brand v campaign

My own creative guru and mentor is the indominatable Paul Reeve, a fellow Australian working out of NYC. He is a creative genius who i call when i want someone to sharpen my perspective on creativity and design. We have a call scheduled for an hour, once a week - and i have to admit - even i feel slightly nervous before the call - getting myself ready to be challenged on lots of levels - emotionally, intellectually, spiritually. This week was a conversation about BRANDING versus CAMPAIGNING.

Reeve shared an interesting insight that designers can spend so much time on Branding (internal focus, more about the organisatation) that they forget about Campaigning (what specifically the external customer is engaged in, even as a focussed theme, as their experience of the brand). All marketing is then hung off that focus or tagline.

My lightbulb moment in the conversation was about how little we'd been considering the CUSTOMER value statement, and planned campaigns for The Happiness Centre linked to that one-liner hook or statement.

Coke is it.
Pepsi. The New Generation.
Nike. Just Do It.
Accenture. High Performance Delivered.

The Happiness Centre. ( ...... tba) [used to be Within Lies the Potential .. ready for a revamp]

Hmmmm ... deeply interesting thought point for me this week. What specifically IS the tagline?

My tip: get a mentor. they'll stretch your thinking.