WEBVTT
1
00:00:02.480 --> 00:00:06.679
Hello everybody, and welcome back to The Advisor with Stacy Chilemy. Today,
2
00:00:06.679 --> 00:00:09.880
I'm very excited because we have a very special guest today.
3
00:00:10.119 --> 00:00:13.400
His name is JP and he is an amazing individual
4
00:00:13.480 --> 00:00:17.960
who is a founder of a very very prestigious branding
5
00:00:18.039 --> 00:00:19.960
company and he's going to tell you a little about
6
00:00:19.960 --> 00:00:22.079
that in a moment, but he would love to talk
7
00:00:22.120 --> 00:00:25.800
about today about Brandon and how to make the big shift.
8
00:00:25.879 --> 00:00:29.679
And that's really important because we have people that listen
9
00:00:29.719 --> 00:00:33.679
to this show that have small, medium, and large corporations,
10
00:00:33.880 --> 00:00:37.560
all different sizes, but when it comes to Brandon, it's
11
00:00:37.600 --> 00:00:39.960
a big issue, you know, making that shift. You know
12
00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:41.640
you have to put a lot of thought and emphasis
13
00:00:41.640 --> 00:00:44.280
in it, and you really want to represent who you
14
00:00:44.359 --> 00:00:47.479
are through that, Brandon, and today JP is going to
15
00:00:47.479 --> 00:00:49.679
talk about that, and he's going to show you some
16
00:00:49.759 --> 00:00:52.560
different tools, techniques and give you some great advice on
17
00:00:52.719 --> 00:00:54.799
how to make that big shift. So I am so
18
00:00:54.920 --> 00:00:57.759
excited to have you on the show today. You are amazing.
19
00:00:57.840 --> 00:01:01.920
I love what you're doing. I've always been intrigued with Brandon.
20
00:01:02.079 --> 00:01:04.560
I love you know, me and myself, I'm a very
21
00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:07.920
creative person, So I love Brandon. I love you know
22
00:01:08.159 --> 00:01:11.239
going in and really diving deep into something and really
23
00:01:11.359 --> 00:01:14.159
changing it around, and really thinking out of the box.
24
00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:16.200
Because when you do branding, you really have to think
25
00:01:16.319 --> 00:01:18.359
out of the box. But you cannot too far out
26
00:01:18.359 --> 00:01:20.680
where people are going to lose you. So you really
27
00:01:20.680 --> 00:01:23.959
have to have that happy medium. So, you know, before
28
00:01:23.959 --> 00:01:26.359
we begin, tell everybody a little about yourself and what
29
00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:28.599
you do, and then we'll get into how to make
30
00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:29.640
that big shift.
31
00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:32.959
Well, thank you very much. Yeah, I'm JP and we
32
00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:36.599
run a brand consulting firm here in Toronto look at
33
00:01:36.599 --> 00:01:38.439
in Toronto, but you also have an office in China
34
00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:41.760
and Shanghai, and we do work around the world, so
35
00:01:41.879 --> 00:01:45.000
there isn't I travel around two hundred thousand miles a
36
00:01:45.079 --> 00:01:51.319
year visiting clients, doing audits and analysis. So at the
37
00:01:51.359 --> 00:01:54.480
core of what we do is we're transformational designers. We
38
00:01:54.519 --> 00:01:58.120
look at change management for brands. We look at how
39
00:01:58.120 --> 00:02:01.079
do we ensure that the brands are relevant and stay
40
00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:03.920
relevant because there's so much happening in the marketplace, you know,
41
00:02:04.120 --> 00:02:08.280
from you know a shift and behavior consumers today, the
42
00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:11.159
young consumers, they're not drinking liquor, they're not driving cars,
43
00:02:11.960 --> 00:02:14.159
but doing other things and a huw to brands stay
44
00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:17.120
in touch and remain relevant with them. And then you've
45
00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:21.000
got disruptive forces happening in the marketplace where they're changing
46
00:02:21.039 --> 00:02:26.680
the business model. You know, think of hotels. You know, yeah,
47
00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:30.639
hotels dominated the travel industry, and now you've got Aaron
48
00:02:30.719 --> 00:02:32.719
be in a variety of other one of these time
49
00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:36.719
share and I'll found the platforms that are eating away
50
00:02:36.719 --> 00:02:38.800
and becoming the largest hotel chains in the world. And
51
00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:42.719
so you've got these transformational, disruptive brands in the world,
52
00:02:42.719 --> 00:02:46.000
and so how do you remain relevant? And so we've
53
00:02:46.039 --> 00:02:49.599
been doing this for thirty five years helping companies and
54
00:02:49.759 --> 00:02:52.319
the listeners. You probably touch one of the brands that
55
00:02:52.360 --> 00:02:54.560
we transform. If you go to a dairy queen girl
56
00:02:54.639 --> 00:02:57.159
and chill, if you go to a pizza hut cafe,
57
00:02:57.319 --> 00:03:02.520
if you've gone to midas, you Pepsi, if you eat
58
00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:06.879
quicker products or lace chips. We have had a touch
59
00:03:07.199 --> 00:03:12.080
and impacted those brands. And what's important to understand is
60
00:03:13.319 --> 00:03:15.879
the dynamics and the model do we use to transform
61
00:03:15.919 --> 00:03:20.840
these brands. Applies to large multinational corporations, it applies to
62
00:03:21.039 --> 00:03:25.080
mid sized companies, it applies to startups. It actually applies
63
00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:27.840
also to individuals who are looking at and maybe a
64
00:03:27.879 --> 00:03:31.479
career change. Maybe they've been downsized, or maybe they're just
65
00:03:31.560 --> 00:03:34.120
frustrated with their current job and their career and they're going,
66
00:03:34.159 --> 00:03:37.639
I need a change, I need to go somewhere. The
67
00:03:37.759 --> 00:03:41.599
same steps and the same process applied to all of these. Obviously,
68
00:03:42.199 --> 00:03:46.080
the investment level, the amount of research you would have
69
00:03:46.120 --> 00:03:49.879
to take for a large organization, the onboarding and the aligning,
70
00:03:50.199 --> 00:03:52.400
you know, and the large corporation with the different silos
71
00:03:52.479 --> 00:03:55.479
versus being an individual. Obviously those things add to the
72
00:03:55.520 --> 00:03:58.759
complexity of the process. But what's important is the steps
73
00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:03.039
you take to transformation are the same, and the model
74
00:04:03.080 --> 00:04:06.000
we use applies to anything. Right.
75
00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:10.039
I love that you know, when it comes to making
76
00:04:10.039 --> 00:04:12.680
the shift, what would you say are some important steps
77
00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:15.280
that people have to consider before they actually dive into
78
00:04:15.319 --> 00:04:16.959
it and start making those changes.
79
00:04:17.319 --> 00:04:20.120
It's a great question. When you think of making a change,
80
00:04:20.519 --> 00:04:23.240
the first thing you need to do is determine what's
81
00:04:23.279 --> 00:04:27.120
the destination. You know, what's the endpoint. We often say
82
00:04:27.519 --> 00:04:31.160
in our conversation in the discovery stage of the process,
83
00:04:31.160 --> 00:04:33.879
we think we have four questions that we ask and
84
00:04:33.920 --> 00:04:38.399
these apply to executives of large corporation and applied to individuals.
85
00:04:38.439 --> 00:04:40.759
And the first question, and these were developed by a
86
00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:43.720
gentleman by the name of Dan Sullivan who has a
87
00:04:43.800 --> 00:04:48.439
platform called Strategic Coach, which is incredible. I attended for
88
00:04:48.519 --> 00:04:52.040
three years his seminars and courts. They definitely helped define
89
00:04:52.879 --> 00:04:55.079
our processes and the way we look at things. But
90
00:04:55.120 --> 00:04:58.439
the first question is if we got together and had
91
00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:01.120
a cup of coffee a year from now or maybe
92
00:05:01.199 --> 00:05:04.800
two years from now, and we were celebrating the success
93
00:05:05.519 --> 00:05:11.439
of the program, what you've achieved, what would that look like?
94
00:05:11.639 --> 00:05:13.879
What would you say, what would you how would you
95
00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:17.360
define that? And that is the vision and state if
96
00:05:17.399 --> 00:05:20.959
you like, And often we'll say, draw some pictures of
97
00:05:20.959 --> 00:05:23.800
what that looks like, you know, go on Google and
98
00:05:23.839 --> 00:05:26.439
download it because and create an image of what that
99
00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:30.160
looks like. And I think that that's really important. The
100
00:05:30.240 --> 00:05:33.399
second question is if we're having a cup of coffee
101
00:05:33.439 --> 00:05:36.879
and you're really discouraged that it failed, that you haven't
102
00:05:36.920 --> 00:05:40.519
achieved what you wanted to do, What were the barriers
103
00:05:40.519 --> 00:05:42.519
that cause that to happen? What are the things that
104
00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:45.600
you had to overcome to cause that to happen? And
105
00:05:45.639 --> 00:05:48.680
I think that's important to understand that as you go
106
00:05:48.759 --> 00:05:52.720
on this journey of transformation, that you're gonna have some hurdles,
107
00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:54.839
you're gonna have some barriers, you're gonna have some issues
108
00:05:54.839 --> 00:05:56.720
you're gonna have to overcome, and it's good to understand
109
00:05:56.839 --> 00:06:00.560
those at the beginning of the journey. Question number three
110
00:06:00.600 --> 00:06:03.439
is what are the measurements that are telling you're on
111
00:06:03.480 --> 00:06:06.560
the right track. It could be I want to work
112
00:06:06.680 --> 00:06:11.439
less hours, or I want to contribute socially to this
113
00:06:11.560 --> 00:06:14.079
cause or that cause, or it could be money. I
114
00:06:14.120 --> 00:06:17.040
want to make twice as much money. I want to
115
00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:20.199
own that beautiful home that I've always inspirred to own.
116
00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:22.879
But it's good to understand what are the metrics you're
117
00:06:22.920 --> 00:06:26.839
going to evaluate to tell you that you've achieved your
118
00:06:26.879 --> 00:06:29.839
goals and that you're on that track tours those goals.
119
00:06:31.439 --> 00:06:35.360
And the last thing is what is you know two
120
00:06:35.439 --> 00:06:39.120
or three words that capture the end definition? What are
121
00:06:39.120 --> 00:06:43.279
the keywords you know? The words could be independence, it
122
00:06:43.360 --> 00:06:48.199
could be empowerment, it could be enjoyment. So what are
123
00:06:48.199 --> 00:06:52.839
the three key adjectives that you can help frame, Because
124
00:06:53.040 --> 00:06:55.879
you know, it's funny how the mind works. The mind
125
00:06:56.040 --> 00:07:00.480
only remembers three things. The more you add to what
126
00:07:00.519 --> 00:07:03.079
you're trying to remember the fewer things you remember. And
127
00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:06.879
so if you could crystallize in your head, in your
128
00:07:06.920 --> 00:07:09.560
mind three key adjectives you want to accomplish, you're going
129
00:07:09.560 --> 00:07:12.319
to accomplish them. Your mind works, it will drive your
130
00:07:12.360 --> 00:07:15.920
behavior to achieve those adjectives. And if you put pictures
131
00:07:15.959 --> 00:07:20.279
around that, right, the endstate is those have huge impact.
132
00:07:20.759 --> 00:07:23.240
Yeah, that's so true.
133
00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:27.160
That's so true. So that's how you start on the journey.
134
00:07:27.319 --> 00:07:29.399
The other, the other factor that I think is really
135
00:07:29.399 --> 00:07:33.240
important is to break down that journey into steps. We
136
00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:36.279
call it the trust ladder, right, and so we look
137
00:07:36.279 --> 00:07:40.079
at J. C. Penny. Why did it fail? Really smart people,
138
00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:45.399
it was the right strategy. You know, the ideas were right.
139
00:07:46.319 --> 00:07:48.920
They did one thing wrong. They went from step one
140
00:07:49.040 --> 00:07:52.120
the step step t tent in one step and they
141
00:07:52.160 --> 00:07:54.879
lost the customer in the journey. Yeah, what are those
142
00:07:54.920 --> 00:07:56.920
steps that you need to take as part of that
143
00:07:56.959 --> 00:08:01.319
transformational journey and monitoring that you're on the right track,
144
00:08:01.480 --> 00:08:04.680
because the reality is that your vision five years up
145
00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:07.279
from now, if you create a vision of who you
146
00:08:07.319 --> 00:08:11.120
are and what you stand for, the reality along that journey,
147
00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:13.720
you're going to have to make some shifts that vision
148
00:08:13.759 --> 00:08:17.399
may change slightly. You may learn something that has a
149
00:08:17.519 --> 00:08:20.920
huge impact on the success of your vision that you
150
00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:24.199
may need to modify, right, And so having those steps
151
00:08:24.240 --> 00:08:27.439
allows you to do course correction, allows you to measure
152
00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:30.800
your progress. I think of writing a book. Many of
153
00:08:30.839 --> 00:08:33.720
you are, probably your audience, are thinking, I'd love to
154
00:08:33.720 --> 00:08:37.200
write a book. I like to be an expert, you know,
155
00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:40.240
but writing a book is so complicated. I've written now
156
00:08:40.240 --> 00:08:43.080
three books. I'm on my fourth book, and I had
157
00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:46.039
the same kind of challenge. Oh my god, writing a book.
158
00:08:46.840 --> 00:08:50.080
Time commitment of writing that book. You know, how do
159
00:08:50.120 --> 00:08:50.639
I write it?
160
00:08:51.320 --> 00:08:51.600
Right?
161
00:08:51.840 --> 00:08:54.840
It's a simple formula. It's a trust latter all over again.
162
00:08:56.080 --> 00:08:59.320
What's your What is your point of view? One point
163
00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:00.840
of view that you want to communicate in the book?
