Over my 30-year career, people often pull me aside for casual brand advice and to hear the hilarious and occasionally outrageous stories behind great brands. I encounter the same questions and problems over and over again, so I thought I’d take a moment to share my top five tips for creating a powerful brand.

1. Understand It’s All About Them

The brand is built for your customers. Embrace the idea that your product or service is made to fit into your customer’s story, not your own. Although a corporate identity (including positioning, value proposition, etc.) is essential for selling, investor relations, and corporate communications, it is not the brand. The brand is a customer-centric concept built on a strategic foundation.

Think of what Nike is as a company, and then think of what Nike represents as a brand. Nike designs, markets, and sells athletic apparel and equipment and the brand is about personal empowerment – Just Do It.

2. Develop A Strategically-Driven Creative Concept

A brand identity is a creative concept that delivers on a set of requirements. It is a conceptual framework designed to make an emotional connection. The creative concept allows people to see things in a new way by accessing the emotional part of the mind. It might even overturn established logic and create a new perspective. Think of a product that has a large warning label that product use might kill you and think of the Marlboro cowboy and the #1 cigarette brand in the world.

Think of how Apple changed the way people saw computers by leveraging creativity, or how Lululemon elevated yoga apparel to luxury fashion with an aspirational lifestyle. Powerful brands have a creative concept and that concept changes how people view the product. Think of it as conceptual wrapping paper that sets the context.

3. Strategically Design an Ownable Look and Feel

Graphics, user interfaces, and even audio come together to bring the brand to life. A distinct visual style and audio signature that express your brand strategy resonate with customers. These artistic expressions are based on consumer insights, not personal taste. Remember, keep your audience in mind, and don’t simply express your corporate identity. These expressions should evoke responses that meet the goals you’ve set for the brand.

Ask yourself how you want people to think and feel when they interact with your brand. Many branding efforts go astray by forgetting that design is for the customer and not a flag for the company to waive.

4. Keep the Architecture Simple

Ideally, build one brand. Avoid sub-brands that bring different logos and competing ideas. With branding, less is more. Multiple brands make it more complicated and create a risk of confusion and dilution of not carefully managed.

I only recommend building a sub-brand if there are ideas/feelings/beliefs that cannot be captured within the boundaries of the main brand. This can happen when a brand enters a new market and its existing equities do not translate. By creating a sub-brand, you can transfer the perceived values that do resonate and add the messaging needed to connect with the new customers. For instance, there is Ralph Lauren, Polo, and Chaps. Three different brands capturing different markets.

5. Write A Great Line

A memorable and meaningful tagline goes a long way to building a powerful brand. It’s like poetry. It should be provocative and sync with the emotional narrative you are building with the customer. A good tagline is both a motivation for action and an affirmation of your customer’s experiences. Consider these taglines:

“Be All You Can Be”—U.S. Army

“The Antidote to Civilization”—Club Med

“Find Your Beach”—Corona

“When You Care Enough to Send the Very Best”—Hallmark

With few words, these lines speak volumes and resonate on a practical and emotional level.

Conclusion

Most people don’t realize how much work happens before a brand is born. Developing the brand strategy is an essential process that requires empathy, imagination, logical and keen insights gleaned from consumer research. Understand how best to make an emotional connection with your customers, what your competition is doing, and where the market is heading so you know the world your brand will be operating in, and create it accordingly. Without building a strong strategic foundation, it’s impossible to create a winning brand.

As Warren Buffett says, a brand is a moat built around the company. When deciding to invest in a company the resonance of the brand is one of the two characteristics Buffett looks for. Companies with powerful brands consistently do better in the market. They soar higher when things are good and suffer less when things are bad. Building a brand takes investment and ongoing stewardship, but the result is a priceless asset that can deliver a sustainable competitive advantage under any market condition.

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Branding on the High Seas

Pirates have long been compelling characters for storytellers and brands alike. From Captain Hook to Captain Morgan, pirates remain potent symbols of freedom and adventure.

But piracy is much more complex than Disney-style swashbuckling or spiced rum would have us believe. One activist group has embraced that complexity and assumed an unexpected brand identity: the compassionate pirate.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society takes inspiration from the history of piracy. They have adopted a distinct pirate flag as the logo of their environmental brand. But these pirates aren’t raiders. They’re protectors.

Sea Shepherd’s work recently gained attention following the 2021 Netflix documentary Seaspiracy. Their mission revolves around protecting marine wildlife from poaching and exploitation. Taking after their founder Captain Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd volunteers have boarded ships and roamed the oceans since 1977. In that time, they have saved thousands of sea creatures and put a stop to numerous illegal operations.

Lying at the nexus of vigilantism and stewardship, Sea Shepherd takes the notion of sustainability and flips it on its head. According to their environmental brand, sustainability means more than just smarter consumption and increased regulation. It means the dogged pursuit of those who act unsustainably.

In this sense, Sea Shepherd’s adoption of piracy as an environmental brand is as much a warning as it is a rallying cry.

Hoisting the Jolly Roger

Since the 17th and 18th century the sight of the pirate flag has been a potent symbol that grabs attention, implies urgency, and communicates a sense of rebellion against the status quo.

Whereas the original Jolly Roger historically motivated urgent action through fear of violence, Sea Shepherd leverages a different emotional urgency, the need to take action for the health of the Earth’s oceans.

The famed black and white pirate flag, the Jolly Roger, has adorned buccaneering vessels prowling the world’s oceans for centuries. But Sea Shepherd has traded the skull and crossbones (or crossed swords), for a skull depicting a dolphin and whale placed above a cross of Poseidon’s trident and a shepherd’s crook.

