We are All Branded: How’s Yours?

Did you know everyone has a brand, regardless of if they have intentionally crafted one? I hadn’t thought about it this way until I listened to Andrew B. Clark at our branding workshop, but we all carry around our own mini brands. Everything we outwardly portray–our clothes, Facebook updates, friends, farming practices and food choices–all contribute to our own personal brand. How’s your brand?

Workshop attendees learned a lot about the strength of their farm branding. Andrew has developed a TRUE branding process that helps companies assess if their brand is working the right way for them.

Andrew explained:  “Branding’s a UNIQUE mark on “your cow” differentiating it from “all the other cattle on the range,” even if they look pretty much alike.” During the workshop he walked through how to assess if a brand is Truthful, Relevant, Unique, and Engaging. He provided workbooks for attendees to further explore their brand. Catch of glimpse of his  presentation (and some fantastic quotations) here: http://createwowmarketing.com/true-branding-and-social-media-101/.

With support from the Ceres Foundation, Practical Farmers of Iowa is able to provide ten fruit and vegetable farmers with $1000 of branding services. Andrew also donated $1000 for a farmer to receive further branding work, so 11 farmers are currently working with Andrew to evaluate and improve branding power for their farms. We will unveil the work they accomplished in late May or early June.