• HUNGRY Feast
  • Posts
  • raving in Ibiza taught me 6 brand building lessons

raving in Ibiza taught me 6 brand building lessons

Author

Dan Pope
July 07, 2023

I hadn’t been back in 5 years.

Just enjoyed a week in Ibiza. Or Ee-Bee-Tha if you’re Spanish (or Scouse).

Ee-bee-tha works in both accents.

HANG. ON.

Just imagine a Spanish Scouser “uno momento our kiddo, me tengo Stevo Gerrado for Livo poolo”

As unoriginal as your Mum saying “Dinners ready” even though there’s fucking-fuck all on the table.

Ibiza is magical. So magical.

Our hotel: Destino.

A white castle jutting out the fun-drenched deep green, rusty golden orange hills.

Below the cliffs… .. a dark mystical blue sea… ..tooth-paste white yachts… oozed through the water…

..whilst ferocious little orange and yellow jet skis roared along the water like thunder.

Poolside.

The Spanish. So perfect. Skin beaming like fresh lemons, high cheek bones like New York sky scrappers, melting eyes like glistening chocolate swimming pools.

Perfect human beings, serenading through the sun-kissed hacienda like whipped ice cream.

Meanwhile. Next to me.

On shaded sun loungers.

Gaggle of galled Gollum-looking-Scoucers in North Face bucket hats. Souls tethered to Elf bar.

I nursed a club sandwich like a Lioness nurses her cub; feeding it ketchup and mayo.

Everyone grooved in the Balearic bliss.

I know what you’re thinking Ibiza? Brand building? Whaaaaaa?

Ssshhhhh you !

Grab yourself a strawberry daiquiri.

Here’s what I learnt.

1. Your brand is NOT packaging or logo or product.

PACHA. The Pacha cherries.

One of the most recognisable brands in the music world. Those gorgeous red cherries.

Cool mate… but what’s the lesson for challenger brands?

First,

YOUR BRAND IS NOT PACKAGING.

Second,

YOUR BRAND IS NOT LOGO.

Third,

YOUR BRAND IS NOT PRODUCT

Your brand is so, so much more.

I used believe a great brand is the trisector: logo + product + packaging.

Bollocks.

That’s meh brands -

Meh brand = logo + product + packaging.

Meh brands are like rocking up to a night club. Music quiet. DJ shite. Hardly busy. Only serve water. It’s ok. Not bad. Bit meh. Hardly remarkable.

Banging brands know a brand is SO SO MUCH more than logo + product + packaging

Banging brands = logo + product + packaging (+brand)

Banging brands are remarkable. 

What is (+brand) though?

And how do I find my (+brand) ?

(+brand) is hard to find and takes a shit load of work. Most wont do the work. It’s hard and painful and arduous. But if you do the work, you’ll be in a lane of one - as they say it’s lonely at the top.

(+brand)

Brand is a promise that you keep, consistently.

Brand is your best friend.

And feeling.

Brand is what people say about you, when you’re not in the room.

A vehicle for emotion.

The change you want to make in the world.

Tribe you seek to attract.

Purpose.

Mission.

Vision.

Thingy.

Brand is bigger than you.

Seth Godin hits it nail on the head:

“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”

“mostly, pick a logo, don’t spend a ton of money or have a lot of meetings about it, and keep it for as long as you keep your first name.”

Gymshark, Nike, Crosstown Doughnuts, Selfridges, Ralph Lauren. All know brand is much bigger than logo + product + packaging.

Quickly… feast your eyes on these gorgeous Pasha pictures. Took them whilst slurping ice cold orange water in the hotel reception.

They illustrate your brand is much bigger than a logo + packaging + product.

Even Stuart Forsyth from Minor Figures says, we don’t think like a brand, we think like a funk band.

How to find your + brand?

A collection of learnings and exercises from all our podcast guests. Ask these to yourself and your team.

  • If your brand were a hotel, where would it be? what would it feel like?

  • What’s a typical Friday night for your brand?

  • Who’s your brand’s best friend? How does your brand speak?

  • Sum up your brand purpose in 8 words?

  • If your brand invited 3 guests to a dinner party who would they be and why?

2. Find out who you are do it on purpose - Dolly Parton

Alex Smith - strategy sensei - came on the podcast (not like that) - he taught me a quote I love.

“Find out who you are do it on purpose” - Dolly Parton

I was stomping away my little size 7, under the flooding Amnesia lights.

Two DJ’s.

Carola sits there, relaxed, nonchalant, hardly moving - thumping out thumpers. It works.

Jones dances and moves like a possessed woodpecker - slinging out tunes. It works.

If Carola tried to be like Jones. Weird. Inauthentic. Doesn’t work.

If Jones tried to be like Carola. Weird, inauthentic. Doesn’t work.

Our job as a founder and brand is simple. Find out who you are. Do it on purpose.

3. Be a small business of one.

DJ’s are the best small business of one. So are writers. Singers.

Food and drink brands can be small and beautiful. Enjoy having a small team and actually making a profit.

Big often doesn’t translate to profit. Big isn’t beautiful.

If you’re a one, two or three man band enjoy it.

Be the best small business of one.

4. Techno is just constant reinvention. Your brand must reinvent.

  • Becoming a great DJ doesn’t happen overnight.

  • Becoming a great Brand doesn’t happen overnight.

But once you do, you must reinvent.

House and techno all starts with learning foundational principles. (“Yeh I like know this, cuz like, yeh, like my mate is like a DJ - yup… sorry I’m one of those bozzas).

It takes a long-long-long-long time to get these principles down.

Once DJ’s know these principles.

They constantly iterate, break, rebuild, reinvent to stay fresh and different. To keep their audience guessing and dancing all night long.

And, just like DJing, building a brand takes time.

But once you’ve got your principles down i.e. nailed brand + product + logo + packaging.

Don’t get complacent. Comfort is the birth place of stale. Reinvent to stay fresh.

5. If a song (or idea) works. Quad down.

I’m loving it.

Just Do It.

Think Different.

If it works. Don’t change it. If an activation idea works., don’t change it. Do more of it.

It’s the same with DJ’s playing. If they find a song that works. Keep playing it.

As they say: “The best marketing idea is the one your bored of.”

Am obsessed with this right now, A.N.T.O.R - Relax My Eyes

6. Tony Pikes, Legend of Ibiza, Pike’s Hotel.

Tony Pikes.

The wild, irreverent, hedonistic, arguably founding Father of Ibiza.

  • Notoriously hosted Freddie Mercury’s infamous birthday party.

  • Pikes is where they filmed WHAM!’s Club Tropicana.

  • Thrown parties with Grace Jones, Liam Gallagher and many, many more.

Tony Pikes is like you and me.

A founder.

A Brand builder.

Some quotes, that made me laugh and inspired me (my comments in bold)

  • “I used to have fantasies, but not any more, I’ve done them all” - dream bigger.

  • “You can check in, but you can never, check out” - what it feels like building a brand. always on. all the time. you can never check out, so enjoy it.

  • “No one has ever helped me, only me. I'm my own god” - you’re the master of your own kingdom. No excuses. Or entitlement. Just work.

PLEEEEEASEEEEEEE if you enjoy this newsletter, get value from it, pleaseeeeeee share with a friend or foe - you’d really make my weekend.

Popey x