Two questions to ask about your brand

As I write this, a fresh blanket of snow is helping us welcome a new year. My editor has just sent me an email about my impending deadline for this column and I’ve replied — “I’m working on it right now.”

His response a few moments later? “Better than shoveling snow, right?” Indeed. So here I sit reflecting on the new year — and your brand.

A new year brings many new things — new adventures, new challenges, new opportunities. Twenty twenty-two is no different.

Except that it’s completely different. New years are supposed to provide us with all these things. We can turn to a new blank page and rewrite our story, strategy or plan to help us accomplish the goals — new or otherwise — that we’re striving for.

While external factors (the market, competition, etc.) always have been realities, the past two years (yep, we’ve been pandemic-ing for two months shy of two whole years!) have introduced new complex uncertainties that have interrupted everything from how we work to how we work out.

If buying groceries like toilet paper has been complex, making plans has become like building a sand castle in the middle of a hurricane. Or shoveling snow in the middle of a blizzard, for that matter.

However, one constant in all of this has been our brands. When there’s a torrent of external drivers changing just about everything we know, love and trust, the one thing we have is the brand that we’ve built.

Reminder: I use a broad definition for brands. It’s really any noun — person, place or thing — that needs something from someone else. As such, when talking about your brand here it could be your organizational brand, your personal brand or anything in between.

A new year can be a time of investing new energy and resources into your brand. But how do you do that — how do you plan — with so many unknowns?

I have five kids, one spouse, two dogs and one cat. Keeping it simple isn’t a Kondo-esque choice for me. It’s an absolutely essential survival tactic.

That said, in a world that is at times needlessly complex, simplicity can be your best friend. That’s why when it comes to brand building in the new year, I always start — even this year — with two simple questions.

Where are you now?

While this question could seem too simple at first, it can easily lead you down a rabbit hole of internal meetings, focus groups and market research.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s just not what we’re trying to do with this exercise.

Our intention here is not to uncover every data point about your brand. Rather, we’re looking for a starting point.

When it comes to simplicity, I’m a big fan of the Rule of Three. This communication principle asserts that things are easier to remember in sets of three.

You can see this everywhere from fairy tales (The Three Little Pigs) to historic documents (“life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”).

To help keep your brand’s check-in simple, consider these three guideposts in answering where you are now:

Limit yourself to one word. For example, your brand spark could be something like “service” or “helping.”

Find the common denominators. Would most agree that your work is grounded in research? That your people really care?

For brands, once again, our goal is directional. This can be a simple — yes, no or even a maybe or kind of. Normally, I’m not a fan of these squishy answers, but they may be merited here.

Again, look at all of this through the lens of where your brand is at right now. Be realistic. Be truthful.

If you don’t like what you see in the mirror, the next question will help you find your way.

Where do you want to be?

OK, so if the first part of this exercise yielded some unexpected or even uncomfortable answers, this is your opportunity to do something about it.

To course correct, you have to consider what you’ve just learned from the first question and use this as a starting point in determining where you want to be.

In planning for a new year, we can even make this time bound — where do you want your brand to be in a year?

Once again, we can use our three guideposts except this time, we’re going to change the order around a little bit and trade out a question.

Start by envisioning your end result. What do the people who matter most — your employees, customers and other stakeholders — say about your brand now? Consider how this is different from your current state.

Based on your answer to the previous question, what would you need to change or work on to prompt this response from your brand’s community?

Again, this simple question could produce countless responses. That’s OK. Keep the big list but boil it down to — you guessed it — the three most important drivers of change.

If you need additional help editing these, try plotting your finalists on an effort-impact matrix and focusing on where you can have the most impact for the effort you put forth.

•Is your brand on the right track now? Ideally, the answer will be yes. That’s what we’re working toward after all. Or, at the very least, hopefully you’re on a better path. While this could seem pretty obvious it’s important to consider this as you plot your brand’s overall directionality.

By answering these two simple questions you have a wealth of info — a check-in on where your brand is now and a better idea of where you want to be.

And the best part? This is actionable information. Use this to plan your year.

Maybe you’ll focus on one of your three key activities each quarter. Or maybe you’ll have smaller tactics that work toward these three big drivers concurrently throughout your year.

These are details. What matters most is that you start planning. And a new year is a great time to do just that.

Answer these two questions and you’ll be on your way.

Happy New Year to you and your brand!

Nick Westergaard is marketing strategist, keynote speaker and author of “Brand Now” and “Get Scrappy”; nick@branddrivendigital.com; @NickWestergaard