Give it to me straight.

Political correctness has a place, I know it does. But when I hear something incredibly honest come out of someone’s mouth – it just gets me. Of course I’m not talking about hateful, violent or bigoted talk – I mean, give it to me straight. Just say it. And sometimes there’s some shock value involved.

In the marketing world, it’s incredibly helpful – brutal honesty gets our attention and, oftentimes, it’s funny or it endears us to the product, person, company. Most importantly, this type of marketing message makes us want to repeat it to our friends.

Some of you know that I have a little, teeny, tiny flaw – I like to read celebrity gossip. I really can’t help it. And, sometimes, sometimes that habit gives me some primo tidbits.

Recently, for instance, actor Josh Duhamel hit it home. When asked what his favorite part of a woman was, he said:

“Personally, I like the ass.”

Straight and to the point…and some good marketing for his wife, Fergie, to boot(ie).

Image credit: judean peoples front

Filed under Critical Copywriting, Marketing | Tags: branding, brands, copy, copywriter, copywriting, Julie Roads, Marketing, marketing copy, Writing Roads | Comments (3)

The power of a life behind a brand

The most beautiful bird just flew in front of my office window. A Cardinal: bright red, yellow beak, that sharp tuft of hair on his head. He’s still out there and I’m watching him flit around the trees. And, I’m thinking, he doesn’t look real, he looks like a cartoon, he looks like a drawing.

Which is when I realized that my thoughts made perfect sense. I grew up looking at a drawn, caricatured Cardinal because I’m from St. Louis. The majority of my childhood, until the football Cardinals were sold and moved to Arizona in 1988, was entrenched in Cardinal sports. My family is full of die-hard fans. St. Louis is one of the greatest sports-fan cities in the country.

I’ve been branded, people – by a brand. Those baseball and football Cardinals have been so firmly entrenched by TV, sports uniforms, t-shirts, hats, billboards, the Clydesdales, etc. that my addled brain actually thinks that’s what a Cardinal looks like. It’s in my blood, part of my DNA.

I realize this example is a sports team – but it has a logo, a song, horses. It’s selling seats and hot dogs and beer and hats and….The impact is so powerful because there’s real feeling and countless sensory experiences behind the brand: family, summer, hot nights, bright lights, the thwump of the ball in the catcher’s mitt, the crack of the ball off the bat, the taste of the nachos, the roar of the crowds – doesn’t matter whether we’re winning or losing, never has. And they’re called to life every time we see that bird – the logo or the real one.

Proof: I started crying just watching the Clydesdale videos…as I tried to pick one of the thousands that exist.

Are there brands in your life that have had this kind of powerful impact on your world? And how can you make your brand, or the brand that you’re writing about, that full?

If we take our cue from the Cardinals, then we realize that we have to give a total experience. It’s not just about a tagline or a cool package. It’s about interaction, conversation, the senses, the meaning, the life that happens around the product.

Image credit: Ian Turton

Filed under How To, Marketing | Tags: baseball, brand, branding, copywriting, Julie Roads, Marketing, product branding, st. louis cardinals, Writing Roads | Comment (1)

Your Personal Brand Doesn’t Belong to You

No matter how hard you work to build your personal brand, it won’t be airtight. Not everyone will get the impression you’re hoping to express.

Do you remember English class back in the day? One of my all time favorite teachers, Miss Riddle – swear to god, ask my mother – is the one that first implanted the concept of poetry on my brain. Not the rhyming or the rhythms – but the meaning of the poetry. And then, Dr. Puhr – the one who turned me into a feminist – explored the meaning of prose, of stories, of novels.

Both of these women showed me that, when interpreting someone’s writing, there is no one answer and essentially there is no wrong answer. The color purple could represent the heart of a woman, the ‘fount’ of a woman, bruises, emotion, the sky, femaleness. It could be just one of those things or it could be all of them, to another reader it could represent something that you and I – even Alice Walker – never dreamed of.

The analysis, the interpretation – all depends on us. As readers and be-ers, we attach our histories, our very souls, our experiences  to what we read and see. And from there we create our own understanding. It may not be what the writer intended – but it isn’t wrong. It’s real. As in ‘interpreter-based’ reality.

When you’re creating your identity for your self, your business, your work – you, just like a writer, craft your words and your message with a specific intention and meaning. But your clients and customers, just like readers, will bring themselves fully and without excuse to their interpretation of who you are and what you represent.

Your personal brand, therefore, is not singular or definitive – and I’d hardly call it your own.

Image courtesy of Earth and Eden

Filed under How To, Marketing, Networking, Social Media, The Business | Tags: being authentic, blog, blogger, branding, building a business, copywriter, copywritng, Julie Roads, Marketing, marketing writer, personal brand, Writing, Writing Roads | Comments (5)