Paul Watson originally created the Sea Shepherd version of the Jolly Roger in response to criticism that accused his group of engaging in modern-day piracy.

Watson embraced the criticism as a branding opportunity. Though he doesn’t expect the actions of Sea Shepherd to be popular with everyone, Watson notes that “pirates get things done and tend to skirt the paperwork and red tape.” For those frustrated by the environmental failures of regulatory inaction, this is a powerful archetype.

Given that the “majority of the Earth’s surface lies in a state of anarchy and lawlessness,” wrote Watson, who better to protect those waters than “good pirates.”

Although all their ships are legally registered under the flags of various nations, Sea Shepherd always flies their black and white Jolly Roger.

A Pirate Brand Has Roots in Rebellion

Some critics have labeled the Sea Shepherds an eco-terrorist group. But pirates have always inspired fear in their enemies. Whether pirates were seen as heroes or scourges typically depended on one’s interests.

Pop culture depictions of pirates today often emphasize violence, drinking, and criminal behavior. But pirates had many admirable qualities, too. They were known for their strict social codes and as champions against brutal colonial oppression. Pirates in the 17th and 18th centuries even liberated slave ships and eagerly accepted diversity amongst their ranks.

The pirate mythology fits the Sea Shepherds. They see their work as more than simply confronting poachers, but in committing to a code of ethics. Their lives revolve around prioritizing the global ecosystem over corporate profits.

This code of ethics stretches beyond the seafaring side of the operation. About 85% of the donations received by Sea Shepherd go towards educational programs exposing the unethical and destructive realities of industrial fishing.

Sea Shepherds also work alongside national and international government agencies to investigate illegal fishing operations. Though it is difficult for government officials to publicly associate themselves with these ocean-protecting pirates, the work is underway.

To Paul Watson and his followers, the Sea Shepherd brand captures the battle, ethos, and sacrifice involved in their environmental mission. Using compassionate piracy, the brand evokes the urgency, action, and rebellion required to do what’s right to protect our oceans.

An Empowering Brand

By translating piracy into courage, Sea Shepherd empowers environmental activism in a unique way that brings a swagger to fight against anyone exploiting the oceans.

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The Importance of Artist Branding

An artist—no matter how brilliant, eccentric, or hard-working—is only human. An artist laboring in a studio is confined by physical time and space. An artist can only do so much in a given time.

But an artist brand? An art brand can do what no human being ever could.

A brand can attain a life of its own and transcend human limitations. With just a few clicks on social media, an artist brand can travel millions of miles to all corners of the Earth. A good brand in the linchpin of many artists’ success.

What artist best exemplifies the importance of branding in the modern art world? When you look at 2020’s biggest art auction successes under the age of 40, you will find Sam Cox, whose works amassed nearly $4.7 million across three continents in just over nine months.

To illustrate (pun intended) this point, let’s explore how Sam created the Mr. Doodle brand, propelling him to international fame and (in some circles) acclaim.

The Curious Case of Mr. Doodle

Though he’s British, goes by a whimsical alter ego, and has made waves with his eccentric, instantly recognizable art style, Mr. Doodle is no Banksy. We know exactly who he is.

Born in Kent, England in 1994, Sam Cox adopted the moniker of “Mr Doodle” in 2014. Though known in the art world since 2017, he only recently went viral in March 2020 when his signature “graffiti spaghetti” works sold at auction.

Whether you know Mr. Doodle or not, there’s no denying that he embodies—literally and figuratively—the concept of a successful, instantly recognizable art brand.

Mr. Doodle’s Artist Brand

Clothing

Mr. Doodle is rarely seen without his signature wardrobe. He can be spotted a mile away clad in stark white suits emblazoned with his whimsical, hand-drawn doodles.

Incorporating clothing into his art brand sends a clear message. Mr. Doodle doesn’t just make art; he lives art. Some artists work in a studio twelve hours a day, then click the lights off and go home. Not Mr. Doodle. He merges himself with his art. He literally embodies his artist brand.

Exhibitions

Mr. Doodle’s art style looks, well, silly. And that’s the point! He never takes things too seriously. His exhibitions are accompanied by a healthy dose of self-awareness.

Consider his 2016 exhibition, “Attention Seeker.” Its title, with a wink and a nod, tells us exactly what is really going on. In it, Mr. Doodle created a mural along the walls of London’s Hoxton Gallery. When the crowd arrived, he (in his matching outfit) lined himself up against the mural for the perfect Instagram shot. Attention seeker, indeed.

That kind of sly self-awareness and willingness to laugh at his own antics is, itself, a crucial element of Mr. Doodle’s artist brand.

Public Persona

We don’t know what Sam Cox is like behind closed doors. For all we know, his private life is brimming with contemplation and ruminations on the meaning of life, the universe, and everything.

But, in public, Mr. Doodle projects a carefree, happy-go-lucky personality that perfectly matches his artist brand.

From general mannerisms and comportment to his fictional origin story—a tale of interplanetary exile, an evil twin brother, and a fantastical Paper Galaxy—Mr. Doodle lives and breathes his artist brand.

Maybe it’s an act; maybe he really believes that stuff. Regardless, public persona matters quite a bit in art branding. Mr. Doodle understands that like few others.

Life Philosophy

Mr. Doodle believes that we should all take life a little less seriously.

