Welcome to the Remarkable Branding Podcast with Heather Murphy and Amin Ahmed. We're going to be taking a journey down The Silk Road. How your brand can burn into your customer's minds and make it memorable. How can it define what your product is?

Can you imagine sitting on a dock with crates of goods coming in. Before the internet or modern marketing, how would you know which product you should purchase. 

The word “to brand” means to “sear in” or to burn into. Burning marks into the flesh of cattle is a practice that has been occurring for centuries. The marks show more than ownership - they’re a signal to feeding and breeding practices as well. 

When Heather explores her Métis roots, she is considering her ancestor Philip Turnor who came to Canada as a surveyor and ordered a high quality watch. He would be looking for a brand as a signal of quality and reliability. 

Think about what you want to burn into your prospects mind. What do you want to remind your clients of? What do you want them to remember? Are you achieving that?

Today.

We're going to be taking a journey down the silk road.

I want you to imagine for a second, that you're on a dock.

You are on a dock and there are ships coming in from all around the world.

And crate upon crate is stacked on top of each other.

And you have to figure out where was that coffee from that?

So good.

You know, the word to brand means to sear in.

Like it literally means to burn into, and we want to think about our brands.

Is, are they something that are burning into our memories?

Is it something memorable?

Is it something that defines what our product is?

And is it something people want to attach themselves to?

So if we think about the early days of mark-making, we were talking

about some cave paintings, some face painting and flag making but also

it was used in marketing cattle.

Right.

And so literally burning into literally burning into their flesh and, while

that's not a nice image, the reasons for that wouldn't just delineate ownership.

It would also speak to animal husbandry practices.

So like the lineage cattle, the way that they were fed, the places that

they were raised, where they came from.

And so, mark-making also became really important in the early days of trade.

So when ships were coming across, people would be able to tell which

products they had purchased before.

And, they'd be able to tell where things had come from.

Maybe where they're going in the quality of the product.

And so that's where mark making became so important.

And if I even think back to some of the history of my family, I've been

studying the origins of my matey roots and thinking about Phillip

Turner, who came in the 1700.

When he would pick up something in the early colonial history of

Canada, he would have to, know if it's something that he could trust.

He'd have to know if it's something he wanted and there's even a letter

of him requesting, a really high quality watch because he wanted to make

sure he was as accurate as possible.

He would have, there'd have to be marks on those shipping crates to know who

it was going to and what was inside.

So then that leads me to the question.

Are we searing anything in, you know, when we work with our

clients, Amin, I'm wondering what message do they want to sear in?

And I know you have some key questions that you ask to, to make sure that

people's message is driving home.

What are some of those questions that you might ask?

Yeah, great point, Heather.

So whenever we're working with a client, we want to make sure that if we're

helping them with their marketing or their messaging, that we're actually, first of

all, speaking to the right person, because if you're talking to somebody that let's

say is a car enthusiast, but they're into carburetors and you know valves.

Well, they're going to be speaking a different language than somebody is

into an electric vehicle, like a Tesla.

And they're talking about rather than horsepower, they're talking about, you

know, Watts or other forms of power.

And so I think that's really important is that, you know, as part of the

searing into information, we want to make sure that we're using the

words that your clients are using.

So that's where I start by asking them, well, tell me, you know, what

your clients are, what your ideal client does or where they hang out.

And then, then we can take that and convert that into a message that

actually seers into their brain and not, and doesn't confuse them.

We really want to make sure that we're not confusing people

when we're talking to them.

Yeah.

So the words we use are a huge part of our branding.

And from a visual standpoint, some of the things I look at are where are

those ideal audiences going to connect?

So if it is a more Satan masculine driven product, I might take

a look at some of the feeling that's created by sports teams.

And I might try to integrate that visually into a brand, or if I have something

that feels a little bit more corporate and maybe even more government focused,

I might actually implement some colors from the government that they tie into.

So there are some subtle notes that can happen in the weaving of the

creating of the visuals of the brand and the storytelling of the brand.

But what we want to do is send some sub conscious messages to the brain so

people know us like us and trust us one brand that comes to mind right away.

When you talk about this, and this is something that, you know, our kids

are very familiar with is Amazon.

When we get an Amazon box right away, they know it because it's

got the words, Amazon, it's got the little arrow that goes there.

And there's a few things I love about this brand is that.

I don't know if you know about this, but the Amazon logo to

me, it looks like a smile.

First of all, because of the curve, but the arrow actually

take points from a to Z.

And that's what initially I think was their intention, was that they sell

everything on their store from a to Z.

And that's the arrow, but it also looks like something they shipped,

it looks like there's so many elements to it, but that's great.

Branding.

Do you have any examples of branding where, you know, the company may not have

done a very, very good job, but it did sear into your mind and you're like, I'm

going to avoid that brand at all costs.

Avoid that brand at all costs.

I'm not sure, but I just want to kind of want to back up to that Amazon logo

and the simplicity with all the layers that are in there is what is key.

Like it, it looks so simple, but it, it Sears in because of that simplicity

with a lot of thought, you know, we just had, somebody approached.

Us for a logo and they ended up going a different direction and

they have integrated about 10 different visuals into that logo.

So really branding should be the distilling down into the essential

nature so that it hits home.

So if I think about a brand that I decided that I would want to stay away from, I'm

trying to think that's a hard question.

It's hard question for me.

I think about car brands like car companies often, you know, if

you're looking to buy something.

You know, Ford comes to mind from a long time ago.

I think Fords have come a long way, but you know, F O R D fix or

repair daily found on road dead.

And when I see that blue circle with the scripted for you sort of think

maybe I should stay away from that.

And then, you know, there's car, like I mentioned, Tesla or Honda or Toyota

or Mercedes, and, you know, Mercedes is a very simple three pointed star.

But yet it stands for so much in terms of quality and elite and you

know, so it's, it's quite interesting.

It's quite fascinating how a visual really simple visual can convey so

much information in such a quick way.

Yeah.

And it's important because it lets us know if we belong there or not.

Like, for example, I have so much respect for Harley Davidson and the

things they do, but I don't fit there.

That is not my people, but I really think that they're doing an amazing job.

It's just not my thing.

You know, so like art supplies, that might be something where I look at, I'm

always looking for the golden label or I'm looking for the top of the line because

I got archival quality art supplies.

And so if I see a name that I don't recognize, I don't buy it because

I don't know, like, and trust them.

Right.

Because it's important to me that my artwork.

Archival quality.

So as we take a look at the silk road and we travel back down and we think

about the reasons why people start to mark their crates, I want you to

take the time to think about if your brand had a crate, what would be the

essential information that you would want to steer into somebody's mind?

And then next episode, we're going to be talking about what it takes

to be build longevity in your brand.

It's going to be a great episode.

Thanks so much, Heather, for your amazing insights and wisdom into this.

And I'm looking forward to chatting again next time.

Thanks so much for listening to the remarkable branding podcast.