164
00:09:00.919 --> 00:09:04.159
What is that one salient point? And make that salient
165
00:09:04.200 --> 00:09:08.720
point disruptive. It could be counterintuitive, it could be challenging
166
00:09:08.759 --> 00:09:12.960
the current paradigms. What is that one salient insight that
167
00:09:13.039 --> 00:09:17.720
you want to communicate your audience, and then deconstruct that
168
00:09:17.799 --> 00:09:23.600
insight into supporting factors of that insight and the reality.
169
00:09:23.759 --> 00:09:26.799
Each one of those supporting factors is a segment of
170
00:09:26.840 --> 00:09:30.840
the book, right, right, you know, if the book has
171
00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:36.240
twenty chapters, right, twenty blogs, right, seventeen out of words
172
00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:40.080
to twenty four outer words. Halfway by doing that, you
173
00:09:40.120 --> 00:09:44.399
are halfway to completing your book. Yes, what you're doing
174
00:09:44.440 --> 00:09:47.480
is filling in the gaps between the spaces, which is
175
00:09:47.480 --> 00:09:51.320
a lot easier once you've written twenty chapters or twenty
176
00:09:51.399 --> 00:09:54.320
blogs if you like, it's a lot easier than to
177
00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:57.360
fill in where the missing and where the connecting points
178
00:09:57.399 --> 00:10:01.519
are happening. And that's really how the a book. And
179
00:10:01.559 --> 00:10:04.360
it's about again the trust lat are building no steps,
180
00:10:04.720 --> 00:10:08.360
breaking that vision of what what is that, what's that
181
00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:10.799
key message you want to communicate in your book, and
182
00:10:10.840 --> 00:10:14.919
breaking it down into chapters, twenty chapters, fifteen chapters, and
183
00:10:14.919 --> 00:10:18.320
then writing one chapter or the other. Everybody can write.
184
00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:23.000
Everybody can write with you know, grammarly and now chap GPT,
185
00:10:23.159 --> 00:10:27.399
everybody can write. Everybody can do great research. Right, It's
186
00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:32.360
about just breaking it down, realizing that there is a
187
00:10:32.440 --> 00:10:34.919
way of getting up to completing the book, and then
188
00:10:35.360 --> 00:10:39.720
ensuring that you have that that point of view at
189
00:10:39.759 --> 00:10:41.919
the end of the book. And I would say it's
190
00:10:41.960 --> 00:10:45.080
the same thing in rebranding. When you think of rebranding
191
00:10:45.320 --> 00:10:49.399
We always start with what is what is your equities?
192
00:10:49.440 --> 00:10:51.320
What are the things that you own? So if you're
193
00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:54.159
an individual, you know what's your equities? What are the
194
00:10:54.159 --> 00:10:56.600
things that you're really strong at that you could amplify
195
00:10:56.600 --> 00:10:59.679
as an expert company? What are the equities you own
196
00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:03.080
that no one else can take away from you? We
197
00:11:03.159 --> 00:11:06.679
call it the foundation. But what's important to understand is
198
00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:10.679
where are the white spaces? And the white spaces are
199
00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:16.480
typically unmet consumer needs, right, they're typically you take Tesla,
200
00:11:16.600 --> 00:11:19.360
what's the unmet consumer I want to drive an environmentally
201
00:11:19.360 --> 00:11:21.559
friendly car, but I don't want to spend one hundred
202
00:11:21.600 --> 00:11:24.879
and fifty thousand dollars. I want it to be accessible
203
00:11:25.639 --> 00:11:30.039
and you know inexpensive, right right? And so what is
204
00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:33.639
that need state that the current market is not fulfilling?
205
00:11:33.799 --> 00:11:37.480
And how do I create a product of service or
206
00:11:37.519 --> 00:11:41.000
a point of view that fills that need state? Because
207
00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:44.759
without that you just get lost. You know, there's so
208
00:11:44.919 --> 00:11:48.399
much noise out there in the marketplace from a standpot
209
00:11:48.440 --> 00:11:52.039
of social media, marketing, advertising, and even product offerings. There's
210
00:11:52.080 --> 00:11:56.080
like thirty thousand new products launched every year. Only a
211
00:11:56.159 --> 00:11:59.799
handful of them succeed, right, because they're lost in the
212
00:12:00.360 --> 00:12:02.360
So it's really important to the sund what is that
213
00:12:02.720 --> 00:12:06.080
hidden need state? And I would say even go further,
214
00:12:06.159 --> 00:12:08.919
what is that emotional hidden the state? We call it
215
00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:12.399
the blink factor. You know, forty percent of all communications visual,
216
00:12:12.440 --> 00:12:16.159
eighty percent is color and shape. That eighty nine percent
217
00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:20.159
of all decisions we make as human beings are emotionally driven.
218
00:12:20.360 --> 00:12:24.320
Buying a car, a house, meeting someone dating, They're all
219
00:12:24.320 --> 00:12:28.200
emotionally driven factors and a huge impact on your life.
220
00:12:28.279 --> 00:12:32.320
And so understanding what is that emotional unmeant need that
221
00:12:32.360 --> 00:12:35.879
you could fulfill the marketplace right there as an author,
222
00:12:35.919 --> 00:12:38.720
an expert, or as a brand, that's how we start
223
00:12:38.759 --> 00:12:41.120
the process. I love that.
224
00:12:41.519 --> 00:12:45.240
I love that you know what when when it comes
225
00:12:45.279 --> 00:12:48.960
to you know, starting the process, how do you how
226
00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:52.840
do you know when you've actually figured out you know,
227
00:12:53.399 --> 00:12:56.440
the right brand in you know, like you know you
228
00:12:56.480 --> 00:12:58.799
want to when you create a brand, you wanted to
229
00:12:58.879 --> 00:13:02.799
represent who you are. You know, what your company represents,
230
00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:05.080
and there's so many ways of doing it. You have.
231
00:13:05.720 --> 00:13:09.039
You know, some people use colors, you know, you know
232
00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:13.639
psychologically each colorresent certain things you can use, you know,
233
00:13:14.039 --> 00:13:16.559
you can want to be vibrant and really catch their
234
00:13:16.600 --> 00:13:19.320
attention and then send a message through the color. You know,
235
00:13:19.480 --> 00:13:22.720
some people want that tagline that people are never going
236
00:13:22.799 --> 00:13:26.600
to forget. You know, is there a specific way that
237
00:13:26.919 --> 00:13:29.639
certain things that people should focus on when they're creating
238
00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:33.600
their brand and is there a way to do it?
239
00:13:33.759 --> 00:13:35.559
You know, do you focus on one thing or you
240
00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:37.759
try to do a combination of things when you're trying
241
00:13:37.799 --> 00:13:41.000
to get the perfect brand to represent your product or service.
242
00:13:41.840 --> 00:13:44.240
Yeah, it's a great question, and the reality is you
243
00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:46.480
have to be very careful because when you try and
244
00:13:46.519 --> 00:13:50.080
do too much, you at risk of fragmenting. We call
245
00:13:50.120 --> 00:13:54.440
it brand incoherence, and the great brands have one thing
246
00:13:54.440 --> 00:13:57.519
in common. They're very coherent. They're very on point. No
247
00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:00.799
matter if you meet them on a social media, if
248
00:14:00.799 --> 00:14:03.440
you go to their stores, read them about them in
249
00:14:03.480 --> 00:14:07.720
the newspaper. The message is always consistently delivered. So the
250
00:14:07.720 --> 00:14:10.399
first thing I would say is you have to have
251
00:14:10.440 --> 00:14:12.720
a clearly defined position. And that's where you come back
252
00:14:12.720 --> 00:14:16.200
to the value proposition. What is your value proposition? What's
253
00:14:16.200 --> 00:14:19.480
your brand personality? How do you define that brand? Those
254
00:14:19.519 --> 00:14:23.360
three words? What are those three words? What problem are you?
255
00:14:23.679 --> 00:14:27.000
What is a timeless challenge you're solving? For your customers
256
00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:29.039
that when you solve for them, you're actually solving for
257
00:14:29.120 --> 00:14:32.600
your brand. Also, these are all questions that we ask
258
00:14:33.120 --> 00:14:39.039
because that is the point of the needle, pointing to
259
00:14:39.159 --> 00:14:42.039
where you want to go, and then everything else should
260
00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:45.200
line up to supporting that. And so your logo, if
261
00:14:45.240 --> 00:14:48.559
you're all about like we did a healthcare brand, it's
262
00:14:48.600 --> 00:14:55.200
all about compassion. You're not gonna use black, use aspirational colors.
263
00:14:55.240 --> 00:14:58.960
You're gonna use oranges and yellows and reds. Right. Those
264
00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:02.080
are passion colors. Right. But if you're, for example, a
265
00:15:02.080 --> 00:15:05.120
bank and you want to reinforce trust and trust is
266
00:15:05.159 --> 00:15:08.480
a really important factor, you're not going to be using red.
267
00:15:08.639 --> 00:15:09.879
You're going to be using blues.
268
00:15:10.320 --> 00:15:10.600
Right.
269
00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:14.720
Understand that color has psychologically as a huge impact on
270
00:15:15.159 --> 00:15:18.639
delivering that message, but it starts with the position and
271
00:15:18.720 --> 00:15:22.000
the brand personality, and then you take that brand personality
272
00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:26.399
and you build your image around it. And so colors shapes.
273
00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:29.399
Is that hard edge or is it soft? Like your logo,
274
00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:32.919
you know, find a balance in life that's soft. You're
275
00:15:32.960 --> 00:15:35.600
trying to be comforting in that message. You use a
276
00:15:35.639 --> 00:15:38.720
handscript of your name, that's because you want to personalize
277
00:15:38.759 --> 00:15:41.960
that message. Right. You could have had like the advisor
278
00:15:42.039 --> 00:15:44.879
with your name could have been in the same font,
279
00:15:44.960 --> 00:15:47.840
but then you would come across as being impersonal, right
280
00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:52.559
corporate and so understanding that the font you use, the
281
00:15:52.639 --> 00:15:55.720
colors you use. An icon or no icon, you know,
282
00:15:55.799 --> 00:15:59.679
what's the role of the icon? Icons? Are people get excited,
283
00:15:59.720 --> 00:16:02.919
let's an icon, But the reality is it takes forever.
284
00:16:03.159 --> 00:16:05.600
You're not McDonald's. It takes forever. The bil equity in
285
00:16:05.600 --> 00:16:10.519
that icon unless big bucks for media dollars, creating an
286
00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:13.720
icon is actually a distraction to what you're trying to
287
00:16:13.759 --> 00:16:16.679
communicate in building your brand, your name which is the
288
00:16:16.919 --> 00:16:19.240
important thing, which is a trademark, and then you build
289
00:16:19.279 --> 00:16:21.879
your we call branding big idea. You take that brand
290
00:16:21.879 --> 00:16:24.840
personal I that value proposition, you say, how do I
291
00:16:24.919 --> 00:16:30.759
personalize that? From a messaging standpoint storytelling, use storytelling, and
292
00:16:30.799 --> 00:16:34.879
that all leads to a coherent strategy that everything, all
293
00:16:34.919 --> 00:16:37.519
of those moments of truth that a brand that someone
294
00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:41.360
comes in touch with you are consistent. It could be
295
00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:45.320
you're launching a podcast, you want to be an expert
296
00:16:45.320 --> 00:16:49.679
in something. What is that hidden need state? What value
297
00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:52.879
bringing to your audience based on that need state? What's
298
00:16:52.879 --> 00:16:55.519
the personality and how you communicate, what's a tone of
299
00:16:55.519 --> 00:16:59.759
the message, what's the timeless challenge you're overcoming, right, to
300
00:16:59.759 --> 00:17:02.639
help your audience overcome. I think those are all really
301
00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:05.880
important things that irrespective if you're an individual or a
302
00:17:05.960 --> 00:17:09.680
large corporation, you're asking the same questions, right.
303
00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:10.599
I like that.
304
00:17:10.920 --> 00:17:11.119
Now.
305
00:17:11.480 --> 00:17:14.640
I also heard that it's also good to rebrand yourself
306
00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:17.440
every few years, like maybe some people five six years,
307
00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:19.680
you know, they give themselves a certain amount of time,
308
00:17:19.720 --> 00:17:21.359
and you see a lot of companies they start to
309
00:17:21.400 --> 00:17:24.279
freshen up the look. They may not go to the extreme.
310
00:17:24.599 --> 00:17:27.160
Some I've seen a couple of few companies go to
311
00:17:27.200 --> 00:17:29.160
the extreme and they put a whole new brand on,
312
00:17:29.480 --> 00:17:31.279
and then some of them kind of just like buff
313
00:17:31.319 --> 00:17:33.799
it up a little bit and freshen it up. Is
314
00:17:33.799 --> 00:17:36.079
it good to change the brand a little bit after
315
00:17:36.119 --> 00:17:36.839
so many years?
