I read a press release from Ipsos yesterday entitled: "Anticipation Building as Vancouver Canucks Look to Become 'Canada’s Team'".
The opening lines of the release were as follows:
The puck is about to drop for the first game of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals and it appears that most Canadians are cheering for the Vancouver Canucks. In fact, close to two thirds of Canadians (62%) are hoping that the Vancouver Canucks will be the first Canadian team since 1993 to bring the Stanley Cup home.
This struck me as interesting because I know for a fact that many of the people in that group of 62% are actually die hard fans of The Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens or the Ottawa Senators.
However, now that those teams are no longer in contention, people are choosing a new team to cheer for - something else to be a fan of - and they are doing it on the basis of a secondary uniting factor for all of them…they want to cheer for another Canadian team.
It's that passion that we look for when building a brand for a client.
What is it that people rally around? If you can find that out, you have the most powerful tool in your arsenal that you could possibly have. Many organizations get too caught up in worrying about what they are all about and not worrying about what it is that the people they serve want/need. Find those passions within your audience and then execute with excellence in serving them. If you do that, you might find yourself with the better part of a country cheering for you.
