Put a Face to Your Brand

I’m really impressed with this project featuring Bigelow Tea president Cindi Bigelow asking people on the streets of New York who drinks Bigelow tea. Take a look for yourself:

There are plenty of people helping the Bigelows with the effort, including two PodCamp alum, Justin Kownacki and John Carman, to name a few. They’ve done a great job of putting the Bigelows forward, and giving the brand a face. It’s a great project, and I’m hopeful that other brands check it out as a potential idea for their own B2C marketing.

Sometimes the face of a brand is a fictional character, and before you scoff at that in this age of transparency, think again about Colonel Tribune, the Chicago Tribune’s representative, who has parties thrown for him all around Chicago, even though he doesn’t seem to show up to many.

Would it hurt or help to have a face on your brand? I bet Cindi Bigelow can answer that.

Related posts:

  1. Slicing Time in a Face to Face Environment
  2. Develop a Strong Personal Brand Online Part 1
  3. The Tricky Path of Brand Relationships
  4. Connecting Brand to Consistency
  5. Develop a Strong Personal Brand Online – Part 2

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  • http://www.karenmccullough.com Karen McCullough

    Brilliant and so simple. I drink tea- now Bigelow has not only a face but a personality. Cindi made the connection and it is a great idea. Thanks for finding this Chris. Cindi made Bigelow real and I made the connection to her and the produce and grandma Bigelow. I loved the idea that they did not make it slick or edit out the folks that either don’t drink tea or who never heard of Bigelow. I think I’ll have a cup of tea.

  • http://www.socialmedia-academy.com Axel Schultze

    Chris, isn’t it fascinating to watch the dynamic of this post?
    You asked a valid question and only Danny Brown tried to answer. The following comments ignored him and kept just pushing out their impression. :-)

    Anyway. A few years back Dell hired a young actor for an add campaign in Germany – it was the most successful ad campaign for Dell – ever. The actor wanted more money – couldn’t agree – actor out – advertising flopped – sales went down. Boom.
    Another example is Chuck Schwab. Company depressed, Chuck came back (like Dany’s example with Apple) – business up again. Or: We all know the young fellow “can you hear me – can you hear me now”.
    Risk and reward are certainly much greater than keeping it “normal” – but normal is sooooo boring – so hey, take the risk – and know what the risk is.

    @AxelS

  • http://www.socialmedia-academy.com Axel Schultze

    Chris, isn’t it fascinating to watch the dynamic of this post?
    You asked a valid question and only Danny Brown tried to answer. The following comments ignored him and kept just pushing out their impression. :-)

    Anyway. A few years back Dell hired a young actor for an add campaign in Germany – it was the most successful ad campaign for Dell – ever. The actor wanted more money – couldn’t agree – actor out – advertising flopped – sales went down. Boom.
    Another example is Chuck Schwab. Company depressed, Chuck came back (like Dany’s example with Apple) – business up again. Or: We all know the young fellow “can you hear me – can you hear me now”.
    Risk and reward are certainly much greater than keeping it “normal” – but normal is sooooo boring – so hey, take the risk – and know what the risk is.

    @AxelS

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  • http://www.mynoevirbiz.com/marlee marlee huber

    Oh my–I will never look at Bigelow again as just another tea! i will see Cindy Bigelow and I will think of those 330 families she keeps employed!

  • http://www.mynoevirbiz.com/marlee marlee huber

    Oh my–I will never look at Bigelow again as just another tea! i will see Cindy Bigelow and I will think of those 330 families she keeps employed!

  • http://projectdiaspora.org Tracy

    You know what Axel? Good point, most of us did not answer the question. Realistically the answer is both. Cindi is clearly an asset to her company in terms of branding but not all company heads are. Dan Hesse and Sprint are getting diddly squat out of his attempt to be part of the brand. In some cases it can be a huge negative. Especially when a brilliant business man or women is not an out going or warm personality. What it takes to run a successful business and what it takes to be the face of a brand are two different things, and not everyone has both qualities. John Paul DiJoria of Paul Mitchell is a HUGE personality in the industry and carefully leveraged the name of his now deceased partner Paul Mitchell so that it is unclear who the original brand face was… and nobody really cares. What we are talking about here is a cult of personality… and they last as long as the personality does… and as long as nobody gets bored or offended. So is it a risk? Yes. Can it work well for some? Yes. Most of the time though… leave it to folks who are good at that sort of thing. The reason it is so nice to see this video is we seem to have a rare combination of a savvy business person who is willing and able to portray warmth and personality and openness. It is rare, but when you’ve got it , why not take advantage of it?

  • http://projectdiaspora.org Tracy

    You know what Axel? Good point, most of us did not answer the question. Realistically the answer is both. Cindi is clearly an asset to her company in terms of branding but not all company heads are. Dan Hesse and Sprint are getting diddly squat out of his attempt to be part of the brand. In some cases it can be a huge negative. Especially when a brilliant business man or women is not an out going or warm personality. What it takes to run a successful business and what it takes to be the face of a brand are two different things, and not everyone has both qualities. John Paul DiJoria of Paul Mitchell is a HUGE personality in the industry and carefully leveraged the name of his now deceased partner Paul Mitchell so that it is unclear who the original brand face was… and nobody really cares. What we are talking about here is a cult of personality… and they last as long as the personality does… and as long as nobody gets bored or offended. So is it a risk? Yes. Can it work well for some? Yes. Most of the time though… leave it to folks who are good at that sort of thing. The reason it is so nice to see this video is we seem to have a rare combination of a savvy business person who is willing and able to portray warmth and personality and openness. It is rare, but when you’ve got it , why not take advantage of it?

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  • http://www.bloomingteasite.com Flowers Tea

    Wow, pretty amazing. I think I have to try Bigelow tea because of what the company has done to the community, very impressive.