Here’s an old Steve Jobs video talking about branding. He’s unveiling the “Think Different” campaign from 1997 and then shows the first TV spot at the end of the video. It’s a really great campaign, but pay attention to the very beginning of this talk:
The big takeaway is in the first few seconds of video:
“This is a very complicated world. This is a very noisy world and we’re not going to get a chance… to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us.”
The whole branding thing is just like selling or pitching…
- Lunch pitch: ~15 minutes
- Bar pitch: ~5 minutes
- Elevator pitch: ~30 seconds
- ?
That last pitch is your brand. It’s the ultimate distillation of what you do. Someone just cold-surfed to your site or maybe they’re standing in the aisle at the supermarket looking at you and 20 other competitors. You’ve got five seconds, a logo and one-half line of copy. What is the one thing you want them to know about your business?
If you don’t know, then you’re in trouble.