There’s something about a new brand that is energizing in a way that seems hard to explain, especially when you have something to do with it.
I’ve worked on a few branding projects, but until this spring and summer, I never spent so much time working on a new brand for myself. Fortunately, I was able to enlist a dream team to pull it off.
I recently wrote about much of this on LinkedIn, so readers of that post will find some of it familiar.
What’s not there is how a brand can make you feel, and that’s something that’s often overlooked.
When going to marketing conferences, I’ve seen lots of versions of a slide that say something like, “The value of a brand is how much more someone will pay for it over a generic version.”
If you’ll pay $2 for a package of store-bought cream-filled sandwich cookies but $4 for Oreos, that brand is worth 100% more.
With a brand like that, some of it’s functional. Some of it taps into deep emotions like nostalgia. But sometimes, we just like brands that are easier on the eyes.
When the community launched, I loved coming up with the Serial Marketers name and getting early logo treatments. The designs make the community feel far more established in its earliest days.
Now though, I love the brand in a much deeper way. I like going into Slack more and seeing it there, and I like seeing the logo appear on LinkedIn. It stands out. It pops. It tells a story.
Sometimes, it’s hard to justify the hassle of going through a rebrand even when you need one. When done right though, a brand can become a rallying cry for your staff, members, or customers. It can make people more excited to engage.
It’s hard to determine the value of that, and it will probably be way more than you can encapsulate on a single slide.
—
Here’s a little more of the backstory, via LinkedIn; there’s one other update for you at the end…
This July marks the three-year anniversary of the Serial Marketers community. Today, our mission is clearer than ever as we introduce a new brand identity that will strengthen our presence as we connect marketers around the world.
Here’s a summary of what happened over the past 12 months. We…
- Debuted a premium membership option that continually offers new kinds of rewards to members.
- Launched an industry events calendar.
- Launched an industry awards calendar.
- Initiated the $CMO coin on Rally.io, becoming one of the first 50 or so creators or communities to do so.
- Released MarketerFaves.com to highlight technologies relevant to marketers.
That leads to one of the most pronounced changes with Serial Marketers: our new brand identity.
The initial logo design from July 2018 was based on a sketch I shared on Fiverr as I was launching the community. I envisioned a university crest with the words “Learn, Try, Share.” It looked like this:
A designer with the username bangbend responded, offering to do a version for free and then charged me $5; I made sure to send him a better fee and since used him for several other projects.I was stunned by his version with the wood paneling, even if I used the red, black, and white color scheme versions more often.
Then, this year, along came the multifaceted and multitalented David Bell, one of many members who has reinvigorated the community with his energy and practical suggestions.
One of David’s most important contributions was the introduction to Justin Sapp and Christian Drury at Brightwell, the design and brand identity studio. They appreciated some of my challenges and agreed to work on some ideas for an updated logo.
The end result wound up being this work of art:
One of many elements I loved about the winning design is that it plays off the tagline for the community, one I came up with during a rare subway ride last November: “Marketers need marketers, too.” It was inspired by seeing some clever copy on the ads on the train, and I kept thinking about what that kind of copy would look like for Serial Marketers.
Serial Marketers is a place for and by marketers, after all. We need each other on an emotional level, but we also often need marketers to help us. It fits with the community’s brand.
If you look at the symbol, it could be completely abstract, which is fine. The icon resembled a new twist on the infinity symbol for me, one that spins off in new directions.
It also felt like a superhero’s insignia. If Green Lantern wore red and was a marketer, for instance, maybe he’d wear something like this.
But there are more direct references to the community.
It’s possible to see one giant S in the icon, or two S’s connected to each other as if one is in front of the other.
Then there are the M’s, lowercase. The M’s join together. Marketers need marketers. They’re fused. They need each other to complete the picture. It is a literal manifestation of the community’s tagline and purpose.
There is so much more to unpack from Brightwell, but that’s at least a taste of what they delivered. I can’t thank them enough for how much thought and energy they put into this.
Thanks for being part of this journey.
David
——————————
OFFICIAL UPDATES
——————————
- We’re testing a new merch site to go with our new brand. Test it out and make any purchase this week — or even send any feedback this week — and I’ll send you 5 $CMO coins (about $35-$40 value today).
- Are you running a professional / B2B community? I just started a private channel in the community specifically for community organizers. If you want to join, reply to this email or DM me so we can compare notes and learn from each other.
- In case you missed it, we have a new job listing site: https://serialmarketers.
niceboard.co/. Anyone can post a regular listing, and Premium Serial Marketers members can also post featured listings for free. Go ahead and try it, and don’t forget to subscribe!
|
