MV newsletter - February 2006

Click here for free tools and know-how materials from the Mud Valley™ strategy & brand marketing community.

According to Ananova, a baker in Romania, in search of an innovative trade mark, has asked his employees to shave their heads to better resemble the bread they bake.

Which is good news for the female staff of Mud Valley. They are now receiving free face packs and mud bath detox treatments. The men here are forever throwing mud at each other anyway. Carry on, guys!

A helping hand from the universe

Does your brand appeal to someone who is pioneering, audacious, courageous, fast-moving, adventurous and restless (e.g. an early adopter of new technology), or a powerful, authoritative, kind, generous pater familias type (CEO territory)?

If you are into that sort of thing, you may have spotted that these are Aries and Leo characteristics respectively.

We have laid this on you before, but many people have problems developing the needs/attitudes/values aspects of their brands.

Categorising your brand by the industry, or job title, or residential status of your target customers is not so hard. It does, however, take serious thought, and maybe some data mining, to really understand where your most profitable customers are to be found.

Identifying different situations or circumstances that will drive different purchasing behaviour is very difficult (we are talking about, for instance, supermarkets having a separate space for smokers to rush in and buy a packet of cigarettes, a boutique space for lunchers to grab a sandwich, a drink, and a newspaper, and a larger space to accomodate a full shopping trip).

Segmenting your brand by needs etc. can be informed by research, but requires a leap of faith and courage to deliver.

So, here is something to help you. Try the star signs.

If you go to the C J Winters site, you will see how they recommend using star signs to flesh out characters. We are talking about the same thing. You are trying to round out your brand that is a character in its own right.

If you pick just one astrological sign, say Aries, you are already addressing some 8% of the population, and maybe 8% of the world. We are not suggesting that star signs have anything to do with your future or your love life, but lots of people look at descriptions of their birth sign and recognise themselves. It may not be scientifically true; it is almost certainly psychologically insightful.

Even if you do not build any of these features into your brand, it might well make for a good warm-up exercise for the team to go through as you work on your brand.

• Belgium tel: +32 (0)2 747 0945
• France tel: +33 (0)1 76 63 74 09
• UK tel: +44 (0)208 099 7385

or by e-mail at enquiries@mudvalley.co.uk.

© 2006, Mud Valley ™ brand marketing community.

Related answers