Nobody Promised Brand Birth Would Be Easy.

My clients have been accustomed to a much shorter branding gestation period. A more compressed discovery. A quicker timeline to establish the “pillars of the brand.” And, then, unveiling a new brand!

Generally speaking, brands take longer to develop – whether it’s Federal Express or a Pepsi refresh.

Anyway, I’m in my backyard, posing for pictures taken by my generous friend, Tom (another crazy marketing guy), so I can hurriedly cobble together a brand for my newly-created marketing consultancy, CDMKTG.

Its first incarnation was based on a tagline from my Blog: Your Brand Goes Here. I designed the card myself and quickly took it to press. One of those business card services that offers 250 for $10. Of course, since I had designed a custom piece, that price didn’t last beyond two clicks.

But, it got me out of the gate and into the hands of prospects as my “identity.” Of course, like all brands – and all incessantly tinkering brand creators – it wouldn’t come to a full stop there.

I was itching to give my brand broader bandwidth. Social media was the shiniest highway and I believed I could better empower my brand there. Interestingly enough, it was the exercise of filling-out my profile for a self-branding site that really focused my thinking. I came to a section called Accomplishments. It asked a very simple question: What have you done that would set you apart? Of course, this is a question I had asked clients many times. But, I had not really taken the time to ask myself.

That relatively simple question lit the fuse. I grabbed a legal pad and plunged into a deeper self-discovery, taking stock of what I had done; not just in my recent past, but throughout my career. What were the ideas and strategies that had leapt from my cranium that with heart pounding and lips dry I had dared to take all the way to the finish line?

As the remembrances kept coming, I was astonished how many campaigns, strategies, special events I had pushed so far back in order to keep my attention riveted on the future.

From that list came an idea: What if I could create an online persona who could re-enact those unique marketing moments? He’d be me, but in another dimension. Thus, my stick figure alter-ego (I later named Stick E. Brands) was born. I imagined he’d live in short, animated videos (some as short as seven seconds). Stick E. could boldly tell these stories.

This forced me to think about not only about the message in the videos, but also contemplate what would become the essence of my brand. The brand statement was: I had travelled a winding road of creative situations. Each situation required its own distinctive solution. Some edgy. Others outlandish. Often hard to sell. But, through commitment and the collaboration of a lot of very talented people, the ideas prevailed and succeeded. Thrilling? YES.

So, here, almost two years later, CDMKTG – Road-tested for YES! has arrived.

It didn’t come from the heavens astride a lightning bolt, wake me up at 1 a.m. or cause me to shout “Eureka” in the bath. But, as a brand, it manages to closely represent the soul and veracity I was after.

Now, I can hardly wait to see where Stick E. and his continuous evolution will take us next!