316
00:17:37.559 --> 00:17:42.720
Absolutely? You know again it's you know, every brand faces
317
00:17:42.799 --> 00:17:46.680
one timeless challenge and that's called relevancy, and so you
318
00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:50.680
constantly need to adjust your brand and so on one
319
00:17:50.960 --> 00:17:54.440
on one spectrum. Look at Walmart and Jaguar, right, those
320
00:17:54.480 --> 00:17:57.640
are right now, they're hot in the media. Yeah, just
321
00:17:57.720 --> 00:18:03.200
launch this refresh. They've just up their logo. They just
322
00:18:03.559 --> 00:18:06.640
made it a little bit more contemporary. Yeah, because the
323
00:18:06.960 --> 00:18:09.880
brand is not hurting, they're doing really well. They want
324
00:18:09.920 --> 00:18:14.519
to nained relevant and stay fresh. Yeah, and so they're
325
00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:19.359
doing a brand refresh. I'll call it minor evolutionary. Jackie
326
00:18:19.440 --> 00:18:24.039
Wuire went revolution. They changed their logo, the look of
327
00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:28.119
their car. They eliminated the Jaguar icon. Well, they said,
328
00:18:28.119 --> 00:18:33.039
there's an icon there somewhere, and you see why didn't
329
00:18:33.079 --> 00:18:36.039
they do that, Like why did they abandon all of
330
00:18:36.079 --> 00:18:41.640
their core equities, because that's very dangerous, Like very few
331
00:18:41.640 --> 00:18:46.519
brands actually succeed on what Jaguar is doing. And I
332
00:18:46.559 --> 00:18:50.880
would venture that they're going to be in trouble because
333
00:18:50.920 --> 00:18:52.960
they lost the cachet of their brand with their brand
334
00:18:52.960 --> 00:18:54.960
Sanders for But the reason they did it is that
335
00:18:55.400 --> 00:18:59.920
the younger consumers were not considering Jaguar when they're considering
336
00:19:00.119 --> 00:19:02.640
luxury brands. I am sure that in the study they did,
337
00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:05.359
reports said, you know, when I'm considering the luxury brands,
338
00:19:05.759 --> 00:19:11.880
I'm thinking of Lexus, BMW, you know, you know some
339
00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:15.440
other brands, you know, Rover, but I am not thinking
340
00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:19.319
of Jaguar anymore. Right, And so that relevancy is a
341
00:19:19.319 --> 00:19:23.160
big issue for Jaguar, and so they had to do
342
00:19:23.200 --> 00:19:26.920
a bold move to re engage their audience because the
343
00:19:26.920 --> 00:19:30.240
audience they're having were dying and they were losing them
344
00:19:30.400 --> 00:19:34.319
and so the move they did. The danger there is
345
00:19:34.359 --> 00:19:38.119
that you're disrupting your current customer base. So people who
346
00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:42.119
like the icon of the Jaguar, like the hood ornament,
347
00:19:42.480 --> 00:19:46.640
like the tradition that Jaguar represented, the you know, the
348
00:19:46.640 --> 00:19:50.279
British automotive tradition. Yeah, they're going to go somewhere else.
349
00:19:50.279 --> 00:19:52.000
They're going to go to range Rover. They're going to
350
00:19:52.119 --> 00:19:55.680
go over to a BMW or maybe a Cadillac. They're
351
00:19:55.680 --> 00:19:58.119
going to make that shift because they've lost that emotional
352
00:19:58.119 --> 00:20:01.039
connection to what the brands tood four right.
353
00:20:03.160 --> 00:20:04.920
I think a lot of times too is that you know,
354
00:20:05.400 --> 00:20:07.920
it's mostly our age or older that could afford Jaguar.
355
00:20:08.519 --> 00:20:10.599
Younger generation hasn't got to that point yet.
356
00:20:11.759 --> 00:20:13.799
And to be honest, they're not driving cars, you know,
357
00:20:13.880 --> 00:20:17.559
that's the other dilemma, right, they're not, Yeah, their car
358
00:20:17.640 --> 00:20:22.000
sharing or or they're taking mass transit, or they're walking,
359
00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:24.839
or like in Toronto, they're bicycling. You know, we have
360
00:20:24.880 --> 00:20:30.319
bicycles everywhere with the vision that more and more consumers,
361
00:20:30.359 --> 00:20:33.599
people are going to bicycle to work. Now, I wouldn't
362
00:20:33.599 --> 00:20:37.400
do that today. It's minus you know twenty you wouldn't
363
00:20:37.400 --> 00:20:41.759
go too far? No goal, No, no, not for me,
364
00:20:41.880 --> 00:20:45.720
but but yes so so degree? You know that's that
365
00:20:45.920 --> 00:20:48.680
is by There are two dimensions we always look at.
366
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:55.240
Number one is readiness for transformation? Is the individual ready
367
00:20:55.240 --> 00:20:58.279
to make that change? Is the company ready to make
368
00:20:58.359 --> 00:20:58.960
that change?
369
00:20:59.200 --> 00:20:59.680
Yeah?
370
00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:03.319
What is driving the need for change? And what I
371
00:21:03.359 --> 00:21:08.559
mean by readiness? Are they silo structured? Is the transformation
372
00:21:08.640 --> 00:21:11.319
being driven by one department not by the entire organization?
373
00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:14.440
You know what happens then they start fighting? Yeah, so
374
00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:18.759
are you ready to make that transformation? Is the organization
375
00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:22.079
or the individual ready to make that change? Number one?
376
00:21:22.160 --> 00:21:25.799
Because if you're not, don't start. Number two, which is
377
00:21:25.839 --> 00:21:29.279
also very important, is the degree of change. So what
378
00:21:29.400 --> 00:21:34.400
are the market dynamics, you know, competitive set dynamics and
379
00:21:34.440 --> 00:21:37.799
even company culture dynamics, which is what happened to Jaguar.
380
00:21:38.839 --> 00:21:42.279
They're necessitating you to make that change? And how bold
381
00:21:42.279 --> 00:21:45.559
to change? On that spectrum? From zero being no change,
382
00:21:45.640 --> 00:21:49.279
ten being a new brand? Where do you fill in
383
00:21:49.319 --> 00:21:52.160
that slider in change? And then you have to make
384
00:21:52.160 --> 00:21:55.839
a decision. As we learned many times in research, the
385
00:21:55.920 --> 00:21:58.640
organization may think we're a three change, so not a
386
00:21:58.640 --> 00:22:01.559
lot of change. When you go to research, you find
387
00:22:01.599 --> 00:22:05.799
out customers want you to be a nine or a ten. Yeah,
388
00:22:05.839 --> 00:22:08.519
and so be ready to make that bowl change if
389
00:22:08.599 --> 00:22:11.319
customers are looking for change from the organization.
390
00:22:12.119 --> 00:22:15.599
Right right, there was actually what they had a couple
391
00:22:15.640 --> 00:22:18.319
of comedians making fun of Walmart and one or two
392
00:22:18.319 --> 00:22:20.960
other brands because they they did change their logo and
393
00:22:21.000 --> 00:22:24.680
their brand, but very slightly, you know. They they buffed
394
00:22:24.759 --> 00:22:27.079
up the color a little bit, you know, and and
395
00:22:27.599 --> 00:22:30.640
they changed the edges just as a tad but pretty
396
00:22:30.720 --> 00:22:33.079
much if you compared it to the other is almost identical,
397
00:22:33.440 --> 00:22:35.119
just a little bit a little bit more fresh, are
398
00:22:35.160 --> 00:22:35.359
you know?
399
00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:39.799
Yeah? Absolutely? And yeah, there was a lot on social media.
400
00:22:39.839 --> 00:22:41.880
The other one that I wrote a lot on is
401
00:22:42.200 --> 00:22:45.799
X that a changing name from Twitter to X. Yeah,
402
00:22:45.960 --> 00:22:51.480
and changing a name of a brand is also very risky, Yeah,
403
00:22:51.559 --> 00:22:56.079
because you're you're basically creating confusion. Yeah. Still I still
404
00:22:56.119 --> 00:22:57.839
call it Twitter. I don't know do you call it Twitter?
405
00:22:57.880 --> 00:22:58.400
Do you call it?
406
00:22:58.480 --> 00:23:00.519
I like it? I like Twitter much better and I
407
00:23:00.559 --> 00:23:02.079
like the bird I miss my little bird.
408
00:23:03.359 --> 00:23:05.599
You know what you're missed about? It is a bird?
409
00:23:05.720 --> 00:23:10.720
Is an emotional connection, Yeah, the living thing, right, you
410
00:23:10.759 --> 00:23:15.279
can relate to living things. Yeah. X is very personal
411
00:23:16.559 --> 00:23:21.680
for a platform that talks about personalization of communication and
412
00:23:21.720 --> 00:23:27.440
sharing ideas and feelings, it's the opposite. The brand is impersonal.
413
00:23:27.519 --> 00:23:32.799
It's cold, it's technology. It's not about community and connection
414
00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:37.480
and so you know brands. Yeah, yeah, he's very wealthy.
415
00:23:37.599 --> 00:23:40.400
He can do whatever he wants. Doesn't mean he's right.
416
00:23:41.200 --> 00:23:43.880
When I look at Twitter and I look at that
417
00:23:44.119 --> 00:23:49.039
black X, I feel coldness. I feel isolated. I feel
418
00:23:49.119 --> 00:23:52.559
that it just like one way or the high way
419
00:23:52.680 --> 00:23:56.039
kind of feeling. When I look at Twitter and the blue,
420
00:23:56.119 --> 00:23:58.640
that blue little bird. I don't know this something about
421
00:23:58.640 --> 00:24:01.960
the blue little bird, but it it it attaches to me.
422
00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:05.160
There's something that it draws to me. And and there's
423
00:24:05.200 --> 00:24:07.880
like I can feel a connection. I'm not sure what why,
424
00:24:08.680 --> 00:24:11.960
but I guess the because maybe because I like birds,
425
00:24:12.039 --> 00:24:15.079
maybe because it's the soft color, you know, maybe the blue,
426
00:24:15.240 --> 00:24:19.440
you know, but I I I kind of I draw
427
00:24:19.599 --> 00:24:21.960
much more to that and makes it much I feel
428
00:24:22.039 --> 00:24:25.039
much more friendly, you know when I when you look
429
00:24:25.079 --> 00:24:27.440
at that. But when I look at the X, I
430
00:24:27.480 --> 00:24:29.680
get very turned off, and I get it's just it
431
00:24:29.720 --> 00:24:31.599
doesn't it doesn't feel like a friendly world that I
432
00:24:31.640 --> 00:24:33.119
want to go into. It kind of feels like the
433
00:24:33.119 --> 00:24:35.599
black tunnel, you know. And then the other one feels
434
00:24:35.599 --> 00:24:38.160
like you're going into the heavens and it's a free
435
00:24:38.519 --> 00:24:41.039
to be free be you know, do what you want,
436
00:24:41.200 --> 00:24:44.440
and you know, and and uh, it's just a different
437
00:24:44.519 --> 00:24:45.319
kind of atmosphere.
438
00:24:45.359 --> 00:24:50.400
I think, Well, you know, icons are we call visual metaphors,
439
00:24:50.440 --> 00:24:53.160
and icons a visual metaphor. So when you think of
440
00:24:54.279 --> 00:24:57.720
the blue bird, what do the visual metaphor is? Birds
441
00:24:57.799 --> 00:25:01.440
or social animals? They fly and flow. Uh, they make
442
00:25:01.480 --> 00:25:06.039
a lot of noise. Yeah, they chatter a lot of chatter. Right. Well,
443
00:25:06.119 --> 00:25:09.400
isn't that what twitter is all about? Yep? Yeah, what
444
00:25:09.599 --> 00:25:11.119
is X stand for? X?
445
00:25:11.359 --> 00:25:11.440
Is?
446
00:25:12.200 --> 00:25:17.720
It identifies a place, but it also says no, and
447
00:25:17.920 --> 00:25:24.640
X says failure. Right, you have a deckmark. And so psychologically,
448
00:25:24.680 --> 00:25:30.359
the visual metaphor of X is I'm I'm opposed to socializing, right,
449
00:25:30.839 --> 00:25:35.119
or it's about me, It's it's not about the community.
450
00:25:35.559 --> 00:25:39.720
And so visual metaphors really talk to the emotional connection
451
00:25:39.799 --> 00:25:42.079
as part of the blink factor that we talk about
452
00:25:42.160 --> 00:25:46.359
is is that shape color? Yeah, message more than all
453
00:25:46.359 --> 00:25:50.039
the words around it. And so ensure that you're when
454
00:25:50.039 --> 00:25:52.640
you're doing that transformation. You know, we talk about pick
455
00:25:52.720 --> 00:25:55.440
three or four images that capture the end state. Make
456
00:25:55.480 --> 00:25:59.640
sure one of those images captures the visual metaphor of
457
00:25:59.680 --> 00:26:02.720
that state, of that experience, because that then being the
458
00:26:02.759 --> 00:26:09.319
springboard for all your communication strategy. Yeah, yeah, so that's true.
459
00:26:09.720 --> 00:26:11.799
And then on the flip side, you know, when you
460
00:26:11.839 --> 00:26:16.359
look at transformation, and we talked about barriers, the most
461
00:26:16.359 --> 00:26:21.079
common barriers are can be bucketed into two or three categories.
462
00:26:21.160 --> 00:26:25.640
Number one is a misalignment. Misalignment could be I'm not
463
00:26:25.720 --> 00:26:29.160
aligned to where the market's going, but misaligned could be
464
00:26:29.200 --> 00:26:32.440
internally where we as a group are not aligned to
465
00:26:33.279 --> 00:26:36.279
where we want to go, right, And that misalignment is
466
00:26:36.319 --> 00:26:41.279
probably the biggest killer of transformation programs. Either you're not
467
00:26:41.400 --> 00:26:45.200
going to the right direction, or the people inside the organization,
468
00:26:45.440 --> 00:26:48.160
even if it's only three or four people, yeah, going
469
00:26:48.200 --> 00:26:51.480
in the same direction, and that creates conflict and confusion
470
00:26:52.319 --> 00:26:56.079
and all of that capital of building that brand gets lost. Yes,
471
00:26:56.319 --> 00:27:00.680
you're sending mixed messages to the marketplace, right, that's number
472
00:27:00.680 --> 00:27:04.960
one Number two is followed by misalignment. The other barrier
473
00:27:05.200 --> 00:27:10.319
is that you're solving the wrong problem right, or it's
474
00:27:10.359 --> 00:27:12.440
a or you know what I mean by the wrong
475
00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:15.039
problem is you're solving a problem that people don't put
476
00:27:15.039 --> 00:27:18.559
a lot of value in, right, And very often that
477
00:27:19.480 --> 00:27:22.240
is a result of an organization that has technology. Oh
478
00:27:22.279 --> 00:27:25.720
look at we discovered this new thing. How exciting that is.
479
00:27:25.839 --> 00:27:29.279
It's unique, no one else has it. Let's launch it.
480
00:27:29.720 --> 00:27:32.279
What they don't do is say, okay, but what problem
481
00:27:32.400 --> 00:27:36.319
is this solving? Right? Right? And is the are consumers
482
00:27:36.359 --> 00:27:38.920
willing to pay for that problem to be solved?
