Words, Shapes and Colors: Branding with Mark Ley
Mark Ley leading a branding and marketing workshop
By Noa Schachtel
Words, shapes and colors. At first glance, these three things seem like some of the simplest ideas that exist in the world. Even as a child, we learn to pronounce our first letters, begin to put shaped toys into their corresponding places, and develop a favorite color. But even though these concepts are some the first pieces of information humans learn, the question remains, do we ever truly understand what these ideas mean?
On day 3, Mark Ley, Director of Marketing for the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai, led a workshop that taught our founders about the importance of brand development and storytelling. Mr. Ley said, “What we worked on today was building a strong foundation of the elements that go in to brand creation. These elements that are going to help them make better design decisions about how they speak, how they communicate and how they ultimately connect with the customers they are going after”.
Mr. Ley explained the ‘art and science’ behind branding and marketing, giving our founders insights as to how to successfully connect with their customers. He emphasized how shapes, colors and words can be utilized in an artistic, yet purposeful way, to express the central values of a company. The way people perceive and connect with an enterprise relies solely on way the words are ordered, shapes are put together and colors are used. Additionally, founders learned how data science and quantitative values can not only provide users with facts, but also gives a company an understanding of what kind of connection people want.
Creating strong marketing material to grow a business takes more than simply putting together words, shapes and colors, and it takes more than just a simple aesthetic to convey a story. Understanding how to use these simple, yet iconic, devices and realizing what kind of feelings and messages these branding tools evoke is crucial to connecting customers with the startup’s passion. It is essential to build a strong emotional foundation, built on unique beliefs and strong attitudes, in order to truly connect with consumers. By imbedding a company’s true message within the logo and slogan, it builds a clear path between the consumer and our founders.