Made in Australia is not an avenue open to all brands, but for those companies who do building this into your brand story is important. We generally associate products made within our country to be of a high standard and a badge of quality, so pin it on the chest if you can!

11. Common interests build communities

It might just be the most sacred, most holy ground a brand can aspire to and that’s building a community around what you do. Seth Godin remarked;

We simply have the privilege to talk to a community, to connect a community and perhaps to lead them for a while. But it’s a mistake to believe that they are ours to do with as we choose.

There’s an important distinction to make here. I’m not talking about customers. That’s different. Community occurs when a group comes together to share the same intent, beliefs, values and sense of identity. Brand communities happen when you are prepared to lead, initiate and contribute value in a selfless way around a topic, cause or interest, disconnected from economics.

Communities are the soil to our trees, giving us a fertile ground to not only contribute but to listen and observe, leaving clues as to how to serve them today and in the future.

Thankyou leads a community who care about ending global poverty, plants-in-a-box joins passionate plant lovers together, Patriot builds and tests rugged camper trailers, sharing the adventures with weekend warriors who live for this stuff. Who are ‘your’ people? What do they care about? How can you contribute ? And is there an opportunity to lead?

12. Our spaces, our club houses

We’re living in a digital world and I’m a digital guy. I can wake up, roll into my home office 12 feet from my bed, have 3 google meets with my team by 10am, unknown slack chats (biggest time suck ever) clear my inbox, do client catchups via Zoom and spend the afternoon in basecamp, Asana, whimsical and harvest.

Is my day unique? Probably not. Millions of others are doing the same-same. The point is, our work & personal lives are meta digital. And that’s great for lots of reasons, but it’s also isolating.

As we wake up to this fact as a society, we will continue to seek out physical experiences becuase we’re humans and our wellbeing depends on it.

So why does that environment matter in building a great brand? Well, for one when I unplug from my digital cocoon, I’m looking to balance the ledger with physical interactions and those interactions are so much better if I’m surprised by something unexpected or better still you make me feel something.

Having ways in which you can purposely interact with customers offline (socially awkward, but rewarding) builds connections that you simply can’t do online. Think about walking into a consulting firm and being greeted with white walls and grey carpet. Feeling anything? What if it was like this;

Airbnb office in Portland

It’s easy to default to pre-baked thoughts here. Stuff like ‘I’m an online business’ or ‘I go to my clients, not the other way around’ but that type of thinking could be a mis-step. How pumped did everyone get on the idea open plan offices, co-working spaces, working from home or distributed teams? Yet the reality and results of the pendulum swing has left us all a bit wanting. I miss the branded work space and I predict it’s gonna rise again!

13. Claim a position, craft the message

If you cast your eye across the class of ‘up and comer’ brands there’s a consistent theme that runs true through all of them: They know who they serve and how to talk to them. Positioning and messaging are the foundations of great brands and it takes a purposeful effort to get this part singing in your business model.

Laying claim to an idea, a product or a service for specific audience is so incredibly important to your brand success. You cannot be for everyone. So who are you for? And what do you do? And how is that different? Those simple questions (plus maybe reading this post I wrote on positioning) might just yield the answers you need to create a more durable brand.

Build more depth

In truthfulness, most of the brands we work with start out with some pretty basic but important foundations, they are not doing all 13 things identified in this list and that’s fine becuase getting two or three things really right is better than doing a tonne of stuff half arsed. As your business grows and economic opportunities open up, the ‘durable brand’ becomes tangible because we have the opportunity to build these foundational layers in.

Each new layer contributes to strength of the structure opening up more opportunity to connect and do more for your audience, helping you prosper in good times and ride safely through more turbulent financial waters.