In part a reaction against the VUCA world, Mr. Doodle stresses the importance of stepping back from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Art, in his estimation, has become too serious, too fixated on its own meaning and purpose. He wants everyone—from the art snobs to the general public—to have a bit more fun with art.

Every element of Mr. Doodle’s artistic brand reinforces that message. His brand doubles as a lifestyle and life philosophy. He invites fans to accompany him on his journey, to see the world from his point of view.

This is the power of an artist brand. Properly branding art can enthrall an audience, captivate them, and change the way they think about life. It’s hard to build better customer loyalty than that.

Conclusion

Mr. Doodle’s meteoric success is owed, in large part, to his ability to craft, deploy, and leverage his art brand.

He offers artists today a shining example of the power of branding art and maintaining a consistent and instantly recognizable branding for visual artists.

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Sara Schnadt, artist and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory staffer. Photo Jauren Jeter. Source: Artnet News

Many of us have become “talent” products in a vast talent marketplace. As with any crowded marketplace, a brand helps to authentically differentiate, resonate and connect with those that matter. This means crafting your personal “professional” brand. I know, some of you are saying, really, do I have to? Read on.

The Gig Economy

The term “gig” is slang for a job that lasts a specified period of time and was coined by musicians. It has grown to become a core component of the labor market, causing companies to review their definitions of what it means to be an employee. Organizations are starting to find some of their best talent through gig labor arrangements.

The gig economy is a labor market characterized by the prevalence of short-term contracts or freelance work. It is a free market system in which temporary positions are common and organizations hire independent workers for short-term commitments. Gig employees can include freelancers, independent contractors, project-based workers and temporary or part-time hires.

This is also known as the alternative workforce. Businesses save resources in terms of benefits, office space and training and have the ability to contract with experts for specific projects who might be too high-priced to maintain on staff. There are many websites now for gig recruiting including Behance.net for creative work or Toptal for IT.

There are several forces behind the rise of the gig economy including: digital technologies that allow workers to be mobile and work from anywhere; financial pressures on businesses leading to the creation of a more flexible workforce; and the entrance of the millennial generation into the labor market which is demanding a work-life balance that favors flexibility. The gig economy is one of several new operating models transforming society along with the sharing economy (collaborative consumption, peer-to-peer based sharing), the gift economy (no payment for goods and services) and the barter economy (cashless economic system).

Your Brand in the Gig Economy

The gig marketplace is comprised of millions of people. Just like products and services in a crowded market, you will benefit from having a brand. Especially in a world where “contactless” hiring is now common, your professional brand will help you break through and shine. It not only communicates your reputation and value to an employer, but also the secret sauce of you. It is not your resume. It frames your resume.

A personal professional brand helps highlight your strengths, establish a reputation, build trust, and communicate the unique attributes you bring. It will attract the right people and communicate that you are the right fit. It conveys a unique identity and clear value proposition.

Creating Your Personal Professional Enchanted Brand

There are lots of ways to create your brand depending on who you are and what you are after. Here’s a basic starter kit.

Research: It helps to do a little research to further uncover the skills and traits that make you distinct. I know it may be awkward, but Google yourself and see what you find. Also, talk to peers, colleagues, friends and family who have worked with you to hear what they have to say.

• What are 3 words that you would use to describe the best parts of me?
• What kind of work culture best fits me?
• What makes me special?
• How would you characterize who I am and what I bring?

Once you have a list of words that describes you, put them into a free word cloud generator like Wordle as that visual may help you. The biggest words are the ones used most often to describe you.

Personal Brand Identity Statement: Write a one or two-sentence phrase that accurately sums up what you do and what you stand for. It’s essentially your unique selling proposition, the thing you do best. The best personal professional branding statements are catchy, memorable, and attention-grabbing. It needs to be short while also conveying the value you provide to employers, clients, or customers. It should also have a certain level of intrigue that makes people want to learn more about you. For example: “I help thought leaders write great books in just 90 days. 300 satisfied clients so far.”

Portrait Photo: Like a good actor, get a great “head shot” of yourself. In many ways, this is your logo. I recommend doing what actors do. Find a local head shot photographer as they know how to create “career building” head shots, and they are also affordable. LinkedIn profiles with professional headshots receive roughly 14 times more profile views and are 36 times more likely to receive a message.

Personal Positioning: Think of it as your label. Are you a branding guru? Chief Confusion Officer? Visionary Technology Designer? For inspiration, explore LinkedIn and Twitter and see what others have done.

With those basics, you can begin to put your brand out there.

Email Signature: Use email to convey your brand with an email signature that speaks. You can include your photo, links to your social media accounts and even a phrase that highlights a recent accomplishment e.g., TED Speaker 2021, Featured in Wired’s Top 1000 Entrepreneurs.

LinkedIn: For some, having a presence on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter or even Spotify might be the ticket. It depends on where your audience is, and where you need to build a profile. 92% of recruiters leverage social media to find high-quality candidates so you want your brand to shine there. Be sure to focus on the platform that matters most. Do not be daunted! Most have tools that make it easy. Regardless, put your brand on LinkedIn. It is the hotspot for executive recruiters and the “yellow pages” of talent.

Leverage Your Network: 85% of all jobs are filled through networking so be sure to build your brand with friends and family, peers and industry thought-leaders online and in person. The more connections you make, the faster you will build your brand. Use Jibber Jobber to keep track of networking contacts and keep a log of how they have helped you.

