In the second installment of our three-part blog series detailing Tagboard’s recent brand identity journey, we explore how to represent our brand personality using the traits we discovered in part one through our brand attributes exercise.
First, we asked Tagboard employees a series of questions, which we broke down into three categories:
- Analogies
- Association
- Archetype
We were able to collect inspiring and thoughtful answers, which collectively informed our brand personality.
Brand Analogies
Brand analogies are a simple, yet creative way to symbolically represent a company. An example question could be: If your company was an animal, what would it be?
These questions can be asked in any format, but at Tagboard, we asked a question of the day (QOTD) within our #general Slack channel. A QOTD encouraged the team to focus on one analogy at a time.
We discussed six subjects: cars, musical artists, food, sports, animals, and celebrities and landed on these brand aspirations as representations of Tagboard:
- Cars: Audi Q4: a hybrid/electric semi-luxury SUV because we’re a mix of classic and modern elements, comfortably designed to take you anywhere
- Music: DJ Shadow: an established music artist, ranging in such genres as hip-hop and electronica, with various featured artists, which represents our collaboration within the team and with our partners.
- Food: Tacos, a delicious food spread, with customizable options for everyone to represent the plethora of customization options in the Tagboard product
- Sport: Beach Volleyball: a team sport, exhibiting power and strategy
- Animal: Wolf, a majestic and somewhat ferocious animal, effective by ourselves or in a pack
- Celebrity: Dwayne Johnson, a persona with roots, goals, and accomplishments
Of course, these analogies are subject to change as companies evolve.
Brand Association
Additionally, we were able to ask some pointed questions in 15five, one of our management tools. We asked questions such as “Which brands do you admire and why?” and downloaded the answers into a collated spreadsheet. Clear patterns surfaced, showing that we gravitated towards brands that provided exceptional service, had innovative practices, and were full of personality. Notable brands that stood out were Apple, Nike, and Spotify.
“I dig how Wendy’s and Netflix use social media to promote their company. They don’t take themselves too seriously and are brilliant marketers on Twitter.” — Sky Muller
On the flip side, there were certain brands that didn’t gain our favor, specifically ones that were known for poor service, antiquated methods, and/or lack of authenticity.
Brand Archetype
Last but not least was a question on the concept of brand archetypes. We based our understanding off of Motto’s Archetype Workbook, which references Carl Jung’s research. Generally, there are 12 archetypes, each accompanied by subtypes. For example, a Creator is imaginative and inventive. Example brands include Lego, Crayola, & Adobe.
For Tagboard, we came to a consensus that we were a hybrid, a mix of an Explorer, Magician, Creator, and Rebel.
“Explorer because we are staying true to what we are really good at, and always trying to enhance the experience of a customer even when going [into] uncharted territory. We knew a need in the market and “explored” ways in which to accomplish this. Plus Indiana Jones is pretty badass and I would like to be associated with him.” — Dave Minetti
These three methods of representing a brand personality can help guide your company in your (re)branding process and ultimately translate into how you forge a visual brand identity.