What Branding Lessons Back in College Taught Me (Plus Reintroducing This Blog!)




As an advertising graduate, one of the key lessons that was reiterated throughout my 4 years of college is how branding is the core of everything. Without a proper branding, everything will just go haywire.

From simple classroom reports to big-time thesis defenses, all the campaigns we proposed started with a brand core which basically speaks about who they are as a brand. Under it comes all sorts of other technical things like who they are talking to and what message they want to relay.





Fast forward to a few months later after graduation, I started working as a web copywriter for hotels. Things were pretty good at first until it came to a point where I asked the necessary questions.

Who are you as a hotel?

 Who do you target?

 What unique features do you have that cater to who you are as a brand and your audience?

 What's that one intangible thing you're selling?

 Suddenly, I started getting answers from clients like this:

(Who are you as a hotel?) a city hotel
(Who do you target?) business and leisure
(What unique features do you have that cater to who you are as a brand and your audience?) rooms and facilities
(What's that one intangible thing you're selling?) *cricket sound*

Okay, we get it. We want awesome sales that's why we mostly target everyone. While this is probably the most ideal thing to aspire for, at the end of the day, who are we talking to? Who would really hear our message the most? As a copywriter (and a former advertising student trained to handle accounts), I was having a hard time working with those answers. I was having a hard time creating a nice message for our clients.

On the company's side, the term "branding" is all about logo, pictures, color schemes, and layouts. Though these are important aspects of branding as well, there's another crucial thing missing:

 THE BRAND ESSENCE
(also known as the core of the brand - the heart, the entire being)

 Think of your brand as a person. You can't be everyone all at the same time. Probably bits and pieces of everyone else make up who you are, but you can't be fully everyone.

Okay, let's look at it this way.

Say for example, you love sports above all things. Would you attend an event that talks about forex rates, spoken word poetry, an in-depth discussion on why Pluto should be a planet, gardening, and how to write in Japanese? I'm pretty sure you wouldn't, because none of it serves your primary interest.

As a person, we have our own hobbies and interests. There are topics that dull out the noise of everything else and make us focus on that. There are certain aspects that make up who we are which end up guiding our paths in life.

Same goes for a brand. You have to have that identity or else you'd spend (waste?) years and years of throwing things out there without hitting the right minds.

And that's where my rebrand comes in.


The new initiatives to rebrand this website from Why Pau Writes is to finally put better things in motion. I used to be that type of blogger who would just blog anything and everything under the sun in hopes that my page rankings would spike up and people can help my numbers grow. While it did help my pageviews, at the end of the day, those were just views. Numbers. Statistics. Data.

Now, through the help of Arriane Serafico's free e-course, let me reintroduce to you this blog.


Pau Pursues Passion is now a blog that goes beyond writing about the things I love to write about. While "writing about the things I love to write about" used to sound like a clearer direction (I know, right? What state of mind was I in?) I eventually came to terms (after 2 months!) that it wasn't. Now, though it's still a personal blog which can still go haywire in the next months or so, I just want it to be a blog about this young professional creative who tries her best to thrive in the real world. You know how others would be all like, "quit your day job and pursue your dreams"? Well, here, Pau Pursues Passion while keeping a day job. Hopefully I won't fail this so that this can also inspire other creatives out there to keep on creating despite the reality of life.

So, to answer my usual questions for hotels, here is how I have my branding so far:

Who is Pau Pursues Passion as a blog?

Pau Pursues Passion is an online platform of a young professional who is simultaneously a creative soul. Here, she will be posting about her own creative journey while thriving in a corporate world.

Who does it target?

Young creatives who feel lost and hopeless with their creative dreams. I want them to think that if one person can do it without sacrificing her career, then they can, too. 

What unique features do you have that cater to who you are as a brand and your audience?

I provide something realistic. This blog contains actual experiences, both the ups and downs of the journey. 

What's that one intangible thing you're selling?

Hope and perseverance. I want to be this yuppie who won't go and say, "drop everything and pursue your dreams!" I want to be this millennial who won't sound self-entitled to say that you should pursue your passions instead because yes, they may make us happy, but they can't instantly sustain us. So, until then, let's thrive in the real world while not forgetting the things that make us whole. <3 

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So... that's about it!

How are your passion pursuits going? 

Keep creating,
Pau 

1 comments

Let me know what you think about this!