Day One - The Power of Branding - What's PICA's Brand?

Here is a summary and application of the branding session with John Males, as told by vice chairman, Patrick:

I think this post might be a great way to get some interaction going with members while also serving as a recap of "The Power of Branding" presentation from John Males of Fathom Corporate Training. We were fortunate that John also brought along his lovely wife, Elena, who provided additional insight to the presentation.

I was personally interested in what John had to say to see how it related to the rebranding process my company, Grange Insurance, recently went through. It was also a nice "take back" to the office, knowing that we had independent confirmation that we did a good job.

We began by looking at some well-known brands and thinking about what they represented. The underlying idea, though, was to also think about the brand of each of our own companies and try to see how they stood up. And if I've heard it once in the past six months I've heard it a thousand times, and that's the idea that "a brand is not just a logo." John also joined in that refrain, adding it's also not just colors, tag lines, fonts or templates.

A strong brand communicates very well both internally with associates or members, and externally with customers. In essence, a brand is a reflection of who you are and what you stand for.

This is where I'd like to see some input from you in the comments section: What is the PICA brand? Who do you think we are, and what do we stand for as insurance communicators? Do we need to better develop our brand and, if so, would that be an exercise that we could undertake at our next workshop in Honolulu? (Just seeing if you were paying attention - we won't be going to Hawaii anytime soon.)

If you attended the workshop, could you take a few minutes to review John's presentation and see how it applies to PICA? Or, in lieu of that, anyone should be able to answer the questions above. Whether or not you can convince your company to go through a branding exercise, I think we can all benefit by doing it ourselves with an organization that we care about. What makes PICA special? How are those who aren't members missing out? How can we attract new members to the organizatioin?

That's what I want to know, along with your thoughts about doing a PICA branding exercise next year. I look forward to some good feedback!

-Patrick