Business Strategies in Expressive Enterprises
GIRVIN’s BrandQuest®
Any brand is, of course, an human-focused enterprise—the point being that any brand is made by humans and made for humans and their kin—even in the construct of naturality: nature-made products—their selection, molding and modeling, their foundational pitch to consumers is
a curated, selected item or items in commerce.
Finding the soul of a 400 year old saké brand, Osaka-Kobe
The modeling comes down to the heart of the brand—how the storytelling is built, the narrative of its true self, the αὐθεντικός of its origination. You might wonder—“heart, how’s that work?”
“I’ve got a business to run, I don’t care about heart…”
One might say “that’s too sissy, too emotional, for real business,” but a brand that forgets its heart, could be subject to a later arrest and failure. Heart speaks to principles of action, premises of gifting and give-back, propositions of stance, promise, quality and care, and visioning.
Etymologically [explore Phil Harper,] there are alignments, in seeking-out the center of the word, where it begins holds a secret that lends itself to a deeper history, that then lies in its seeded essence, which is, in this instance—heart is cor—or more anciently, as in
7,000 year old phrasings,
*kerd—a suffixation in
Proto-Indo-European roots
Look back and find that speaks to this thread:
One might proffer that cor—as the root of “heart”—is also the word origin of courage.
And any good brand builder is laden with courage—it takes guts to dream, to believe in the fleeting inspiration of that dream—and to stride out front to lead that vision.
Heart might be one part of this belief, then too—soul.
And soul is a similarly powerful expression. For brands, heart and soul—and the journey to find them comes to drive—the drive towards the construct of emotionality. Brand feelingness would align in the experientiality—the spherical character of touchpoints of sensational-ism.
The more holistic the strategy, the more 360º the layering of experience.
What’s the difference between heart and soul in brand-related thinking? Heart is the central driver—and, as in the physic—it’s the pump that sparks decision-making; while soul might be seen as the intuitive, the instinctive, the ethereal state of the psychic being. Soulfulness is journey-making in its etymon, the true nature of its being. While heart is the central and innermost, courageous driver of decision-making,
soul is the deeper journey—as in its origin,
the sea.
That journey-making for us works in BrandQuest®ing summits and workshops, but too—Soul Summits, that are specific to getting into the spirit of brands, weaving in the loom of time and practice,
brand teams and executive leadership.
And finally—song, brand song. We’ve referenced this earlier as enchantment—the chant of the songful melody of a brand’s story; this song is the sound that is remembered; it’s the sound, it is the song of the brand, and it’s the song that you’re asking customers to connect with—and to sing that song themselves. The song of the brand is the song that a customer might sing for themselves. Herein, hopefully, a belief in the song.
The core of the quest—heart, soul and song—speaks to this sequencing: QUEST: question—focus the inquiry; understand—true understanding, and the knowing that goes with it, is closer akin to “inner-standing,” that is listening close-in, focused-hearing; working as a team, this collaboration examination gets to exploration; you win, define the outcomes, and, write the strategy, which leads, finally, to tactics.
Deployment, integrated in tiers—how does that relate to business strategy?
Customer and employee communities are connected to
meaningful brands and transacting with brands that mean more, are more than mere commerce—their brands have a give-back regimen, they’re managed by well-meaning people, the employees are engaged and treated well and that they stand with, for, and behind their products.
Projects in strategy | story | naming | messaging | print |
identity | built environments | packaging | social media | websites | interactive
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Tim Girvin | Queen Anne Studios
GIRVIN | Strategic Brands
digital | built | movies
waves | art | talismanika™