How Iconic Are You or Your Business?

Chicago’s silver Bean sparkled with reflections of visitor’s faces. The Freedom Tower rises 1776 feet tall in the New York skyline. The big green monster is Boston Red Sox’s recognizable sports field. The golden gate bridge stretches one-mile-wide across the seven-mile-long channel between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. These are all iconic images that place you in a certain place when you visualize them.

An icon by definition is a person or thing regarded as a representative symbol of something. The buildings above are representative images from specific cities. As you travel this summer to your favorite vacation locales I’m sure you pass a sign or landmark that informs you are arriving at your destination. One of my favorite signs is the one that greets me as I enter Maine, “Maine, the way life should be.” It is also a favorite slogan my father would recount when he greeted us at the door.

What does someone imagine or say when they envision the name of your company? Do they suddenly envision a specific logo, statement, visual or mission? Marketing specialists would hope so since successful entrepreneurs typically have a recognizable image. Will it be as iconic as the creative buildings speckled across our country? Mostly likely not but have you thought about whether you have or should create an iconic image for yourself or your business?

I used my iconic phrase about Women TIES twice last week; once in my New York State Labor Commission testimony and again around a table of 261 Fearless runners in Chicago. With my pink glasses, I reiterated my feminist motto of wanting women to ‘See Pink. Live Pink. Buy Pink.’ With 5 pairs of pink reading glasses, I wear them to remind myself and others of my personal mission to see inequality towards women and to spend money with women owned companies. I get numerous comments about my glasses and mission every time.

Today’s Wednesday Wisdom should immediately make you consider if you have an iconic image? Think about Gloria Steinem for example, what comes to mind when you hear her name? Perhaps there are icons in your industry you immediately identify with and emulate. Could it be you have a specific mission clients use to introduce you to others? What iconic style, words or images belong to you and your business? If you don’t feel you have something identifiable, why not take this beautiful summer day to start creating one.