The Creative Alliance, Strategic Marketing, Interactive, Public Relations

Re-Discovering the Center of Your Brand

The National Geodetic Survey recently announced that the famed “Four Corners” marker identifying where Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico meet was actually misplaced by roughly 1,800 feet to the west. Granted, the spot was identified in 1875 by land surveyors who did an astonishing job given the tools they had to work with.

But it’s been wrong for over a hundred years.

So millions of tourists, posing in all those photos with a hand or foot simultaneously in four different states actually are only touching two states.

Much like the improved accuracy of the Four Corners placement gained by using GPS technology, it is necessary to periodically reassess an organization’s brand to validate its position with an evolving audience. Over time, even while core values and virtues remain immovable, their translation into cognitive and emotional brand associations needs to be refined.

Just the other day, we had the privilege of meeting with a client for precisely this purpose: a check-up to see how his market, his audience and the world in general had changed since the last time his organization’s brand was developed.

As with the many owners, founders and CEOs of organizations that we work with, we plumbed the depths of our client’s brand and found new insights that could speak with a fresh, relevant and persuasive voice to his evolving marketplace.

Like the Geodetic Survey, the re-branding process requires moving the brand “markers” to a more accurate position. The shifts usually aren’t huge, but they are crucial to a company’s future success.