If I were to try to determine the brand strategy for REI, a camping and outdoor store, I’d have to say it was “Get Out.”  I saw one of their print ads today and it made me want to get out of my chair and hit the mountains.  The ad showed snow covered peaks in the background. Sodden green grass field in the fore. A small open, netted tent postage size in the middle of the picture and some other gear, perhaps a drying sleeping bag, nearby.  My brain was snapping internal pictures.

If good advertising makes you feel something then do something (Ford’s Jim Farley quote), this is great work.  My mom might fly by this ad.  Not me.

The brand strategy Get Out is active. The double meaning of Get Out suggests “no way” or unreal.  Also the unseen, the vastly alive.  Any brand manager, creative director, or retail POP manager, selecting pictures for ads, home pages or displays, would know what criteria to use to make a selection with this this strategy.

Yesterday I posted about an offer to do a brand audit — looking at work and backing out what I believe to be the brand strategy. For some companies – companies with good consumer awareness—this will be an easy task for me. REI is one such company.  Peace.