Your Brand is Worthless Now But . . .

Everyone has a brand, including you. And a brand can change the world.

Less than 12 years ago, the Google brand was worth nothing. 

And Google’s search engine model wasn’t even original. Two grad students got it from Amazon.com.

Nobody thinks they have the time or creativity to think up a great brand–so most of us just try to get by without it.

We recycle some quotes, or another business’s tired old tagline.

And we get out of our brand exactly what we’ve put into it of ourselves: zilch

 

The irony is that you have a lot to communicate that people want to hear–who you are, what you know, and what you know about the people you know. Those intangible qualities are what will make your brand truly magnetic. The hard part?

 

Communicating them in sophisticated messages that are clear, concise and compelling. 

 

Messages that tell the world why you’re unique; who you are, what you know, and what you know about the people you know. 

A brand isn’t a product, like a logo. It’s a microcosm that captures you. And since you’re so valuable, it’s worth a lot to you.

For example, it will power new marketing content that’ll make you more successful because it’s so rich in relevance, proof and value.

And it will grow into a multimedia platform that can support your new business community.

Any questions?

Your Brand Isn’t About What You Do!

Image via Wikipedia

Almost every online branding “expert” repeats the same mistake as those who just started thinking about their personal or corporate brand.

We’re encouraged by so-called experts to try and squeeze a compelling personal brand out of a dry, impersonal and derivative description of our job description. It’s like  trying to get apple juice out of a potato.

Think about it for a minute. The advantage of a brand is that it sets yourself apart from the crowd. You want to show that you’re unique and memorable. A successful employee, on the other hand, does similar routine work as his or her co-workers (and if an individual truly “stands out” in their workplace? They get fired for being a loose cannon).

Operational skill and experience doesn’t define your brand. They kill it! To brand yourself,  leap clear of that rutted old career path. Embrace your intangibles–your enthusiasm or other attitude; your inclusiveness or other approach; and your intent or goals. Those fertile thoughts are where a real brand is born.

So to get a powerful brand . . . get started daydreaming.

You’re Ready To Top Nike, FedEx etc.

Cover of The Ginger Man

Amazing that so many hip business and marketing professionals seem to be stuck in a tired brick-and-mortar mindset. They’re busily strategizing the best way to knock at some business door, when they should already be tapping into the power of communities built on content.

The question isn’t whether or not to use social media, or which metrics are most reliable. Who cares?

What matters is what you have to say.

We’re all swamped by “brands” and content 24/7; and all of it’s pretty worthless. Everybody’s discussing how to execute this strategy or that. But they should be reinventing their businesses around a clear, powerful statement of their personal attitude and approach.

In my last blog post I suggested you could have a brand stronger than Nike’s. So why stand around scratching your head about the best way to maneuver a bunch of brick-and-mortar business owners into doing what you want?

It’s time to color outside the lines! With the right three words you’ll be on your way to becoming a Ginger Man–or Woman–and really raise some sand. (A tip of the hellraiser hat here to that book’s gone-but-not-forgotten author, J.P. Donleavy)

So get started on the process of crafting a brand that’ll carry you somewhere (you don’t have to figure out how to do any of this; we can talk): define your attitude, your approach . . . in other words, a passion that’s strong enough to generate sex appeal.  Step Two, define your initial audience (just get their attention the right way, and you’ll become the leader of the community they build around you). Then Step Three: make your brand incendiary by expressing your precious core message in two or three words.

Now that you have this core branding message, you can tell the world what makes you unique.

But will this core brand be better than “Just Do It?”

If you’ve done it correctly, your “Mantra” contains enough relevance, proof and value to rock the world. As clever as it is, “Just Do It” doesn’t. It is a very relevant phrase; all of us need to get moving. And it has value, because it’s a pithy reminder of  one thing we need to remember to do, but usually don’t.

The problem is there’s no there, there. No proof. I don’t know which wooded corner of Nike’s gorgeous Oregon campus that piece of advice came from. So, where’s the beef? Before I answer their brand’s call, as a picky consumer I need compelling evidence that someone who “just does it” actually came up with the phrase.

