A sea of red, it has been described. For the past 25 years in my other life I’ve served as the public address announcer for the St. Louis Cardinals’ spring training. That means for the month of March I’m surrounded by visitors from the Midwest and beyond that embrace the identify of Cardinal Nation. I know many of their names. And yes, they wear red.
A brand is much more than just a combination of attributes.
Attributes are the elements that any station can do. Songs, deejays, contests, information elements like traffic and weather. A brand is bigger than that.
On Simon Sinek’s podcast, “A Bit of Optimism,” the legendary ad man Lee Clow, the creative mind behind the “Think Different” campaign for Apple’s Macintosh computer, and the Energizer Bunny, speaks into the story of the brand.
He says when you ask,
“What does that mean?”, the conversation quickly moves to what’s really important and what will really work. This is called intelligence.
So many brands are categories. So there is batteries, and there’s soda pop. So coming up with a personality for a brand is really important.
The way you tell the story can make it culturally relevant.”
That’s the story of “Think Different,” a campaign that helped Lee Clow differentiate Apple’s Macintosh from other computers. It also connected with those that saw themselves as trendsetters and difference makers, something bigger than computers.
“I want to wear that tee shirt. Like a badge. Like something you’re proud of. Making a brand so interesting and likeable and trustable that you want to wear their tee shirt is my yardstick for finding the idea.”
What tee shirt would your listeners want to wear? Certainly not a list of the attributes of the station.
(watch “Ideas That Stick with Advertising Legend Lee Clow“)