483
00:27:39.160 --> 00:27:39.279
Right?
484
00:27:39.759 --> 00:27:42.680
And it may be the newest, best thing in the world,
485
00:27:43.400 --> 00:27:46.920
but if it's not solving a problem, it's not going
486
00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:49.519
to succeed in the marketplace. And that's number two on
487
00:27:49.559 --> 00:27:53.519
the list of and number three really is you know,
488
00:27:53.559 --> 00:27:57.359
we talked about a coherence. It's it's tied to the
489
00:27:57.400 --> 00:28:00.440
misalignment is you know, are we sending mixed messes to
490
00:28:00.480 --> 00:28:05.240
the marketplace? Are we fragmenting our marketing dollars? Are investment
491
00:28:05.400 --> 00:28:08.400
even for a startup, You've got so little to spend,
492
00:28:09.079 --> 00:28:11.960
you know, are you sending so many different miss messages
493
00:28:12.079 --> 00:28:16.799
that that investment that the message is actually not getting through,
494
00:28:17.279 --> 00:28:21.400
and those are the big barriers for transformation that either
495
00:28:21.440 --> 00:28:26.160
an individual organization needs to consider.
496
00:28:27.200 --> 00:28:30.400
I agree. Now, tell me a little about your services,
497
00:28:30.519 --> 00:28:32.880
the services that you and your company provides.
498
00:28:33.519 --> 00:28:38.039
Yeah, so, so we have a range of services. It
499
00:28:38.119 --> 00:28:43.319
really starts with the circle of transformation. So we do positioning,
500
00:28:43.480 --> 00:28:46.759
We do consumer research, we do stakeholder research, so we
501
00:28:46.799 --> 00:28:51.000
do interviews, we do customer journey mapping, understand what are
502
00:28:51.039 --> 00:28:54.359
the friction points along that journey that customers have engaging
503
00:28:54.359 --> 00:28:58.160
with you. Awre they engaged socially, physically, what happens after
504
00:28:58.200 --> 00:29:01.440
they buy your product. Yeah, that's all part of what
505
00:29:01.440 --> 00:29:04.400
we call discovery and strategy, and we'll do a lot
506
00:29:04.440 --> 00:29:07.119
of that work up front to create the foundation for
507
00:29:07.400 --> 00:29:11.079
understanding and learning because without that, again, it's back to
508
00:29:11.119 --> 00:29:13.720
those barriers of transformation. We may be going in the
509
00:29:13.720 --> 00:29:16.559
wrong direction, we may be solving the wrong problem, and
510
00:29:16.599 --> 00:29:18.720
we may be fragmenting the message because we're trying to
511
00:29:18.720 --> 00:29:22.440
accomplish too much. And so that's the discovery stage, and
512
00:29:22.440 --> 00:29:26.839
we define those and we define the position personality. Then
513
00:29:26.880 --> 00:29:29.519
we do what a lot of branding firms do. We
514
00:29:29.559 --> 00:29:33.400
do the identity. We'll do the e commerce website, the website,
515
00:29:33.480 --> 00:29:37.079
the app create. We do a lot of retail stores,
516
00:29:37.119 --> 00:29:42.400
so we'll create the physical environment. We'll work with behavioral scientists.
517
00:29:42.400 --> 00:29:45.839
We have two on staff on understanding how do we
518
00:29:45.839 --> 00:29:49.880
shift the behavior the employees benefit from these changes because
519
00:29:49.880 --> 00:29:53.440
it's not you know a lot of a lot of
520
00:29:53.440 --> 00:29:57.160
what happens in transformation must happen internally and not externally.
521
00:29:57.240 --> 00:29:59.400
So how do we change the mindset of our employees.
522
00:30:00.200 --> 00:30:03.000
We do that that at least training, and then from there,
523
00:30:03.079 --> 00:30:07.279
obviously we do NPS scores and more research. We do
524
00:30:07.519 --> 00:30:10.079
the packaging for that retailer. If let's say they're doing
525
00:30:10.160 --> 00:30:12.880
a like for Walmart their private label program, we did
526
00:30:12.880 --> 00:30:15.279
that for them. You know, how do we bring that
527
00:30:15.359 --> 00:30:17.519
brand to life at all those moments of truth. The
528
00:30:17.559 --> 00:30:21.039
other thing we do is advertising. We don't buy media,
529
00:30:21.480 --> 00:30:24.839
we don't place media. We will develop the branding big idea,
530
00:30:25.240 --> 00:30:28.119
and then we'll give that as a briefing document to
531
00:30:28.240 --> 00:30:31.319
the agency for execution. I love that.
532
00:30:31.559 --> 00:30:33.559
I love that. Now, if we had to look at
533
00:30:33.559 --> 00:30:36.599
today's conversation and you really wanted to point out some
534
00:30:36.720 --> 00:30:40.079
important factors and what are some of the things you'd
535
00:30:40.079 --> 00:30:42.039
like to emphasize to the listeners today.
536
00:30:43.200 --> 00:30:46.480
Well, the first thing is that change is good. You know,
537
00:30:46.559 --> 00:30:49.720
we all are resistance to change. We see it as
538
00:30:49.720 --> 00:30:53.160
a big obstacle, a big risk. But change is good.
539
00:30:53.599 --> 00:30:55.960
You should always be looking at, you know, to your
540
00:30:56.000 --> 00:30:58.519
point relevancy of you know, do we adjust or do
541
00:30:58.599 --> 00:31:01.599
we change change your mind chain, But you should always
542
00:31:01.640 --> 00:31:05.839
be looking at if you're someone working in a large corporation,
543
00:31:07.559 --> 00:31:12.240
how do I stay relevant either for my employer, for me,
544
00:31:12.759 --> 00:31:16.920
for for my life. You know, where are my unique
545
00:31:16.920 --> 00:31:22.160
selling proposition and my proof points in what makes me unique? Right?
546
00:31:22.559 --> 00:31:26.839
The first first thing is change should be welcomed. Point
547
00:31:26.920 --> 00:31:29.720
number two is change happens in steps. It never happens
548
00:31:29.720 --> 00:31:33.240
in bowl steps. It happens in consecutive steps. But it
549
00:31:33.279 --> 00:31:35.240
has to start with a vision of the end goal
550
00:31:35.799 --> 00:31:38.319
that ain't goal. May change dramatically as you go along
551
00:31:38.359 --> 00:31:40.720
that journey and realize some of these things that you
552
00:31:40.799 --> 00:31:44.920
thought were the end benefit just it. But if you
553
00:31:45.440 --> 00:31:48.000
break it down into steps, it will allow you the
554
00:31:48.160 --> 00:31:52.680
chance to adjust or reaffirmation that your vision that you
555
00:31:52.759 --> 00:31:56.680
had was accurate. That's number and number three, which is
556
00:31:56.720 --> 00:32:00.279
really important is whatever change management you do it has
557
00:32:00.319 --> 00:32:03.039
to be anchored in an emotional connection, and it has
558
00:32:03.079 --> 00:32:07.599
to be anchored in emotional values that people can live
559
00:32:07.640 --> 00:32:11.440
with because we're you know, branding is about connecting proct
560
00:32:11.480 --> 00:32:15.720
services to people, right, right, And don't forget the people part.
561
00:32:16.559 --> 00:32:19.240
That's what's driving the purchase. You know. I always say, people,
562
00:32:20.079 --> 00:32:25.240
you know, don't vote with their pocketbooks. They vote with
563
00:32:25.279 --> 00:32:28.200
their head and their heart. Yeah, up in the pocket book,
564
00:32:28.240 --> 00:32:30.279
but it starts with their head and their heart. And
565
00:32:30.319 --> 00:32:32.599
I think it's important to understand that what you're trying
566
00:32:32.599 --> 00:32:35.359
to accomplish as a brand as part of the transformation
567
00:32:35.960 --> 00:32:37.920
is building deeper emotional connections.
568
00:32:38.240 --> 00:32:38.480
Right.
569
00:32:39.079 --> 00:32:39.839
That's so true.
570
00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:42.839
That's one hundred percent true. Now, also tell me about
571
00:32:42.960 --> 00:32:44.720
three books that you've written. I want to hear a
572
00:32:44.759 --> 00:32:45.359
little about that.
573
00:32:45.920 --> 00:32:48.960
Okay, So in twenty fifteen I wrote a book called
574
00:32:49.000 --> 00:32:53.559
The Belonging Experience, and really the book way ahead of
575
00:32:53.839 --> 00:32:56.799
our time, because today belonging is so critical that it's
576
00:32:56.839 --> 00:32:59.559
the buzzword. I think twenty twenty four or twenty twenty
577
00:32:59.599 --> 00:33:03.799
five will be belonging. That's really about the fact that
578
00:33:03.839 --> 00:33:06.480
we're we just finished actually a big study on loneliness.
579
00:33:07.039 --> 00:33:10.200
The fact is we're becoming more and more lonely. Yeah,
580
00:33:10.240 --> 00:33:13.000
all of these social media and people criticize them for
581
00:33:13.400 --> 00:33:15.359
a lot of negative things, but the reality it's not
582
00:33:15.559 --> 00:33:20.039
the platform, it's us. Yeah, ime less human and we're
583
00:33:20.079 --> 00:33:22.720
craving for that human connection, that sense of belonging. So
584
00:33:22.720 --> 00:33:24.680
I wrote that book, The Sense of Belonging, How brands
585
00:33:24.680 --> 00:33:25.680
could create communities.
586
00:33:26.160 --> 00:33:26.839
I like that.
587
00:33:27.559 --> 00:33:30.839
The second book I wrote was Desire by Design, and
588
00:33:30.880 --> 00:33:33.640
that really talked about how do you move a brand
589
00:33:33.680 --> 00:33:36.440
from functional needs to emotional needs? How how do you
590
00:33:36.480 --> 00:33:40.079
become a random People desire They don't want this brand,
591
00:33:40.759 --> 00:33:42.640
they don't want to be on your show. They desire
592
00:33:42.680 --> 00:33:45.599
to be on your show. Right, there's an emotional demand
593
00:33:45.640 --> 00:33:48.440
there that's happening. And so I wrote that book just
594
00:33:48.480 --> 00:33:51.440
for COVID. Also wrote a third book called The Business
595
00:33:51.440 --> 00:33:55.680
of Graphic Design. It was with I think seven other
596
00:33:55.799 --> 00:33:59.440
writers we wrote this book. It's in its third reprint,
597
00:34:00.079 --> 00:34:03.359
so I think we've sold about thirty thousand books. Wow.
598
00:34:03.839 --> 00:34:07.920
It's geared to the design professional on how to run
599
00:34:07.960 --> 00:34:11.159
their practice. And then the fourth book, which is now
600
00:34:11.199 --> 00:34:14.639
at the publishers is called The Think Blink Manifesto, and
601
00:34:14.719 --> 00:34:16.880
it's taking a lot of what I shared with you
602
00:34:16.960 --> 00:34:23.960
on this show and providing real world examples and principles
603
00:34:24.000 --> 00:34:26.800
and tennis for seven tenants to the think Blink and
604
00:34:26.880 --> 00:34:30.800
manifesto that we share that you can apply to as
605
00:34:30.840 --> 00:34:32.639
an individual or a large corporation.
606
00:34:33.519 --> 00:34:33.719
Oh.
607
00:34:33.760 --> 00:34:35.519
I love that. I love that.
608
00:34:36.320 --> 00:34:38.039
Where can people find these books?
609
00:34:38.360 --> 00:34:41.519
Amazon dot com? I love it? Or you can come
610
00:34:41.519 --> 00:34:47.920
to our website www dot s LD that's Samlovedog dot
611
00:34:47.920 --> 00:34:51.639
com and go under resource under insights tab and you'll
612
00:34:51.679 --> 00:34:55.119
see publications. You'll find all of our books there. Oh.
613
00:34:55.159 --> 00:34:55.599
I love it.
614
00:34:55.760 --> 00:34:57.599
And if people want to get in contact with you,
615
00:34:57.840 --> 00:35:00.480
is there a certain way they can contact you?
616
00:35:00.599 --> 00:35:04.000
Yeah, they can just email me at J. P. Lacroix
617
00:35:04.119 --> 00:35:09.679
That's John P. L A c r o i X
618
00:35:10.480 --> 00:35:14.360
at s l D dot com. I love it. You
619
00:35:14.440 --> 00:35:15.400
can find me on LinkedIn.
620
00:35:16.360 --> 00:35:20.239
Oh, great, great, awesome. I you know, this has been
621
00:35:20.239 --> 00:35:24.320
an amazing interview. I really enjoyed this. I I love Brandon,
622
00:35:24.440 --> 00:35:27.360
I love the whole concept of it. And you grave
623
00:35:27.519 --> 00:35:29.760
such great advice today. I must say that you had
624
00:35:29.800 --> 00:35:32.159
a lot of great insight and a lot of great
625
00:35:32.199 --> 00:35:35.280
advice for people. Because it can be a very touchy,
626
00:35:35.559 --> 00:35:37.360
you know matter. You know you want to do it.
627
00:35:37.480 --> 00:35:39.360
You want to do it the right way, Like you said,
628
00:35:39.360 --> 00:35:40.800
you don't want to be like J. C. Pennies and
629
00:35:40.840 --> 00:35:43.039
go from A to M and then all of a
630
00:35:43.079 --> 00:35:45.960
sudden you lose customers in between. You want to do
631
00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:48.360
it the right way. So you really gave some great
632
00:35:48.360 --> 00:35:50.559
advice on how to do it the right way today,
633
00:35:50.800 --> 00:35:53.199
and I really thank you so much for putting all
634
00:35:53.239 --> 00:35:55.880
this information out to the listeners and for being on
635
00:35:55.920 --> 00:35:56.280
the show.
636
00:35:56.719 --> 00:35:58.360
Thank you very much, Thank you.
637
00:35:59.280 --> 00:36:00.000
You have a great day.
638
00:36:00.400 --> 00:36:01.239
We'll do by now.
