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What started as a generic "coming soon" announcement post for my new Blog quickly turned into something more authentic and creative. I played with some design ideas for the blog banner, and as soon as I opted for the title "Loading...", an idea for a fun post popped into my mind, which will officially start off my writing journey. So, added value, here we go!

What's your top score on the Dino Game?

If you use Google Chrome, and if you ever lost the internet connection while doing so, you've probably encountered their little No Internet mascot, the running T-Rex. So my first question is - what's your top score on that? Mine is apparently 857, which is a clear testament to the fact that being a gamer is most likely not going to be my career choice at any point in the future. Better safe than sorry!

Now, you might be wondering what a running dinosaur score has to do with branding. Well, if you are in fact a gamer, then probably a lot more than I'll cover here, but to not go too much into one specific field of gaming, let me give you a more general overview and look into what the equivalent of the dino game could be for you and what it might actually do for your brand.

For a brand/product like Google Chrome, having a "no internet" issue might be a very unpleasant experience for a user, and as a consequence, it can potentially throw a bad light on the product itself. Although the actual thing to blame in that moment is the hardware that is allowing the connectivity, and not Google Chrome itself, people can still harbour feelings of bad experience towards Chrome. Not the best branding.

Here is where this is actually genius. Instead of letting the user go through a bad moment on their own, having nothing to do but complain about the issue and get frustrated, Google actually gave them something to make the reconnection time feel a bit shorter and fun, and with it, create a bearable user experience even while something supposedly unpleasant is happening. They shifted attention from frustration to fun. Much better branding.

Now, let's make this article fun, useful, and insightful for you as well.

Examine your brand and business for a moment. Go through it mentally from the perspective of a customer, take the steps that the customer would take from the first to the last moment of interacting with your brand or specific aspect of it. Are there any points where people might experience a moment of confusion, discomfort or something unpleasant, unclear?

For example if you have a physical store, and people need to wait in line to get in, that waiting can be an unpleasant experience, especially if you have bad weather conditions or a super long line, or simply a few people who are having a bad day. So the question here is - how can you lighten the mood in the line, can you make systems that will speed up the shortening of the line, can you give out free gifts to the people waiting in line, can you have someone interacting with people at the door making everyone feel included into a brand experience and making their time in the line pass faster? Or if it's a hot day, can you give them small portable fans that they can return (or not) upon their entrance, or maybe they "re-gift" it to another person in line, strengthening a sense of community and belonging? Basically, what can you do in a situation that can be potentially unpleasant and create a bad connotation of the brand to completely shift that experience into something fun, exciting, authentic, and comfortable and to create a whole host of positive associations with your brand and business?

Remember branding is all about people. Without the people, the audience, the fans, and the customers, the brand doesn't really exist. It doesn't have much power or strength. And so the first and most important thing to take care of is the people. So how can you cater to your audiences in a way that supports a positive attitude toward the brand? How can you make people "stand with you" and not against you? How can you amplify the experience of your brand in a way that makes people feel good at every touchpoint?

Another example interesting to look at could be the offering of online products or courses. Look at the process around the offer and buying experience; is the funnel clear, do people have any setbacks, or are they asking for specific information on certain steps repeatedly? What can you do to improve those parts? How can you offer more clarity or a more efficient way of delivering information? Or maybe people see a lot of similar offers from different brands online, and they struggle to decide which one to choose because they all seem to promise to help with a specific problem they are facing - in that case you need to go even deeper at identifying your unique values, points of strength, and authenticity and then translate that into the way you communicate. You need to find a way to originally stand out from the crowd and clearly point out (indirectly) why you would be a great choice and why what you do is different from the rest of the products on the market.

Find your spark, understand it, see its power and value, and then simply share it with the world - people will recognise it!

With that said, I will wrap up my first blog post, hoping I gave you some good thinking material that will help amplify your brand and business to the next level.

P.S.: Don't forget to drop your Dino Game score in the comments, I wanna see the real champs among you (also, I might need some professional training from you at one point).

Till the next read!

Teja Jereb