Does this bring you joy?
Marie Kondo, the infamous Japanese organisational wizard, of Netflix fame, has shown that to create order, you first need to get messy. The same concept applies to branding and marketing. Is it time for a cleanse?
So last week it was my son’s fourth birthday and while I feel really lucky that we have so many friends and family who came along to celebrate his party, I’m secretly a present Grinch who can only think about all of the things I now have to fit into our already overflowing apartment. But why do I tell you this, you ask? Well, weirdly, as I was looking at our lounge room floor and all the presents, toys, ribbon, packaging, I was thinking, how am I ever going to make order of this? And I thought it’s like a brand workshop. If you’ve ever watched that tiny little Japanese woman Marie Kondo on Netflix. She’s all about organisation and she’s shown us that in order to create order, you sometimes have to get really messy. And what that means is, you need to spend the time thinking about the individual elements of a collective thing that might be causing you unrest.
So in my case, I need to spend the time thinking about each individual toy. Does it bring my son joy? If it does, I keep it. And if it doesn’t, it goes to the op shop. And just like that, I have clarity over how it’s going to fit into my home. It’s not dissimilar when you’re thinking about clarity around your brand essence or your marketing Sometimes you need to spend the time revisiting everything that you already know that you have. You need to look at the individual elements and you need to ask, do they bring me joy? Will they bring my consumers joy? In our brand kinship process we have a brand workshop. Sometimes clients can think in the early stages that it’s an unnecessary use of time or money, but once they have been through the process, we have never had a single person question it. You need to think of it like a brand cleanse.
So as a very basic explanation, it’s re-examining your brand’s history, its story, your products or service and their features and benefits. And it’s running it through the joy filter. Does it bring you joy? If it does, then you keep it, you elevate it and you celebrate it. If it doesn’t then it’s supplementary. You can find clarity over what will and won’t connect with your consumer and which parts of your story you should and shouldn’t tell in order to propel your brand forward.
That’s it from me. I’m off for brekkie. Have a good day.
Written by: Jo Whelan
Published: July 11, 2019