Let’s be honest
I had a client recently ask me a pretty poignant question during a discovery call.
“What happens if we have to go back to the drawing board?” (i.e. start over) We were doing a full brand identity starting with strategy and moving into visual brand identity.
It’s one of those questions that makes my heart skip a beat. I think it’s maybe the implications hidden in the question that make me think the client is anticipating it going a certain way or has had recent negative experiences that they will bring to the project. But I answered this way. “If we have to go back to the ‘drawing board’ something has gone terribly wrong. One of two things has happened. 1) you have not been honest with me, or 2) I’ve not listened to you. In my experience both have happened.
The reason behind the assumption of and commitment to honesty is so important is because authenticity isn’t just a virtue in brand development work. It’s the whole point. It’s the outcome.
Authenticity isn’t just a virtue in brand development work. It’s the whole point. It’s the outcome.
Now, I don’t think anyone’s purposely lying to me anymore then I am purposely trying to not listen. But I do think there’s a logical inconsistency or even just wishful thinking that takes place that a honed outside perspective can more easily identify.
An example of this would be where a client was assuring me that the disastrous PR incident of 10 plus years ago was certainly such a distance memory it hardly existed and had no bearing on any negative perception the brand was dealing with. Research (a 5 second google search) showed that was most certainly not the case.
We want to believe what we want to believe. We want to hear what we want to hear. Being honest about this and eagerly inviting outside and diverse perspectives are invaluable as a way to cut through our bias and our unwillingness or inability to see things clearly.
Authenticity works. The whole point of brand positioning is to connect. Connect quickly and connect meaningfully. To do that your story has to be well honed in a logical, truthful, authentic way and the creative output must clearly ladder up to that in a consistent way.
I love this work because I want more clarity in my life, not less. I want more honesty, I want more beauty. This thinking builds great brands (not to mention, creates really precise, effective creative work.) But, more importantly, it builds a better world.
