Almost 20 years ago I discovered and adopted branding consultancy as my dream job.
It fascinates me because it is the best tool to create the heart of a company. To help express verbally and visually, intangible ideas, values and differential personality traits.
This is my recipe to create a solid, soulful brand.
- The first thing for me is to define what I really believe in, my manifesto.
- Secondly is to pay attention to the vital moment, the ’Why Now?’
- Then look outside at what trends I can get hooked on.
- Analyze the market, the competition. Deeply understand your audience.
- Define what makes you different and special, what you’ve got to say that others don't.
- Only then, look for the name that will identify your brand forever. I think we have to resist the temptation of "I have an idea, what's its name?".
- Work with the best designer you can afford. Systematize your visual tools and "marry" them. It is important that all people who work with the brand, understand its "soul", how it expresses itself and commit to it in the long term.
- Commit in addition with a consistent and durable experience in every touchpoint with your audience.
1. The branding in which I believe
There are those who still believe that a brand is just a logo. Fortunately, many of us already know that the brand is the beacon that guides your strategy, which indicates what you are and what you are not.
I believe in…
…branding that make sense, is ethical, and that goes in favor of the solutions that the world needs, honest, courageous. I believe in ‘walking the talk’ and in daring to make what really moves you happen.
...identities so powerful and well built that they irresistibly attract the audiences they target.
...the power of words to create realities and in design as a necessary interface that figures problems out, sets the tone and humanizes.
...the need to create your own lighthouse for your business, the one that connects with your unique essence, with your vision, with your values, with your personality. With consistency and coherence.
...standing out without permanently keeping an eye on the competition, showing your best version and your point of view. With focus, with resilience. Creating unique experiences that connect emotionally. Caring for all points of contact with your audiences in everything you say, do or show.
2. My vital moment
Have you ever experienced the feeling of finding your place in the world?
That's what I felt seven years ago when I started working on a beautiful coworking space in Malasaña. For the first time in my long life, I experienced how important it is to work in the right place. In a neighborhood that is an explosion of creativity and tolerance. In an open place, without offices, without hierarchies or tensions. Sharing the space with very talented people who, like you, are living the dream of the free. Where you feel cared for and empowered to make your dreams come true .
Many of the magical things that have happened to me over the years have been thanks to being there, to feeling like I could fly.
That's why, when I considered a new venture and began to work on a concept that moved me a lot, I knew that it could only be materialized in a coworking space that drank from this spirit.
Since then, many things have happened. Coworking has become mainstream and has evolved into an increasingly professional industry and closer to the real estate world.
3. The market I'm targeting
Knowing the terrain you're walking on is a prerequisite for launching a new brand. Beyond my personal experience, I discovered that coworking is a relatively new business whose global tendency is to grow exponentially.
Three trends inspired me:
The future of work. Technology is making possible realities which were unimaginable just 10 years ago. An infinite number of applications, the cloud, networking, offshore teams and collaborative structures. The boundary between personal and work life has definitely been broken. Work is ceasing to be a physical place where it is compulsory be at a predetermined time. Now is easier than ever to undertake and make your dreams come true at any place at any time.
The slow movement. It is the humanist countertrend to the fast-paced world that is breathed out there. If we slow down we become more aware, we make better decisions, we are more creative and we decide for ourselves what kind of society we want to create. The human mind solves problems better when it takes a breath, is relaxed, without stress and without pressures.
The beautiful businesses. I'm inspired by the Manifesto of Beautiful Business. Beautiful businesses make us feel alive, create human experiences, respect life cycles, never betray our values. They look for inspiration in the past as well as in the future. They respect the culture, the context. They pay attention to small details. They develop in stimulating environments. They are complex, subjective, learn from error, lead by example and understand that the most beautiful route does not have to be the most direct. They are so meaningful that we would do them even if they didn't pay us. Beauty comes through our eyes. What is seen should obey to what is not seen. We can't talk about beauty without the best design you can afford.
The conversation has changed in recent years. From being a "labor of love" with the stellar figure of the coworking manager bringing value to the community, to that of flexibility of spaces, profitability, square meters, number of positions ... The bigger the coworking is the more profitable it is.
Today, in Madrid and Spain, a league of five major operators, leveraged by large real estate funds, invest large sums of money and set a standard of quality hardly surpassable by personal initiatives.
In Madrid we find large global coworkings, many local coworkings (branded and unbranded), business centres offering coworking spaces, office spaces, hotel lobbies, office rentals in shared offices, Google Campus, Centro Centro, International Lab, accelerators and incubators, bank offices with coworking spaces... Almost any space is now susceptible to becoming a coworking space.
Was it a really a good idea to launch a new coworking space in Madrid?.
4. What makes me special in this context
My idea was not to create a new space, but to integrate into existing ones. I like to say that we are the first liquid coworking, without space of our own. Thanks to my agreement with Loom (owned by Merlin Properties, one of the largest Spanish real estate companies) to grow my brand in their spaces, I can offer high quality spaces by establishing our ‘cloud’ for digital nomads within them.
