I attended the Essence festival in its first years of existence. A time was had.

Seeing so many African-Americans owning businesses, networking, and having an amazing time was an incredible vibe.

Essence Festival is an event that happens the weekend of the Fourth of July each year in New Orleans. It has recently been in the news for a variety of things.

Most of which I’m not going to talk about in detail, but I’ll take a different approach.

What stood out to me immediately in hearing about it recently were the branding aspects of the Essence Festival. As people shared their opinions of their experience over the years, and how much it has changed, I heard the internal aspects of Branding. Seeing as though I help clients build Specialty Premium Brands and how much I enjoyed my visits in the early years of its existence, I spent a little time listening in.

As a business owner working with hundreds of women on growing and scaling their businesses, what I’m going to highlight naturally stood out for me.

I want to talk about Essence Festival, the brand. Most people think a brand is your logo, your website, and you’re pretty pictures. What’s transpiring with the Essence Festival, the low turnout, the complaints of disorganization of structural things, normal things that ordinarily make Essence festival what it is, those things are actually what make up a brand.

A brand is also centered around who a company, a movement, or a business serves. Who they’re Perfect People are. That can change when some of the most intricate details change. Many companies are changing their brand often. Especially when they interact online. Despite the fact that they may not have changed the name of their company, their logos, their websites, or they’re pretty pictures. Unbeknownst to them.

The recent energy expressed in the disappointment from the participants, vendors, and even hired performers of the recent and more recent Essence Festival events caused me to do a little research on the surrounding history of the Essence Festival

I think it’s important to note, for those who may not know, the name Essence Festival is derived from Essence magazine. Essence magazine was founded in 1968. Its first publication was in 1970. Many of you reading may remember Essence magazine. The founders were four African-American men. They originally called the magazine Sapphire before changing the name to Essence. It is best described as a lifestyle publication with a focus on entertainment, beauty, culture, and fashion, specifically for African-American women.

The Essence Festival was an arm of their entity, if you would. It was a part of their Brand.

For instance, you may own a brick-and-mortar service-based business. You later decide to become a Coach, Consultant, or trainer, teaching the skill set you’ve mastered in your brick-and-mortar service-based business. Coaching would be an arm of your business.

A course will be an arm of your Brand. A service you offer under the umbrella of your brand.

With that being said, the Essence Festival was an arm that was developed from the magazine (Essence Communication Inc.). Over the years, research states that the four African-American men sold 49% of their company because of a lack of funding, to obtain more financial support. Time Inc. became a partner. This resulted in the magazine no longer being fully black-owned. Years later, they sold the other 51% leaving the business no longer in the hands of African Americans. How people experience the Brand has changed.

I’m sharing all of this to show you how a brand is not a logo, a website, or a pretty picture. A brand is very much centered around the people, the culture, and the values and beliefs of those who create, own, and manage the brand.

When it begins to exchange hands, it will definitely have an impact on things.

It takes on a different essence if you would. No pun intended. I often talk about your Essence (3D Essence) when describing the work I do with clients. It’s a space where I help them discover their “Unique 3D Essence” through my concepts. It’s a discovery of what makes them distinct from other brands. It creates a lane and causes you to stand out in the marketplace. A stimulus of how the brand is received, perceived, and felt by consumers, clients, and customers.

Changing ownership will change the brand internally. There is no way around it. Some ways are subtle and not instantly felt in an impactful way by consumers. Other ways are more evident.

Your brand is how the marketplace sees you. What they are experiencing.

Time Inc. goes on to sell Essence Communications Inc. to a Nigerian buyer from the continent of Africa.

What I want to highlight is that your values, your culture, your mindset, all of those things make up a brand. This is what we see going on with the Essence Festival. This is what people are complaining about. Values, beliefs, and culture have changed internally, and it is impacting the external experience. It determines how people experience your brand because it’s all brought into the space of the business. It will impact how you hire. It will impact how you entertain people, and it will impact organizational structures depending on who is behind the scenes of a brand. This is another reason I work with clients on their Identity. Who they are being. It all comes out in the brand.

Several things are to be expected when you change your brand. This is happening for many businesses unaware. It is happening alarmingly with the Essence Festival

Something else that occurs when you change your brand, it may not resonate with some of your previous customers. New changes may no longer serve their purpose or desires. We see this happening with Foundational Black Americans and Blacks from other parts of the world, as it relates to the Essence Festival. Don’t let this be discouraging. The are times when changing is necessary. Especially if your goal is to attract a different clientele or customer! That’s when you need to change things from within.

I’m using this as a teachable case study.

This is an example of why I always say, “Branding is an internal concept”.

The name Essence didn’t change.

The location didn’t change. None of that changed. But some of their values did in the exchange of ownership.

If you’ve been connected with me for quite some time, I talk about a concept where I help my clients define what their values are. Many owners think that their values are one thing, but their brand is saying something completely different. That misalignment is felt either by the owner or their clients and customers.

Three things I focus on deeply to support my clients in getting deeper levels of clarity on that help them attract the right clients, scale, and often 3-5x their business income:

• Who they are as a Brand
• The problem they solve
• And who do they solve it for

What are your thoughts?

Have you ever been to the Essence Festival?

Have you gone recently?

If so, you’ve likely noticed how the energy and vibe of the festival have shifted. The issues with organization, attendance, and the overall experience are not just surface-level complaints—they reflect deeper changes in the brand’s internal essence. When a brand’s core values, culture, and mindset evolve, those shifts ripple outward, influencing how people perceive and engage with it.

The Essence brand, which was once rooted firmly in celebrating and empowering African American women and then the celebration of the culture of African American people (now being noted as Foundational Black Americans), has expanded and shifted over the years. Ownership changed hands, and new visions entered the scene.

Change isn’t inherently bad; change is inevitable and often necessary for growth.

But it this is a vital lesson in branding: your external image is directly tied to your internal truths. If your internal values are misaligned with the external messaging or the experience you deliver, people will notice—and they will respond accordingly.

So, when you’re reflecting on your own brand or business, ask yourself:

Are my internal values and beliefs aligned with how I present my brand outside? Are my actions, organizational structures, and messaging consistently reflecting my true culture? The one I desire to create? The Essence Festival’s recent challenges serve as a reminder that a brand’s essence isn’t fixed—it’s alive and breathing. It has a soul. If it’s not nurtured and authentically maintained, it can easily drift away from its original purpose, leaving your audience disconnected. Sales low or falling off.

When your internal state, your identity, aligns with your external brand, you create a powerful and consistent experience that resonates deeply with your audience. Otherwise, you risk losing the essence that made you special in the first place. Those losses are often felt more profoundly than the superficial elements like pretty pictures, logos, and websites.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Have you attended the Essence Festival recently? Has it changed? Leave a comment!

Success On Purpose

From My Experience to Yours

Tanya Wilson, Business and Mindset Coach