That was a bad idea
I was just driving my Dad back to the airport in Seattle and he was telling me about some brand consultant that their city hired some year’s ago to “come up with a brand.” There’s a lot of trigger words in there Dad, but I’m hanging in.
“Oh yeah? What happened?”
“Well we already had a great slogan. It talked about the area and our hills. We love those hills!”
“Well what did they replace it with?”
“I don’t know, something about being a city of love and hope or something.”
“What didn’t you like about it? Other great cities have branding like that, City of Brotherly Love for instance?”
“Yeah, but this one didn’t mean anything and the other one was so much better. It was unique! They ended up going back to the old one anyhow, after all that time and all that money!”
I love my Dad and I love having convos like this with him. He’s a pretty thoughtful person but he’s also a person. And people have gut reactions about things and honestly, that’s often a pretty big metric for success (or lack of it) when it comes to the highly visual nature of the work.
The thing I will disagree with Dad on though is that the new “brand” for his city wasn’t a bad idea in and of itself. That would still have to be seen. Implementation, clarity and consistency over time and all that.
It wasn’t a bad idea, it was the wrong idea.
Often branding work isn’t about coming up with a good idea. That’s the easy part. It’s about coming up with the right idea. The one that solves the right problem, seizes the right opportunity, says the right things to the right people. That’s a heck of a lot harder to get to and it requires one major ingredient that most people hiring creative services are unwilling to hang in there for. Work. Process.
My city is putting in new electrical ( I think) on my street. They are out there everyday. It’s not fast. Lots of understanding about the site, lots of lines painted on the pavement to understand what’s underneath, what will be effected and how. Then some digging, then some putting stuff in the ground, traffic control, dump trucks, machines, etc.
The best clients are the ones willing to do the work behind the work. To get the ground ready, to understand the lay of the land. What’s come before, what will come after and what things will look like after they are done. To not just come up with a good idea, but get the right idea.
I believe that all good work comes from purpose and purpose comes from identity. But that requires a willingness to work. Then the right ideas, they start flowing.
So thanks Dad, good thoughts.