From here you can go even further by publishing content, speaking at events, producing a podcast and more. But, most of us have busy lives and our careers are just a part of it so be careful not to get swallowed up in the vortex here. Just enough, might be just right. The point is to be mindful about your personal, professional brand and take steps to be sure it conveys value for you.

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Henry DeVries Contributor

Leadership Strategy

Attracting high-paying clients by marketing with

a book and a speech.

Today, we are featuring editorial published last week by Forbes where Forbes Contributor Henry DeVries interviewed Jane Cavalier, CEO & Founder of BrightMark Consulting and author of Overhead Space, on brands and social accountability. Read about the challenges brands face with the “cancel culture” and growing public demand for brands to serve the greater good.

Call it the collision of brands and politics.

“It is time to rethink the relationship between brands and society,” says brand expert Jane Cavalier. “Traditional brands have sold by selling an aspirational fantasy or identity without accountability, which is now being challenged by the cancel culture.”

Cancel culture is a variant on the term call-out culture and constitutes a form of boycott, typically involving a celebrity who is deemed to have acted or spoken in a questionable or controversial manner. Think J.K. Rowling, Ellen DeGeneres and Jimmy Fallon in 2020.

Prior to founding her own firm, BrightMark, Cavalier led strategic planning for clients of McCann-Erickson worldwide, the world’s largest advertising agency. At McCann-Erickson, she led the rebranding of global companies including Marriott, Motorola and US Airways. She also has taught as an adjunct professor at the Yale School of Management and NYU Stern School of Business.

Cancel culture, also called call-out culture, is a modern form of public shaming and ostracism in social media or the real world. Generally, it is a withdrawing of support.

During the Black Lives Matter protests many brands in the fashion industry were called out for a lack of diversity. In 2020 brands like Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben’s, the Washington Redskins and the Cleveland Indians finally relented to call-out culture.

The days of aspirational fantasy or identity without accountability are over.

“In boom times where the acquisition of things shaped the narrative of success, that brand strategy worked,” says Cavalier. “However, today we live in a time of contraction, contradiction and complexity where brands are losing relevancy and value. We need brands to sell differently, to sell by serving the real, hidden needs of people struggling to adapt to a new world.”

Cavalier says the legacy of commercial brands is vast and includes body shaming (eating disorders didn’t just materialize), sexualizing alcohol and cigarettes to promote (over) indulgence and attaching social elitism to luxury goods (preppy clothes are just the tip of the iceberg). Tied to driving rabid consumerism, brands are partially responsible for driving up personal debt.

“Some brands, however, delivered positive cultural impact and changed lives for the better. Apple inspired personal creativity and growth,” says Cavalier. “Nike inspired personal drive and growth. We need more of these kinds of brands and now.”

Cavalier points out we live in a VUCA world—volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous—which is daunting, often terrifying. Because brands are conceptual creative products with the ability to penetrate consciousness, they can strengthen and advance people during this time of vulnerability.

“Brands must serve rather than sell,” says Cavalier. “To win in a world of complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity, brands must serve rather than sell and become empowerment tools.”

Brands can drive responsible consumption by meeting the new human needs rather than preying on people’s insecurities.

“These are the brands that will achieve the elusive cultural relevance not by spending more, but by serving people more and becoming part of rebuilding society with humanity at the center,” says Cavalier. “In this new paradigm brands are part of the solution by simply putting the weight of hundreds of billions of dollars of annual cultural messaging into empowering people rather than exploiting them.”

To see the article on Forbes, go here.

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The 2021 Global Trust Barometer was released by Edelman this week revealing unexpected findings on the state of trust in America.

Edelman recently released its annual Global Trust Barometer which shows that trust is in short supply – not a surprise given the infodemic underway. After a year of unprecedented social turbulence including the Covid-19 pandemic, economic crisis, outcry over systemic racism and political chaos, the report reveals an epidemic of misinformation and widespread mistrust of societal institutions and leaders around the world. In addition, it cites a “failing trust ecosystem unable to confront the rampant infodemic” which has left business, government, NGOs and the media in an environment of trust bankruptcy with a mandate to rebuild trust moving forward.

Interestingly, trust in “my employer” has never been higher at 76% and trust in information from “my employer” (61%) exceeds that of national government and media sources. Who would have thought that you could trust the Boss that much. Clearly, we are in uncharted territory. Maybe, people feel that businesses are held to a higher level of accountability as their customers, employees and investors expect/demand honest, thoughtful, considerate sharing of information and the consequences of not doing so can destroy a business.

It is disappointing to learn that a majority of the public sees leaders in government (57%), business (56%) and journalists (59%) as intentionally misleading people on occasion, saying things they know to be false or grossly exaggerated. This has created an infodemic where people are making decisions and taking actions based on misinformation which undermines positive change. For example, only 60% of Americans say they are willing to vaccinate for COVID-19 and only 1 in 3 say they’re ready to take the vaccine as soon as possible.

Ultimately, this suggests that people are afraid and don’t know who to trust. Facts are mixed with opinion and the unrelenting rhetoric is confusing, contradictory and leads to a deafening of reason. The RAND Corporation has published deeply on the causes and outcomes of this new world of truth decay, and has also published solutions to combat it.

Brands are Making a Difference

The report recommends that moving forward companies need to “lead with facts and act with empathy” as facts alone are just not enough. People need to make an emotional connection with the facts. They need someone to put life into the facts, meaning, purpose and value. Why? Because the world is too complex for people to understand and trusted guidance is needed – leadership – to understand how to best process and act. But, mixing those facts with opinions that have an agenda is where the trust breaks. Interpretation of the facts must have a clear POV and that’s where brands come in.

