Saturday, December 6, 2008

Who is building your brand?

Here is the thing: Everyone who represents your organization is contributing to your brand reputation. Everyone.

Not just sales people or the receptionist or your spouse at a community event -- everyone. Your most discontented employee is building your brand for you right now. At the grocery store, at a little league baseball game, at church, at lunch. That has got to terrify you.

And not just employees but current customers, former customers, people who have just heard "something" about your organization. That doesn't even begin to consider what your competition may be telling your customers about you. Now, there's something to think about at 2 a.m., huh?

Nowadays, it is even more critical to relentlessly pursue building, enhancing, and maintaining your brand to those who have potential to do business with you or influence those who might consider your organization for future business. Trust me -- if you have a vulnerability in your brand, it is going to surface and hurt you when it does.

Your most discontented employee is building your brand for you right now. That has got to terrify you.

So, it may be worth thinking about who is building your brand, how they are building it, and if you can influence their construction.

Unfortunately, tough economic times give some organizations an excuse to reduce their investment in brand-building and that puts them at more risk than any recession ever could.

The bottom line: Representatives --> Reputation.

[Photo used under the Creative Commons License courtesy of Flickr.]

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