The other day my brother (@whitworksbakery) came to me for some branding advise. Patrick is in the process of starting up a bakery and he wanted my feedback a tagline for his bakery. I thought, great, I’m going to have to tell my bro that taglines are dead. Instead he came to me with some brand adjectives: Curious Bakery or Craft Bakery.
There is one problem with a tag line, no one has time for them anymore. We are constantly distracted with messaging from all angles: social media, friends, tv, ads, cat videos, trump, kids, and especially our phones. There’s no time for a tag line. Additionally, startups and small businesses don’t have the resources to make a tag line stick. Now, to contradict this whole point, my company does have a tagline! Mystemic Marketing – Systematic Marketing. Extraordinary Results. I like it … for now. There lies another problem. As a small business, our value proposition and pitch evolves over time. In a year or two our product or service may evolve. Then we have to get a new sign, new business cards, redo all our digital creative, and we don’t have time for that.
This leaves us with the brand adjective. The word or two which clearly communicates to our customers what it is we do. For my business, Mystemic, it’s marketing. Mystemic Marketing provides insight to potential customers that I provide marketing services.
IT’S NOT ALWAYS STRAIGHTFORWARD
We have to take a step back to answer the question for my brother. In order to set a good brand adjective, we need consider the brand name. His company name (brand name) is Whit Works. By itself Whit Works means nothing to me, and that’s okay. My bro has an awesome little story about his brand name and why he picked it. Your brand story really needs to be most important to you. That way, you’ll be able to captivate your customer with the brand story.
EVEN BIG BRANDS NEEDED BRAND ADJECTIVES
Additionally, your brand name doesn’t need to be your friends or family’s favorite name because over time your brand will become much more than a name. I’m sure many people thought some famous brand names were crap.
But all these now famous brands have something in common, they all needed a brand adjective until they became more established (Computer, Energy Drink, Coffee).
CURIOUS BAKERY VS. CRAFT BAKERY
Since my bro’s brand Whit Works doesn’t mean anything to me, that indicates it needs a good adjective to instantly clarify what product or service his brand provides. Curious Bakery …. okay, well I know it’s a bakery cause it says so, but Curious is just confusing to me… and that, well, leaves me curious (pun). Confusion always trumps Curiosity, especially when there are competing bakeries nearby (pop-up of google/yelp results of bakeries)… yup, I’ll just go there. Craft Bakery. Still, I don’t know exactly what it is but I can make an accurate assumption that it’s a bakery that pays attention to the details, makes its good in small batches, and perhaps does some experimentations with its goods. Perhaps like a Craft Brewery, which is now common nomenclature.
I like Craft Bakery a lot. So while Curious Bakery could work, Craft Bakery is clearly better branding to me. Whit Works Craft Bakery. While Patrick could have gone with a more common adjective such as Artisan Bakery, he felt that it was overused and he wanted to be a little more unique. I applaud that. But remember, there’s being unique just to be unique, and then there’s being unique while still communicating your message effectively. Be sure the adjective you pick to define your brand does the later. It’s better to use a common adjective that’s used in your industry than to cause customer confusion through poor communication simply because you’re trying to be unique.
So then let me ask you, what do you think of Curious Bakery or Craft Bakery? Does Craft Bakery resonate with you as a place that would have really great bread? Let me know in the comments.
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