At
Jacober Creative, helping businesses large and small is in our DNA – so allow us to impart our own brand of wisdom, honed over the 20+ years we’ve been in business.
In light of the recent 50th anniversary of Earth Day, now is as good a time as any to find your brand’s inner spirit animal (stay with us on this one). While many people choose to identify with fierce creatures like the Siberian Tiger – we see you Joe Exotic – may we suggest a less likely but much more fitting option:
The Greater Flamingo. As a South Florida-based small business that works with other local business owners, we are big fans of this perfectly pink bird that is often synonymous with tropical paradise. So, quarantined at home you ask; what can I do to keep my business going and what does it have to do with a flamingo? We’ll get to that in a second.
Many of our small business clients are choosing to adjust their marketing strategies and adapt to what will become the new normal for consumers. While we encourage our clients to be active and relevant, we also know that reactionary marketing isn’t always effective. It’s important to pause and think about these
three fundamental elements for effective branding:
perform a brand evaluation, get reacquainted with the consumer, and
communicate through thoughtful, engaging content.
Define Your Brand
There are distinctive characteristics that define the big-billed beauty that is the flamingo. From its tall statuesque posture, to its very long, elegant neck and various shades of rosy hues. There’s no chance of confusing it with another bird. During these moments of isolation, whether your business is temporarily put on hold or open and hanging in there, it’s important to reflect on what your defining characteristics are. Depending on the nature of the business, this might require some soul searching and introspection, or it might be fairly straight-forward.
Ask yourself the tough questions, like, is your brand’s promise still relevant and honest in today’s world? Your brand’s promise is a statement of what makes it unique, and it guarantees each customer that you will deliver on that promise. Visually, it’s a good time to
take a look at your brand name, logo, and tagline. All three need to be consistent to ensure what you are offering is clear with a marketable appeal. Now might be the opportune time for a refresh.
Know Your Audience
Some qualities of flamingo behavior include living and feeding in groups, as they find safety in numbers. They even have the ability to stick their heads in the mud to find food and protect themselves from predators. With the emergence of COVID-19, safety has become the primary factor in determining consumer behavior. While we obviously can’t hang out in large groups right now, the phrase “we’re all in this together” has been a source of comfort for many these days as we band together virtually. And, let’s be honest, the impulse to stick one’s head in the theoretical mud sounds pretty great right now, too.
These behaviors will continue to evolve and change as this pandemic does, so it’s key to understand what is motivating consumer spending and how people make decisions on what brands they identify with. The post-Coronavirus world will usher in a whole slew of new habits and norms, even as social distancing guidelines are relaxed. Being a marketer means looking at your brand through the lens of the target consumer and having the flexibility to adapt accordingly. Is your brand, product, or service ready to meet the needs and expectations of the new consumer? Perhaps it’s worth redefining your target audience as well.
Communicate Through Thoughtful, Engaging Content
Once you’ve identified your audience, you can then craft a relevant piece of communication on how your brand story fits into their lives. We know that flamingos can be quite good swimmers but prefer to fly or hang out on mud flats, so we would cater our message to those preferred modes of transportation instead. Whether you’re creating an image for an Instagram post, a video for your website, an email newsletter, or writing a blog post, make sure the message is both true to your brand and relevant to your audience.
This isn’t the time for sales pitches or overt promotions; this is the time to connect with your customers on an emotional and human level. By using genuine, relevant, and positive messaging, you’ll appeal to the collective community. In turn, every time your audience interacts with your content, you are extending an invitation for them to visit your website, to follow your social media pages, or to sign up for a newsletter. Well-crafted content will build your brand’s reputation and establish trust with the audience.
A crisis is the single most important moment to create change. We know this will pass. We know we’ll be able to see our loved ones, attend concerts and enjoy a cocktail at our favorite local spot… soon. But while we are in the current state of things, channel your inner flamingo and dig through these muddy waters to find some tasty tidbits and takeaways to hold onto, like the ones we’ve shared with you here.
Birds of a Feather...
Jacober Creative has been able to support our clients during these tough times as a valuable resource, whether it’s reinforcing the strength of a brand’s core values with empathetic employee communication, using our design acumen for a logo rebrand, or seeing the power in numbers through a brand expansion. This is a critical time to show how South Florida’s small business community will come back smarter and stronger from this pandemic. After all, birds of a feather do flock together.
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