Play the word association game with your brand

If I say, 'Las Vegas', what comes to mind?

If you said gambling, casinos, the strip, Wayne Newton or Siegfried & Roy, you're in good company with the majority of folks (although when I asked one client, she responded "a new purse"!). While the Las Vegas brand is much more than these responses, they provide a strong indication of the city's position as a destination for fun, entertainment and excitement for adults. What happens in Vegas...

Now, can you describe the official logo for Las Vegas? No? The vast majority of people aren't aware of it, but you can see it at the top of this page: www.visitlasvegas.com. So after seeing the logo, tell me, how much did the logo influence the descriptions you came up with when you played the word association game? I'd bet the house that it's most likely not at all.

Often, when we talk to people about their brand, they think we mean their logo, their slogan, their colour scheme. Sure, those items all represent the brand, but they are not the brand. The word association game provides a closer description of the brand. At a recent conference, I heard Arlene Dickinson of CBC TV’s The Dragon’s Den define a brand succinctly as “Your organization as experienced by others”. That definition works for me.

So for Las Vegas, the brand could be shaped by past visits there, stories heard from a friend's visit, experiencing the city as a backdrop in movies or TV shows, seeing advertisements, reading articles, visiting their website, and on and on.

When you think about your brand, in what ways are your customers, employees or other stakeholders experiencing your organization? How are they treated when they call on the phone? What type of atmosphere do you have in your workspace? How are you handling complaints? All of these elements, and many more, shape the perception of your organization and form your brand.

So if you asked your customers or your employees to play the word association game with your organization, what would they say? Ask them...you may be enlightened with the results.