In this fast-paced world, creating or reinventing brands that connect with the target audience is essential to success. But how do you ensure that the brand stays true to its core values while making it relevant and having room to evolve? That's one thing I asked Jennifer Couch, Marketing Director at Caprock, who will share insights into delivering a 360 degree brand experience at Brand Discovery 2023. Meanwhile, read on to find out more about:
Many, many years of trial and error <laugh>. I actually have been in marketing for over 25 years. I started out with companies that were small or just getting started, and my passion is about creating or reinventing brands to enhance their connection with whoever they're trying to reach. Really bringing that persona of their own forward into the marketplace so that they can make those connections with the right people.
I started here in Idaho. I've worked with startups, education groups, managing multiple brands for national & international e-commerce, and now Caprock. I came on and helped build the College of Western Idaho when they first started out. Prior to that I was part of starting Tamarack Resort when they transitioned from WestRock to Tamarack. Then I worked for Balsam Brands, which is an international e-commerce company with multiple brands and an international front. So it was interesting carrying that brand not just within the US, but thinking about how you maintain the core of who you are, but tweak it for the environment that you are in, especially as it relates to international markets.
What's the biggest win? I think it's hard to pick favorites. It's like picking your favorite child. It's not good <laugh>.
I think just because it's local and I have such a passion for education, bringing College of Western Idaho to the Valley was really rewarding. It served an audience that hadn't really been served, and nobody was that familiar with even the concept of what a community college was versus what we had in Boise State offering some “junior college” aspects. But thinking about the purpose that it served and where it is today, that felt like it was giving back and creating a strong legacy in the community.
And then selfishly you know, when I worked at Tamarack and we were able to make the connection with Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, and starting the development, which didn't happen but maybe still will at some point, who knows? Then launching into potentially having a high-end Fairmont here – it was fantastic to bring not just Tamarack, but Idaho to the forefront. I remember going to a Super Bowl, we had a booth in their VIP section, and I had to take a map of the United States to show people where Idaho was. So that one's a fun one for sure.
A really important lesson, especially given the way things have evolved and changed, is that you have to be nimble and flexible and allow room to change. It's identifying the core pieces that shouldn't change, but then having flexibility to evolve. And again, that doesn’t mean you would change the core of what you do and what your vision is, but how you bring that forward may be different. It may need to evolve.
Those are key components, allowing that flexibility. At some point, when your brand feels outdated or no longer reflects who you are and who you're serving, it's okay to reevaluate. It doesn't have to be so polished and exactly right at every point. You will get there, you will continue to build.
It can definitely be an iterative process. Like I said, things change, right? If you're a company that was around a hundred years ago, your brand is probably not the same as it was when you started. Because people have changed, your audience is different. You and your team are different. And heck, it wasn't even digital back then, right? Thinking about 360 degrees, what does that mean in a digital world? We evolve and we grow. Brands should be able to evolve and grow as well.
To give you a sense of that - I just joined Caprock back in August and it's a company that's been around for 17 years, so not brand new. So one of the most important things when coming into a company that's already existed is really helping identify what the brand is and how they want to evolve that.
With growth, there's always an evolution, but at the core of your company, even if you're a startup, you have a culture that is present and a brand that you are bringing forward. It starts with that vision of the founders. So a lot of what I've done is research, talking with our internal teams, our founders, and our clients.
I talked to over 50 of our clients, having conversations to better understand how they would describe us, how they see Caprock, and why they enjoy working with us. It's about enhancing and telling that story, bringing that story forward in a way that's meaningful and fully represents the brand.
How you do that? It's every touchpoint. Starting from the core of, who is our brand? What do we want people to think or see when they come in contact with our brand? It's just like a persona that you may build for your ideal client.
You are developing your persona of who they would be looking to as their ideal service provider or company they want to work with. It's almost a reversal of the way you would map out and think about your ideal client profile. You do that same thing for your brand.
It's helpful because when people connect with a brand, they've categorized who that brand is in their mind. You have to be really intentional about that.
We've done a lot of work on this, and we've come up with everything from what our brand stands for to, like what do we wear? What are the things that we would hand out? We are not showboaty but we are affluent, so it's understated but definitely higher end, polished. We want to project that we are professional and sophisticated, yet still approachable.
So as we're developing our profile, this is how we would hire, too. Those are the things that are really important for people to see and understand about us. It's in the language we might use on our website, or in our ads, and it's the same thing if you're interacting with a person at an event. It’s making sure they get that same sense, that it reflects that same experience that you would expect.
If you were with one of our advisors and saw that they are well-dressed and polished, you wouldn't expect to go to our website and find something that's not bad, but maybe more fun and cheapish, more on the humor side.
Each of those touchpoints has to reflect and showcase that persona of who we are, how we talk and how we appear to the world.
Jennifer has great insights that will help you define a complete persona for your brand. Join us at Brand Discovery for the full experience!
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