Tim King Blog | Tim King Photographer

One of the sure signs that a client is a “good fit” with me is when our sense of humor runs along the same lines.

While it may be rare to have a perfect fit, when they’re on your “same level” – it’s SOOOOOO good.

So with that, I’m going to incorporate a little of that twist into today’s blog post on creating & growing an idea.

Earlier today, a friend in Buenos Aires interviewed me over Skype about my ideas regarding blog marketing and creating solid content for online promotion.  While the interview will be available in the coming weeks, I’d like to share with you one of the main ideas we talked about.

When creating your brand, it’s important for the elements tied into your business be consistent: branding, marketing, themes, colors, attitude, and style.  Instead of going into a drawn out & lengthy post about my ideas on how to create a good structure, I figured I would demonstrate a running idea of a fake brand some friends & I created about a month ago.

While I wont mention names, some people I’ve mentioned on this blog prior were all together at a friends place talking about life, love, and inevitably – loss.

One of us mentioned that they would want to be cremated and have their ashes distributed into the ocean.  Someone else said they wished the same, but outer-space.  I mentioned how when I die, I’d like people to get together and have an Irish-wake style party celebrating my life & the fun times we shared rather than mourn the loss or sadness.

Then my roommate Evan blew me out of the water with the vision he had for his eventual death & following funeral.

A HAUNTED-HOUSE STYLE FUNERAL PROCESSION.

He mentioned that when he dies, he has told his parents that he wishes to have his body arranged to be controlled via marionette-style so that during mid-procession, he can SPRING from the coffin and give his honored guests the show of their life!

As you might have guessed, the entire room bursted out in laughter at the idea, as you could imagine what a ridiculous scene that would be at such a traditional event.

(1.  I’ll interject to point out the common tie – taking an existing idea and putting your own unique twist to showcase your personality)

While we were all still laughing, someone shouted out that all the lights should be short-circuited and strobe lights should begin to fire, creating a scene of panic to add to the chaos.  I suggested that he arrange to have blood spray from the ceilings, such as the opening scene from Blade. [bonus points if you know what I'm referring to]  To engage the audience more, not only would Evan’s dead body lurch from the coffin, but FLY OVER the crowd in their seats to create that “dream-like” quality.  And then as if our minds were magically in sync with each other, Evan & I both shouted out that the staff at the venue become dressed up as zombies and lock everyone inside the processional room, serving as the capstone to the exciting experience.

(2.  The value in the above paragraph is team-brainstorming.  Utilizing the power of a group setting to build off one-another’s ideas to create a cohesive strategy.  My friend Ashley gave me a killer idea for my promotional materials about a week ago, and I’m excited to share that exact idea in the coming months.  Point in case – it’s great to have a mastermind group to build off each other)

And while the experiential element of Evan’s idea was amazing, we knew that to REALLY succeed in a particular market, you need to cater to an affluent market.  How can you make this product a luxury good?

“Destination Funerals DOT COM!”  Someone shouted in the room.

And *that* is when we knew when the idea came full circle.  All of the sudden, ideas started coming from everywhere on how you can tie the ‘funeral’ theme into the event coordination.  ”Check out” time slips as table settings, sticks as the center-pieces vs floral arrangements, menu titled as “the last supper”, etc – you get the idea.  Promotional ideas relating to your specific target market spring to mind – darwin award deaths receive a 10% discount on their casket, business cards that resemble a funhouse style admission ticket, ghost-buster themed hearse to carry the coffin to the cemetery, the list goes on.

(3.  Finding common themes to tie into the branding help your idea present a cohesive marketing strategy.  Coming up with an initial idea, then building the accessories relating to your business AROUND that particular idea helps people truly receive your message the way you intend it.  The more you can involve each facet of your branding to tie in with this theme, the more cohesive & professional it will appear.  Make a list of everything you can think of that relates to your perception of your brand – even if it’s a little extreme.  Then come up with some ideas on how you can tie that inspiration in with your materials)

While you of course know this post was written in no-way serious, I hope that you at least took some enjoyment in my analogy of this fake brand to bring to light some tools to help the formation of marketing ideas for your own business.  If not, I’d still love to hear from you below.

If you really enjoyed this post – I’d ALSO love to hear from you.  It’s important to me to know whether or not this kind of content is something you guys can relate to, otherwise I’m barking up the wrong tree in sharing this kind of content.  Thanks guys!