Let ‘Em Cook: Think Like a Chef to Build a Better Brand
The slang phrase “Let ’em cook” means to allow someone to do what they do well. It can also be an expression of the desire for someone to have the freedom to do something.
I enjoy cooking, and I do most of the cooking for my family. Before I cook, I often gather all the individual ingredients for the dish I’m making, but these individual ingredients don’t make a dish until I have thoughtfully and intentionally combined them in a harmonious way. I’ve got to think of the ingredients as part of a system. The sum is greater than the parts.
There is an order and process that yields a favorable outcome, namely, a satisfied family. I must also consider any side items or other accompaniments, as well as how the final will be plated/presented and most easily received by the people eating it. My toddler needs to be able to eat what his parents eat, and his bowl/plate and silverware are right-sized for him. When I’m cooking, my goal is to deliver an expression and experience that builds trust and creates a favorable impression for the recipient.
What does all this have to do with branding? You need to think of your brand like a chef thinks about making a dish. Your brand is not the individual elements that make it up, it is the harmonious blending together of these elements together to make something that is more complex and more compelling. Right now, in our rapidly-shifting, digital-first economy, it is more important than ever for small business owners to think of their brands as a system. Businesses that compartmentalize their brands and do not think of them holistically will fall behind.
In seeking to build a brand, we aim to turn strategy into design into a system that feels cohesive, clear, and consistent. In other words, we want to turn ingredients and a recipe into a dish that is served as part of a meal. Just as each ingredient is unique and adds to the final result, each element of your brand strategy and identity is distinct and must be put together in a way that forms an inspirational new whole.
When I sit down to cook, I have an idea in mind of what I want to create and what the end result should look like. The same applies to the creative process of brand building, although there is more variance in the process. There is in one sense a recipe that I want to follow, which we illuminate below. If our goal is to come out with a system, what are some approaches and considerations that will allow us to do that? Here are a few key things that you must consider.
Plan, preparation and process
You can’t just have or create the pieces, you’ve got to know what you are doing with them, moreover, what they are doing together. My first job was working in a restaurant kitchen and I used to sometimes come in early to prep ingredients for use later in the day or week. Before you go throwing the individual pieces into the pot, it’s helpful to have everything laid out. You need to mix and measure ingredients, so you have the right amount of each thing you need.
The ingredients of a brand are visual and verbal elements like Logo, Colors, Typography, Core Values, Brand Personality and Voice and more.: These things are typically included, but how much they will be used–a sprinkle or a cup–and how much they influence the end result requires planning and foresight. We begin our branding projects with a discovery phase, where we conduct a brand audit.
Rules and Recipe
When you understand what is needed, you can put your “ingredients” together in a way that showcases creativity, but you must follow certain rules. We create brand guidelines to ensure that the results work as intended and that consistency continues as the brand evolves. In cooking, there are certain rules that must be adhered to because they will render the dish inedible. Brand standards and guidelines function like a recipe, working to ensure consistency and clarity across mediums and usage of how the elements work together.
A Chef’s Creativity
An element not to be overlooked is the skill and experience of the chef who is cooking. What can elevate a dish from passable to praiseworthy is the right combination of experience and just a special, innate sense of what elements bring a dish together. Most chefs develop over time some kind of signature–perhaps a technical flourish or flavor profile–something that adds a uniqueness to their process and product. Something similar often happens with branding and helps set a brand apart.
Plating & Presentation – Looking Good and Creating a Good Impression
It is said that we eat with our eyes. That is often the case with brands, we consume them most often with our eyes, but we also use other senses, depending on the medium. In any case, the senses open the door for our brains to do the work of making sense of what we are experiencing. We want to eat food that looks good and we go into an encounter with it expecting that. Thinking about brands, how it shows up creates a positive impression for those that have it set before them to eat experience. All of your brand elements need to be working together in a harmonious way. The entire experience needs to feel considered and cohesive. This is what strategy allows you to do. A dish will taste way off if you confuse salt with sugar, or oil with vinegar. The flavors must mesh and work well together.
Everything Comes Together to Satisfy the Recipient
In the case of a meal, everything must be done to provide a great experience, the customer. A great meal is not only something that you enjoy as you are immediately consuming it, you remember it for a long time. It creates a positive impression in your brain and can elevate the experience. Have you ever eaten in a restaurant that was not the greatest setup, but the food was amazing? This is what we mean. How the brand is arrayed and conveyed can cover up some other things that are not as strong.
Conclusion
To summarize, it can be helpful to think about building brand systems like the way a chef prepares a meal. The way a chef strategically takes the ingredients that are part of a recipe and creates a unified, harmonious dish that provides a great experience for the people who eat it, is not unlike the process of building and delivering a strategic brand. The individual elements of the brand must be brought together in a way that feels unified and provides a positive experience for the person who engages with the brand, whether internal stakeholder, competitor or client/customer. Keeping in mind the approaches mentioned above will ensure your brand building is intentional and impactful, and will help your business grow by building trust and connection with your audience through a consistently good experience. If it were a restaurant, people would line up around the block to get in and tell their friends they have to try it.
If you have not had a brand strategy conducted for your business, we highly endorse it. This is a highly endorsed, key first step toward business and brand growth. We begin with a brand audit, a simple, systematic process of analyzing the essence of your brand and examining its positioning, performance, and perception.
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Enthuse Creative helps services-based companies by cooking up delicious brand strategies and creative solutions that help them find and grow their ideal customers. Contact us today to learn how we can help you.
