Branding

Alright, Bright Builders-

At this point, our building is under construction, and we're going to construction meetings, walking the site, and generally wishing that we could clone ourselves so that we could have simultaneous meetings with the architect, GC, and every other person who is clamoring for our attention :-)

We’re busy…but it’s the good kind of busy. After all, when someone asks us what we’re up to, we can say, without sounding like some $%#!@ from the cast of Succession: “Well, I’m building a building.”

That’s always a good conversation starter.

At this point, we need to think about branding. We’ll talk about marketing, social media, the website, and other topics in a future newsletter, but for the moment, we’re just focusing on branding here, which is essentially how we create the building’s identity.

So how are we going to do that?

We’re not.

Or at least we’re not going to try to do it ourselves.

I know that I have told you to be elbow-deep in every aspect of your build. And you should be, BUT branding is most certainly an area where you bring in the experts.

I am not an expert in branding. I’m a builder. Which means that my expertise is knowing where I’m not an expert :-)

I have branding ideas, and some are actually okay from time to time, but every time we get close on an idea, the marketing firm has a slightly better idea.

So, please hire a marketing firm that can head your branding project.

Don't do it all yourself.

I can’t tell you how many projects I have seen where the developer has named the building after their wife, their son, a favorite uncle, or the name of the park where they proposed to their first wife or husband (notice I said “first” there? I think you see where I’m going with this).

And yes, I have almost made this mistake myself (not the wife thing), but I was rescued in time by a whip-smart brand strategist who kindly rolled her eyes at my list of suggestions, grabbed her legal pad, and wrote down the following:

R…R…R

Me: I’m gonna need some vowels.

Her: The three R’s, Sean: Root, Resonate, and Reveal. When you brand a building, its identity needs to be Rooted in the community. It needs to Resonate with the neighbors, and it needs to Reveal a future vision for the community that is optimistic yet sufficiently aligned with what’s already there.

Me (pointing to my notes): So…these names aren’t going to work?”

Her: Are you hoping people will stand on the sidewalk and point and laugh?

Me: Not really the goal.

Her: Blank stare.

Me: (turning red)

So, yeah.

That’s how that went.

But I’m smarter for it.

So you’ll hire a firm.

Trust me. There are a ton of marketing firms in your market. I don’t care where you’re building. I was recently walking down the main street of St. Croix Falls, and one block down from the historical society and a shoe cobbler was a web design agency.

St. Croix Falls. A web design agency.

Yes, not a branding agency, but you see my point.

Creative agencies are everywhere.

You’ll hop on Google. Make a few phone calls, and you’ll have a meeting set up for the next week.

You’ll talk about the building’s identity. You'll talk about colors. You'll talk about fonts. You'll talk about a logo. You'll work through a process.

Now, don't entirely leave it up to them. You need to be very involved, but let them run the process with your input.

You ultimately decide on the name and brand. It’s your building. We picked “Akin,” for example, but it was from a list created by our naming expert and mostly created by our marketing firm.

In my experience, marketing firms always come up with better names and ideas if you’ve done a good job describing your vision,

The big things are the name and the identity.

One side note: When you have a few final names you are going to choose from, Google them all first because just about every name that's ever been thought of has already been thought of and used somewhere. And even if someone isn’t currently using it, they may be squatting on the domain. Make sure both the name AND the domain are available. Your creatives can help you with this.

When someone Googles your building, your building needs to be what pops up. You don't want to be the 47th “Skywater Mills” building out there or “Rolling Gables.”

You want to be unique and searchable.

The biggest thing I want to tell you here is that this doesn't have to be rocket science, but spend time on it. Think about what community you are building in.

What's the history of that community? What are you trying to create? What kind of community asset are you trying to create? Even if you're going to sell the place when you're done building, your brand is still a differentiator. Tenants are attracted to branded buildings with a story and an identity.

R…R…R.

Peace,