What do these names have in common?
Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump, Martha Stuart & Arnold Schwarzenegger?
They all encompass their belief systems in what they do. They live and breath what they sell, do or communicate.
Oprah is the queen of emotive issues & media
Donald is the king of ‘real estate bling’ & making it big, the comeback kid
Martha is the queen of aspiration & homemaking
Arnold is Mr Olympia, come Terminator, come Governator
In short, they are the brand personified. They took what they personified and built a business around it.
It’s not so different with a start up. We shouldn’t pretend we have a brand in the early days. What we have is a product, service or name. Brands take years to build. In the short term the only brand we have is ourselves.
What we say, represent, believe and create will essentially be extended into our brand franchise.
This is good news. In the short term it means we’re in control of the initial brand experience, because it’s a personal one. One on one interactions with customers and colleagues. What they think of us, will be what they think of our brand and more importantly, what they tell others.