Claiming the Future of Your Brand

It’s October, and do you know what that means? Christmas! Yes, that’s right – head into any department store or big box retailer and you can clearly see it’s Christmas time. My kids even know this and so have begun the annual ritual of compiling their Christmas wish lists. For my eldest, it simply means writing down every Wii game or pop CD ever produced. For the youngest, it’s easy; his big sisters point out a variety of trucks and little guy sports equipment to which he nods yes or no. Then they write it down for him. But for my middle child, this is a process that involves careful study, research and even strategy to achieve the desired outcome (aka: get the present.) She will spend weeks scouring every catalog that comes to the door. Poll her friends to find out what they are asking for. Analyze every commercial on the Disney Channel. And then carefully compile a list of the most desirable dolls and stuffed animals. The next part is what’s interesting though. Somewhere in her little head, she came up with the idea that she could determine the fate of her list with shear mental fortitude and in fact will her wish to come true by acting as if it already has.

Here’s how it goes: this year, one of the things she wants is a “Bugli.” It’s a hideous little fleece stuffed animal whose catalog caption boasts “It’s so ugly, it’s cute!” I disagree. It’s just ugly. But, whatever. So she’s selected this toy and now comes the strategy – the “Bugli Campaign” if you will. Instead of showing potential Bugli buyers the catalog and saying “I’d like to get this for Christmas” she confidently whips out the picture and says “Have you seen the Bugli that I am getting?” or “Have you seen my new Bugli?”

Now, I guess you could say she’s just employing the power of positive thinking, but I think there’s more to it. She has altered her language and action to set her own course and actualize her goal.

Flipping over to the PR side of things, this same skill must be applied when branding your organization or yourself. Since a brand is a long-term proposition, not short-term, like an ad campaign, it must consider the future as well as the present and past. This brings us to our:

PR Tip of the Day: Identify and Voice what you will represent in the future to engage customers today.

I’ve worked with a variety of organizations from non-profits to governmental bodies and corporations to identify and advance their brands. They all knew, going into it that their brand would need to represent who they were at that point in time, but few considered it a way to voice who they would be tomorrow.

In many ways, your brand is your contract with your constituents. Through your brand, you make a commitment – you clearly state what others can expect from you. You let them know that when they work with you they can expect reliability, quality, innovation, or whatever it is that you embody. Don’t you want to let them know that you will be around past the close of business today and that they can expect those things in the future as well? Or maybe, you’re scraping the old play book and in the future you will be providing a whole new experience for you constituents. Claim it! Once you have identified what your tomorrow looks like, actualize it via your words and actions.


In doing so, you engage with your customers in two ways:
1) By providing them insight into who you are and who you aspire to be – this allows them to feel more personally connected to you.
2) By letting them know you view your relationship to be long-term and as such are focusing on how you can better/continue to meet their needs in the future.

This works. Just ask my daughter. (Yes, she’s going to get the Bugli.) It is about more than just positive thinking. It’s about being deliberate and aggressive in achieving your identified goals and it requires that you communicate your brand’s promise for tomorrow as part of your efforts today.