As any modern marketer knows, your

brand is only as good as the core truth that it standsfor. So what exactly

a core truth anyway? A coretruth is the pulse of your brand. It is the very thing thatkeeps you moving, growing, experiencing and dream-ing. It is your purpose, your mission, your vision andthe foundation upon which everything else must rest.In the paragraphs to follow, we’re going to walk youthrough the process in which Cake came to determineits core truth, and how everything we do supports thatpurpose. Our goal is tohelp you

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nd your owncore truth, and in the pro-cess we hope you learn alittle more about who weare and what we stand for.

DEFINE YOUR BRANDUSING THE 5 SENSES

One of the

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rst things wedo when we meet with aclient is lead them througha series of exercises thathelp them “illustrate”their brand utilizing all

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ve senses: taste, touch,sight, smell and sound.It’s important to think about what your brandmeans in terms other than words. Don’t get us wrong– we love words – but there is so much more to who you are than words can communicate. Think of ob- jects, fragrances, sounds and textures that repre-sent your brand, and start brainstorming as a group. After lots of discussion, debate, laughter and de-lirium, here’s what we came up with at Cake:+ Smell: mint, with a hint of cake batter+ Taste: fresh lemon cake (could we really choose any-thing but cake? We think not.)+ Sight: our color palette, which we chose because it’s

CORE

TRUTH

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ve simple steps to discovering your

ISSUE 1

We believe in genuine marketing, communicatingmessages that are truthful, believable and transparent. We refer to this as “modern” marketing, because today’sconsumer is sophisticated enough to see through any-thing but the truth.

CREATE 3 KEY MESSAGES ABOUT YOUR BRAND

Why three? Because the typical human isn’t able tofully digest any more than that. To get you started on theright track, ask yourself the following questions:

+ What makes your customers choose your product orservice over that of your competitors?

Cake’s customers choose us because we make it easy for them. We minimize the time and effort they need tospend on modern marketing so that they can focus ontheir core business. While lots of consultants and agen-cies offer marketing expertise, nobody makes a pledgeto their customers to simplify their jobs and make theirlives easier while ensuring quality results.

+ Describe the products and services that your businessoffers in terms of customer bene

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ts.

Cake strengthens brands and increases revenues by building brand awareness, increasing brand loyalty and

We created a visual

board from our

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ve sensesexercise, and here’s what we came up with. Every-time we create a market-ing piece , we make surethat it relates to our visual board and properly com-municates our brand. warm, inviting, fresh and rich; and our logo, which sym- bolizes our ability to spark new ideas out of core truths+ Sound:

A Town Called Happiness

, by Martha Berner+ Touch: the feel of polished hematite, because we fancy ourselves for being both re

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ective and simple, free from bumps and obstacles

DISCOVER YOUR BRAND CONNECTION

Whether you started your company from scratch or joined an already thriving business, think back to why you chose this path in the

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rst place. Dig beyond the su-per

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cial reason of needing a paycheck; after all, there area million other options out there that afford the sameluxury. Why did you choose this brand? What was so ap-pealing about this opportunity that attracted you? At Cake, our company was founded on the idea thatmarketing doesn’t have to be this overly complicated,complex web of ideas. It’s really very simple. Everyonethat works at our company agrees, and we love the idea of simplifying new developments in the world of marketingfor our clients. We use simple visuals and direct languageto communicate core values and bene

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ts, while utilizingmodern technologies and platforms.

communicating core values through modern marketing. We utilize social media and online technologies to buildrelationships with key in

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uencers to your brand in orderto communicate the value you offer to your target audi-ences.

+ What does your brand stand for?

Cake = fresh, engaging, simple ways to communicate brand value.

+ What does success mean to your company?

It means taking a logo and creating an identity, so that when people see that brand they immediately know whatit stands for, what value it offers, and how they can ben-e

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t from that value.Here’s where we end-ed up at Cake:+ Cake strengthens your brand and increases your revenues by com-municating crediblemarketing messagesthrough social mediaand online technolo-gies.+ Cake simpli

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es mod-ern marketing and pro- vides quality results,enabling clients to focuson their core business.+ Cake is a businesspartner that transforms brands from logos to aidentities, communicat-ing customer bene

ﬁ

ts in ways that are clear, innovative and engaging.

SAY IT IN FIVE WORDS OR LESS

Your core truth needs to be so concise that every em-ployee, customer, prospect and ambassador can easily communicate it. Summarize your key messages into asimple message of

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ve words or less, and you will havearrived at your brand’s core truth. Cake’s core truth is:Modern marketing, simpli

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ed.

DO A REALITY CHECK

You aren’t quite through yet. You may believe that you have the perfect core truth, but it is only as good asthe reality that it stands for. Do a reality check, and run your core truth by each of the audiences that you com-municate with. Your customers, employees, investorsand the general public must believe in this message.If, for example, Cake didn’t really simplify marketingfor our customers and instead created complex pro-cesses that required tons of time and money in orderto succeed, then we would lose credibility and lack fo-cus on our long-term vision. Because our audiences, both internal and external, truly believe that we standfor simple, modern marketing, our core truth pro- vides traction, and serves as a solid foundation from which we can grow. When people hear our core truth,they

get

us.So if you do your reality check and

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nd that itdoesn’t jive, spend time to

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nd out why. Ask ques-tions, get answers, and if all else fails, call Cake.

“for the

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rst time,my purpose becamesurprisingly clear.”

-Eleanore Sims, VP of Marketing