Branding your ideas

Unless you work with branding, you probably don't think about it much on your day to day.

You leave it to the "marketing people".

But if your work with ideas, there's one type of branding that you should master: branding your ideas.

"Idea branding" is one of the most effective ways to make an impact at work (and thus, build your career). It's the method through which you'll make your ideas stick and spread.

Entire careers have been built on one good idea that was well branded.

The Pyramid Principle. The BCG Matrix. SPIN Selling. "Sprints" and "Scrums".

These ideas are good, but what makes me confident every reader of this newsletter has heard of at least a few of them (so I can use them as examples here) is that they were well branded.

Sure, these are famous ones – they've been published. (And generated millions of dollars in consulting fees, talks, seminars, etc.)

But even if you don't publish your ideas, you can still leverage your career by branding your ideas effectively. Inside every company I've ever worked with there are ideas that spread and were created and branded by people just like you.

And these people get "famous" within those companies.

Not necessarily because they have better ideas than everyone else, but becase their (good) ideas can spread like wildfire.

It's easier to remember a well-branded idea, but most importantly, it's easier to communicate them. Instead of having to explain the whole concept every time you want to talk about that idea (which takes a few minutes), you can just use the highly synthesized "brand" to communicate it (which takes a few seconds).

I brand my ideas all the time in this newsletter.

In fact, I also brand your ideas here – most of the tips I share are tips that a reader just like you has sent my way and that I've slapped some branding on top to make it catchy.

(And this is probably why you still remember many of the tips I shared here – hopefully moreso than the tips you find elsewhere.)

Today, I'll share some of the secret sauce.

My 4 go-to techniques for Idea Branding

There are four major techniques I use for branding ideas.

These are also the techniques I see others using.

Here they are:

Technique #1: Creating analogies

If you've read our issue on the Firefighter and the Engineer, you know what I'm talking about.

The one on being like a Chicken, not a Duck follows the same pattern.

You want a concept to spread, but it's kinda hard to explain it?

Find a useful analogy. Specifically, one that gets the other person's interest merely by hearing about it, and that is close enough to the concept you want to convey to make the point across.

Technique #2: Personification

Say there's a pattern of behaviour you want people to avoid.

You can tell a story about a fictional (or not so fictional) person (let's call them Mike) that does is the stereotype of the behavior, showing that it leads to bad places.

Then, finish that with something like "Don't be like Mike".

You tell the story once, then from then on all you need is to repeat the mantra: "Don't be like Mike".

These ones spread well because no one likes to look dumb.

I suspect the "midwit" meme spread so much online because of this same effect:

No one wants to be the midwit, so the idea becomes more persuasive.

Technique #3: Naming the concept

If you can give a catchy name to a concept, that's also a sure way to brand your ideas well.

I've done it a few times in this newsletter as well – and you might remember these issues better than others: the Brag Doc, the Detractor-Supporter Technique.

By giving it a name, you make the concept tangible. You make it easy to communicate with a couple words. In a way, you make it more real – it's something that exists. It has its own name, after all.

Technique #4: Create a (visual) framework

If your concept is a bit more complex, you might want to create a framework for it.

And, of course, give it a name.

The more visual the framework, the better.

The BCG Matrix isn't just a 2x2 matrix. It also has a dog, and a cow, and a star on it. It may sound silly, but it makes it memorable.

Your framework doesn't have to be complex. In fact, if you want it to spread, it should be simple. A simple pyramid, 2x2 matrix, a cycle with some arrows in it.

What will help its branding is for it to have a name, for its parts to have catchy names as well. And something visual, like icons, colors, pictures, etc.

Most of us have good ideas (of concepts, processes, techniques) that wouuld make a bigger impact if they caught on.

Maybe you want those to spread to your team, catch on with the leadership or even with your clients.

Perhaps you even want to get credit for these ideas.

If so, give it a try and brand it. It usually takes just 5-10 minutes and most people don't do that even with their best ideas.

It's one of the easiest ways to work smarter.

-Bruno