A brand is….
“It’s what people say about you when you’re not in the room ” - Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon
Consumers’ perception of your brand is determined by the manner and consistency in which you convey the attributes it is supposed to represent via marketing communications. Key word = CONSISTENCY CONSISTENCY CONSISTENCY!!
This means if you’re Arianna Huffington or Al Gore you shouldn't’t preach environmentalism, and then show up to a Sierra Club event in a posse of gas guzzling SUVs. Or if you are a Continental flight attendant and you fall asleep on the plane wearing a JetBlue sleeping mask (as I witnessed this past week).
Sleepy Continental flight attendant wearing JetBlue "Bliss" sleep mask...what type of message is that?
As I develop the brand behind my product these are a few of the words I live by:
- The brand is a promise of what the organization represents, and it cannot choose to be one thing to one audience and something else to another. Your brand idea runs through everything you do (including the people who work for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*
- You can’t escape your brand, either you make the customer experience, or it gets made without you
- A brand is a promise that’s built over time through trust – inspiring loyalty without question
* A brand's prime advocates are the employees that work for them, and if they can't get it right, then who the hell can? (think about Apple "Geniuses" vs. Verizon's really bad cell phone sales people)
No comments:
Post a Comment