10 questions you should ask about your brand

About 5 years ago I attended a conference entitled Creative Places + Spaces : Risk Revolution (organized by Toronto Artscape) in Toronto.  Right before I attended it, I came across an article in the Toronto Star Newspaper about the upcoming conference, written by Alan Webber, co-founder of Fast Company Magazine (one of the plenary speakers) entitled - The Future of the Future - The 5 revolutions that are shaping the world. The article was insightful and powerful.

In the article, Alan pointed out four operating rules that would support the five revolutions. At the time, and even now, the second operating rule continues to be a very powerful one for me. As Alan stated "if we want to see the future, we have to ask the right questions about it." If you think about it, asking the wrong questions leads you to answers which at the end of the day have no value. And being in a place in which no value is being generated, is an extremely precarious and problematic situation.  A predicament to avoid at all costs.

So in the spirit of relevance, value providing and preparing for the future (that's happening right now), ten questions you should be asking. . .

• Is my brand interesting?  Who wants to be boring?  Any takers. . .anyone. . . anyone?  Boring is something nobody wants to be. Now in business school there aren't any classes offered on "the science of interesting" but creating excitement around your brand should be a top priority.  Figuring out how to do this, and do it well, will quickly position you at the top of your class (or ahead in the market).

• How is my brand leveraging content? Today content is everywhere (easily created and accessible); blogs, videos, social media, websites, online magazines, etc. People can find out about who you are in ways never before possible. Sometimes the brand is content.  Either way ladies and gents, how are you leveraging content to let the world know who you are and what you are doing?

• Is my brand seductive?  When between two people, this is one thing. But when seduction happens between an idea and an audience you're onto something powerful.  Well you might ask what is the relevance between a brand and seduction? Well, in the spirit of this idea, let me seduce you here. . .

• Is my brand different. . .(no, radically different)? Today, right now, if you take what you do and google it, does anyone or anything else come up on the page? If the answer is "yes," then why should someone hire you vs. any of those other people? Marty Neumier says that when everyone zigs, you zag, and in his book ZAG, radical differentiation is the strategy for competitive advantage (especially in the 21st century).

• Does my brand have thick value? According to Umair Haque and the Awesomeness Manifesto thick value is real, meaningful, and sustainable. Not "perceived" value as we have been bombarded with by less than authentic commercials and trivial ad campaigns.  It happens by making people authentically better off — not merely by adding more bells and whistles and features to a product. Real (thick) value provides something that makes your day to day more enjoyable and pleasurable, and god forbid improves our quality of life.

. . .to be continued