Chapter 23 - Building Your Brand

The author speaks to the essence of branding. Essentially, your brand represents a promise to the customer, and one that distinguishes the product or service you provide from those provided by others. The author avers that "it's about the emotional experience more than the actual experience."

(EN: That's not always true - nor is it strictly true. Primarily, it suggests that emotions aren't real or "actual." It also suggests that an emotional experience can be gradted onto an experience that is incongruous. It also suggests that anything that is not physical is emotional, which ignores or mischaracterizes any other intangible quality or benefit. So what started off well quickly turned sloppy.).

He transitions then to the notion of personal brands. We are generally aware that we have certain impressions of celebrities, and beliefs about the kind of person they are. Consider the faith that people put in Walter Cronkite, specifically, even though he merely read what was handed to him, the man accrued greater esteem than the network for which he worked. Whenever someone speaks of a revered person, present and past, they are referring to the brand, rather than the flesh-and-blood person with all their flaws and shortcomings.

Everyday people have brands as well. As we get to know a person, we associate certain characteristics to them, and those characteristics taken together become their personal brand. In that sense, personal brand is critical to a salesman: people consider the trustworthiness of the person they see, rather than the firm he represents, in deciding whether they wish to give their trust and their business.

Establishing and maintaining a brand requires consistency, and once it takes root it becomes difficult to change. The author mentions McDonald's failed attempt to sell salads and healthy foods as an example of a brand that seemed to forget its roots - and the market reminded them.