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Your brand is everything. Don't think that just
because you're not Nike or Coke that you don't have
a brand. You ARE a brand.
Your brand is not your advertising. Your brand is
not your logo. Your brand is not your company name.
Your brand is not your product. Your brand may not
be at all what you think it is. Your brand may not
be what you intend for it to be. You do not own your
brand.
Your brand is owned by your customers, the people
you work with, and anyone else who has an impression
of you. Your brand is other people's perception of
what it's like to do business with you, work with
you, or be with you.
Nothing is more important than your brand, because
it's what defines you, regardless of the work you
do. It has equal importance whether you are one
employee of a worldwide company or a one person
business working out of your home. It should be your
top priority to build, protect, and represent your
brand to the best of your ability in every
interaction you have with others.
The essence of building a strong brand is simply
this: keeping your promises and creating great
experiences for others. You want customers to love
you, not just know who you are. You literally have
as many brands as you have customers and people who
have an impression of you. If those impressions are
bad, or if you don't keep your promises, then your
brand is weak. Consider all the brands that you may
have created without even knowing it:
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You transfer a
customer four times to different departments and she
never has her problem solved. That's your brand.
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You charge a customer
extra for something they thought was included in the
original price. That's your brand.
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You replace a
defective product but no one apologizes to the
customer for his trouble. That's your brand.
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You put a telephone
customer on hold for over a minute. That's your
brand.
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Your web site is
confusing and hard to navigate. That's your brand.
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A repeat customer for
many years comes into your store and no one greets
her by name. That's your brand.
Most feelings about brands are based on comparison.
You may think that your competitors are the other
companies that do what you do, but customers don't
limit their comparisons like that. All customers may
know is that someone else in a business completely
different from yours did something great for them
that you, in their opinion, were unwilling to do.
You may not think it's a fair comparison, but who
cares? It's the customer's call. Anything that
another company does for your customer can have a
strong influence on how she rates your brand.
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The other company
returns my calls within a couple of hours. You
usually take at least twenty-four hours.
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Everyone at the dry
cleaners knows my name. I spend about thirty dollars
a week with them. My company spends tens of
thousands of dollars every year with you and yet I
feel like you have no idea who I am.
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My stockbroker calls
me to see how I'm doing or if I have any questions
about how my stocks are performing. You only call me
when you want to sell me something.
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The owner of the
service station came out to the self-service gas
pump the other day to tell me how much he
appreciates my business. You've never made that kind
of gesture of appreciation to me.
Experiences like these are what make up an
individual's impression of you, which then becomes
your brand. The lesson that the market teaches is
that every single encounter that anyone has with you
is what ultimately makes up your brand.
It
takes an on-going commitment to take your personal
brand to the "Category of One" level. It doesn't
happen by accident. Once brand takes hold, however,
with proper attention it becomes the essence of who
you are and what you do. It transcends policy, which
enables you to transcend commodity. Brand becomes
the way you do everything, almost without thinking.
Brand is everything. One more time -- it should be
your top priority to build, protect, and represent
your brand to the best of your ability with everyone
you meet. And remember, it's all about keeping
promises and creating great experiences.
Copyright 2007 Joe Calloway
Joe Calloway
is a business
author, performance consultant, and restaurant owner
whose client list reads like a "Who's Who" in
business. From Saks Fifth Avenue and BMW to American
Express and IBM, a wide range of companies depend on
Joe for insight into today's marketplace.
Joe is on the faculty
of The Center for Professional Development at
Belmont University, and is a partner in Mirror, an
award-winning restaurant in Nashville, which was
recently featured on television's Food Network.
Sales and Marketing
Management magazine called Joe "an expert on
developing customer focused teams," and a National
Customer Services Advisory Board called Joe "one of
the most innovative and compelling people in
customer service."
Joe is the
best-selling author of Becoming a Category of One,
which received rave reviews from the New York Times,
Retailing Today and many others. He is also the
author of Indispensable: How to Become the Company
Your Customers Can't Live Without.
Joe's newest book is
Work Like You're Showing Off! -- The Joy, Jazz, and
Kick of Being Better Tomorrow Than You Were Today.
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