I also differ in three points: In the target: the only coworking in Madrid specialized in digital nomads. Digital nomads break down geographical barriers, fixed routines and schedules, hierarchies and traditional work structures. They push the economy of experience and the collaborative economy to the limit. They are reinventing a new world and at the same time rediscovering the things that really matter like hospitality, sharing values, feeling at ease and in your place. My intention is to offer them the best spaces in Madrid, contents and activities that make them grow as people and feel welcome and cared for.
In the meaning: I am creating a "container" of well-being, being an expert in what really matters: attracting and pampering the community. In order to offer coworking services at the highest level, there are values that I share with other coworking spaces and others that are unique and that I can summarize in this triad:
- beauty, I am firmly convinced that beauty makes you feel good;
- hygge+slow, promoting awareness of the little things that make us feel good,
- transmitting and committing ourselves to serenity as a necessary state of mind in order to be more human and creative and efficiency, offering you spaces in which the back office works like clockwork: WiFi, printer, cleaning, security…
In the how: offering groundbreaking services, professionalizing the management and recovering values of the original coworkings of open spaces with real collaboration, that are being lost. Cultivating a personality which is calm, humble, design conscious, persistent, innovative, passionate and idealist. And a tone of voice positive, welcoming, European and with a bit of humour.
5. What's my name
Once our essence is defined, it is better understood why among a list of more than 100 names, I chose Plazida. Plazida is the perfect fusion of "plaza" (space, place, place) and the adjective "placida" (which is or is calm, calm, that transmits a feeling of peace). It is feminine because positive change in the world has that energy.
The name speaks of our uniqueness: Plazida is slow philosophy and Hygge lifestyle. A sensation brand. A name that when pronounced calms you and reminds you that you are human.
6. How I express myself visually
To work on my "daughter's" visual identity, I couldn't choose anyone. I needed the designer who could best understand how to materialize a sensation brand and a coworking without a space of its own. I chose Jaime Fernández from Tata Friends who define themselves as "a design muscle for positive brands”. He did an original and exceptional job.
Basically, when you define an identity, you only have to choose four things:
- The logo and what goes with it (symbol, tagline...)
- The typographies
- The color palette
- The photographic and/or illustrative visual style
By properly combining these basic signs with the magic of the best designer, we obtain the basis of a powerful visual identity. My recommendation is that you work with a single designer for as long as it takes to fix the form of expression of the brand.
With Jaime we designed our website, our welcome pack, our Digital Nomad Guide to Madrid, our stationery, our templates for social networks, the newsletter, our little manual. For the brand to catch on, once the style we love has been set, it is essential to "marry" it, overcome the temptation to imitate what is trendy, copy the competition or use other codes that are not ours.
7. What the Plazida experience is like
We work to make our promise come true every day: pamper our target, be the best hosts, offer the services they need as travelers, anticipate their needs, offer them the best places to work at ease in privileged environments and surrounded by innovative and talented people.
The best brand experience is the one that controls all points of contact. Therefore, we are in the chats and social networks where they are, we talk with them, we attend their macroevents and meetups, we become permeable to their concerns and interests, we have an open heart and a mind free of prejudice.
Mastermind sessions, sharing skills, organized networking, informal drinks, events, workations retreats and innovative courses. The idea is to put all the means to make the experience of the Madrid community unforgettable and become our best ambassadors.
Plázida is collaboration. It adds up and does not compete. It is always open to new proposals that broaden the horizons of our public, believes in collaborating instead of competing and thus builds its offer of services, content and events. And we find the way. We try not to be identified with a place but with a new way of doing things.
8. The people behind the brand
Plazida would have been different if someone else had created her. We innovate as we are, from the place where things matter to us.
Plázida is the result of my interest in the sharing economy, coworking spaces, acting, corporate and personal branding, marketing, social networks, innovation, entrepreneurship, organizational culture, design, new economies and sustainable brands.
I brought more than 20 years of experience in brand creation and design management, in recent years from my own consulting firm: Grasp. I have also previously being part of different brand consultancies at management level. I just want to create brands that identify and symbolize projects that take us in the right direction. I try not only to do things right, but also to do the right thing.
Jaime, as the designer of the visual identity, the different developers who have worked in its website, our Social Media Managers, Cristina and Ben and our content creator, Aida.
Now we are entering a new phase in which new people will be incorporated. And one thing is for sure, Plázida will continue to be faithful to its essence, the brand will continue to grow in concentric circles until it becomes the robust tree that gives us good shade and shelters us along the way.
Curious to see more about Plazida? Make your way here and here.
Good News!
If you are part of the Coworkies community, we would love to welcome you at Plazida. Come over, just show us this pass and start enjoying our beautiful workspaces in Madrid for a day. We can't wait to meet you.