1
00:00:02.480 --> 00:00:06.679
Hello everybody, and welcome back to The Advisor with Stacy Chilemy. Today,
2
00:00:06.679 --> 00:00:09.880
I'm very excited because we have a very special guest today.
3
00:00:10.119 --> 00:00:13.400
His name is JP and he is an amazing individual
4
00:00:13.480 --> 00:00:17.960
who is a founder of a very very prestigious branding
5
00:00:18.039 --> 00:00:19.960
company and he's going to tell you a little about
6
00:00:19.960 --> 00:00:22.079
that in a moment, but he would love to talk
7
00:00:22.120 --> 00:00:25.800
about today about Brandon and how to make the big shift.
8
00:00:25.879 --> 00:00:29.679
And that's really important because we have people that listen
9
00:00:29.719 --> 00:00:33.679
to this show that have small, medium, and large corporations,
10
00:00:33.880 --> 00:00:37.560
all different sizes, but when it comes to Brandon, it's
11
00:00:37.600 --> 00:00:39.960
a big issue, you know, making that shift. You know
12
00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:41.640
you have to put a lot of thought and emphasis
13
00:00:41.640 --> 00:00:44.280
in it, and you really want to represent who you
14
00:00:44.359 --> 00:00:47.479
are through that, Brandon, and today JP is going to
15
00:00:47.479 --> 00:00:49.679
talk about that, and he's going to show you some
16
00:00:49.759 --> 00:00:52.560
different tools, techniques and give you some great advice on
17
00:00:52.719 --> 00:00:54.799
how to make that big shift. So I am so
18
00:00:54.920 --> 00:00:57.759
excited to have you on the show today. You are amazing.
19
00:00:57.840 --> 00:01:01.920
I love what you're doing. I've always been intrigued with Brandon.
20
00:01:02.079 --> 00:01:04.560
I love you know, me and myself, I'm a very
21
00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:07.920
creative person, So I love Brandon. I love you know
22
00:01:08.159 --> 00:01:11.239
going in and really diving deep into something and really
23
00:01:11.359 --> 00:01:14.159
changing it around, and really thinking out of the box.
24
00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:16.200
Because when you do branding, you really have to think
25
00:01:16.319 --> 00:01:18.359
out of the box. But you cannot too far out
26
00:01:18.359 --> 00:01:20.680
where people are going to lose you. So you really
27
00:01:20.680 --> 00:01:23.959
have to have that happy medium. So, you know, before
28
00:01:23.959 --> 00:01:26.359
we begin, tell everybody a little about yourself and what
29
00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:28.599
you do, and then we'll get into how to make
30
00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:29.640
that big shift.
31
00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:32.959
Well, thank you very much. Yeah, I'm JP and we
32
00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:36.599
run a brand consulting firm here in Toronto look at
33
00:01:36.599 --> 00:01:38.439
in Toronto, but you also have an office in China
34
00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:41.760
and Shanghai, and we do work around the world, so
35
00:01:41.879 --> 00:01:45.000
there isn't I travel around two hundred thousand miles a
36
00:01:45.079 --> 00:01:51.319
year visiting clients, doing audits and analysis. So at the
37
00:01:51.359 --> 00:01:54.480
core of what we do is we're transformational designers. We
38
00:01:54.519 --> 00:01:58.120
look at change management for brands. We look at how
39
00:01:58.120 --> 00:02:01.079
do we ensure that the brands are relevant and stay
40
00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:03.920
relevant because there's so much happening in the marketplace, you know,
41
00:02:04.120 --> 00:02:08.280
from you know a shift and behavior consumers today, the
42
00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:11.159
young consumers, they're not drinking liquor, they're not driving cars,
43
00:02:11.960 --> 00:02:14.159
but doing other things and a huw to brands stay
44
00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:17.120
in touch and remain relevant with them. And then you've
45
00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:21.000
got disruptive forces happening in the marketplace where they're changing
46
00:02:21.039 --> 00:02:26.680
the business model. You know, think of hotels. You know, yeah,
47
00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:30.639
hotels dominated the travel industry, and now you've got Aaron
48
00:02:30.719 --> 00:02:32.719
be in a variety of other one of these time
49
00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:36.719
share and I'll found the platforms that are eating away
50
00:02:36.719 --> 00:02:38.800
and becoming the largest hotel chains in the world. And
51
00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:42.719
so you've got these transformational, disruptive brands in the world,
52
00:02:42.719 --> 00:02:46.000
and so how do you remain relevant? And so we've
53
00:02:46.039 --> 00:02:49.599
been doing this for thirty five years helping companies and
54
00:02:49.759 --> 00:02:52.319
the listeners. You probably touch one of the brands that
55
00:02:52.360 --> 00:02:54.560
we transform. If you go to a dairy queen girl
56
00:02:54.639 --> 00:02:57.159
and chill, if you go to a pizza hut cafe,
57
00:02:57.319 --> 00:03:02.520
if you've gone to midas, you Pepsi, if you eat
58
00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:06.879
quicker products or lace chips. We have had a touch
59
00:03:07.199 --> 00:03:12.080
and impacted those brands. And what's important to understand is
60
00:03:13.319 --> 00:03:15.879
the dynamics and the model do we use to transform
61
00:03:15.919 --> 00:03:20.840
these brands. Applies to large multinational corporations, it applies to
62
00:03:21.039 --> 00:03:25.080
mid sized companies, it applies to startups. It actually applies
63
00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:27.840
also to individuals who are looking at and maybe a
64
00:03:27.879 --> 00:03:31.479
career change. Maybe they've been downsized, or maybe they're just
65
00:03:31.560 --> 00:03:34.120
frustrated with their current job and their career and they're going,
66
00:03:34.159 --> 00:03:37.639
I need a change, I need to go somewhere. The
67
00:03:37.759 --> 00:03:41.599
same steps and the same process applied to all of these. Obviously,
68
00:03:42.199 --> 00:03:46.080
the investment level, the amount of research you would have
69
00:03:46.120 --> 00:03:49.879
to take for a large organization, the onboarding and the aligning,
70
00:03:50.199 --> 00:03:52.400
you know, and the large corporation with the different silos
71
00:03:52.479 --> 00:03:55.479
versus being an individual. Obviously those things add to the
72
00:03:55.520 --> 00:03:58.759
complexity of the process. But what's important is the steps
73
00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:03.039
you take to transformation are the same, and the model
74
00:04:03.080 --> 00:04:06.000
we use applies to anything. Right.
75
00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:10.039
I love that you know, when it comes to making
76
00:04:10.039 --> 00:04:12.680
the shift, what would you say are some important steps
77
00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:15.280
that people have to consider before they actually dive into
78
00:04:15.319 --> 00:04:16.959
it and start making those changes.
79
00:04:17.319 --> 00:04:20.120
It's a great question. When you think of making a change,
80
00:04:20.519 --> 00:04:23.240
the first thing you need to do is determine what's
81
00:04:23.279 --> 00:04:27.120
the destination. You know, what's the endpoint. We often say
82
00:04:27.519 --> 00:04:31.160
in our conversation in the discovery stage of the process,
83
00:04:31.160 --> 00:04:33.879
we think we have four questions that we ask and
84
00:04:33.920 --> 00:04:38.399
these apply to executives of large corporation and applied to individuals.
85
00:04:38.439 --> 00:04:40.759
And the first question, and these were developed by a
86
00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:43.720
gentleman by the name of Dan Sullivan who has a
87
00:04:43.800 --> 00:04:48.439
platform called Strategic Coach, which is incredible. I attended for
88
00:04:48.519 --> 00:04:52.040
three years his seminars and courts. They definitely helped define
89
00:04:52.879 --> 00:04:55.079
our processes and the way we look at things. But
90
00:04:55.120 --> 00:04:58.439
the first question is if we got together and had
91
00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:01.120
a cup of coffee a year from now or maybe
92
00:05:01.199 --> 00:05:04.800
two years from now, and we were celebrating the success
93
00:05:05.519 --> 00:05:11.439
of the program, what you've achieved, what would that look like?
94
00:05:11.639 --> 00:05:13.879
What would you say, what would you how would you
95
00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:17.360
define that? And that is the vision and state if
96
00:05:17.399 --> 00:05:20.959
you like, And often we'll say, draw some pictures of
97
00:05:20.959 --> 00:05:23.800
what that looks like, you know, go on Google and
98
00:05:23.839 --> 00:05:26.439
download it because and create an image of what that
99
00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:30.160
looks like. And I think that that's really important. The
100
00:05:30.240 --> 00:05:33.399
second question is if we're having a cup of coffee
101
00:05:33.439 --> 00:05:36.879
and you're really discouraged that it failed, that you haven't
102
00:05:36.920 --> 00:05:40.519
achieved what you wanted to do, What were the barriers
103
00:05:40.519 --> 00:05:42.519
that cause that to happen? What are the things that
104
00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:45.600
you had to overcome to cause that to happen? And
105
00:05:45.639 --> 00:05:48.680
I think that's important to understand that as you go
106
00:05:48.759 --> 00:05:52.720
on this journey of transformation, that you're gonna have some hurdles,
107
00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:54.839
you're gonna have some barriers, you're gonna have some issues
108
00:05:54.839 --> 00:05:56.720
you're gonna have to overcome, and it's good to understand
109
00:05:56.839 --> 00:06:00.560
those at the beginning of the journey. Question number three
110
00:06:00.600 --> 00:06:03.439
is what are the measurements that are telling you're on
111
00:06:03.480 --> 00:06:06.560
the right track. It could be I want to work
112
00:06:06.680 --> 00:06:11.439
less hours, or I want to contribute socially to this
113
00:06:11.560 --> 00:06:14.079
cause or that cause, or it could be money. I
114
00:06:14.120 --> 00:06:17.040
want to make twice as much money. I want to
115
00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:20.199
own that beautiful home that I've always inspirred to own.
116
00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:22.879
But it's good to understand what are the metrics you're
117
00:06:22.920 --> 00:06:26.839
going to evaluate to tell you that you've achieved your
118
00:06:26.879 --> 00:06:29.839
goals and that you're on that track tours those goals.
119
00:06:31.439 --> 00:06:35.360
And the last thing is what is you know two
120
00:06:35.439 --> 00:06:39.120
or three words that capture the end definition? What are
121
00:06:39.120 --> 00:06:43.279
the keywords you know? The words could be independence, it
122
00:06:43.360 --> 00:06:48.199
could be empowerment, it could be enjoyment. So what are
123
00:06:48.199 --> 00:06:52.839
the three key adjectives that you can help frame, Because
124
00:06:53.040 --> 00:06:55.879
you know, it's funny how the mind works. The mind
125
00:06:56.040 --> 00:07:00.480
only remembers three things. The more you add to what
126
00:07:00.519 --> 00:07:03.079
you're trying to remember the fewer things you remember. And
127
00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:06.879
so if you could crystallize in your head, in your
128
00:07:06.920 --> 00:07:09.560
mind three key adjectives you want to accomplish, you're going
129
00:07:09.560 --> 00:07:12.319
to accomplish them. Your mind works, it will drive your
130
00:07:12.360 --> 00:07:15.920
behavior to achieve those adjectives. And if you put pictures
131
00:07:15.959 --> 00:07:20.279
around that, right, the endstate is those have huge impact.
132
00:07:20.759 --> 00:07:23.240
Yeah, that's so true.
133
00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:27.160
That's so true. So that's how you start on the journey.
134
00:07:27.319 --> 00:07:29.399
The other, the other factor that I think is really
135
00:07:29.399 --> 00:07:33.240
important is to break down that journey into steps. We
136
00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:36.279
call it the trust ladder, right, and so we look
137
00:07:36.279 --> 00:07:40.079
at J. C. Penny. Why did it fail? Really smart people,
138
00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:45.399
it was the right strategy. You know, the ideas were right.
139
00:07:46.319 --> 00:07:48.920
They did one thing wrong. They went from step one
140
00:07:49.040 --> 00:07:52.120
the step step t tent in one step and they
141
00:07:52.160 --> 00:07:54.879
lost the customer in the journey. Yeah, what are those
142
00:07:54.920 --> 00:07:56.920
steps that you need to take as part of that
143
00:07:56.959 --> 00:08:01.319
transformational journey and monitoring that you're on the right track,
144
00:08:01.480 --> 00:08:04.680
because the reality is that your vision five years up
145
00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:07.279
from now, if you create a vision of who you
146
00:08:07.319 --> 00:08:11.120
are and what you stand for, the reality along that journey,
147
00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:13.720
you're going to have to make some shifts that vision
148
00:08:13.759 --> 00:08:17.399
may change slightly. You may learn something that has a
149
00:08:17.519 --> 00:08:20.920
huge impact on the success of your vision that you
150
00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:24.199
may need to modify, right, And so having those steps
151
00:08:24.240 --> 00:08:27.439
allows you to do course correction, allows you to measure
152
00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:30.800
your progress. I think of writing a book. Many of
153
00:08:30.839 --> 00:08:33.720
you are, probably your audience, are thinking, I'd love to
154
00:08:33.720 --> 00:08:37.200
write a book. I like to be an expert, you know,
155
00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:40.240
but writing a book is so complicated. I've written now
156
00:08:40.240 --> 00:08:43.080
three books. I'm on my fourth book, and I had
157
00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:46.039
the same kind of challenge. Oh my god, writing a book.
158
00:08:46.840 --> 00:08:50.080
Time commitment of writing that book. You know, how do
159
00:08:50.120 --> 00:08:50.639
I write it?
160
00:08:51.320 --> 00:08:51.600
Right?
161
00:08:51.840 --> 00:08:54.840
It's a simple formula. It's a trust latter all over again.
162
00:08:56.080 --> 00:08:59.320
What's your What is your point of view? One point
163
00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:00.840
of view that you want to communicate in the book?