Brands still carry a lot of trust. These cultural icons are easy to understand, consistent, familiar, accountable and make people feel. Brands are not cold and are not out to get you. And, they often work hard to make people feel good and inspire positive actions. I think people feel that brands are committed to their welfare and a better world. The sheer longevity of relationship and social ubiquity has given a lot of brands strong trust. During 2020, we saw big brands stepping up and stepping in, leveraging their relationship equity to make a difference. Although for decades brands insisted on remaining on the sidelines and sidestepping social and political issues, deeming it a high business risk, the social calling was too great. When brands speak, people listen, and people were crying out for guidance. In answering, brands delivered on their trust and gained equity in being responsive even if the position was controversial e.g. Nike. Per the Edelman study, people are expecting businesses, CEO’s and brands to guide them in our volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world.

Brands Create Trust, Marketing Does Not

One reason why companies may be considered more trustworthy is that they have brands operating on their behalf, and brands are designed to forge trust through making an emotional connection. Political institutions tend to focus on issues and policy not on enchanting ideas that build trust. NGO’s are often focused on fundraising and marketing their cause over building their brand. The media is focused on expressing truth as they see it, but that is not a brand. By efficiently focusing efforts on provoking specific behaviors with marketing versus relationship building with a brand, these institutions have failed to invest in the vital soft side of business. By giving the loving currency of a valued brand to the world, companies contribute to the culture at large and engender the affinity that is required to build trust.

It is my hope that this study is a wake-up call for organizations to step back and embrace that people, despite best efforts at being rational, are emotional, intuitive beings. This is why brands are needed more than ever. People in this crazy world need an emotional connection that validates instinct and intuition. The rise in distrust is a sign of protection and disappointment. People are protecting themselves, because they feel their interests are at risk of being compromised. Trust is not a rational transaction. It is a form of relationship that requires surrender and faith. Brands, through the power of concept and art, build that covenant. By design, brands are built to meet people where they are, with deep empathy, and stand beside them on what matters most. If you want to build trust across all the diverse publics that matter in this disruptive world, I don’t know how you can do it without a powerful brand for people to grab onto.

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Not the Usual Kind of Change

The pandemic has been a cocoon bringing people, organizations and even brands through a real metamorphosis. There is a shedding of the old world view and the emergence of a fresh, new orientation. This new world perspective is shattering traditional consumerism and work behavior as buying things doesn’t matter as much as learning new skills, experiencing more of life, sharing with others, and having greater control and freedom. It is a time of epochal change for humanity where people are disoriented as they face unthinkable events and uncertainty, and where brands have a new role to play.

Brands that Serve Rather than Sell

In our new world, which is far too complex for human beings to understand, people need emotional stability, strength and stamina more than ever. As they face unprecedented volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA world), people are vulnerable to fear, anxiety, distrust and despair. We need new cues within our culture that inspire, empower, enable people; cues that guide positive actions, provide comfort and unleash more human potential so people can grow. Modern brands can become these cues.

Unlike traditional brands which are primarily designed to drive consumption (often to the point of driving up great personal debt), modern brands can deliver value in a different way that still supports positive purchase choice. They can focus on giving people greater agency in the world and helping them to grow with the products/services they represent. In other words, instead of the brand end game simply being consumption, the new end game is empowerment and personal growth. These brands will deliver “preference “ by helping people to feel: 1) their place in the world, 2) comfortable with uncertainty, and 3) what it means to be truly human.

Cultural Cues to Strengthen Humanity

The mind constantly tells itself stories of the future and brands can shape those stories. In a radically transforming world that can be daunting, if not terrifying, brands can positively lead people to the future even if that future is totally unclear. Because they are conceptual, brands can free the mind to safely explore newness so people become more comfortable with novelty. They have the power to clarify the vague and help people come to grips with feelings and forces that don’t exist in concrete form e.g. estrangement, love, courage, sacrifice. If you are familiar with the power of myth, then think of brands as modern myths. If designed for the unique challenges of the new world, modern brands can become positive social forces that strengthen people at a time of great vulnerability.

Although a unique attribute of a product/service remains part of the credible reason-why a brand can do what it stands for, the new functional and symbolic brand purpose should focus on helping people navigate the invisible friction of the new world. Fundamentally, brands can play a big role in our uncommunicated interior mental life. By recognizing their role to serve and strengthen people amidst chaos and uncertainty, these brands will become extremely socially relevant and valuable to people and society.

I believe most brands have lost meaningful relevancy over the last 20 years despite the hundreds of millions of dollars invested in them. Only a few dozen e.g. Apple, Nike, Patagonia have morphed to align with the new world and stay strong. Moving into the future, brands that inspire, enable and liberate people to expand and grow will dominate the culture.

Brands are Important Cultural Artifacts

In an interconnected and interdependent world increasingly ruled by technology, brands are priceless artifacts of humanity that indicate what matters most to people. We are emotional, intuitive beings despite our best efforts to be rational. We are relational beings thrust into an increasingly transactional environment. If we do not work to maintain and deepen our humanness, we may very well risk losing it. Brands can touch us, pierce our consciousness, remind us and drive us to push our human potential.

