Typically when I speak of branding as a spiritual exercise people respond in one of two ways. The first group rolls their eyes and reacts quite cynically; chalking the statement up to weird industry buzz-speak. The second group responds by perking up, leaning forward and becoming attentive.
Those are the leaders I love to speak with. The sharp dichotomy of those that view branding as a spiritual exercise and those that don't illustrates why some organizations have such a difficult time developing a brand that truly resonates — while others achieve profound impact and loyalty.
Many organizations aren’t clear on how vulnerable they have to be to establish a brand identity.
When I describe branding as a spiritual exercise one needs to embrace the fact that an organization is an organism; its a collection of human beings.
An organization has to go on a profound inner journey to understand and embrace what's inside. Whether good, bad or ugly; it must understand and embrace what it is. Then, and only then, is it ready to create a connection with the outside world, the public, its audience, customers and the people who matter to it.
Until a person understands who they are, they cannot connect with people, and until an organization understands who it is, it cannot connect with people.
It’s like saying, if you want to go there, you can’t until you know where here is. Using a GPS as an example, if you are precisely clear about where here is then you can chart a path to anywhere. Without the clarity on here, there isn’t possible.
Historically, and even through the industrial revolution, we experienced products and services as commodities. This made sense for a time — products and services were highly functional, utilitarian things. Over time, with increasing economic abundance, there had to be a more compelling reason to pick one product or service over another. Suddenly, we were identifying with these products and services. Selection became an expression of self.
Today, branding is important because its not just about us having our basic needs fulfilled It’s about me wanting to have a relationship with you, understanding that my choices represent me, and if I choose you, you represent me, and I’m giving you permission to represent me in the world.
Most sophisticated brands understand this implicitly and it’s in their DNA, however I still think we are lacking a common vernacular and common language to communicate this in business. If brand is a relationship then a relationship is connection. With personal relationships, we can’t have a true and profound human connection unless we connect with ourselves first. So too with brands, an organization can’t connect with anyone unless it connects with itself first.
Branding tends to be defined by its artifacts — it's a semiotic dance of language and visual assets. However, those artifacts are just the superficial symbols of what could be deeply profound and meaningful work. Business are too often focused on receiving the delivery of the artifacts without investing the time, resources and focused attention required in the journey to get there. How many years of heat and pressure does it take before a diamond is formed? Everyone wants the diamond. No one wants the heat and pressure.
The organizations that understand what it means to approach branding as a spiritual exercise will foster a culture of vulnerability, exploration and rigorous self-discovery. Some leaders will take stock of their organization and rightly understand the gaps in their culture. So, they make an intentional decision to practice cultivating the necessary behaviours. Other leaders seem to arrive at an authentic, aligned brand almost instinctually — and because it feels natural, they never need or want to codify their approach (which is also why founder-led brands sometimes struggle to transition as they grow). And for far too many, all of this is "inner journey" stuff is just some emotional psycho-babble.
If we take a deeper view of what branding is, then we understand that the artifacts of branding — visual identity and language — will always show up , we’ll always get some visual representation, we’ll always get some language that represents us. The real work is to deeply understand and craft in language an image of what’s already there, to capture that which you already are.
If "brand" is the meaningful relationship, then branding is the spiritual exercise to get you there.
