When people ask me what I do, I often reply with my title. But it’s really not what I do. If I can define myself in any way (besides the Batman of Brand Strategy), I would say I’m a “Bridge Builder”. So obviously, that opened up a can of worms.
The last 60 days I’ve been doing quite of mental research on definition and validation. As a father, one of my privileges is to help shape and mold the future of my three children. One of the things we parents have to do is help define our children. And one of the aspects of being a child is being validated for who you are and the choices you make. It’s art of the discovery process we all go though as people.
So how does this analogy fit into the form of expanding your brand reach? Well first we need to understand the basis of each term.
Definition- The act of making clear and distinct; the degree of clarity of which we look at something; the formal statement of the meaning or significance; the condition of being definite, distinct, or clearly outlined.
Validation- Substantiate; confirm; to give official sanction, confirmation, or approval to; To establish the soundness of; corroborate.
If you notice, one is establishing distinction and the other is giving confirmation.
As brand managers, we are constantly in competition with other brands in defining clarity and making sure the distinguishing features of that particular brand, product or service are made visible. Usually our validation comes in the form of purchase, increase advocate participation and increased awareness. In other words, validation comes in the form of numbers.
I would ask this though. Who are you looking to to define your brand? Who do you want to validate your brand? To give it sanction?
And how about this: Do you want your brand to be validated first and then defined? Numbers without some supporting definitive are just that: numbers.
Thoughts?
