Phil Cooke

Primal Branding

So I wake up at 2am this morning. Can’t sleep. Finally get up and walk downstairs. I pick up an old copy of “Creativity” magazine, and open to an article about Patrick Hanlon called “Primal Branding.” It’s about his fascinating book that correlates effective branding to religious belief. Let me say that again. He compares effective branding to religious belief. Know what? It’s brilliant. No – branding is not religious. But both display compelling connections and have powerful intersections. Check out the article and read the book. What are the comparisons? The following important steps:

1. Every belief system has a creation story. Celebrating that creation story is key to your success. Remember the track coach who experimented with a waffle iron to make running shoes that gripped?
2. Belief systems have a creed everyone believes in. Do you believe in life after death? Do you “think different?”
3. Belief systems have icons. The NIke swoosh, the VW Bug, Netflix’s red envelope – things that transcend the normal.
4. Belief systems have rituals. Go into any Starbucks anywhere on the planet and you order the same product, the same way, from the same menu, in the same looking store. Your customer experience should be the same on the web, print, on TV – anywhere.
5. Belief systems have leaders. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Oprah. People who rise above the everyday and represent the product.

There’s more, so please check out their website and get the book. Fascinating stuff – especially to anyone marketing and branding faith-based products and organizations.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 23rd, 2007 at 10:25 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.