Brand Heart: Discovering Who You Are
Conscious branding has become a buzzword in the branding world, and we’re thrilled about it. Today, leaders and teams face more adversity than ever before (👋 hello rapid changing technology, COVID-19, the Great Resignation).
The gift of adversity is that it highlights growth areas by showing current weaknesses. And when you can look inward and be honest about where you are and where you want to be, you come to find out who you are in that process.
What Brand Heart Is
At Hoot Design Company, our Brand Heart does just that – we dig deep and ask the hard questions, resulting in the creation of an anchor for your brand. Without this foundational work, all other branding ingredients (identity, culture, and experience) aren’t built to last.
Through the pain of our own experiences, we created Brand Heart alongside our strategic partners, who are formally trained in psychology and experienced management consultants. Together, we start the brand development process by creating space to do a deep dive into what drives your organization (purpose), how that drive is manifested in your day-to-day (values), and what future world that drive is working to build (vision).
The combination of purpose, values, and vision creates the essence of your brand.
Why Brand Heart Matters
Understanding the essence of your brand brings clarity to your everyday decisions. Through this clarity, you can navigate problem-solving in ways that are on-brand–meaning, in alignment with the heart of your organization.
Long-term impact becomes possible when your Brand Heart is used as a filter through which all decisions and ideas travel through. When you consistently make decisions in line with your Brand Heart, this consistency compounds into brand cohesion and brand impact.
If there’s anything we know, it’s that change is constant and nothing is going to get easier. For this reason, brand is always evolving, and to really own your brand, you must know it on a deep level. Owning who you are starts with the hard work of turning inward–pausing and asking the hard questions. Through this hard work, you come out the other end more resilient and have the clarity and courage to face the discomfort of change.
Authentic brands are better equipped to serve their teams and clients–ultimately, creating the change they were designed to.
Who Brand Heart Is For
First and foremost, Brand Heart is for purpose-driven brands. Whether you’re at the start of your journey or 50 years in, it’s never too late to invest in this foundational work. If you find yourself in any of the following situations, Brand Heart might be the next best investment for your brand:
Wanting your brand to reach the next level
Failing to create a shared understanding of vision among your team
Growing faster than your foundation was built for
Bringing a new product to market
Losing the connection to what you do
Change in leadership or succession planning
Struggling to know what the next step for your brand is
In reality, there is never going to be a ‘good’ time to prioritize this work. Yet, we know the longer this work is put off, the longer your brand remains complacent with the status quo – accidentally upper-limiting brand potential.
To sum it up, Brand Heart is for leaders that give a damn and for brands ready to embrace the change ahead.
How We Do Brand Heart
In the brand development process, we set out on a path toward authentic brand consistency. We do this through conscious branding.
Conscious branding is the act in which both our team and the client practice self-awareness of the brand we’re designing. This is an experience where everyone feels empowered and accountable to build a brand that has a long-term impact and is driven by self-knowledge. In this exploration, we walk alongside our clients and understand we are not the authority on what their brand should be.
This first step in our branding process is about understanding and articulating who you are.
Brand Heart has four components.
Vehicle - what you do
Purpose - why you do what you do
Values - how you do what you do
Vision - what you’re working towards
Vehicle
Your vehicle is what you do that allows you to live out your purpose, values, and vision.
What is important is that the vehicle is–and remains–a viable business model. It is something that can and likely will evolve over time, for example, if you decide to start a new venture or pivot to market demand, you could decide to add a new vehicle (and now have 2 vehicles) or replace your current vehicle. What is important is that your purpose, values, and vision remain consistent and your vehicle or vehicles remain viable.
To have the most impact, it’s better for your vehicle to do fewer things and do them really well. Once you find your zone of genius, own it – because mediocrity breeds misalignment.
Purpose
Like gas for a car, purpose is what keeps you going and keeps you grounded. It’s what gets you out of bed in the morning and is something you can lean on when navigating a challenging project, having a tough conversation, or when you need to make a hard decision.
What’s unique about purpose is that it’s rooted in your past experiences and something you discover over time. It can be thought of as a stone that has to be chiseled away through experience.
Values
Values are how you operate. They are so important because they provide direction (like a GPS) for how your team is expected to behave. We want values to be aspirational, but we also see them as a practical tool to screen employees in interviews and a way to develop and hold your team accountable.
When a brand is living in alignment with its values, it is full of purposeful action.
Vision
Vision is what you’re working towards – your north star.
We see vision consisting of three components:
Legacy: the world you’re working toward building—a new reality
Long-game: company goals that support your future world
Short-game: company goals for the next year that support your long-game goals
When we craft legacy statements at Hoot, we want them to answer: “What’s all this work for anyway?” We make these statements big, bold, idealistic, service-oriented, and ultimately unachievable. We believe in working towards these statements, even if we never see them come to fruition in our lifetime.
For example, Hoot’s vision is to build a world where people can become their best selves through work. It’s probably not something we will see happen in our lifetime, but it’s something we believe in so deeply that we align everything we do to move closer to that future.
Beyond Brand Heart
With the essence of your brand established, you can move confidently into the following phases of the brand development process.
Brand Heart: discovering who you are ✔
Brand Identity: leveraging who you are
Brand Culture: expanding who you are
Brand Experience: sharing who you are
Ready to take your brand to the next level?
