Matthew Cimaglia is an award-winning director and entrepreneur whose motto is to “not follow trends, and lead with ideas”. He wrote a powerful piece for Forbes Magazine this past week about perspective in branding, and the importance of where it can guide you in the future.
He remarks first on an experience with a past client, who he felt was a valued business leader with a very excellent product. This particular client had startled him a bit by brushing off his attempts to build a brand and claimed that it was “just an app” and not a brand that they were creating. This is where a very important phenomenon is explained: that on average, people take mere seconds to calculate their first impressions of people.
In the sphere of an actual brand, the battle is even more fierce, is some claim that audiences will only begin to remember your brand after seeing it five to seven times. This is one of the key elements that makes branding so critical to get right on the first try, and can make or break the early years of any young company struggling to get on its feet. One thing that happens so often is when founders come up with a dynamite idea and rush too quickly when presenting it with its permanent name.
The Winding Road of Trial and Error
The process of branding is a bit like being on trial: not only providing correct answers but showing raw strength and grit during the beginning is crucial. If one can surround themselves with great people, they are not of much value unless they are not micromanaged, and empowered to flourish on their own.
One of Matthew’s recent examples was his plans to launch an array of new companies in the creative industry under an umbrella corporation named “Third Summit”. It closely reflects his own conquests, as he has climbed both Mount Kilimanjaro and Everest. He knew then that when presented with the task of naming the other companies involved, he was going to have to reach out for help, and contacted a few different agencies that specialized in just this.
This is where he learned one very valuable lesson and learned that the first in line was only concerned about cashing the first check! This is not uncommon at all, and the company that appeared to be glossy and infectiously awesome for his purposes did not have a match for his needs at all.
Can Taking your Hands off the Steering Wheel Yield Success?
Ten years before this hurdle in his professional life, Matt had read an article about a new disposable toothbrush that you could use once while on the go and then throw in the trash. Colgate had hired an outside branding agency to come up with a great name, and they settled on “Wisp”. The deep research involved a global analysis of similar sounds, and the way the word rolled off the tongue provided just another good reason for the consumer to have the brand remain in their memory.
One of the most important reasons to hire an expert branding agency such as Farfetched Studios is that you don’t want to let ego get in the way of your dreams. You may have already established an entire network of other successful revenue streams, and letting an industry professional look in from the outside could help with the prominent power of perspective.
Since branding is an emotional process, you may sometimes reach the point that you need to ask yourself if there is another entity out there that could handle it better and more efficiently. It is one thing to know that you have burning passion as well as creativity, but a full-service agency may be able to utilize options that you may not have access to and have a broad knowledge of the SEO game required to truly succeed.
