Branding

Cajun Chef Ryan Logo

Branding is more than just your logo or the look and feel of your website or blog. An organizations ?brand? is more about the idea and the perceived value formed by its projected audience, and is based on the culture, product, and service. The way an organization identifies itself, or distinguishes itself is typically based on the logo, tag lines, motto, slogan, and the color scheme, but quickly expands into every way you connect with the customers. The brand is typified in the wording, the text, and the fonts, the quality of print and paper used, and the employees who directly interact with customers, the furniture, the office space, and the web site. Customer service goes a long way in defining the company brand and quality is always king. How do you convey all this to your customers?

How do you get your brand to boogie down to the Cajun two-step with your customers?  The logo above is my first attempt at defining a brand for me, but it should go further, and something is still missing it seems. The boiling pot of gumbo under the word ?Cajun?, and the shrimp forms the ?C?, then the chef hat covering the ?C? in the word ?Chef?, but is that enough? So I want to go out now and ask who am I? I know who I am, but I want to know what you think I am. So, what do you think about me?

Let?s play a game. As you all know, I?ve got the Cajun Chef Ryan food blog going for several years now, but there isn?t exactly a well defined brand attached to it just yet. I know myself, but I want to know what others perceive me as. Whether you?ve known me for decades, or have never met me in real life, can you give three adjectives to describe what you think when you think ?Ryan Boudreaux??

Please be open and honest, and I?ll summarize the results later! I?ve already asked a couple of people on email and Facebook. It will be interesting to see the results.

You guys can stop laughing now.

Play nice, or else I’ll send you to the prep kitchen to peel sacks of onions and potatoes.