In a world where we can do business from thousands of miles away, where transactions can be completed over the Cloud, and deals can be struck with strangers, a business’s ability to be successful relies greatly on the first impressions it leaves.
If your website doesn’t look professional, customers will simply move on to another hit from Google search.
If your company doesn’t conduct business the way its mission statement promised, a transaction can be canceled just as quickly as it was established.
Indeed, we all have great ideas and innovative products that are sure to catch somebody’s attention. But nowadays, it’s not a matter of whether your idea has value or not; it’s a matter of how you make people choose you above anyone else. Hence the newly conceptualized field of branding and digital identity.
But before I get off on the notion of branding, here’s the thing:
Boutique businesses are hard to come by, although that is exactly what our economy needs. And the pattern of consumer habits over the past few decades leads me to believe that our collective interests will soon lean more toward individual enterprises than big box brands.
Think about the average mid-20th century city. Mom and Pop shops; family bakeries; car repair shops run by a couple of old buddies; local produce; and more. The majority of the local economy was fuelled by the people around the hub. As a result, every city and every town had a collective identity different from one another based on the industries and businesses represented within its borders.
The expansion of Sears marks the inflection point when the economy shifted from “family-run” to corporate heaven. Since then, the past few decades have seen an exponential rise in the popularity of superstores such as Walmart, Target, and many chain restaurants and stores. Cities nationwide are now essentially homogenous in the sense that you can be sure to find a Tim Hortons, a McDonalds, and a Walmart in every one of them. What happened to individual identity? It’s 2015; our country is overrun with big names and bureaucracy. Isn’t it time to go back to basics?
I would have to say that society is in need of an entrepreneurial revitalization.
The problem is that when individual success if contingent on all sorts of government taxes, and the process of establishing a business is made to be a convoluted ordeal - involving various overlapping government offices requiring redundant amounts of red tape - people cannot do their jobs out of enjoyment. Rather, we must work simply to make enough money to live comfortably or in some cases, to just live, period.
That being said, I am fortunate enough to live in Canada, which provides us greater opportunity to fulfill our own passions through our careers than some other societies might allow. What I mean by that is that in a positive economy, there is a plethora of industries in which most people can be paid to do the things they enjoy. However, the need to “put food on the table” so to speak remains a large deterrent against new entrepreneurial ventures.
As gruelling as it may prove to be, becoming an entrepreneur, I’m going to make it my own personal crusade in the hopes of pioneering a new revolution. Ideally, my business would be one to help other entrepreneurial ventures succeed. Which brings me back to the notion of branding, since that is where I would come in.
If I had to write a personal mission statement for my business, it would go something like this:
Our mission is to use our creative and industry-specific resources to help your entrepreneurial venture reach its full potential. You provide the business and we will provide you with a stand-out brand identity fit for success.
BDWP Creative does not deal in transactions; it deals in relationships where your business visions are transformed into tangible icons of your brand.
Our fuel is your passion for success and our dream is to see your dreams come true.
It all starts with your business’s identity. Who are you? BDWP Creative will help you find out.
Having refined my business’s intentions, I am then able to construct a suitable identity. After a little brainstorming, here are some key words that I hope to visually convey through my brand.
- MODERN
- businesses will want their brand to be relevant
- PROFESSIONAL
- businesses won’t want my support in defining their brand identities if my own business doesn’t emulate the professionalism that they are looking to achieve
- INSPIRING
- businesses need to be assured that their goals are attainable
- KNOWLEDGEABLE & RESOURCEFUL
- businesses need to know that putting their brand in our hands will give them access to the greatest human database available
- EXPERIENCED
- businesses need to be assured that we don’t just talk the talk, we walk the walk
As you read through this blog and reflect on my vision, I encourage you to reflect on yours as well. What do you stand for and what statement do you want to make? Can your passion be turned into a venture?
If so, what would it look like? Even just pondering these questions can be inspiring.
And perhaps, if you do become interested in going out on your own one day, BDWP Creative will be around to work with you. But for now, I’m just a student and I need to get a degree before I can start making dreams happen!
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