All How-To Topics
Better than Plumb
|
|
On message for our brand
comments (0) September 19th, 2008 in Blogs
Kevin Ireton, editor-at-large
no recommendations
I went to a brand sensibility meeting this week. It was hard for me. Generally, I’m the kind of guy who makes fun of such things, not attends them. I kind of preferred the old days (there’s a shock) when making a quality product and treating customers fairly was just good business. I liked it better when companies worried about their reputations and a brand was a mark burned onto a cow’s butt with a hot poker.
At a trade show once, a young woman in the booth of a well-known plumbing manufacturer showed me a toilet with a heated seat.
“Would you like to try it?” she asked, absolutely serious.
I said, “No, but if you’ll sit down, I’ll take a picture and post it on our Web site.”
“I don’t think that would be on message for our brand,” she told me. It seemed to me that nothing could be more on message for a toilet seat than sitting on it; still, I was impressed at the facility with which she used the phrase.
More recently, I got an email offering to send me a free article called “The top 10 secrets of mastering your personal brand.” The message assured me that I already have a personal brand whether I want one or not, and as an enticement, it offered up one of the secrets: “The best brands respond to both emotional and functional needs.” The only possible conclusion I could come to after digesting this insight was that the best brand I know of is my mother.
The brand-sensibility meeting I attended was supposed to help some new people who are working on Fine Homebuilding’s circulation. They need to understand the magazine to design direct-mail brochures, select mailing lists, compose renewal notices, etc. It made perfect sense, but it was hard for me to see our magazine reduced to 15 slides in a PowerPoint presentation.
I really would have preferred to take these folks out to a job site and let them spend a day trying to hang a door from scratch, then try again after reading a couple of Fine Homebuilding articles. I would like to have flown them to Oregon to spend a day framing a Habitat house with Larry Haun. I would like to have taken them to a trade show to see the crowd of people around Gary Katz or Mike Guertin.
I wanted to tell them about the man who flew across the country to walk unannounced into our lobby and personally thank me for publishing Fine Homebuilding. I wanted to read them the letter from the woman whose husband died of cancer, who was writing to explain why he wouldn’t be renewing his subscription and to say how much he had loved the magazine.
I wanted them to know that this magazine isn’t like dish soap or soda pop. I wanted to plead that Fine Homebuilding isn’t a brand; it’s a community of people helping each other make a living, put a roof over their heads, or even just feel better about themselves because of what they got done in a day.
But I didn’t do any of those things. I mostly kept my mouth shut, answered a few questions, and suggested they not refer to our readers as weekend warriors. I recognize that, like my mother, Fine Homebuilding is a brand whether it wants to be or not, and that I am the brand manager, whether I want to be or not. I may long for the days when the world would beat a path to your door if you built a better mousetrap, but my longing doesn’t change the fact that we live in a cacophonous world. If you make a better mousetrap, or a better magazine, the world won’t know unless you get its attention. And to do that, we need the help of marketing folks who will help us keep “on message for our brand.”
posted in: Blogs
|
|
|
|
-
How to Paint Fiber-Cement Siding
Painter Jim Lacey shares some tips for caulking and painting fiber-cement siding. read more
|
|
About this blog
As the editor of Fine Homebuilding, I spend my weekdays trying to produce a magazine that will satisfy 300,000 of the most demanding builders, both professional and amateur. As the owner of a 200-year old Cape in Connecticut’s Litchfield Hills, I spend weekends working on my house.
Each activity invariably informs, and complicates, the other. In this blog, I’ll offer observations from both worlds -- publishing and building -- with the hope of providing some useful or at least entertaining insights.
Comments (0)
You must be logged in to post comments. Click here to login.