Sarah Michelle
Founder & CEO at HoneyMAP
Website Address: honeymap.agency
So tell me about the sweetness of HoneyMAP.
So HoneyMAP started as a traditional marketing agency because that was my background, and the more that I was working with businesses, the more I found out that they were coming to me for marketing strategy but that really wasn’t the root issue. And so HoneyMAP has become a really comprehensive road map that looks at the core mission and brand values of a business owner as well as their personality and the dynamics that are happening in the internal organization, and then really maps out a clear brand identity and connects that to a marketing strategy so that they can grow their business in the most efficient way.
So what makes HoneyMAP different from the other branding companies?
I think a lot of brand agencies focus on just the branding aspect or just the marketing aspect or the internal business and there’s not a lot of places that actually look at everything comprehensively. And I think that for a lot of brand agencies that are looking to create a brand whether that’s a Web site, logo, a lot of times they’re creating an external brand and it’s not necessarily an accurate reflection of the business owner. And so HoneyMAP really looks at the person who owns the business: who is on the business leadership, what is their personality makeup, what is the psychology of the beliefs of the employees and the people running the company? And we really start there to create a brand that’s really honest to the person who owns the brand.
So what are three questions that you would ask a CEO of the company to help identify with what their brand should be?
Yeah. The first question that I really focus on is “what is your mission?” or “why are you doing this?” “What do you exist for?”
The other question that I love to ask are “what are your polarizing qualities?” “What are the things that some people will love you for, some people will hate you for?”
Yeah. And the last question that I would really focus on is “what do you want your business to be?” “What goal are you working towards?”.
A company’s brand is not just about “the CEO who has ADD and starts all these different companies and brands”, it’s about the leadership that backs the CEO, the ying and the yang behind it, that really builds out a brand. Would you agree with that?
Absolutely. The personalities that are in a company definitely speak more loudly to a brand. You can market anything that you want, but it’s not ever gonna be loud enough to drown out what the reality is of who’s in the business. And having a background professionally in agency marketing work, but I also was a certified care counselor. It lends to that more vast experience of being able to really look at not just the marketing and psychology of the business but also the personalities that are leading it.
So what do you think the biggest change to the way companies brand themselves coming out of COVID is gonna be?
I think companies are really being tested for their integrity. I think right now it’s a really interesting climate where the way that companies are responding to COVID, the way that they are prioritizing sales or prioritizing their employees health or the way that they are reacting to a crisis that no one could have anticipated, that is speaking volumes about what their core values are and what their brand really is. And there’s a lot of companies who might have said that they are a family based product but now they’re really being tested. Are you really family focused? Are you really protecting the families in your organization? And I think especially with social media and media growing, companies are really being tested to be very authentic and people are really prying into what the core beliefs are and what the values are and if their advertising and marketing is really accurate to who the leadership is.
So, Sarah, if you would finish this sentence for me. In five years, HoneyMAP will _____.
In five years, HoneyMAP will be the leading standard in brand and marketing strategy.
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