Four Tips to TWIST and Grow Your Brand this Fall
This is my favorite time of year, crisp sunny days, changing leaves, crackling fires and football. It’s also a time when many of us experience a slowing down in our brand building- sort of a seductive pre-winter lull into laziness. The early excitement of “back to school” and “back to business” after the mellower days of summer, can often give way to a “hey, it’s almost the holidays, not much is going to happen” business building hibernation.
But Fall is the perfect time to flex your branding muscles – and develop some new and exciting TWISTS for your business.
Here are four of my favorite tips to keep your profits growing, as the leaves begin to fall. You can take some brand building tips from favorite Fall activities like Football, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Apple Picking.
- Build your Fantasy Brand Team
If you are an avid sports fan like I am you may have experienced the excitement of creating an ideal fantasy football team. You get to assemble your own dream squad by picking the best players from across the whole league to “field” as a newly invented team. Well why not create a fantasy brand squad? Reach out to the “star players” in areas that complement your own expertise. Explore new ways to collaborate and support one another. You can be the quarterback calling the plays – moving the chains through teamwork.
2. Carve out time for Creativity
I admit Halloween has gotten a bit crazed and often too commercial. All the candy fueled hoopla and rush to find the perfect costume often gives me a “whopper” of a headache. But if you can manage past all that, there’s also a positive side. Halloween is a terrific time for kids (of all ages) to tap into our creativity and get inspired by all the magical, mystical things around us. It’s also a time for trying out new personas through dressing up and letting our hair down for at least one night of the year. Take it a step further an imagine what your brand would dress up as if they could choose a Halloween costume? What’s their alter ego? What elements of their personality would they like permission to explore more? For example, if your brand is about helping women achieve healthier skin, imagine how they would take that to the next level if they could dress up as the “Wonder Woman” of skincare. What products and messages would you take to the next level if your brand were a superhero?
3. Show Clients you are Thankful
Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the holiday season and it’s a great time to start to say thank you to your clients and customers. Whether you are a life coach, marketing consultant, personal trainer or a candle maker. Your business only survives (and thrives) because there are people out there who are willing to choose your brand out of all the many options available. Why not take a minute to say thanks? Here are 10 ways to say thank you to your clients this holiday.
4. Create Crisp Experiences
I love apple picking. It’s a Columbus Day ritual in my house. Get the kids into the car and drive an hour to a farm where we pay money to do the labor of picking our own apples. I know I can get the same apples (minus the car ride, and the surcharge) at my neighborhood supermarket. But that’s not the point. The point of apple picking is the experience. It’s being out in the sunshine with other families, sampling the cinnamon donuts and hot apple cider for sale at the farm, maybe even picking a pumpkin or taking a tour on the hayride. The strongest brands aren’t selling products, they are selling experiences. And often these experiences have become rituals. To be an effective brander, you also need to get out from behind your desk and immerse yourself in innovative brand experiences. We recommend Brand Safaris as a great way to do this and to see why every touch point in your brand experience matters. Think about how you can create some rituals around your product or service that will enhance your customer’s experience. Maybe it’s a simple as creating your own annual fall event (virtual or IRL) where you invite your customers and prospects to participate a bit deeper in your process: give their opinion, create a new product or service, or come out and network in the crisp autumn air.
If you’ve enjoyed any of these TWISTING tips, you can find even more ways to strengthen your brand in our best-selling book “TWIST: How Fresh Perspectives Build Breakthrough Brands”.
I’d love to hear how fall inspires you to TWIST.