164
00:09:00.919 --> 00:09:04.159
What is that one salient point? And make that salient
165
00:09:04.200 --> 00:09:08.720
point disruptive. It could be counterintuitive, it could be challenging
166
00:09:08.759 --> 00:09:12.960
the current paradigms. What is that one salient insight that
167
00:09:13.039 --> 00:09:17.720
you want to communicate your audience, and then deconstruct that
168
00:09:17.799 --> 00:09:23.600
insight into supporting factors of that insight and the reality.
169
00:09:23.759 --> 00:09:26.799
Each one of those supporting factors is a segment of
170
00:09:26.840 --> 00:09:30.840
the book, right, right, you know, if the book has
171
00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:36.240
twenty chapters, right, twenty blogs, right, seventeen out of words
172
00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:40.080
to twenty four outer words. Halfway by doing that, you
173
00:09:40.120 --> 00:09:44.399
are halfway to completing your book. Yes, what you're doing
174
00:09:44.440 --> 00:09:47.480
is filling in the gaps between the spaces, which is
175
00:09:47.480 --> 00:09:51.320
a lot easier once you've written twenty chapters or twenty
176
00:09:51.399 --> 00:09:54.320
blogs if you like, it's a lot easier than to
177
00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:57.360
fill in where the missing and where the connecting points
178
00:09:57.399 --> 00:10:01.519
are happening. And that's really how the a book. And
179
00:10:01.559 --> 00:10:04.360
it's about again the trust lat are building no steps,
180
00:10:04.720 --> 00:10:08.360
breaking that vision of what what is that, what's that
181
00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:10.799
key message you want to communicate in your book, and
182
00:10:10.840 --> 00:10:14.919
breaking it down into chapters, twenty chapters, fifteen chapters, and
183
00:10:14.919 --> 00:10:18.320
then writing one chapter or the other. Everybody can write.
184
00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:23.000
Everybody can write with you know, grammarly and now chap GPT,
185
00:10:23.159 --> 00:10:27.399
everybody can write. Everybody can do great research. Right, It's
186
00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:32.360
about just breaking it down, realizing that there is a
187
00:10:32.440 --> 00:10:34.919
way of getting up to completing the book, and then
188
00:10:35.360 --> 00:10:39.720
ensuring that you have that that point of view at
189
00:10:39.759 --> 00:10:41.919
the end of the book. And I would say it's
190
00:10:41.960 --> 00:10:45.080
the same thing in rebranding. When you think of rebranding
191
00:10:45.320 --> 00:10:49.399
We always start with what is what is your equities?
192
00:10:49.440 --> 00:10:51.320
What are the things that you own? So if you're
193
00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:54.159
an individual, you know what's your equities? What are the
194
00:10:54.159 --> 00:10:56.600
things that you're really strong at that you could amplify
195
00:10:56.600 --> 00:10:59.679
as an expert company? What are the equities you own
196
00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:03.080
that no one else can take away from you? We
197
00:11:03.159 --> 00:11:06.679
call it the foundation. But what's important to understand is
198
00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:10.679
where are the white spaces? And the white spaces are
199
00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:16.480
typically unmet consumer needs, right, they're typically you take Tesla,
200
00:11:16.600 --> 00:11:19.360
what's the unmet consumer I want to drive an environmentally
201
00:11:19.360 --> 00:11:21.559
friendly car, but I don't want to spend one hundred
202
00:11:21.600 --> 00:11:24.879
and fifty thousand dollars. I want it to be accessible
203
00:11:25.639 --> 00:11:30.039
and you know inexpensive, right right? And so what is
204
00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:33.639
that need state that the current market is not fulfilling?
205
00:11:33.799 --> 00:11:37.480
And how do I create a product of service or
206
00:11:37.519 --> 00:11:41.000
a point of view that fills that need state? Because
207
00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:44.759
without that you just get lost. You know, there's so
208
00:11:44.919 --> 00:11:48.399
much noise out there in the marketplace from a standpot
209
00:11:48.440 --> 00:11:52.039
of social media, marketing, advertising, and even product offerings. There's
210
00:11:52.080 --> 00:11:56.080
like thirty thousand new products launched every year. Only a
211
00:11:56.159 --> 00:11:59.799
handful of them succeed, right, because they're lost in the
212
00:12:00.360 --> 00:12:02.360
So it's really important to the sund what is that
213
00:12:02.720 --> 00:12:06.080
hidden need state? And I would say even go further,
214
00:12:06.159 --> 00:12:08.919
what is that emotional hidden the state? We call it
215
00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:12.399
the blink factor. You know, forty percent of all communications visual,
216
00:12:12.440 --> 00:12:16.159
eighty percent is color and shape. That eighty nine percent
217
00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:20.159
of all decisions we make as human beings are emotionally driven.
218
00:12:20.360 --> 00:12:24.320
Buying a car, a house, meeting someone dating, They're all
219
00:12:24.320 --> 00:12:28.200
emotionally driven factors and a huge impact on your life.
220
00:12:28.279 --> 00:12:32.320
And so understanding what is that emotional unmeant need that
221
00:12:32.360 --> 00:12:35.879
you could fulfill the marketplace right there as an author,
222
00:12:35.919 --> 00:12:38.720
an expert, or as a brand, that's how we start
223
00:12:38.759 --> 00:12:41.120
the process. I love that.
224
00:12:41.519 --> 00:12:45.240
I love that you know what when when it comes
225
00:12:45.279 --> 00:12:48.960
to you know, starting the process, how do you how
226
00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:52.840
do you know when you've actually figured out you know,
227
00:12:53.399 --> 00:12:56.440
the right brand in you know, like you know you
228
00:12:56.480 --> 00:12:58.799
want to when you create a brand, you wanted to
229
00:12:58.879 --> 00:13:02.799
represent who you are. You know, what your company represents,
230
00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:05.080
and there's so many ways of doing it. You have.
231
00:13:05.720 --> 00:13:09.039
You know, some people use colors, you know, you know
232
00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:13.639
psychologically each colorresent certain things you can use, you know,
233
00:13:14.039 --> 00:13:16.559
you can want to be vibrant and really catch their
234
00:13:16.600 --> 00:13:19.320
attention and then send a message through the color. You know,
235
00:13:19.480 --> 00:13:22.720
some people want that tagline that people are never going
236
00:13:22.799 --> 00:13:26.600
to forget. You know, is there a specific way that
237
00:13:26.919 --> 00:13:29.639
certain things that people should focus on when they're creating
238
00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:33.600
their brand and is there a way to do it?
239
00:13:33.759 --> 00:13:35.559
You know, do you focus on one thing or you
240
00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:37.759
try to do a combination of things when you're trying
241
00:13:37.799 --> 00:13:41.000
to get the perfect brand to represent your product or service.
242
00:13:41.840 --> 00:13:44.240
Yeah, it's a great question, and the reality is you
243
00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:46.480
have to be very careful because when you try and
244
00:13:46.519 --> 00:13:50.080
do too much, you at risk of fragmenting. We call
245
00:13:50.120 --> 00:13:54.440
it brand incoherence, and the great brands have one thing
246
00:13:54.440 --> 00:13:57.519
in common. They're very coherent. They're very on point. No
247
00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:00.799
matter if you meet them on a social media, if
248
00:14:00.799 --> 00:14:03.440
you go to their stores, read them about them in
249
00:14:03.480 --> 00:14:07.720
the newspaper. The message is always consistently delivered. So the
250
00:14:07.720 --> 00:14:10.399
first thing I would say is you have to have
251
00:14:10.440 --> 00:14:12.720
a clearly defined position. And that's where you come back
252
00:14:12.720 --> 00:14:16.200
to the value proposition. What is your value proposition? What's
253
00:14:16.200 --> 00:14:19.480
your brand personality? How do you define that brand? Those
254
00:14:19.519 --> 00:14:23.360
three words? What are those three words? What problem are you?
255
00:14:23.679 --> 00:14:27.000
What is a timeless challenge you're solving? For your customers
256
00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:29.039
that when you solve for them, you're actually solving for
257
00:14:29.120 --> 00:14:32.600
your brand. Also, these are all questions that we ask
258
00:14:33.120 --> 00:14:39.039
because that is the point of the needle, pointing to
259
00:14:39.159 --> 00:14:42.039
where you want to go, and then everything else should
260
00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:45.200
line up to supporting that. And so your logo, if
261
00:14:45.240 --> 00:14:48.559
you're all about like we did a healthcare brand, it's
262
00:14:48.600 --> 00:14:55.200
all about compassion. You're not gonna use black, use aspirational colors.
263
00:14:55.240 --> 00:14:58.960
You're gonna use oranges and yellows and reds. Right. Those
264
00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:02.080
are passion colors. Right. But if you're, for example, a
265
00:15:02.080 --> 00:15:05.120
bank and you want to reinforce trust and trust is
266
00:15:05.159 --> 00:15:08.480
a really important factor, you're not going to be using red.
267
00:15:08.639 --> 00:15:09.879
You're going to be using blues.
268
00:15:10.320 --> 00:15:10.600
Right.
269
00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:14.720
Understand that color has psychologically as a huge impact on
270
00:15:15.159 --> 00:15:18.639
delivering that message, but it starts with the position and
271
00:15:18.720 --> 00:15:22.000
the brand personality, and then you take that brand personality
272
00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:26.399
and you build your image around it. And so colors shapes.
273
00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:29.399
Is that hard edge or is it soft? Like your logo,
274
00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:32.919
you know, find a balance in life that's soft. You're
275
00:15:32.960 --> 00:15:35.600
trying to be comforting in that message. You use a
276
00:15:35.639 --> 00:15:38.720
handscript of your name, that's because you want to personalize
277
00:15:38.759 --> 00:15:41.960
that message. Right. You could have had like the advisor
278
00:15:42.039 --> 00:15:44.879
with your name could have been in the same font,
279
00:15:44.960 --> 00:15:47.840
but then you would come across as being impersonal, right
280
00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:52.559
corporate and so understanding that the font you use, the
281
00:15:52.639 --> 00:15:55.720
colors you use. An icon or no icon, you know,
282
00:15:55.799 --> 00:15:59.679
what's the role of the icon? Icons? Are people get excited,
283
00:15:59.720 --> 00:16:02.919
let's an icon, But the reality is it takes forever.
284
00:16:03.159 --> 00:16:05.600
You're not McDonald's. It takes forever. The bil equity in
285
00:16:05.600 --> 00:16:10.519
that icon unless big bucks for media dollars, creating an
286
00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:13.720
icon is actually a distraction to what you're trying to
287
00:16:13.759 --> 00:16:16.679
communicate in building your brand, your name which is the
288
00:16:16.919 --> 00:16:19.240
important thing, which is a trademark, and then you build
289
00:16:19.279 --> 00:16:21.879
your we call branding big idea. You take that brand
290
00:16:21.879 --> 00:16:24.840
personal I that value proposition, you say, how do I
291
00:16:24.919 --> 00:16:30.759
personalize that? From a messaging standpoint storytelling, use storytelling, and
292
00:16:30.799 --> 00:16:34.879
that all leads to a coherent strategy that everything, all
293
00:16:34.919 --> 00:16:37.519
of those moments of truth that a brand that someone
294
00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:41.360
comes in touch with you are consistent. It could be
295
00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:45.320
you're launching a podcast, you want to be an expert
296
00:16:45.320 --> 00:16:49.679
in something. What is that hidden need state? What value
297
00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:52.879
bringing to your audience based on that need state? What's
298
00:16:52.879 --> 00:16:55.519
the personality and how you communicate, what's a tone of
299
00:16:55.519 --> 00:16:59.759
the message, what's the timeless challenge you're overcoming, right, to
300
00:16:59.759 --> 00:17:02.639
help your audience overcome. I think those are all really
301
00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:05.880
important things that irrespective if you're an individual or a
302
00:17:05.960 --> 00:17:09.680
large corporation, you're asking the same questions, right.
303
00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:10.599
I like that.
304
00:17:10.920 --> 00:17:11.119
Now.
305
00:17:11.480 --> 00:17:14.640
I also heard that it's also good to rebrand yourself
306
00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:17.440
every few years, like maybe some people five six years,
307
00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:19.680
you know, they give themselves a certain amount of time,
308
00:17:19.720 --> 00:17:21.359
and you see a lot of companies they start to
309
00:17:21.400 --> 00:17:24.279
freshen up the look. They may not go to the extreme.
310
00:17:24.599 --> 00:17:27.160
Some I've seen a couple of few companies go to
311
00:17:27.200 --> 00:17:29.160
the extreme and they put a whole new brand on,
312
00:17:29.480 --> 00:17:31.279
and then some of them kind of just like buff
313
00:17:31.319 --> 00:17:33.799
it up a little bit and freshen it up. Is
314
00:17:33.799 --> 00:17:36.079
it good to change the brand a little bit after
315
00:17:36.119 --> 00:17:36.839
so many years?
