The Cardinal(e) Rules of discovering the DNA of brand 'You'

By Lindsay Cardinale

As marketers, we spend hours thinking about what brands mean in consumers’ lives, what impact they have on society, what their equities are, and what their next innovative differentiators will be. We scour content online and offline, reading case study after case study, brainstorming and scribbling ideas until our cocktail napkins are full.

For this, give your marketing professional self a pat on the back, and your personal self a bucket of cold water to the face, because most of us are forgetting about the most important brand of all: ourselves.

I’m not referring to perceptions and personal branding. The last thing I’d like to be responsible for reminding you to do is: “Wear your Chanel sunglasses, your True Religion jeans, sip from a Starbucks cup as you hop into your BMW and hit the Nike store to buy a new golf outfit.” Rather, it’s realizing your brand is about the true authenticity in the human being that you are. What is in your brand (and literal) DNA?

Right now, at Medill, 85+ IMC’ers can be found running around handing out resumes like free samples, Linking-In ourselves with every business professional we can think of. We hope to create an image of the perfect of employee and bolster our chances of landing that epic dream job. But, today I’m asking my classmates to humor me for a second and attempt an out-of-body experience. Take a step outside the mayhem that is “the job hunt” and think about what it means to be you.

One of the first people to emphasize the importance of understanding our own brand DNA was Tom Peters. His 1997 Fast Company article entitled, “The Brand Called You” really drove this concept home. Over a decade later, the article is more true than ever; and Tom is still delivering on his best thoughts with his recent book, “The Little BIG Things: 163 ways to pursue excellence.”

What really matters is that knowing your own ‘brand DNA’ is a big part of success (both professionally and personally). Beyond landing that dream job; it allows us to be transparent, intuitive, insightful, creative, open to change, prone to great ideas and right-brained thinking, connected and understanding.

To those ends, here are the Cardinal(e) rules of understanding and growing the brand that is, YOU.

1. Never. stop. learning – after all, who says, “I’m done learning, I’m smart enough, I know it all?”

2. Think – all the time; about what’s going on with you; about everything.

3. Stay emotional – emotion makes for much better storytelling.

4. Listen, ACTIVELY. Then think about what’s said and how it relates to who you are.

5. Use your similarities with people to understand your differences.

6. Please, please, do not become a faux intellectual.

7. Find out how you relax, and do it – all the time.

8. If you have to say it, then it’s not true. Don’t run around saying you’re great. Just be great.

Some of the most inspiring, creative and original ideas, come at times when we are being the most true to ourselves. In the world of marketing, we can’t expect to understand how consumers relate to products and services, if we do not first understand how we personally relate to the world.

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Lindsay Cardinale is a student in the Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications program at Northwestern University’s Medill School and can be reached at lindsaycardinale2010@u.northwestern.edu.

How honest is Chicago? Honest Tea uses marketing campaign to find out

By Susan Monahan

More than a decade ago, Honest Tea was a pioneer for organic bottled teas with no artificial sweeteners. It was a small player in a new category. Back then, it was easy to stay true to its self-proclaimed “quirky independent streak.”

Today, Honest Tea has plenty of competition. Its differentiators, organic ingredients, aren't so different anymore. And, it’s under pressure to appeal to a larger consumer base, as Coca-Cola recently acquired a stake in Honest Tea.

Last week, at locations like the Chicago Board of Trade, Honest Tea left unmanned carts of its drinks with signs requesting that people drop $1 into a jar in exchange for a bottle -- “on the honor code.” Chicago-area news media are buzzing about the results. Only 78% of the takers paid up.

NBC Chicago.com

This twist on sampling began in New York City last April, at the height of the political crackdown on financial corporations. Ad agency SS+K led the Honesty Store street campaign with signs reading, “Yes Mr. President, let’s bring Honest Tea to Wall Street.” In that city, 89% of passers-by paid for their bottles. Bloggers and the social media landscape generated countless more impressions from the debates it sparked. An integrated campaign was born from the ground up.

But, how are these one-off tests working as a customer acquisition strategy?

Where many sampling campaigns rely on sponsorship of sporting events or concerts that draw the product’s target consumers, Honest Tea worked alone to capitalize on a mass-culture opportunity. This allowed potential customers to first taste the tea while connecting with its unique brand DNA.

It’s more than word play. Moving beyond the common pure ingredients, Honest Tea’s message seems to be about trust. Drinkers may carry the bottle with a sense of integrity. (Especially if they actually paid for it!) This creates an experience more powerful than a TV ad or a testimonial.

The street effort may be sublime, but have Honest Tea in-store sales gone up?

“We’re still waiting on results,” said Alex Mailman at SS+K. “But safe to say that the Honest Store has stirred a real conversation around the country, about honest behavior and about each city's self image. And despite some disappointment in a couple of cities about not being first, customers appreciate the trust that Honest Tea has shown in them.”

What do you think about the impact of sampling events and the possibility of mass appeal?

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Susan Monahan is a blogger at Vitamin IMC and a student in the Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University's Medill School. She regrets that the Honesty Store never made it up to Northwestern. Susan can be reached at SusanMonahan2010@u.northwestern.edu