Finch Brands: Business & Brand Evolution
Temple Ad Club president, Justin Melnick, arranged for 2 men from Finch Brands (where he’s interning) to come in and talk to us last Tuesday. It was a pleasure to meet Mr. Jordan Goldenberg (Creative Director and Partner) and Mr. Andrew Moore (Integrated Marketing Manager). This was one of the best presentations I’ve seen because these guys are really down to Earth. Finch Brands’ concept is based on the actual finch bird from the Galapagos Islands. They vary from island to island because they’ve adapted differently in order to survive. So the company’s concept, “business and brand evolution,” takes a cue from Darwin.
They presented branding strategies for 2 of their clients– Everlast and Daffy’s. Before I even get into that, I have to give kudos to Jordan for having so many inspiring quotes. Finch’s take on branding is that consumers want to invest themselves emotionally into a brand and it’s Finch’s job to make that connection happen. Every point of contact has to be consistent– “every little piece of everything.” Getting ideas is easy, but getting clients and consumers to buy into them is the hard part.
We took a look at Finch’s branding hierarchy. On one side, it showed the natural progression of consumerism (top down). On the other, it showed the theory and execution of branding (bottom up). A brand needs a reason to exist; this comes first. The final stage of consumerism is absolute dependency. When the two finally meet (top meets bottom), the brand is validated and the consumer is fulfilled. When put in perspective, it’s actually quite beautiful.
Jordan spoke quite a bit about the creative aspects of branding. “Everything you do, isn’t going to be the best thing you’ve done. And you’re not going to like all the design you do.” The sooner we understand that we are tailoring our message to other people, the better. It’s easy to make the mistake of putting ourselves in the shoes of the target audience. We have to understand them without living vicariously.
Lastly, I asked about the shelf life of creatives in an agency because again and again I’ve heard that “we” have a high turn-over rate. Jordan replied that this is isn’t necessarily true. At Finch, if one is able to produce work that gets the message across and is exciting, then they’ll have a place as long as they can do it. The sticking point is that creatives have to be able to do each of things because “business” trumps everything. I’d like to give a big thanks to Jordan and Andrew for stopping in! If they were to stop in again, I’d definitely be there.
