I'm occasionally struck by businesses who accidentally develop a really memorable brand.
I found myself in an ice cream shop near our new office. On entering the door the young lady, who is the proprietor, greeted my family and me. She said "Welcome to The Adventure". I thought it was pretty ambitions, but what the hey.
We went through the process of ordering our ice cream and probably quite a bit into eating ice cream-you can tell we were preoccupied-before I came to a realization. The name of the store was "The Adventure"!
At which point I asked the proprietor "when you were coming up with the name for your store, did you have in mind that you would greet people with 'Welcome to The Adventure'"?
She told me that it hadn't occurred to her until right after the first time she said the words.
Accidental branding genius!
I was reminded of the story I've heard about one of the Beastie Boys' albums. The album was called "Hello Nasty". The story goes that the beastie boys were represented by a publicity firm named Nasty Little Man, and that when one calls Nasty Little Man when the receptionist answers "Hello Nasty"!
Branding genius!
I know I'll never forget that story. Was this the intent did the founders of Nasty Little Man no when they named their business that their receptionist will answer the phone that way? They may have, of course. They are a hip publicity firm. But maybe not.
The sad part of this story of the story is that notwithstanding her accidental branding genius the proprietor of "The Adventure" does not appear to have claimed her Google places page. Sadly, not Local SEO Genius.
I've racked my brain trying to come up with other examples. Sad, but true, it's the rare brand content be truly memorable. It's not uncommon for people to be memorable and it's not uncommon for ideas to be memorable and sticky. But not so much the brands.
The bland brands prevail.
Do you have a bland brand?
Think about it. How do you interact with customers? Are you memorable?
Join me! It's a new mission. Let's become branding geniuses!
Photo Credit:
- "The Brand" by Hanan Cohen - Translation on Flickr