The Brand Bible

Do you have one? If not, better get started.

What needs to be in your brand bible is everything that someone would need to understand in order to fall in love with your brand. It's different to the brand guidelines (although it will include them) since the purpose is to communicate everything about your brand. It's the go to document when anyone has a question.

In the bible list everything that has to do with your brand. Here's a list of essentials:

• Vision
• Mission
• Goals
• Founding story
• Brand story
• Values
• What you stand for
• Purpose
• Enemies
• Friends
• Biggest achievements
• Aesthetic/design guidelines
• Archetype
• Tone of voice
• How you approach customers
• How you deal with customers

This list can go on and is definitely not exhaustive. Just put in there anything about your brand that you come across and others should know. Then give it to your partner/colleague/employee and ask them to review and make comments.

When someone joins your team, just give them the bible to read and then have an inspiring induction. That should put them on the right path.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

What Does Your Gut Think?

You and your team are the most valuable assets of your brand. Even though you need to do a lot of research, testing and work, you need to remember to listen to your gut feelings.

Your gut is what will keep you passionate and in love with your brand. If that passion dies then you will be in trouble. People want to buy from you and what you represent, they don't care if you have followed all the rules and guides. They want to be able to connect with you and understand what you stand for.

Build your brand and listen to your gut, it knows what's right for you. If people are opposing to your views and ideas, then maybe you are speaking to the wrong people. Make sure that you love what you do and find the people that are like you.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

Fandom

Last Saturday I was at an amazing gig of one of my favourite bands. They started small in California 17 years ago, they never did any usual promotion (MTV and the others) and now they almost filled the Wembley Arena! To put this in proportion, that's where the likes of Madonna and Sting perform. How does a metal band do that?

They have devoted fans. They are doing something that they love and they do it for their fans. I've started experiencing this last week with my side project CPU Wars. When you start building a fan base, it quickly becomes a community. That community not only loves what you do, they'll also do as much as possible to help you succeed.

Whatever you are doing, you should be doing it for your fans.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

Are You in Love?

This post is a result of a discussion I had with Katerina during the weekend at STARTup live Athens. It turns out that was also the topic of her talk at the end of the event.

What brought up this topic was the approach someone had taken with his project. He had worked on it for a long time, had not made any commercial progress and just wanted to finish it and sell it. My immediate response was that he would fail. Why? Because there was no longer any love.

If you are going to start something from scratch and make it a success, just dedication and perspiration will not cut it. You need to be in love with what you are doing. If you are not, when everything starts failing and you reach a critical point, you will quit. It's only love to what you do that can keep you going when everything else has failed.

If you are in love with what you are doing, then awesome! If not, then you probably need to take some time off and reconsider things.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

Where's the Love

Starting up can give you a feeling of great seclusion. You spend your days and nights working on your big idea without seeing a lot of result and you start to feel unnoticed.

I was talking with a friend the other day about the difficulties of starting up and he was telling me how he felt unloved at the beginning. It's true, you give it your best and you might not see the return you were expecting. 

Here are some things that I think can help if you are in that situation:

• Spend time with your loved ones. Ask them for their support and spend valuable time with them.
• Connect with people that are in the same position like you. They feel your pain and can help you through it.
• Find a mentor. Someone that can keep you on the right track and ask the right questions.
• Speak to your friends. Don't just talk superficially about things, tell them your worries and get their opinion.
• Read stuff that will give you support. You can find support in books, blogs, magazines and I hope this blog will also help (obvious plug...)
• Don't give up. Keep doing what you love and helping people. They will see how much you care and they will return the favour, trust me.

Whatever you do, don't let it get you down. Keep on doing your work, even when it feels like you are not being loved. You can work through anything with the right support and in the end you will start seeing returns.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis