers for the upcoming trip. The campaign is a contest called "Show Us Your Ship", where people are encouraged to use the postcard pop-up ship and show if off in the most extreme and unusual place possible. Well, as far as matchstic is concerned, we have our winner! Dr. McDreamy from Grey's Anatomy, Patrick Dempsey, sent in his entry ON SET!  Not only did he win the "Show Us Your Ship" contest, he also has won our fragile little hearts. Tear.

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Lets talk about company mascots or characters. It seems it is imperative for food products, specifically snacks, to align themselves with a character of some sort. Most of us would recognize nearly all cereal brands by the character on the box: Toucan Sam, Tony Tiger, Capn' Cruch, etc. It also made its way into other snack foods: Vlasic Pickles, Planters Mr. Peanut, Cheetos Chester Cheetah and Keebler Elves. Now this obviously makes sense for cereal and snacks because of the primary demographic, kids. But could it work for say…Bank of America?

What does a mascot or character intend to do? Differentiate and associate. Same as a logo mark. The goal being to associate an image with your product. A symbol or lettermark is great, but what if it could walk, talk or wear a top hat and monocle! One practice we have in branding is to try and give each brand a personality or a voice. That way when it comes to design we can ask ourselves, "Would this particular brand say this, act like this or dress like this?"

One small industrial cleaning supplies company called New Pig Corporation is an example of how this works. Named after the idea of a "pig sty" they have built all their marketing around the name. If customers call the toll-free number (1-800-HOT-HOGS) and find themselves on hold, they'll hear "Kiss a Pig" by Ray Stevens. If they visit company headquarters at One Pork Ave., they'll notice the pig flowerpot and pig phone. If they pick up a company "pigalog," they can read columns called "Dear Flabby" or "Ask Einswein." With a logo that features a pig in a janitor's uniform that's plastered on socks, hats, T-shirts and key-chains, New Pig never forgets its name…and neither do its customers. Started in 1985 they now do sales in excess of $92 million. "Over the years, we've questioned ourselves," says New Pig PR Director Carl DeCaspers. "Were we doing too much with the pig name and theme? So we backed off. But customers begged us to bring it back. They said, ‘We love the promos. We remember the phone number.' So we try to find a balance. Without good customer service and a good product, it would be a joke. But it's a differentiator."

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Read another quote in Brand Gap today that struck me:

"You plant new trees for future profit and you harvest old trees for profits today. The trick with brand is to know which is which. What may seem like growing a brand may actually be harvesting it."

Brilliant. I was trying to find a good example of a brand that thought it was planting, when in fact, it was harvesting and damaging it's brand in the process. Then I saw this post on the Andy Sernovitz blog about Krispy Kreme. Go read it. And thanks Andy!

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