I spent some time the other day with this woman. Yes, that's Vermont
tattooed on her shoulder. She doesn't work for the state. She's not
Miss Vermont. She works at a spa. In Vermont. She's from Vermont.
She skis, hikes, bikes, gardens, goes to community fairs and spends
her vacation time doing the same thing. In Alaska.
She plays.
This got me thinking about how we all market what we love. Our
tattooed friend, let's call her Lana, wants us to know that she loudly
and proudly IS Vermont and all that comes with that.
We all do it. We choose clothes that we feel most right in, we buy
cars that match our lifestyle, then slap on bumper stickers that
reflect our states of mind. We "like" things on Facebook. We get
tattoos.
We are in constant management of our own personal brands.
As a marketer, when you can get someone else to represent your brand
as part of their own, now that's cool.
We all know the importance of life balance, of how you spend your free
time. To Lana, play and place matters. She's figured out how to
announce that to the world. She probably has a gaggle of friends with
similar interests, some shared passion or common beliefs. And they all
spread the word in their own way. Now that's a passionate network of
believers. Getting accepted into this group should be the goal of any
brand.
So, how do you play? And how do you let the world know it?