316
00:17:37.559 --> 00:17:42.720
Absolutely? You know again it's you know, every brand faces
317
00:17:42.799 --> 00:17:46.680
one timeless challenge and that's called relevancy, and so you
318
00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:50.680
constantly need to adjust your brand and so on one
319
00:17:50.960 --> 00:17:54.440
on one spectrum. Look at Walmart and Jaguar, right, those
320
00:17:54.480 --> 00:17:57.640
are right now, they're hot in the media. Yeah, just
321
00:17:57.720 --> 00:18:03.200
launch this refresh. They've just up their logo. They just
322
00:18:03.559 --> 00:18:06.640
made it a little bit more contemporary. Yeah, because the
323
00:18:06.960 --> 00:18:09.880
brand is not hurting, they're doing really well. They want
324
00:18:09.920 --> 00:18:14.519
to nained relevant and stay fresh. Yeah, and so they're
325
00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:19.359
doing a brand refresh. I'll call it minor evolutionary. Jackie
326
00:18:19.440 --> 00:18:24.039
Wuire went revolution. They changed their logo, the look of
327
00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:28.119
their car. They eliminated the Jaguar icon. Well, they said,
328
00:18:28.119 --> 00:18:33.039
there's an icon there somewhere, and you see why didn't
329
00:18:33.079 --> 00:18:36.039
they do that, Like why did they abandon all of
330
00:18:36.079 --> 00:18:41.640
their core equities, because that's very dangerous, Like very few
331
00:18:41.640 --> 00:18:46.519
brands actually succeed on what Jaguar is doing. And I
332
00:18:46.559 --> 00:18:50.880
would venture that they're going to be in trouble because
333
00:18:50.920 --> 00:18:52.960
they lost the cachet of their brand with their brand
334
00:18:52.960 --> 00:18:54.960
Sanders for But the reason they did it is that
335
00:18:55.400 --> 00:18:59.920
the younger consumers were not considering Jaguar when they're considering
336
00:19:00.119 --> 00:19:02.640
luxury brands. I am sure that in the study they did,
337
00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:05.359
reports said, you know, when I'm considering the luxury brands,
338
00:19:05.759 --> 00:19:11.880
I'm thinking of Lexus, BMW, you know, you know some
339
00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:15.440
other brands, you know, Rover, but I am not thinking
340
00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:19.319
of Jaguar anymore. Right, And so that relevancy is a
341
00:19:19.319 --> 00:19:23.160
big issue for Jaguar, and so they had to do
342
00:19:23.200 --> 00:19:26.920
a bold move to re engage their audience because the
343
00:19:26.920 --> 00:19:30.240
audience they're having were dying and they were losing them
344
00:19:30.400 --> 00:19:34.319
and so the move they did. The danger there is
345
00:19:34.359 --> 00:19:38.119
that you're disrupting your current customer base. So people who
346
00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:42.119
like the icon of the Jaguar, like the hood ornament,
347
00:19:42.480 --> 00:19:46.640
like the tradition that Jaguar represented, the you know, the
348
00:19:46.640 --> 00:19:50.279
British automotive tradition. Yeah, they're going to go somewhere else.
349
00:19:50.279 --> 00:19:52.000
They're going to go to range Rover. They're going to
350
00:19:52.119 --> 00:19:55.680
go over to a BMW or maybe a Cadillac. They're
351
00:19:55.680 --> 00:19:58.119
going to make that shift because they've lost that emotional
352
00:19:58.119 --> 00:20:01.039
connection to what the brands tood four right.
353
00:20:03.160 --> 00:20:04.920
I think a lot of times too is that you know,
354
00:20:05.400 --> 00:20:07.920
it's mostly our age or older that could afford Jaguar.
355
00:20:08.519 --> 00:20:10.599
Younger generation hasn't got to that point yet.
356
00:20:11.759 --> 00:20:13.799
And to be honest, they're not driving cars, you know,
357
00:20:13.880 --> 00:20:17.559
that's the other dilemma, right, they're not, Yeah, their car
358
00:20:17.640 --> 00:20:22.000
sharing or or they're taking mass transit, or they're walking,
359
00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:24.839
or like in Toronto, they're bicycling. You know, we have
360
00:20:24.880 --> 00:20:30.319
bicycles everywhere with the vision that more and more consumers,
361
00:20:30.359 --> 00:20:33.599
people are going to bicycle to work. Now, I wouldn't
362
00:20:33.599 --> 00:20:37.400
do that today. It's minus you know twenty you wouldn't
363
00:20:37.400 --> 00:20:41.759
go too far? No goal, No, no, not for me,
364
00:20:41.880 --> 00:20:45.720
but but yes so so degree? You know that's that
365
00:20:45.920 --> 00:20:48.680
is by There are two dimensions we always look at.
366
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:55.240
Number one is readiness for transformation? Is the individual ready
367
00:20:55.240 --> 00:20:58.279
to make that change? Is the company ready to make
368
00:20:58.359 --> 00:20:58.960
that change?
369
00:20:59.200 --> 00:20:59.680
Yeah?
370
00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:03.319
What is driving the need for change? And what I
371
00:21:03.359 --> 00:21:08.559
mean by readiness? Are they silo structured? Is the transformation
372
00:21:08.640 --> 00:21:11.319
being driven by one department not by the entire organization?
373
00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:14.440
You know what happens then they start fighting? Yeah, so
374
00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:18.759
are you ready to make that transformation? Is the organization
375
00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:22.079
or the individual ready to make that change? Number one?
376
00:21:22.160 --> 00:21:25.799
Because if you're not, don't start. Number two, which is
377
00:21:25.839 --> 00:21:29.279
also very important, is the degree of change. So what
378
00:21:29.400 --> 00:21:34.400
are the market dynamics, you know, competitive set dynamics and
379
00:21:34.440 --> 00:21:37.799
even company culture dynamics, which is what happened to Jaguar.
380
00:21:38.839 --> 00:21:42.279
They're necessitating you to make that change? And how bold
381
00:21:42.279 --> 00:21:45.559
to change? On that spectrum? From zero being no change,
382
00:21:45.640 --> 00:21:49.279
ten being a new brand? Where do you fill in
383
00:21:49.319 --> 00:21:52.160
that slider in change? And then you have to make
384
00:21:52.160 --> 00:21:55.839
a decision. As we learned many times in research, the
385
00:21:55.920 --> 00:21:58.640
organization may think we're a three change, so not a
386
00:21:58.640 --> 00:22:01.559
lot of change. When you go to research, you find
387
00:22:01.599 --> 00:22:05.799
out customers want you to be a nine or a ten. Yeah,
388
00:22:05.839 --> 00:22:08.519
and so be ready to make that bowl change if
389
00:22:08.599 --> 00:22:11.319
customers are looking for change from the organization.
390
00:22:12.119 --> 00:22:15.599
Right right, there was actually what they had a couple
391
00:22:15.640 --> 00:22:18.319
of comedians making fun of Walmart and one or two
392
00:22:18.319 --> 00:22:20.960
other brands because they they did change their logo and
393
00:22:21.000 --> 00:22:24.680
their brand, but very slightly, you know. They they buffed
394
00:22:24.759 --> 00:22:27.079
up the color a little bit, you know, and and
395
00:22:27.599 --> 00:22:30.640
they changed the edges just as a tad but pretty
396
00:22:30.720 --> 00:22:33.079
much if you compared it to the other is almost identical,
397
00:22:33.440 --> 00:22:35.119
just a little bit a little bit more fresh, are
398
00:22:35.160 --> 00:22:35.359
you know?
399
00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:39.799
Yeah? Absolutely? And yeah, there was a lot on social media.
400
00:22:39.839 --> 00:22:41.880
The other one that I wrote a lot on is
401
00:22:42.200 --> 00:22:45.799
X that a changing name from Twitter to X. Yeah,
402
00:22:45.960 --> 00:22:51.480
and changing a name of a brand is also very risky, Yeah,
403
00:22:51.559 --> 00:22:56.079
because you're you're basically creating confusion. Yeah. Still I still
404
00:22:56.119 --> 00:22:57.839
call it Twitter. I don't know do you call it Twitter?
405
00:22:57.880 --> 00:22:58.400
Do you call it?
406
00:22:58.480 --> 00:23:00.519
I like it? I like Twitter much better and I
407
00:23:00.559 --> 00:23:02.079
like the bird I miss my little bird.
408
00:23:03.359 --> 00:23:05.599
You know what you're missed about? It is a bird?
409
00:23:05.720 --> 00:23:10.720
Is an emotional connection, Yeah, the living thing, right, you
410
00:23:10.759 --> 00:23:15.279
can relate to living things. Yeah. X is very personal
411
00:23:16.559 --> 00:23:21.680
for a platform that talks about personalization of communication and
412
00:23:21.720 --> 00:23:27.440
sharing ideas and feelings, it's the opposite. The brand is impersonal.
413
00:23:27.519 --> 00:23:32.799
It's cold, it's technology. It's not about community and connection
414
00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:37.480
and so you know brands. Yeah, yeah, he's very wealthy.
415
00:23:37.599 --> 00:23:40.400
He can do whatever he wants. Doesn't mean he's right.
416
00:23:41.200 --> 00:23:43.880
When I look at Twitter and I look at that
417
00:23:44.119 --> 00:23:49.039
black X, I feel coldness. I feel isolated. I feel
418
00:23:49.119 --> 00:23:52.559
that it just like one way or the high way
419
00:23:52.680 --> 00:23:56.039
kind of feeling. When I look at Twitter and the blue,
420
00:23:56.119 --> 00:23:58.640
that blue little bird. I don't know this something about
421
00:23:58.640 --> 00:24:01.960
the blue little bird, but it it it attaches to me.
422
00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:05.160
There's something that it draws to me. And and there's
423
00:24:05.200 --> 00:24:07.880
like I can feel a connection. I'm not sure what why,
424
00:24:08.680 --> 00:24:11.960
but I guess the because maybe because I like birds,
425
00:24:12.039 --> 00:24:15.079
maybe because it's the soft color, you know, maybe the blue,
426
00:24:15.240 --> 00:24:19.440
you know, but I I I kind of I draw
427
00:24:19.599 --> 00:24:21.960
much more to that and makes it much I feel
428
00:24:22.039 --> 00:24:25.039
much more friendly, you know when I when you look
429
00:24:25.079 --> 00:24:27.440
at that. But when I look at the X, I
430
00:24:27.480 --> 00:24:29.680
get very turned off, and I get it's just it
431
00:24:29.720 --> 00:24:31.599
doesn't it doesn't feel like a friendly world that I
432
00:24:31.640 --> 00:24:33.119
want to go into. It kind of feels like the
433
00:24:33.119 --> 00:24:35.599
black tunnel, you know. And then the other one feels
434
00:24:35.599 --> 00:24:38.160
like you're going into the heavens and it's a free
435
00:24:38.519 --> 00:24:41.039
to be free be you know, do what you want,
436
00:24:41.200 --> 00:24:44.440
and you know, and and uh, it's just a different
437
00:24:44.519 --> 00:24:45.319
kind of atmosphere.
438
00:24:45.359 --> 00:24:50.400
I think, Well, you know, icons are we call visual metaphors,
439
00:24:50.440 --> 00:24:53.160
and icons a visual metaphor. So when you think of
440
00:24:54.279 --> 00:24:57.720
the blue bird, what do the visual metaphor is? Birds
441
00:24:57.799 --> 00:25:01.440
or social animals? They fly and flow. Uh, they make
442
00:25:01.480 --> 00:25:06.039
a lot of noise. Yeah, they chatter a lot of chatter. Right. Well,
443
00:25:06.119 --> 00:25:09.400
isn't that what twitter is all about? Yep? Yeah, what
444
00:25:09.599 --> 00:25:11.119
is X stand for? X?
445
00:25:11.359 --> 00:25:11.440
Is?
446
00:25:12.200 --> 00:25:17.720
It identifies a place, but it also says no, and
447
00:25:17.920 --> 00:25:24.640
X says failure. Right, you have a deckmark. And so psychologically,
448
00:25:24.680 --> 00:25:30.359
the visual metaphor of X is I'm I'm opposed to socializing, right,
449
00:25:30.839 --> 00:25:35.119
or it's about me, It's it's not about the community.
450
00:25:35.559 --> 00:25:39.720
And so visual metaphors really talk to the emotional connection
451
00:25:39.799 --> 00:25:42.079
as part of the blink factor that we talk about
452
00:25:42.160 --> 00:25:46.359
is is that shape color? Yeah, message more than all
453
00:25:46.359 --> 00:25:50.039
the words around it. And so ensure that you're when
454
00:25:50.039 --> 00:25:52.640
you're doing that transformation. You know, we talk about pick
455
00:25:52.720 --> 00:25:55.440
three or four images that capture the end state. Make
456
00:25:55.480 --> 00:25:59.640
sure one of those images captures the visual metaphor of
457
00:25:59.680 --> 00:26:02.720
that state, of that experience, because that then being the
458
00:26:02.759 --> 00:26:09.319
springboard for all your communication strategy. Yeah, yeah, so that's true.
459
00:26:09.720 --> 00:26:11.799
And then on the flip side, you know, when you
460
00:26:11.839 --> 00:26:16.359
look at transformation, and we talked about barriers, the most
461
00:26:16.359 --> 00:26:21.079
common barriers are can be bucketed into two or three categories.
462
00:26:21.160 --> 00:26:25.640
Number one is a misalignment. Misalignment could be I'm not
463
00:26:25.720 --> 00:26:29.160
aligned to where the market's going, but misaligned could be
464
00:26:29.200 --> 00:26:32.440
internally where we as a group are not aligned to
465
00:26:33.279 --> 00:26:36.279
where we want to go, right, And that misalignment is
466
00:26:36.319 --> 00:26:41.279
probably the biggest killer of transformation programs. Either you're not
467
00:26:41.400 --> 00:26:45.200
going to the right direction, or the people inside the organization,
468
00:26:45.440 --> 00:26:48.160
even if it's only three or four people, yeah, going
469
00:26:48.200 --> 00:26:51.480
in the same direction, and that creates conflict and confusion
470
00:26:52.319 --> 00:26:56.079
and all of that capital of building that brand gets lost. Yes,
471
00:26:56.319 --> 00:27:00.680
you're sending mixed messages to the marketplace, right, that's number
472
00:27:00.680 --> 00:27:04.960
one Number two is followed by misalignment. The other barrier
473
00:27:05.200 --> 00:27:10.319
is that you're solving the wrong problem right, or it's
474
00:27:10.359 --> 00:27:12.440
a or you know what I mean by the wrong
475
00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:15.039
problem is you're solving a problem that people don't put
476
00:27:15.039 --> 00:27:18.559
a lot of value in, right, And very often that
477
00:27:19.480 --> 00:27:22.240
is a result of an organization that has technology. Oh
478
00:27:22.279 --> 00:27:25.720
look at we discovered this new thing. How exciting that is.
479
00:27:25.839 --> 00:27:29.279
It's unique, no one else has it. Let's launch it.
480
00:27:29.720 --> 00:27:32.279
What they don't do is say, okay, but what problem
481
00:27:32.400 --> 00:27:36.319
is this solving? Right? Right? And is the are consumers
482
00:27:36.359 --> 00:27:38.920
willing to pay for that problem to be solved?
