Category: Uncategorized

Fly a Kite helps organisations grow and diversify their audiences by building successful brand strategies. What does this mean?

When we talk about brand, we’re not talking about logos, graphic design, visual identity, flashy websites. These are surface-level manifestations of something far bigger. Brand is not owned by the marketing team – although this is the foundations so the marketing team will not succeed without a strong brand strategy

When we talk about brand we’re talking about

📌 Distinctiveness: How is your organisation different from others? What is your superpower and what makes you stand out from the crowd? 

📌 Storytelling  What stories can you tell to help people understand your brand, who you are and what you’re about? 

📌 Emotional connections It isn’t just what you do, it’s how you make people feel. Every interaction is a chance to make a powerful connection.

📌 Fandom Mattering builds an enthusiastic committed following. How do you feed self-identity, sense of belonging, inclusion and acceptance as part of a fan community?

📌 Promises and trust What promises do you communicate and can you be confident you’ll live up to them all of the time? How are you driving credibility in your consistency and excellence?

📌 Experiences How do you optimise not just your communications but your actions? Crafting memorable experiences that deliver on your promises and speak volumes about what you stand for? 

📌 Culture When you bring your A-game what qualities are on display? How do you make this consistent and support staff teams to bring more of these qualities more of the time? 

You may already have ‘values’ which is likely a list of positive adjectives – but how do you use them, what do they bring to the table on a day-to-day basis? An effective brand strategy will help you do all of these things and make it easy for everyone on your team to play their role, confident they’re making a difference and getting it right.

In a London arts building (for the purposes of this story let’s call it ‘Rambert’) there was a need for a sofa. It was for the kitchen area so team members could pause to spend a few quality moments together. Since the staff were to sit on it, it was decided they should choose its colour and a survey was sent inviting them to indicate 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice from a range of shades. It should be said the Rambert team have impeccable taste (@RambertWears on Insta, you’ll see) so everyone was up for a brilliant or daring hue to give the office a real pop of colour.

The sofa arrived. Its shade I could only describe as “nobody’s favourite blue”. Everyone had put an exciting colour top but no one had picked the same 1st or 2nd choice. So the world’s most boring sofa was duly procured. Don’t worry this isn’t a comment on the fragility of democracy. But it is a low-stakes example of what happens when you try to please all-comers.

Arts should be for everyone. But it doesn’t follow “my organisation is for everyone”. The minute we let go of the notion everyone could be into us, is liberating. And it’s empowering as you can set about unequivocally offering something really special. You can now send out unapologetic signals about who you are, what you stand for – inviting anyone who’s curious about this onto the ride. You can stand out and really pop for some people.

The arts environment is really tough right now so I get why it feels like we need every audience/ visitor we can get. But rather than being the blue sofa no one asked for, what if we were the absolute favourite for enough people, who would love us and become committed fans? Being a fan feeds self-identity, sense of belonging, inclusion and acceptance. The rewards for the object of fandom are an inclusive, enthusiastic, committed community whose affiliation with you is part of their social and personal identity. An audience motivated to participate and advocate your worth.

Achieving this is also a galvanising process for staff teams. It means bringing everyone together to figure out your super power, your role in the world, your cause, and why that matters. When you bring your A-game what qualities are on display? Then you can set about amplifying these qualities, bringing your A-game more and more of the time.

And actually it makes sense to consult audiences. But not to ask what colour your soft-furnishings should be – instead to test how you most effectively communicate the big idea in a way that resonates. Do the right people recognise the value you’re proposing from how you present it? What version of your invitation makes most sense?

I was reminded of the sofa by one of our inspiring clients, who readily embraced not being for everyone. They saw it could free them to deliver a particular brand of experience they could excel at – with real impact. They were excited to talk to audiences as a chance to see themselves through their eyes, without feeling a need to please every one of them.