I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the emotions connected to certain brands. I associate Publix, for instance, with a warm, welcoming feeling. Gatorade stirs feelings of empowerment. Apple feels sophisticated and cool. So as a brand champion for Healthy West Orange, I had to ask: “How do I want people to feel about us?”

As a brand that’s barely two years old, there’s tremendous opportunity — as well as responsibility — to shape the feelings evoked by our logo. We’re a small shop without the massive budget or the manpower to launch enormous campaigns like the big kids on the block. But creativity is free, and a strong content plan can free up enough hours to double your productivity.

The feelings I want to link with Healthy West Orange are: helpful; friendly; expert. These words are guideposts for each piece of content I craft, from vision to editing to posting on social media. For instance:

Helpful 

This video was part of a larger campaign to introduce our audience to our mascot, Westly. In addition to “cook” with Westly, I shot and edited “play” and “move.”

Friendly

I have to admit, I love the raw vibe of Buzzfeed content. That was my creative vision for this video. The intent: create a shareable video that would generate positive vibe around the brand.

Expert

Our mission is to become the healthiest community in the nation. It’s going to take a lot of small bites to get there, but it starts when we can influence our audience to abandon unhealthy habits and adopt new ones. That can’t happen if our audience doesn’t trust us.

Here’s a graphic I created just this week as part of our heat safety awareness month.

Building emotion around brand is not an overnight process. But I’m confident with intentionality and authenticity it can be done.