Brander, brand thyself

Not long ago we updated the Duke website (if you haven’t visited, check it out!)

I used the opportunity to ask myself – yet again – what makes us different from other agencies.

Ahh differentiation. It can be the stickiest part of the brand equation. I am here to tell you, it is really hard to look at yourself (or your business) and know exactly what your special sauce might be. This is why – ahem – people hire us to do it for them. A little distance helps a lot.

There we were, mid website project, and I was all: brander, brand thyself!

It is a process I’ve tackled three times now (at least). I decide on something, and then I live with it for a while, until it becomes like a jacket that’s too tight across the shoulders, or too short in the sleeves. If it doesn’t stand the test of time, it’s not a good fit.

So I shrugged off our old messaging and started again.

Where I landed was this – using Simon Sinek’s golden circle.

What we sell is marketing and communications services – specifically brand, strategic campaigns, and activations.

How we do it is by deeply researching target audiences and understanding their interests, motivations, and boundaries; developing bespoke strategies that link your audiences to your goals; and proactively managing every aspect of each project.

Why we do it is to meaningfully connect, at scale, with the audiences who matter most.

Our brand essence is just one word: connection.

Clicks, views, engagement, conversions, recall – all of these metrics are measurements of connection.

Connection is the key in the lock for customer acquisition, whether you’re selling a product, a service or an idea.

You could do it yourself, by having one engaging conversation at a time, but you’d be limiting yourself to the number of people you can chat with each day.

To maximize impact, you need scale. You need a carefully designed suite of creative messages targeting the widest possible audience, at all stages of their buyer’s journey. Then you need to deploy those messages into the world in places your audience frequents, and you need them to see it multiple times.

Connection at scale is the key in the lock for population acquisition. This is how you achieve sales targets, grow your organization, build awareness, win elections and change minds.

We live in a world that is facing profound challenges – challenges that drive us apart when they should be driving us together. The only antidote is connection.

And that’s a jacket that fits us just fine.