The struggle to adapt to the new world is real with no end in sight. As people search for meaning and purpose amidst a world they cannot understand, they need development tools not rhetoric. Just as ancient peoples relied on myths, brands are the myths of today spread throughout the culture and have the ability to become part of a toolkit to re-build humanity and society. But, to be relevant, they must acutely reflect what we are experiencing, especially the unspoken and the invisible. People do not need brands to sell them things anymore by promising identity or unattainable dreams, rather they need brands devoted to strengthening their resilience, enabling growth and reminding them of what it means to be human.

Wishing you comfort, joy and growth in the coming year. Farewell 2020 and welcome to the fresh opportunities of 2021.

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Watch the BrightMark video here.

In this interview with video creator John Fragale, CEO of Levitate in San Francisco, you’ll learn why video has become the new company asset for best conveying your brand, your mission, and your competitive advantage in a digital world. Levitate has produced over 8,500 animated and live videos for companies including Aveeno, Nautilus and Verizon. John shares insights on why video is so essential today, what makes an effective video and how businesses should use videos to create greater value. As John mentions, short videos that entertain and educate are the most effective way to quickly move someone to action. And, they are now affordable, too.

Listen to the full podcast and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcast, Pandora, and TuneIn. The following is edited for length and clarity.

Jane Cavalier: Why do you see video as the new must-have sales and marketing asset in a digital world?

John Fragale: Video is simply the most user-friendly way to rapidly consume information. With a video, someone can just press play, and in one minute be educated and entertained. Done. This is so much easier than downloading a PDF or searching through website pages. Video is a superior way to allow people to know who you are and how you can help them, especially when you are not there to talk to them. Also, many decision makers are younger, tech-savvy and expect video. Video is the ultimate way of leading a prospect into the sales funnel.

Jane: Let’s say I’m talking to a company and they’re a little gun shy about investing in video as they’ve never had one. What would you say are the essentials of creating a powerful video?

John: We pride ourselves on having videos that are accessible to nearly any company. First, define your project. What’s the video topic? Who are you trying to reach? And frankly, what’s the goal of your project? First step is the script. It really serves as the backbone of the video and influences the visuals and flow. The next step is determining what type of animation will resonate best with the target audience. Let’s say it’s a B2C product. Maybe we use a 2D character animation where we show animated characters moving around. Or, which is the most common with B2B companies, we leverage high-end stock video and motion graphic overlays to show real people in the video and have the sizzle of motion graphics without having to set up a custom shoot. It is important to make sure the video matches and plays nice with your brand look and feel.

Jane: One thing I find intriguing is that online video seems to have the power to extend the reach of a company’s narrative. Can you give an example?

John: We’ve been lucky to work with over a thousand companies and one is TeamSnap. They have an app that makes sports team management easy and efficient for everything from youth soccer all the way up to minor league baseball. We’ve produced 15 to 20 videos with them over the last five years. I was on their YouTube page recently and saw that one of the first animated videos we produced for them has over 4 million views. Every video we produce does not get 4 million views, I wish it did, but it speaks to the reach you can achieve with a great video.

Jane: It’s one thing to have a video. It’s another to generate value from it. What are the basics on what to do with a video?

John: First, go in with the idea that you want to get it out to as many places as possible. Upload it to YouTube or Vimeo so people can stream it. Once uploaded, take the embed code and put it on your website, email signature, social media, digital marketing materials and sales letters. Use it at virtual or in-person events, to cue up a sales meeting or presentation. Maybe you have partnerships that will promote it in other places.

Jane: You know John, I see a lot of bad and ugly videos out there. Why does this happen?

John: One of the biggest errors is that people try to produce a video on the cheap. You end up getting a lackluster, underwhelming video. A bad video is probably worse than no video at all. The biggest mistake I see is that companies don’t consider their target audience and what they want. I tell my clients, “Yes, we’re producing the video for you. You own it. But really the video is for your prospect, your existing customer, someone out there who’s your target audience who’s going to watch the video and take a desired action.” That’s the key. You want to think about who’s going to consume it. Another mistake is length. Shorter videos are more effective. The most effective videos are the ones that speak to the target audience, address the problems they might have and show how you can solve them. Then you’ve engaged them. As opposed to just ramming product features down their throat. They don’t care about the product features until they know you can solve their problems.

Jane: You said shorter videos work best. What time length are we talking about?

John: It depends on the project goal. In general, if you can get a video done in a minute, it’s a huge win. You’re going to get more people watching end to end. But, there can be longer videos. We did a video for the American Heart Association about someone who suffered a stroke. It’s a four minute video and I’m hanging on every word, because it’s a tear-jerker and it’s a really emotional story about this woman’s journey. But a product video? Get in and get out and have it focused on converting people. We’re not making art, we’re creating a business asset to make something happen.

Jane: What are the most important elements with online video?

John: There’s a story arc, there’s a climax. One, you have a good story. Two, you have that on-screen text that promotes people to go somewhere. And three, you include it in the voiceover. So, even if someone’s halfway looking at the screen, they’re still hearing it and you’re also showing them on-screen text of what to do next. I really recommend having a script and a voiceover. The other piece that doesn’t get any love that should be talked about is having a good background music track. It’s an engine in the back of the video moving it along and keeping people engaged, and also setting a tone.

Jane: What do you think is the biggest stumbling block preventing companies from using video?

John: The biggest stumbling block I see is budget. Whether it’s a lack of setting aside budget or budget not being available. You really have to prioritize video. I think decision makers and marketers and heads of sales know they need those type of assets. They just haven’t set aside the money or maybe they don’t have an internal team on the marketing side who is advocating for videos to upper management. I think you also see some companies that are stuck in their ways.

