On the ‘Old Boys’ LifeXchange camp this weekend we spent most of our sit-down sessions brainstorming “Branding”. We wanted to try find solutions from within, from ‘the horses mouth’ so to speak, as well as learn what the expectations are as LifeXchange members. The outcome was very interesting! After discussing what they felt or thought when seeing brandnames like Nike, Coca-cola we asked them what they felt and thought when they saw the LifeXchange brand. And this is what they said…..
From the inside LifeXchange members want to see:
LifeXchange become financially stable,
To have a LifeXchange office/house where they as members can come “hang out”, play pool, play games, have their classes and for it to be ‘their space’,
They want membership to be exclusive and not just for everybody,
They want to feel LifeXchange pride in who they are and what the brand means,
They want to “stand out” from the rest.
From the outside LifeXchange members want the public to see:
Members of LifeXchange having bright futures,
Members that are well disciplined, educated and trustworthy,
Members that have good leadership skills and are talented, but that’s not all.....
Lastly, we spoke about the publicity of the lives of our ‘youth-at-risk’. We discussed how if a person has reached point “B” and has become a world renowned artist, has travelled the world and has his own studio, it’s an interesting read, but that it only brings value when you talk about point “A” - where he was when he started - sitting on the street corner, unable to read or write or tell one day apart from the next because of his drugged-up stupor! Only then does the story of point “B” become alive; extraordinary, amazing, outstanding, significant, noteworthy, astounding, remarkable, incredible, astonishing…..all the possible words you can think of to describe the life change that has happened.
Because of this, it becomes appropriate to speak of point “A” (with consent) even when that person is still AT point “A”. But, only because we have seen that point “B” is possible, through the success of other members, and so this becomes a story that the public can read and hear about, they can follow their journey and give support knowing that point “A” will reach point “B”
Have we started tapping into our solution to the “Branding” issue?
2 comments:
Reading the first part of your post and thinking about the pride the boys take in themselves, i began to wander where exactly they had come from because the boys I see playing Frisbee are don't at all seem to be "youths at risk"! They are friendly, polite, respectful, confident and deeply committed to the game...they are my new friends. Then I got to second part of your post and I remember that they DO have a "point A" but what's hugely apparent is that the are well and truly on their way to "point B " and the journey looks like a whole lotta fun!!! Maryanne
Hi Maryanne,
Thanks so much for your comment. It is encouraging to see that we are on the right track because from how you see the LifeXchange guys ties in to exactly what they have expressed they would like to be seen as by the public.
The journey IS a whole lot of fun! Thanks for being part of it!
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