483
00:27:39.160 --> 00:27:39.279
Right?
484
00:27:39.759 --> 00:27:42.680
And it may be the newest, best thing in the world,
485
00:27:43.400 --> 00:27:46.920
but if it's not solving a problem, it's not going
486
00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:49.519
to succeed in the marketplace. And that's number two on
487
00:27:49.559 --> 00:27:53.519
the list of and number three really is you know,
488
00:27:53.559 --> 00:27:57.359
we talked about a coherence. It's it's tied to the
489
00:27:57.400 --> 00:28:00.440
misalignment is you know, are we sending mixed messes to
490
00:28:00.480 --> 00:28:05.240
the marketplace? Are we fragmenting our marketing dollars? Are investment
491
00:28:05.400 --> 00:28:08.400
even for a startup, You've got so little to spend,
492
00:28:09.079 --> 00:28:11.960
you know, are you sending so many different miss messages
493
00:28:12.079 --> 00:28:16.799
that that investment that the message is actually not getting through,
494
00:28:17.279 --> 00:28:21.400
and those are the big barriers for transformation that either
495
00:28:21.440 --> 00:28:26.160
an individual organization needs to consider.
496
00:28:27.200 --> 00:28:30.400
I agree. Now, tell me a little about your services,
497
00:28:30.519 --> 00:28:32.880
the services that you and your company provides.
498
00:28:33.519 --> 00:28:38.039
Yeah, so, so we have a range of services. It
499
00:28:38.119 --> 00:28:43.319
really starts with the circle of transformation. So we do positioning,
500
00:28:43.480 --> 00:28:46.759
We do consumer research, we do stakeholder research, so we
501
00:28:46.799 --> 00:28:51.000
do interviews, we do customer journey mapping, understand what are
502
00:28:51.039 --> 00:28:54.359
the friction points along that journey that customers have engaging
503
00:28:54.359 --> 00:28:58.160
with you. Awre they engaged socially, physically, what happens after
504
00:28:58.200 --> 00:29:01.440
they buy your product. Yeah, that's all part of what
505
00:29:01.440 --> 00:29:04.400
we call discovery and strategy, and we'll do a lot
506
00:29:04.440 --> 00:29:07.119
of that work up front to create the foundation for
507
00:29:07.400 --> 00:29:11.079
understanding and learning because without that, again, it's back to
508
00:29:11.119 --> 00:29:13.720
those barriers of transformation. We may be going in the
509
00:29:13.720 --> 00:29:16.559
wrong direction, we may be solving the wrong problem, and
510
00:29:16.599 --> 00:29:18.720
we may be fragmenting the message because we're trying to
511
00:29:18.720 --> 00:29:22.440
accomplish too much. And so that's the discovery stage, and
512
00:29:22.440 --> 00:29:26.839
we define those and we define the position personality. Then
513
00:29:26.880 --> 00:29:29.519
we do what a lot of branding firms do. We
514
00:29:29.559 --> 00:29:33.400
do the identity. We'll do the e commerce website, the website,
515
00:29:33.480 --> 00:29:37.079
the app create. We do a lot of retail stores,
516
00:29:37.119 --> 00:29:42.400
so we'll create the physical environment. We'll work with behavioral scientists.
517
00:29:42.400 --> 00:29:45.839
We have two on staff on understanding how do we
518
00:29:45.839 --> 00:29:49.880
shift the behavior the employees benefit from these changes because
519
00:29:49.880 --> 00:29:53.440
it's not you know a lot of a lot of
520
00:29:53.440 --> 00:29:57.160
what happens in transformation must happen internally and not externally.
521
00:29:57.240 --> 00:29:59.400
So how do we change the mindset of our employees.
522
00:30:00.200 --> 00:30:03.000
We do that that at least training, and then from there,
523
00:30:03.079 --> 00:30:07.279
obviously we do NPS scores and more research. We do
524
00:30:07.519 --> 00:30:10.079
the packaging for that retailer. If let's say they're doing
525
00:30:10.160 --> 00:30:12.880
a like for Walmart their private label program, we did
526
00:30:12.880 --> 00:30:15.279
that for them. You know, how do we bring that
527
00:30:15.359 --> 00:30:17.519
brand to life at all those moments of truth. The
528
00:30:17.559 --> 00:30:21.039
other thing we do is advertising. We don't buy media,
529
00:30:21.480 --> 00:30:24.839
we don't place media. We will develop the branding big idea,
530
00:30:25.240 --> 00:30:28.119
and then we'll give that as a briefing document to
531
00:30:28.240 --> 00:30:31.319
the agency for execution. I love that.
532
00:30:31.559 --> 00:30:33.559
I love that. Now, if we had to look at
533
00:30:33.559 --> 00:30:36.599
today's conversation and you really wanted to point out some
534
00:30:36.720 --> 00:30:40.079
important factors and what are some of the things you'd
535
00:30:40.079 --> 00:30:42.039
like to emphasize to the listeners today.
536
00:30:43.200 --> 00:30:46.480
Well, the first thing is that change is good. You know,
537
00:30:46.559 --> 00:30:49.720
we all are resistance to change. We see it as
538
00:30:49.720 --> 00:30:53.160
a big obstacle, a big risk. But change is good.
539
00:30:53.599 --> 00:30:55.960
You should always be looking at, you know, to your
540
00:30:56.000 --> 00:30:58.519
point relevancy of you know, do we adjust or do
541
00:30:58.599 --> 00:31:01.599
we change change your mind chain, But you should always
542
00:31:01.640 --> 00:31:05.839
be looking at if you're someone working in a large corporation,
543
00:31:07.559 --> 00:31:12.240
how do I stay relevant either for my employer, for me,
544
00:31:12.759 --> 00:31:16.920
for for my life. You know, where are my unique
545
00:31:16.920 --> 00:31:22.160
selling proposition and my proof points in what makes me unique? Right?
546
00:31:22.559 --> 00:31:26.839
The first first thing is change should be welcomed. Point
547
00:31:26.920 --> 00:31:29.720
number two is change happens in steps. It never happens
548
00:31:29.720 --> 00:31:33.240
in bowl steps. It happens in consecutive steps. But it
549
00:31:33.279 --> 00:31:35.240
has to start with a vision of the end goal
550
00:31:35.799 --> 00:31:38.319
that ain't goal. May change dramatically as you go along
551
00:31:38.359 --> 00:31:40.720
that journey and realize some of these things that you
552
00:31:40.799 --> 00:31:44.920
thought were the end benefit just it. But if you
553
00:31:45.440 --> 00:31:48.000
break it down into steps, it will allow you the
554
00:31:48.160 --> 00:31:52.680
chance to adjust or reaffirmation that your vision that you
555
00:31:52.759 --> 00:31:56.680
had was accurate. That's number and number three, which is
556
00:31:56.720 --> 00:32:00.279
really important is whatever change management you do it has
557
00:32:00.319 --> 00:32:03.039
to be anchored in an emotional connection, and it has
558
00:32:03.079 --> 00:32:07.599
to be anchored in emotional values that people can live
559
00:32:07.640 --> 00:32:11.440
with because we're you know, branding is about connecting proct
560
00:32:11.480 --> 00:32:15.720
services to people, right, right, And don't forget the people part.
561
00:32:16.559 --> 00:32:19.240
That's what's driving the purchase. You know. I always say, people,
562
00:32:20.079 --> 00:32:25.240
you know, don't vote with their pocketbooks. They vote with
563
00:32:25.279 --> 00:32:28.200
their head and their heart. Yeah, up in the pocket book,
564
00:32:28.240 --> 00:32:30.279
but it starts with their head and their heart. And
565
00:32:30.319 --> 00:32:32.599
I think it's important to understand that what you're trying
566
00:32:32.599 --> 00:32:35.359
to accomplish as a brand as part of the transformation
567
00:32:35.960 --> 00:32:37.920
is building deeper emotional connections.
568
00:32:38.240 --> 00:32:38.480
Right.
569
00:32:39.079 --> 00:32:39.839
That's so true.
570
00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:42.839
That's one hundred percent true. Now, also tell me about
571
00:32:42.960 --> 00:32:44.720
three books that you've written. I want to hear a
572
00:32:44.759 --> 00:32:45.359
little about that.
573
00:32:45.920 --> 00:32:48.960
Okay, So in twenty fifteen I wrote a book called
574
00:32:49.000 --> 00:32:53.559
The Belonging Experience, and really the book way ahead of
575
00:32:53.839 --> 00:32:56.799
our time, because today belonging is so critical that it's
576
00:32:56.839 --> 00:32:59.559
the buzzword. I think twenty twenty four or twenty twenty
577
00:32:59.599 --> 00:33:03.799
five will be belonging. That's really about the fact that
578
00:33:03.839 --> 00:33:06.480
we're we just finished actually a big study on loneliness.
579
00:33:07.039 --> 00:33:10.200
The fact is we're becoming more and more lonely. Yeah,
580
00:33:10.240 --> 00:33:13.000
all of these social media and people criticize them for
581
00:33:13.400 --> 00:33:15.359
a lot of negative things, but the reality it's not
582
00:33:15.559 --> 00:33:20.039
the platform, it's us. Yeah, ime less human and we're
583
00:33:20.079 --> 00:33:22.720
craving for that human connection, that sense of belonging. So
584
00:33:22.720 --> 00:33:24.680
I wrote that book, The Sense of Belonging, How brands
585
00:33:24.680 --> 00:33:25.680
could create communities.
586
00:33:26.160 --> 00:33:26.839
I like that.
587
00:33:27.559 --> 00:33:30.839
The second book I wrote was Desire by Design, and
588
00:33:30.880 --> 00:33:33.640
that really talked about how do you move a brand
589
00:33:33.680 --> 00:33:36.440
from functional needs to emotional needs? How how do you
590
00:33:36.480 --> 00:33:40.079
become a random People desire They don't want this brand,
591
00:33:40.759 --> 00:33:42.640
they don't want to be on your show. They desire
592
00:33:42.680 --> 00:33:45.599
to be on your show. Right, there's an emotional demand
593
00:33:45.640 --> 00:33:48.440
there that's happening. And so I wrote that book just
594
00:33:48.480 --> 00:33:51.440
for COVID. Also wrote a third book called The Business
595
00:33:51.440 --> 00:33:55.680
of Graphic Design. It was with I think seven other
596
00:33:55.799 --> 00:33:59.440
writers we wrote this book. It's in its third reprint,
597
00:34:00.079 --> 00:34:03.359
so I think we've sold about thirty thousand books. Wow.
598
00:34:03.839 --> 00:34:07.920
It's geared to the design professional on how to run
599
00:34:07.960 --> 00:34:11.159
their practice. And then the fourth book, which is now
600
00:34:11.199 --> 00:34:14.639
at the publishers is called The Think Blink Manifesto, and
601
00:34:14.719 --> 00:34:16.880
it's taking a lot of what I shared with you
602
00:34:16.960 --> 00:34:23.960
on this show and providing real world examples and principles
603
00:34:24.000 --> 00:34:26.800
and tennis for seven tenants to the think Blink and
604
00:34:26.880 --> 00:34:30.800
manifesto that we share that you can apply to as
605
00:34:30.840 --> 00:34:32.639
an individual or a large corporation.
606
00:34:33.519 --> 00:34:33.719
Oh.
607
00:34:33.760 --> 00:34:35.519
I love that. I love that.
608
00:34:36.320 --> 00:34:38.039
Where can people find these books?
609
00:34:38.360 --> 00:34:41.519
Amazon dot com? I love it? Or you can come
610
00:34:41.519 --> 00:34:47.920
to our website www dot s LD that's Samlovedog dot
611
00:34:47.920 --> 00:34:51.639
com and go under resource under insights tab and you'll
612
00:34:51.679 --> 00:34:55.119
see publications. You'll find all of our books there. Oh.
613
00:34:55.159 --> 00:34:55.599
I love it.
614
00:34:55.760 --> 00:34:57.599
And if people want to get in contact with you,
615
00:34:57.840 --> 00:35:00.480
is there a certain way they can contact you?
616
00:35:00.599 --> 00:35:04.000
Yeah, they can just email me at J. P. Lacroix
617
00:35:04.119 --> 00:35:09.679
That's John P. L A c r o i X
618
00:35:10.480 --> 00:35:14.360
at s l D dot com. I love it. You
619
00:35:14.440 --> 00:35:15.400
can find me on LinkedIn.
620
00:35:16.360 --> 00:35:20.239
Oh, great, great, awesome. I you know, this has been
621
00:35:20.239 --> 00:35:24.320
an amazing interview. I really enjoyed this. I I love Brandon,
622
00:35:24.440 --> 00:35:27.360
I love the whole concept of it. And you grave
623
00:35:27.519 --> 00:35:29.760
such great advice today. I must say that you had
624
00:35:29.800 --> 00:35:32.159
a lot of great insight and a lot of great
625
00:35:32.199 --> 00:35:35.280
advice for people. Because it can be a very touchy,
626
00:35:35.559 --> 00:35:37.360
you know matter. You know you want to do it.
627
00:35:37.480 --> 00:35:39.360
You want to do it the right way, Like you said,
628
00:35:39.360 --> 00:35:40.800
you don't want to be like J. C. Pennies and
629
00:35:40.840 --> 00:35:43.039
go from A to M and then all of a
630
00:35:43.079 --> 00:35:45.960
sudden you lose customers in between. You want to do
631
00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:48.360
it the right way. So you really gave some great
632
00:35:48.360 --> 00:35:50.559
advice on how to do it the right way today,
633
00:35:50.800 --> 00:35:53.199
and I really thank you so much for putting all
634
00:35:53.239 --> 00:35:55.880
this information out to the listeners and for being on
635
00:35:55.920 --> 00:35:56.280
the show.
636
00:35:56.719 --> 00:35:58.360
Thank you very much, Thank you.
637
00:35:59.280 --> 00:36:00.000
You have a great day.
638
00:36:00.400 --> 00:36:01.239
We'll do by now.
