Part of being good, is being you.

That is why so many successful brands foster culture and community. And a big part of our job at lookthinkmake is acting as a liaison between brand, culture and community.

A brand developed through a sound strategic process should relate easily to its audience. Why? It serves a need.

Great brands are are created for—and are a reflection of—their audience. For us, this involves meeting lots of people, discovering their needs, and a whole host of other data driven and qualitative means. And so, connecting a brand with its audience’s culture should be a natural fit. After all, they were made for each other. Another critical step in the brand development process is establishing brand pillars. These core words (almost always five) act a guide for everything from a brand’s logo and look and feel to informing business decisions. If for example, one of your brand pillars is unexpected, then your logo shouldn’t be predictable.

Last year, one of our long-standing clients, Goodnight Ranch, a master-planned community in southeast Austin decided to throw a block party for residents that could double as an community-wide open house. This was a perfect opportunity to build the Goodnight brand at a grassroots level. By creating a festival—dubbed Festival of Good—based on the building blocks of the brand, it became something more. Local vendors mirrored the comfortable, and authentic spirit of the neighborhood, community and civic partners joined in, and prospective new neighbors visited and mingled with current residents. This gave new festival goers the chance to shop for a home, and see if this growing community was a fit for them.

This year’s Festival of Good was even bigger – maybe we’ll see you there next year.