It doesn’t matter how big your business is, or what kind of company you run. Whether we’re talking about a local taco truck, a national engineering firm, or a global consulting organization, it’s important to treat your business like a brand.
It doesn’t much matter whether you’re selling a product or a service, whether you’re working from a home office, or corporate high-rise. What matters is how your company behaves.
“A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn a reputation by trying to do hard things well.” – Jeff Bezos
Thinking about a brand as a “reputation” is the right start. Your company’s reputation is a bi-product of every single detail relative to the business you conduct on a daily basis. At the highest level and from an introductory standpoint, your business is represented through traditional “branded” assets like logos and stationery, through your digital and social presence, and by any means of marketing outreach. This same personality is further conveyed and hopefully reinforced by your people and by your company culture. How do they treat your customers? How do they treat each other?
On a more granular level, brand articulation is evident in the grammar of an email, through an onsite client interaction, and by way of the meeting follow-up, or lack thereof.
“So sure, start with a slogan. But don’t bother wasting any time on it if you’re merely going for catchy. Aim for true instead.” – Seth Godin
Slogans make sense in some instances. In others, it is really about owning your company’s truth, assuming it is truthful, and ownable. Then it’s about making sure your behavior exudes this from every pore, all the time. As Seth says, “aim for true” and build a great reputation on purpose. That’s behaving like a brand.