Jane: I know you feel strongly about this. What is the distinct advantage for a company in using video online?

John: When I get to a website to research a product, I don’t want to spend too much time there. If they have an above-the-fold video that I can just press play on, and it is a well-produced, in a minute I am informed and entertained. I’m probably more apt to be like, “Okay, these guys are players. I want to talk to them.” If that video buys that company a first call, I think the video did its job. Now, maybe the company doesn’t have video and just has a really well-designed website. Maybe the information is so clear that I can see the similar information that I would have got from a video, but maybe not. Why not stack the deck in your favor? You not only want that great looking website, that’s efficient to navigate, not too text-heavy, got the right imagery – you also want a great video to seal the deal. More often than not, I bet you, people are going to say, “Oh, video. Great.” Because, you can get entertained and educated with the video. That’s the huge advantage, so you stack the deck in your favor.

Jane: Let’s talk a little bit about Levitate for a moment. You’ve been around a long time. You’ve produced thousands of videos. Why do clients like working with your company?

John: Our quality, our value, and the promise of a great customer experience. The proof’s in the pudding. We’ve been blessed that a high percentage of our customers come back for a second, third, or fourth video because of those factors. Say you have a product that costs thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. You produce a video for, say, six grand once and you use it to help you get a couple leads that lead to deals. You’ve already paid for your video and can keep using it. We come in the door as a partner and love what we do. We want to make videos, but we really want to help our clients and develop lifetime relationships. We provide a white-glove customer experience. I know what it’s like when someone treats me right. We want to not only win on video quality, but we want to win on experience. We always have our A game on, so people will continue to come back.

Jane: Thank you John. It is clear how passionate you are, not just about video, but about driving businesses with the use of video.

John: We love what we do. It’s really a lifestyle. I was the first hire at Levitate and I’m now their CEO. It’s a seven day a week type of thing, and we wouldn’t do it if we didn’t love it.

To learn more, reach out to John at jfragale@levitatemedia.com or go to levitatemedia.com.

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This is the second part of a 2-part special series interview with Former Navy Seal Commander Sam Havelock. Sam provides rare insight into the world of special operations and how people perform in the face of life threatening challenges, ambiguity and complexity. Sam shares his experiences and discusses the critical role that trust now plays in modern organizations struggling to navigate our topsy turvy world. Here, Sam talks about the elevated role of trust within organizations in order to gain a competitive advantage and rapidly respond to issues and opportunities.

Sam Havelock is a remarkable entrepreneur, Strategic Adviser, and Former Navy SEAL commander who has seen and overcome challenges few can imagine. I’ve worked with Sam on various projects over the years and value his unique perspective, clear sighted thinking and profound problem solving skills. Sam started in the Marine Corps and after 5 years transferred to the Navy with the intention to go to basic underwater demolition SEAL training in Coronado, California. By the time he left the Navy in 2012, he had served almost 17 years in the Naval Special Warfare Community – the SEAL teams. With about 17 years in the teams and five in the Marine Corps, Sam served our country for an astonishing 22 years. Thank you for your service Sam. Sam subsequently earned his MBA from Duke and today runs SOFX, a talent recruiting company and publisher of the world’s most widely read special operations daily newsletter.

Listen to the full podcast here, and please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. The following is edited for length and clarity.

Jane Cavalier: Thank you again for being here Sam. I know you operate a recruiting company as part of the SOFX enterprise which allows companies to access special operations talent. Why would or should a company want to do that?

Sam Havelock: First, our talent agency is uniquely informed by some of the techniques and procedures we learned in special operations with regards to emotional intelligence, questioning, finding people, and so forth. If you look at many of the skills that you use in special operations, they’re directly relatable to finding high value talent in the world for a corporation. Why would or should a corporation be interested in special operations veterans? Often it is their action bias that really can be a game changer for a division or a company.

Jane: Explain what you mean by the action bias that a special operations veteran brings to the table?

Sam: Your average special operator is not going to be comfortable sitting around and not creating value. They get fueled by the opportunity to shine and the opportunity to serve and the opportunity to do well. They’re extraordinarily mission-driven and extraordinarily self-driven. The funny thing about self-driven people is it tends to rub off. The introduction of a person with that sort of action bias and energy winds up spreading that to other people in a department or division. Culture is like anything else, people are influenced by one another. Sooner or later, you wind up reformatting cultures with the type of people that are extremely driven. The opportunity to import a person who is high impact into an organization is extraordinarily valuable.

Jane: A lot of CEOs today are facing threatening, uncertain, ambiguous and complex situations. Do you have any leadership advise for them?

Sam: As a CEO or an organizational leader, do not just focus on the qualification attributes certain individuals bring with regards to an educational background or a set of experiences they might have, or a pedigree, because of the places they’ve worked, because you can make wrongful assumptions. Just because somebody worked at a blue chip company like Microsoft, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are high value talent. What you really have to do is look much deeper at the individual with regards to their bias in terms of integrity and ethical code – to what extent are they going to do the right thing, no matter what and no matter who’s looking. The rest of this stuff, you can train people to do.

Jane: So, in your view, ethics is paramount to building a winning team today. Why?

 

Sam: Nowadays, in an information filled world, the leaders are much closer to driving a car that’s out of control already because of the speed and velocity of how information becomes reformatted and changes the operational picture. Our world is turned upside down and now institutions that we thought we could trust, nobody seems to trust any of them. We don’t trust the media and don’t trust the government at this point.

