Game-changer: Living and loving your brand
Posted on 26. Mar, 2010 by Kelly Hobkirk in Branding.
Do you love your brand?
You might be thinking, ‘What? No, I don’t love my brand! It’s a marketing tool. It’s made up, created by some artsy graphic designer. I love my spouse, my kids, but my brand? Heck no!’
That’s OK, but write this down as something you need to think about changing.
Do you live your brand? Chances are you do. And if you live it, you are connected with it. If you are connected with it, you might well love it, even if you don’t know it.
Loving your brand is absolutely essential to your business success. If you don’t love your brand, no one else will either. And that’s really the whole purpose of a brand – to be loved.
You don’t have to hug and snuggle up with it each night, but you do need to share your deepest thoughts with your brand. You need to have an inner dialog with it (you probably already do). Your brand dialog is what you think each time you connect with your brand.
A picture of negative brand
Many years ago, I worked for a company that essentially had a negative brand. They had a logo that beat people down within the company and discouraged customers from buying into the brand. The logo was an icon of a setting sun, most often presented in blood red or black. It had nothing to do with their industry, and it presented a negative metaphor, which ironically rang true. No one ever knew if they would have a job the next week, and customers didn’t know if they would be able to get service or warranty repairs.
When you talked with the salespeople, they were focused solely on short-term sales. They wheeled and dealed and almost always lowered their selling price. To listen to them, their selling sounded strained and almost sleazy. No matter who was hired in the role of manager, that person openly said that they did not believe in the company. Accounting was regularly tasked with cooking the books for the financiers. The receptionist, in full view of the retail entrance, had the bizarre duty of peeling off non-canceled stamps from returned postcards – ostensibly to save money.
I am not making this up.
Do you have a mental picture of this company? Now think about if you worked there. How much would you love your job? Really – how much? Chances are, you would hate your job at that company. You would be rocketing your resume out all over town. You would be there for no other reason than to collect a paycheck. Your inner brand dialog would harm your motivation and performance.
It starts at the top
Here’s the kicker: All of these negative duties and dialogs come from the top. If the top dog doesn’t believe in their brand, employees won’t either. If you are infusing any negativity into your brand, it trickles down, and your clients and prospects will see and feel it. Your brand’s negative messages give people pause.
If you’re reading this, chances are you are an entrepreneur, president, marketing director, or VP at your company, or at the very least, you are probably in a position to directly effect your brand, leading by example.
Learning to love your brand requires more than just stating it – you have to truly live it. You have to make it permeate every aspect of your professional dialog. When you do that, you can shape a positive brand experience for everyone. It’s truly game-changing stuff.
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