A brand is not a tangible thing. It can be valued, but
cannot be owned. A brand is the collective sentiment felt about you or your
product. Since we’re talking about personal branding, we're talking about you.
When somebody conjures up your name, what comes to mind? Are you reliable,
trustworthy, fun, exciting, honest, hard-working, respectful, etc.? At its
core, branding is fairly simple—its’ setting an expectation or set of
expectations and then either failing to meet, meeting, or exceeding those
expectations. Strong brands are strong because we know what to expect from
them. Stronger brands are stronger because they exceed your expectations.
Participating in their brand says something about us and our tribes. There’s a
reason for the saying, “You're only as good as the company you keep.”
Zappos is commonly
referred to as the gold start of customer service. They have a brand that is
centered around providing a superior experience for the people who choose their
business. We can spend money on all sorts of design (and we should), but word
of mouth will make or break your brand. Trust is paramount. Don’t try to ‘create
a brand’ based on what you think people want. Instead, it will be well worth
your time to more fully and deeply understand who you are at the core of your
being, learn your strengths, passions, values, and talents, and then work on
contributing to the world around you.
In an article that
appeared in AdAge, executive vice president of
Nielsen Online Digital Strategic Services Pete Blackshaw writes:
Zappos is a game changer, and it
found value -- and ferocious word-of-mouth and brand advocacy -- in a place
most of us leave for dead and certainly don't consider even close to being a media
channel: customer service. They took this "cost center" input and
turned it into an unassailable asset, fortified by the founder-CEO's sometimes
"cult-like" (arguably irrational, by the typical marketing book)
obsession with serving the consumer at all costs. It wasn't flaky. He
approached this with focus, discipline, real incentives and an obsession over a
"different" set of numbers. (Is
Customer Service a Media Channel? Ask Zappos, 2009)