So now more than ever, it is paramount to ensure that the people in your organization are high trust people. Do these people cultivate trust in everything that they do and who they are? It takes great players to recruit great players and it takes trustworthy people to be able to spot other trustworthy people.

Jane: So, we fill the company with high trust people. How does that create value?

Sam: You’ll have an extreme advantage. And what I mean by that is a high trust organization can move out at a speed that a low trust organization, low trust culture, can’t keep up with. There’s just no way to compete. If people in a high trust organization are making decisions on the spot because they’re supported by their leadership and their staff has this culture of trust, they’re just going to move much faster than their competitors. If you can curate that type of culture in that environment and pick the right seed stock to begin with, you arrive there.

Jane: So, the root source of being able to create a high trust organization starts with the right people.

Sam: That’s exactly it. We can give, we can build, we can invent the most eye watering, magical operational technology in the world, but it does not and never will give you the extreme battlefield advantage you need, if you don’t have the type of human being you want behind that technology.

Jane: The special operations community has a unique culture that is driven by trust. Despite heavy use of smart technology, that culture seems to rely on people above all.

Sam: Right. If you were to examine the special operations community and think of it as an operating system, the operating system begins with the human being. Everything we do with regards to building that community starts with an extreme focus and emphasis on the humans coming into it. And in a technology filled world, we keep on making the assumptions that, “Hey, software is eating the world. Everything’s going to be fixed by AI and machine learning and robots and this and that, and the other thing.” But in the special operations community, we hold these truths to be self-evident that it’s all nonsense. It all starts with humans. A lot of people ask, to what extent are we building a technoscape that is going to be beyond the ability for humans to control them. But, that’s probably a subject of a different podcast.

Jane: One final question. How difficult is it to recruit people with a strong character, moral compass or code?

Sam: It’s not that difficult because there’s different techniques that we use. In the special operations community, there are various techniques that are born of the intelligence community with regards to making determinations about the veracity of things or for the truthfulness of people. If you think about it, a lot of times special operations forces have to deploy into very austere environments that are within a culture that they obviously never grew up in. And they have to make very rapid decisions about who they can work with, who they should network with, who is a friend, who is a foe, to make sense of the operational picture and the culture and community. They may need to build trusted, established relationships in an Afghan village. So, you’ve got to have capabilities to be able to detect who you’re dealing with. We just leverage many of those basic skills in the context of what we do to help corporations pick the right people.

Jane: It seems that the superpower of these elite warriors is an exceptional sensibility to understand people and context- something extraordinary that most of us lack.

Sam: Let’s take a 27 year old man. If a 27 year old man has spent, let’s say after college, five years in industry doing different jobs, how many depends on which industry. But how many times have they had to make life and death decisions for themselves or others in your average job context? Unless you’re in law enforcement, that’s different. But suppose you’re an enterprise software sales, right? And then suppose you’ve got a 27 year old Former Navy SEAL or soon to be separating Navy SEAL who’s spent let’s say since he’s been 18 or 19, six or seven years in the operational field. He’s done a number of deployments, say four or five deployments overseas, has had to build rapport with tribal elders in the Eastern province of Afghanistan, has had to make life and death decisions for himself and others on every deployment. Think about the decision making fiber. Who’s got the stronger set of instincts? Who has got the bigger action bias? Who has a much more tuned up sense of people and how to deal with them? You can train the 27 year old SEAL all about how to conduct the process of software enterprise sales, but it would be impossible to train the other kid about critical decision making under conditions of pressure, stress and ambiguity. It’s just not possible. It’s an experiential sort of learning.

Jane: That’s quite a compelling contrast. Do you find corporations hungering for special operations talent?

Sam: To me, the value play is just so obvious, but corporate America doesn’t really get it. They don’t, because they don’t understand that the special ops’ cognitive ability to make hard decisions is just much stronger. It’s a muscle that’s been exercised again and again and again in a variety of circumstances. They’ve had much more responsibility over the course of their young lives, and the implications for making wrong decisions were much more profound. It’s just so obvious.

Jane: As always Sam, you make so much sense. It is clear and obvious.

Sam: The United States Navy, Army, Air Force, Marines, and the modern corporation. We all start with the same stock of people generationally. They lived in the American culture, but then experience becomes very different both from a training standpoint and an investment standpoint. One has the benefit of over 200 years of government wisdom on how best to mature the human to be capable and efficient at critical decision making under conditions of pressure and ambiguity. All of that institutional knowledge goes into training them. And then you’ve got the experiential piece where they’re deployed again and again and again. You just can’t replicate that and a corporation could not afford to do that.

Jane: Sam, for people interested in learning more, tell us about your newsletter.

Sam: We do publish the world’s largest daily newsletter that looks at the world through the eyes of the special operations culture, called SOFX. It isn’t just for special operators, so listeners are welcome to go to www.sofx.com, and sign up for the newsletter. It’s free. We don’t rent, sell or share the list to anybody. The newsletter is just to help everybody see the world through the eyes of how we see things.

Jane: That’s great, Sam. That was just fantastic. Thank you again for your service and your leadership. And thank you for sharing all these insights with us today.

Sam: Jane, thank you very much. And the truth is I should have paid the government for it, because it was such a remarkable life and with such beautiful people. I can’t imagine life better spent. So thank you.

Listen to the full podcast here, and please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.

Subscribe for FREE to the world’s most widely read special operations newsletter produced by Sam’s company SOFX here: https://mailchi.mp/sofx/subscribetoday

Contact Sam Havelock directly: sam.havelock@sofx.com

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