Tuesday, April 7, 2009

What's in a Brand?

Some might consider your brand your most important asset. It is how you capture and depict that certain something that sets you apart. If you get it right, people around you will immediately recognize who you are and what you offer.


However, if the necessary time, insight and assessment are not applied, your brand can leave people confused, or worse turn them away.


In the life of a new organization or company, a brand can also set the stage for the audience. With all of this in mind, we have been collaborating to identify the A.W.O.L. All Walks of Life TM brand, and we wanted to share this process with you, our inaugural members.


Our first step was to answer some questions about who we are and what we offer. We recently went through a branding exercise to assist us in this. The conversation and feedback that the following questions stimulated have been vital in working toward our brand and getting all of us on the same page.


Please take a look and comment directly to this post with your own responses to each question. We would love to hear from you and learn about your own ideas for A.W.O.L. All Walks of Life TM.


What is A.W.O.L.? What is our vision for A.W.O.L.?

· Platform or Forum for people to share ideas and network

· Place where professionals can have a voice

· Forum to showcase ideas, talents, accomplishments

· Online workshop…possibly a critic’s corner

· Channel to meet/network with new people


What are A.W.O.L.'s Values?

· Integrity and Accuracy

· Safe environment to share ideas

· Professional and/or Creative

· Open Minded – encourages different perspectives

· Fun!


What is A.W.O.L.’s Target Demographic?

· Both genders

· Established Professionals

· Upstanding citizens (ethical)


How would you describe A.W.O.L.?

· Opportunity generating

· Creative

· New experiences

· Fun

· Inspirational

· People connecting

· Marrying traditional and non-traditional

· Getting out of your comfort zone

· Finding new and better ways to do things


What Car would A.W.O.L. Be?

· A Volkswagon Cabriolet Convertible – creative, quirky, fun

OR

· A Prius – smart, new, combines traditional and new ideas


What Colors represent A.W.O.L.?

· Green – infers wealth, environment, military…

· Deep Purple or Magenta – non-traditional and rich

· Orange - Fun, quirky, attention getting

· Possibly black and white as base colors with splashes of other colors


So now what?

Now the fun part begins. We are currently creating a visual identity that will capture all of these attributes and truly represent A.W.O.L.’s core offerings and personality. In the coming weeks we plan to reveal three logo ideas and will give you the chance to vote on your favorite image. We’ll then reveal our new logo and visual identity at our next networking event, scheduled for Wednesday, May 20th in NYC (location to be announced shortly).


We look forward to your responses – have fun with it!

In the meantime, have some fun with this branding exercise and post your ideas! As always, you can comment directly to this post, or email your ideas to us and we’ll post them for you: awol.allwalksoflife@gmail.com.


2 comments:

  1. What is our vision for A.W.O.L.?
    a space for professionals from various backgrounds to investigate how they can work together or inspire each other. I see it as a place to cross pollinate.

    What are A.W.O.L.'s Values? Open Minded, supportive, curious.

    A.W.O.L.’s Target Demographic? established and developing professionals working together to work better.

    describe A.W.O.L.? meeting your needs with creative networking

    What Car would A.W.O.L. Be? a Prius

    What Colors represent A.W.O.L.? deep purple: niether mascuine nor feminine and compatible with many colors. strong but not overbearing

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  2. I like the idea of us educating one another on our respective niche markets! Having a savvy recommendation go-to AWOL list in our pockets when we meet someone looking for a great designer, specialist, events coordinator, architect, art dealer! Learning about the services and projects other do to better connect with people I meet everyday.

    i see a metro CARd as my AWOL car with chevron stripes. . .

    ReplyDelete