Aptly named the mirror technique this particular exercise implores affirmation aficionados to gaze intently into a mirror and repeat their carefully chosen positive pronouncements with gusto. Apparently the key to this exercise is to be able to deeply believe and adopt these statements as part of your everyday life.

It got some of us at McGill Buckley  to thinking, why not try the same thing with brand messaging? But, with a slight twist.

Our brand messaging version of the mirror technique would go something like this:

Stand in front of a mirror and repeat your core brand messages out loud with passion and deep conviction. Now, while still looking in the mirror imagine that these exact same messages are being delivered to a customer, prospect, colleague, business partner or supplier.

Now imagine their reaction. Would your brand messages resonate with them? Would they ring true to the brand experience you actually deliver? If not it’s time to back away from the mirror and take another look at your brand messages.

Ironically (but perhaps not) in the time we have been talking about the ever-escalating urgency of redoing our own website, we have produced a plethora of new websites for clients, friends and even some particularly demanding family members. We have also created a bunch of additional marketing, branding, design and advertising projects for others. We volunteered for our favourite causes. We took a trip or two. We watched the latest season of Dexter.

So, we’ve been busy. Or recuperating. Or procrastinating. But even those excuses and distractions became so very tired as we entered the last half of this year. So in the last couple of months we became obsessed with redoing our own website and the results of that unbridled zeal are now before your eyes. Thank you, Helen. Thank you, Les. We couldn’t have done it without you!

To put it simply, brand confusion is running wild these days with almost as many definitions of what branding is as there are brands. We witness brand uncertainty almost daily when speaking with clients, prospective clients, co-workers, business partners and colleagues.

To be fair to almost all involved, it is entirely understandable why so many people seem to be confused about branding because – branding is something with multiple layers and nuances. It can be difficult for many to wrap their head around the subject of branding.

Where we see people getting themselves into a pickle over branding is when they come at it from perilous perspectives. Here are a couple of the perilous perspectives we hear frequently:

Perilous Brand Perspective 1: We can redefine our brand with a new logo.

While of course your brand logo is important, in and of itself it will not define your brand. A brand logo is but a single element of what a brand represents. There are lots of great brands with mediocre logos and conversely there are scores of beautifully crafted, award-winning logos that are attached to mediocre brands.

 Perilous Brand Perspective 2: We get to determine what our brand means.

Unfortunately not quite true. While what a brand does, says, acts like and delivers in the way of products, services and benefits is critically important, it only influences what a brand is. Ultimately what other people outside the brand think about the brand is what truly determines the meaning and value of a brand. Scary stuff but that is the one of the stark realities of branding.

Have we managed to confuse you even more?

Now it is done.

After using our old logo for going on 15 years we found it deserving of a new lease on life and also felt that it needed to take into account a slate of logo applications that didn’t even exist in the late 1990s.

Social Media and a host of other newer logo applications and requirements come to mind.

As anyone who works in a creative agency knows, working on your own brand identity can be the most challenging project of all. Thankfully we managed to make it through virtually unscathed. Our sense of relief is palpable.