Slangbusters Branding Studio | Microenterprise Branding Service

Investing in culture is a brand strategy FTW.   If you are looking for building company culture inside the boundaries of the corporate setting, t he keyword gods have defied you and this is where you should stop reading and probably close the tab. If you are looking for some insight about incorporating culture into your brand, read on. For starters, company culture inside the headquarters or any place with employees working for the brand is also important for the cultural implications outside. If you are an ice-cream brand that has tapped into the culture of a family enjoying ice-cream after dinner, you cannot be a company that forces their employees to work overtime and refrain them from the happiness of sharing the ice-cream with their families. These brands would suffer in how they are perceived by the consumer, no matter how aggressive the marketing is. (Culture > Propaganda) Branding is not what it was a  decade  ago. Earlier, companies would introspect and identi...

  Because size does not matter. (A still from ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’) I have a baker friend. She runs a cloud kitchen, a fancy word used for culinary businesses that are run from home, without a professional setup of a bakery, a restaurant or a cafe. Social media and food delivery apps have given way to many such small-scale businesses to run from homes and small kitchens. My friend single-handedly manages taking orders, production, delivery, and accounting of her baking business. She recently created an Instagram account for her bakery to reach an audience and to share images of her beautiful cakes and jars that she sells to local residents of her city. When I happened to go through her IG stories, I saw she was using ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ when she was taking orders, sharing reviews, etc. One of her stories read: “Now launching, new flavors in cupcakes: DM us, we will be happy to customize your order for any event.” We.  She delivers quality pastry, has a culinary arts diplo...

Are we on the same page? Here goes something.  Once, I ordered food at home really early in the morning, at around 4 AM. I did not want anyone else in the house to be disturbed, or the delivery guy bothering joggers and people who got up that early. I’m sure they would not like someone asking for directions first thing in the morning. What I did was that I kept a track of his location on the app and waited outside, by the gate just a minute before his arrival. Somehow, this made him so happy, he delivered my food with the biggest smile I have seen at 4:30 AM in the morning. He told me, “Customers like you, make it a tad bit easier than it is. Thank you for coming down without me having to call. I did not have to ask people for directions and now, I can get on to the next delivery without wasting time.” I’m sure he must have had a bad day with a customer who must have ordered and gone to sleep. All I did was the bare minimum of being there before his arrival. This instance says...

  And on how to have the best of both worlds for your brand. Oscar Wilde said, “I can resist anything but temptation.” A classic example of paradox, isn’t it? Even in the world of branding, we come across such paradoxical situations that sound absurd, but true. Let’s say, this one, for example, brands need to bring along innovation to sustain continuity. Have a squint at your favorite brands or take a squiz around you. Start from the time you roll out of bed and brush your teeth. Is it the Closeup, Closeup Ever Fresh or Closeup Ever Fresh+? Or maybe when you order a Burger King during the lunch break. What does it say? “Have it your way” or “Be your way”? Most of the brands, most of the time change some aspects of their brand profile. The way “Nike” is written now could be different than how it was written some years ago. Maybe the brand decided to change the Type. Likewise, “Apple” could have probably decided to add a few more shades to its palette, so that it can be used against ...