How “Jelly Bean Branding” Can Help You Build Your Business Brand or Your Self Brand

By Dr. Larina Kase

It’s funny, I studied branding, and I teach branding, but I’ve always struggled with branding in my own business. My problem? I seem to like too many things and want to do too many things. Is it possible to have several aspects of a brand and keep it strong? Let’s explore that question.

Brand Power

Branding wisdom says that these varied interests dilute a brand. The power in branding is that we come to associate certain characteristics with a brand. This allows us as consumers to rely on mental heuristics or shortcuts and make quicker decisions.

If I’m shopping in the grocery store and I realize I need toothpaste, I glance at the choices, think, “I’ve been using Crest for a while and never had a cavity,” and pick up a tube of Crest. If I had to go through all of the pros and cons of each toothpaste option, I’d be standing in that aisle a lot longer than I’d want to be.

So, if much of the power is in brand consistency, what happens if you have various products and services? Or, if you’re working on your personal brand, what happens if you have many aspects to your personality and types of value that you contribute?

Jelly Beans and Branding

Do you know Jelly Belly brand jelly beans? How is it that they can get away with offering everything from tropical flavored to black pepper to Sport beans to vomit flavored beans?! They even offer sports gear, jelly bean flavored lip gloss and puzzles. How do they do all of this and have a coherent brand?

First, they have a strong and undeniable brand:

• They’re small in size compared with other jelly beans.
• They have bright colors.
• They have intense flavor—not just a sugary taste like many other jelly beans.
• Psychologically, they convey fun in a bit of a wacky way, and bring out the kid in everyone.
• They arouse the curiosity factor. It’s hard to eat just a few because you want to find out what flavors the others are.

So, when you have a brand that has basic demographics (the look and other tangible characteristics of your product, yourself, and your client or customer or other stakeholders) and psychographics (how your brand makes people feel), you have room to play.

A New Application of the 80/20 Rule

You’ve probably heard of the 80/20 rule as “20 percent of your efforts lead to 80 percent of your results,” or “20 percent of your customers create 80 percent of your profit.” You can also apply this rule to your branding. If 80 percent of your brand is consistent, you have 20 percent wiggle room in terms of how you apply it.

For example, let’s say that your personal brand for your appearance is, “sophisticated, smart, stylish, and professional.” You’ll likely wear tailored clothes of high-quality fabrics. You typically wear suits, but you have a work-related party that is casual. To modify your brand by 20%, you’d want to wear dark jeans that fit very well rather than worn out baggy jeans.

I would say that the flavors of beans and even the application of the Jelly Belly appearance to products like puzzles and flavor to products like lip gloss fits within the 80/20 rule.

Timing—From Specific to General

I did not read up on the history of Jelly Belly for this article, but I imagine and from what I remember, they started out with the classic variety of flavors and then slowly added on new flavors and products.

What this means for you is that you want to establish the basic demographics and psychographics of your brand, and then you can expand outwards. Think of it like a pyramid. If you didn’t have that solid base of your brand, everything added on top would crumble because they’d lack foundation.

Allow yourself, your business or career, and your branding to evolve and expand. If you stick within too narrow a window, you could miss out on opportunities of a changing marketplace and world. If you want to take an entirely new path (a revolution rather than evolution), consider whether it makes sense to add on to your existing brand or start a new one.

Have Fun!

My final tenet of jelly bean branding is: Jelly beans are fun. They remind us of being a kid. They involve the element of wonder and surprise as we taste new ones. Keep these things in mind. If you have fun with your branding, others will too. Those around you will want to associate and do business with you.

Larina Kase, PsyD, MBA is a business psychologist and the New York Times bestselling author of The Confident Leader: How the Most Successful People Go from Effective to Exceptional. She helps people stand out and be in charge of their careers and businesses. Get more resources at http://www.ConfidentLeaderBook.com

Keywords:

Build Your Business Brand, build your business, business brand, Self Brand, brand consistency, 80/20 rule, modify your brand.