So many times when creators offering courses on brand strategy invade my social media feeds, it seems that their focus is primarily on positioning, personas, and palettes. Which, indeed, are very important when you’re creating an ecosystem for your business or public identity to live in, and through which will interact with the world.
Done correctly, these little dips into strategy and design are central to what makes your brand yours, and what makes it the clearest, most perfect fit for your target customers.
Done incorrectly, you’ve created some fancy window-dressing. At best.
How your brand shows in the in-between moments, when no one’s watching the funnels or pushing through pipelines or publishing polished posts, is what really matters.
Rather than prescribing what exactly that should look like for you (these things should not be decided upon on the basis of reading one blog post), I’d love to share some brand moments that have made a lasting impression on me in recent months.
Denny’s
You can love or hate America’s Diner, or mourn its eventual demise at the hands of private equity, but you must admit that going there is an experience. A series of combinations of breakfast staples presented alongside closeups of pancake stacks. An almost suspicious amount of other non-breakfast options. An affordable salmon dish on the 55+ menu my father simply cannot get over. It’s not fancy, but it resembles good stuff for the rest of us.
I recently ordered the Fit Slam: egg whites, turkey bacon, English muffin, and a little bowl of fruit.
When the order came out, I was greeted by my new best friend: the fruit bowl was topped with half a banana with the peel cut into octopus tentacles and a little smiling face drawn on with an ink pen.
True love.
I don’t know if the practice of cutting bananas into cute octopuses is a company policy, or if someone in the kitchen was feeling extra whimsical and had a few minutes to spare that morning. Regardless, my day was absolutely made because a fellow human I didn’t even know decided to do something unexpected and pleasant.
Some searching later that day did not reveal either way whether Denny’s staff are compelled to make friendly sea creatures out of fruit. However, I did discover the Superbowl XLIII ad spot Denny’s ran in 2009, featuring Nanerpus, a feat of lofi production with googly eyes and fishing line animating an entity that loves eating pancakes, to the narrator’s derision. Marvelous.
Tibetan Nuns Project
I’m loath to call the Tibetan Nuns Project an outright brand but, since they do indeed interface with its supporters through a logo and unified messaging, it’s probably alright to proceed.
This past week, because I am an occasional supporter (who better to buy prayer flags from?), I received a printed envelope that I already knew was a donation solicitation. They do this sometimes, but never annoyingly so. Above my name and address was a message telling me that a wallet card was inside. My interest was piqued.
Just that little extra splash of ink enticed me to engage with TNP’s message, even though I wasn’t planning to do more than open the envelope and skim through the fundraising letter. This letter also referenced the wallet card as a token of appreciation before listing supporters’ impact by measurable outcomes.
For the page’s fold came a business card-sized piece of cardstock. A group of smiling nuns holding flowers graced one side. On the back was a quote from His Holiness the Dalai Lama about waking up and choosing to behave in a manner that benefits all beings. I must admit that my heartstrings were pulled.
This moment was memorable for me to write about it now and likely cost only a few cents to produce. The card now rests on my personal altar, an the Tibetan Nuns Project has returned to top-of-mind (I am in need of fresh prayer flags for the yard).
Crustacean Shibboleth
On my own business website, I’ve tucked in images of moss and liverwort to delight my most-desired audience: fellow goblins enamored with the small details of the natural world (and who would like help doing some world-building of their own). The champion, though, is an isopod situated on the homepage. It functions as a filter.
For site visitors that don’t like isopods, this is probably a turnoff. For the ground-gazing human oddities that love a good woodlouse, it serves to spark connection. The goblin in me recognizes the goblin in you. These are the people most likely to mesh well with my business, both in terms of interaction and passion projects. These are the people I most want to work with (send me a message, fellow goblin visionaries).
McDonald’s
There are positive brand moments that generate interest and joy. And then there is going into a McDonald’s.
Once a bastion of childhood joy (PlayPlaces! Birthday parties! Video games for a short while!) has become a dullest, most unwelcoming business to frequent if one does at all.
The welcoming red and yellow exteriors with distinctive eaves have become brown and gray corporate boxes. The customer experience has turned into tapping through a kiosk (which I’m not opposed to as a terminal introvert) and hoping that the one employee lurking near the counter doesn’t come out and spit on you for making the mistake of not choosing the drive-through.
At my local restaurant, the stations where one used to choose drinks and collect straws, ketchup, and napkins has been nearly cleared out, patrons not trusted with the autonomy of working a dispenser unmonitored. Nothing has replaced it, not even wall art. Seating is limited and uncomfortable. It’s a dismal, depressing environment.
And the Happy Meal toy display! Completely uninviting, sometimes reduced to just cardboard cutouts of what a kid can hope to receive.
It’s as if, in the interest of profit, the fast food giant has removed all possibility of enjoying an engaging brand moment, perhaps because their customers keep showing that they’ll accept neglect and dehumanization. Bleak.
Find Opportunities to Delight
Don’t be McDonald’s. Please find novel ways to connect with the people you most want to serve as a business owner. Or just interact with as a fellow human! In these increasingly depersonalized and AI-generated times, being made to feel like you’ve found someone that genuinely sees you and wants to playfully pique your interest is such a rarity.
Lean into your differentiators.
Don’t believe that simply adjusting your brand colors or mission statement will correct off-putting interactions, intentional or not.
Accept no cardboard cutouts.