If your Brand was an Animal…

One of the most enjoyable and stimulating stages in our brand marketing and creative worlds is the three to four hour brainstorm with our client’s team, which kicks off the rebranding process. This think-tank session is designed to function as a journey of discovery by exploring the company’s brand experience, core values, primary brand message, brand promise, competitive advantages, mission and vision, product lifecycle, goals and objectives, timeline, measurable-results, online and offline content integration etc., basically the company’s corporate soul, purpose and future.

During these sessions, we like to explain our process while sharing stories; in essence, utilize experiential learning techniques, because realistically, branding is about telling stories. A past client once told me that Chinese people love to communicate through analogies, hence the title of our latest blog. During a lengthy brainstorm, it is imperative the ideas flow with energy and excitement (The only bad idea is the unexpressed idea still in your mind!) as we truly encourage free flowing of concepts, strategies and stories.

Thus bringing us to Brand Animals… If your Brand was an Animal, what kind of animal would you be and why? (We have also used the analogies of Cars, Visionary Leaders, Non-Related Companies, etc.). The question is phrased to source the team members’ views of themselves or of their company if it was an Animal. The goal is to incorporate the animal’s attributes into the company’s corporate culture while simultaneously loosening the team up.

For example, someone might say: I am an Eagle… a stealth-like predator, soaring high above and attacking with all encompassing vision…However, I am also the guardian of my family with no natural predator… except for “man”. 

The team building exercise was one application for the Brand Animals concept. This campaign, for ISI takes this Brand Animals concept one step further…

Okay, let’s revisit why we became graphic designers, brand marketers, artists, writers, photographers, filmmakers and communicators. For me it was the history of ideas.

Now… We want to take branding back to its foundation and use a concrete yet comfortable language, which is universal to all of us.

Animals were used as symbols to teach and communicate daily experiences of primitive peoples (versus today’s corporate logos and brands). Animals expressed the true nature of the person, the tribe or the event – these were the first brand experiences and we wish to revisit these core beginnings.

Simply put, these were the first IDs (Identities) or Ideograms, and the root word, of our company
ISI – Ideographic Strategies Inc – Where Ideas Inform.