How many of you have seen creative businesses describe themselves as some permutation of the following:
“At XYZ Interior Design we pride ourselves on our attention to detail and our personal relationship with you, our customer. Service is the key to our business. Custom, inspired, elegant design the hallmark of our work. “
“Inspired”, “Flawless”, “Custom”, “Detailed”, “Elegant”, and “Personal” are wonderful adjectives that mean nothing when it comes to making a statement about your creative business. Would a customer ever do business with you if you billed yourself as uninspired, flawed, impersonal and déclassé? Of course not. So my rule of thumb is that if how you describe your business can’t be (intentionally) true about another creative business, it can’t be your brand statement. “Detail oriented” will not work, but “modern and clean” does. “Custom” no “Americana” yes.
Hiding behind descriptions that may describe you as a person or how you hope your business is perceived without putting the essence of your and your creative business’ art out there is a crutch that is incredibly self-limiting. Creative businesses can serve a wide audience, but cannot be all things to all people. The essence of what you and your art represent is the foundation of your business. Without a terrific statement of that essence it will be virtually impossible to create the model that will best serve both your clients and your business. However, with it, you can go anywhere. Ralph Lauren and Polo — the definition of Americana – a long way from Ralph Lifshitz from the Bronx selling ties.
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Thanks for the reminder and the awesome workshop!!!!
One of my pet peeves is when people describe their company as “fresh”. What company describes themselves as “stale”? Fresh means nothing. Great post.
Sean… great post and an excellent reminder from last weeks event. This is probably the best piece of advice I’ve been able to extend to my clients since listening to you last week. Truly remarkable. Can’t wait to have you back later this year! 😉
Thanks Sean… can keep hearing this over and over. Thanks for the workshop inspiration. It was great meeting you!
Great words! Thanks for the refresher. Definitely challenges how others feel about us. I want to change the world.
So true and everything you do is a reflection of your brand. Personally I am not a fan of tag lines at all…your branding should speak to the potential client.
Wow. What a great post. I will certainly re-assess the words I’m using to describe our brand – what you said makes absolute sense, but I never thought about it that way before. What would we do without you, Sean? 🙂 Thanks for once again sharing such quality information, so eloquently.
Love this post! I cringe when I see businesses use the words “premiere” and “exclusive”. Great point Liene, I think I use the word “fresh” on my website! Must change asap. 🙂
Great post, fabulous invitation to think beyond the obvious. Thanks Sean and everyone else who pitched in! Currently re-branding myself, will do my best to implement the essence of this post. Happy Holidays everyone!
You are absolutely right when you mentioned that we cannot be all things to all people. We must remain true to ourselves and brand ourselves as such. Great post and an excellent eye opener!
I don’t think I have a brand, or a tag line. What exactly is one of those anyway. I know it is not just a logo or the style of ones portfolio. Is it having a statement about ones business that one aspires to and then repeating it on everything; web pages, stationery and communications?