Some clever New York adsmith probably thought it up, which means the Nike tribe or community isn’t for me. I’d rather align myself with one of Nike’s competitors if their brand is rich with relevance, proof and value. Because that’s a leader I can believe in!

So what are you waiting for? Get moving and Just Do It (just joking folks!).

Is Your Brand Stronger Than Nike’s?

If you want a great brand, recognize the wide gap between the typical “branding statement” and a truly effective core branding statement. A good core statement will get you much better results; it tells people why you are unique. And it’s rich with relevance, proof and real value.

A successful core branding statement–what I call a “Mantra”–is about what really makes us successful. Don’t waste your time describing your “execution” or operational skills. Those say nothing about your unique qualities.

And don’t just take it from me. Every serious business coach since Peter Drucker has told us that execution or operational expertise won’t buy you business success (Seth Godin: “No one ever succeeded because of execution tactics learned from a Dummies book.”).

Strategy has more to do with success than any execution tactic. At least it helps us decide which tactics can work. But strategy isn’t enough, either. You must go deeper than strategy and identify clearly defined goals. Then keep going deeper. Don’t stop until you have a clear, concise and compelling expression of  your unique attitude and approach.

Intangibles like attitude, approach and goals are the true foundation of our success, and should take center stage in your branding statement. Any so-called “brand” that summarizes your job description, or how you do your job, is only describing the least important element of success. A brand based on execution or operations is basically another tagline.

Most of what we consider very successful branding statements are also incomplete. “Just Do It” seems effective, because it addresses attitude and approach. Yet it doesn’t have all three legs of any successful marketing statement–relevance, proof and value. Where’s the proof?

My next blog will be about creating your own personal brand that’s actually stronger than Just Do It! Stay tuned.

Positive Thinking Is Still Just Thinking

Chances are you’ve tried to use the best “self-help” resources out there to help your business grow. Just this morning, I joined a few dozen people to listen to a very engaging and well-known professional expert explain his selling techniques.

The audience applauded and nodded the whole time; the question is, what did they go out and do after giving up a whole morning to get educated on sales and personal branding? Chances are, little to nothing.

You can listen all morning every day to motivating presentations, and the afternoons reading books. But if listening and reading is all you do, all of it is frankly a waste of time.

One problem with acquiring a lot of information is that it’s just a lot of information; it’s not easy to get a handle on it, which in turn means it isn’t likely to cause even a ripple in your lifestyle or business strategy.

A marketing mantra, being simple (if not always easy), is much easier to maintain a positive focus on and internalize. The jury’s out on “positive thinking;” it may or may not be productive. There’s no question, however, that it is by definition a thinking activity. And thinking isn’t your goal; positive action is.

You’ll still have to translate a Marketing Mantra into action; but because it’s short on verbiage, it lends itself to translation more readily than a Value Proposition or similar professional motivators’ pet topics.

So get a Marketing Mantra and get moving!

Personal Branding, Impersonal

Personal branding is a great idea. But you can’t do it and feel safe at the same time.

A famous writer called his profession easy–to paraphrase, he said he just had to “open his veins and bleed all over the page.” If that’s true of something as mundane as expository writing (which it is), how much more true is it of expressing who you are at the deepest level?

To most of us, personal branding means trying to act brave about exposing your innermost values and essence, while hiding behind someone else’s tired old cliches. One very intelligent friend of mine exclaimed on her blog that she loved one business’s professed “core values” so much, she was going to make them her own. What made this such a disingenuous statement was that first, you can’t just adopt someone’s core values as your own; and secondly, a closer inspection would have told her that what the chic company was declaring as “core values” were actually just a set of fairly trite customer service guidelines and office policies.

It’s true that a sincere, well-considered personal branding statement can be a powerful way of sharing your vision with the world. Unfortunately, most of what passes for such statements are actually shabby billboards that companies use to hide their lack of originality and business energy.