Page 332 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

310 CHAPTER 10

■ Explore the settlement history of the area. Were there Native American tribes? Are
any names associated with the tribes appropriate? Are the names of any of the first
settlers in the area appropriate? Explore the legacy names of the area and determine
if any of the old names are ready to reappear.
■ Look into the history of your own company and your founders. Are any of these
names appropriate?
■ Observe the terrain of the area where your project is sited. Are any of the names of
terrain features (such as rivers, lakes, mountains) appropriate to your project?
■ Try a free association exercise. Select a random starting point unrelated to your
project and free associate. Write down the words you come up with. Use these to
free associate further.
■ Consider the end use of the project and the feeling you want people to have when
they first hear of the property. Explore words that have that tone and feeling.

Brandstorming Exercise #1
Often, it takes seemingly offbeat questions to see the familiar through a new and eye-
opening lens. If this project were a human being, how would you describe it? This is
an exercise we often use with products, services, companies, or projects. Start with the
sex of the project and go from there. Is this project male? Female? Old? Young? What
would this project drive? What does it wear? This may seem like a little bit of crazi-
ness, but what you end up with is solid gold. What you are trying to isolate is the
inherent nature of this project—how it “feels.” Knowing this gives you a sense of the
tone you will use to market the project.
For example, a project featuring high-end condos may “feel” female, mid-fifties,
upscale—the sort of project that would drive a Cadillac, look best in a formal gown,
wear pearls, prefer an upscale seafood restaurant to a sushi bar, drink Manhattans, and
whose favorite movie was Out of Africa. Or this same high-end condo project may
“feel” male, mid-forties, upscale—the sort of project that would drive a 1960 “scoop-
side” Corvette, feel most comfortable in worn khakis, Italian loafers with no socks,
and a silk crew neck, drink nothing but sparkling water, and whose favorite movie was
Citizen Kane.
We’re talking two very different projects.

Brandstorming Exercise #2
A variant on brandstorming exercise #1, this approach similarly seeks to get at the
essence of a brand by reframing the question in ways that you can touch and feel. The
process of putting the spirit or sensibility of a business into tangible words can be a
frustrating one, though stick-to-it-tive-ness often yields good results. Gary Hirshberg,
CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farms, describes his own team struggling through frustrating
4
meetings before landing on its key slogan: “You just can’t fake this stuff.” So what
are other things that feel like this project? Here’s a list you can use:

■ Beverage (could be alcoholic, could be Kool-Aid)
■ Vehicle (car, boat, bicycle, Segway)