Branding Research ::: TELL ME IS IT ALL JUST SPIN?

There seems to be a sudden glut of branding specialists and businesses. It's not just for businesses and corporations anymore either, individuals are now being encouraged to be their own brand: Footballers, industry experts and employees!

Eight to ten years ago it was all about the personal or company Mission Statement. Now its about the Unique Positioning Statement attached to your personal or company brand. 

There are some beautiful brands and logos around - some lovely websites and marketing pitches being bandied around. I encourage all of that I in fact love that side of branding myself its an area I have specialised in and continue to thoroughly enjoy.

But with this proliferation of BRANDING and the recent focus on its perceived importance what I find myself asking is...

Does it work?

Who uses it?

Who benefits from its implementation?

What businesses if any thrive without ever truly have engaged it?

When does it work?

What is its value?

Now no one wants to do a survey.
Usually they are time consuming and a little irritating like a pap smear or prostate examination.

BUT!

What if the results are highly relevant to you? What if they clarify some underlying questions and business/branding queries you may have? In this instance I do hope its relevant and applicable information I can share with you the will be beneficial and at least interesting to examine.

WHO

The people I need to complete the survey will be from all walks of business and 'monetising' large and small, local and global. Please I implore you to pass this invitation on.

WHAT

What am I hoping to achieve? To gather the findings and deliver clear and distinct information that can help your bottom line.

WHERE

See the survey below and if you feel compelled subscribe as I will posting the results in a blog with anonymity assured.

WHEN

Now

HOW

By asking clear and basic questions then by compiling the results and deliver them back to you here free of charge.

All I need is a little of your time and help, I am not gathering a data base this is solely to satisfy my own queries and curiosity. All information will be strictly confidential and not used for profit on my behalf or any other party.

So get on board and lets find out what really happening.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

::: EVERYBODY WANTS TO FEEL IT :::

Everybody wants to feel...

pretty basic statement.

Sure we all know it is truth but feel - feel what exactly?

Sometimes we think we know what we want to feel and how to get that for ourselves but when it sneaks up on us and hits the spot - Amen! Strange creatures humans all wanting to deny the fact that we are indeed cliches. Self aware bots wearing our emotional amour we savvy our way through each day.

Right now as I type some music has started playing that's perfectly bluesy and the sky is grey as the sun sets on this cold Melbourne day, it feels perfect! Yes its one of those exact moments. So I am a cliche but god it feels good.

Meeting people that connect and feel with us is magical. Sharing an interest or taste, music, food some idiotic and obscure 'like' that you may have is so rewarding. I have friends and family that share a rapport that can fundamentally 'put me back together'. Its not that I am emotionally unfolding at every turn but sometimes its like an itch that requires attention. Someone to make you laugh or say that it is okay. Its that someone or thing that re assembles the misaligned within. That said it can also be a song, a place, a type of weather, a hug, a smell, an image, an event we experience and its all okay again. We let our guard down remove our cynical filters and feel good again! We are moved, it strikes a chord and we relax and let something good in.

Tarred With the Same Brush

Nature too does a stellar job at it.
For me the best time to run is when the weather is about to turn, the wind is squally the sky is threatening. For some reason I find it exhilarating, some light rain on the face the bracing cold, trying to outrun the down pour. Then getting in to feel safe and warm sheltered from the storm or rain when it hits is something I love to feel.

Artists make us feel. Putting their grey matter out there on the line their emotions and selves its all laid bare. There is a bravery that creative people exhibit that is truly unique. Many a brilliant talent is never shared due to a type of cowardice or humility. No one welcomes a cutting comment or judgment but trying to avoid it by playing small just sells us all short.

To stick your neck out and expose a part of your brain leaves one wide open for all manner of onslaught. I am a hideously sensitive person - idiotically so. While I continue to work on that flaw I leave myself wide open by putting my personal work out there flaws and all. So when I see anothers work that resonates deep within me I appreciate the emotional risk and vulnerability involved.

Feelings and what triggers them is purely subjective as is the experience of categorising them. I have had moments of exquisite pain (although I am also trying to eliminate that too), embraced angst and willingly let myself be immersed in the misery of a song for instance. I call that doing a sad.

Massive Sad

Finding a vehicle that can exult us, make us cry tears of gratitude, sing, dance, stun, arrest is what I want to feel. There is nothing like that genuine core feeling, often it is a reaction.

So I want to recognise and thank the songwriters, composers and musicians that make my innards reel, the photographers, artists and film makers, comedians, actors, performers that have helped define my take on life, the designers of this world, the architects, the fashion designers, those that design, the animators, the speakers and the writers, the people that live with attitude and to those brave people that wear their heart on their sleeve...

Thank you for your bravery. Thank you for the reveal. Thank you for letting me feel. Thank you for putting me back together.