“Break out the branding

irons, Grandpa. The

rustlers are on the way!”

We brand cattle to keep them together. We brand businesses to set them apart. Cattle brands keep ranchers honest. Business brands (real ones) keep businesses honest.

     Surprised by that last statement? Don’t be. 

     Business brands are not just logos and slogans and motto’s and razz-matazz messages, mission statements, vision statements, jingles and names. Business brands are the intangibles that stand behind those “say-it-in-a-nutshell” communications. 

     The heart of a business brand is the integrity of the business and the management and employees and products and services that support and reinforce the images conjured up by the logos, and slogans, and mottos, and jingles, and names.

     A business brand is the honorability of the actual product or service and employee performance. It’s knowing in your heart of hearts that you as a customer can trust and have confidence in who you’re dealing with and the dollar-value you’re getting.

“The value of any brand rises or falls with each demonstration of the company’s integrity. The balance is fragile. Every slip can be costly…A service can be faster, cheaper, better, and still fail if it does not win the confidence of people that it will keep its promises and tell the truth.”

–Henry Beckwith, from SELLING THE INVISIBLE (Warner Books)

     This thinking applies to individual businesses, entire professions and industries, towns/counties/states/regions and countries. Not many years ago under dictatorship with 17 year-olds roaming the streets with machine guns, the Dominican Republic was not a travel destination with integrity.

     Revolution, democracy, appreciation of tourism dependency, and strong branding programs focused on the integrity of the land and the people have reversed the country’s demise. Today, the Dominican Republic is a great place to vacation.

     You’ve perhaps heard that one disgruntled customer tells ten other people about her or his upsets and that each of them tell ten more…yielding suddenly 100 people bad-mouthing the business.

     Put another way, if you’re open for business Monday through Friday and you have just one unhappy customer a day, you’re looking at 26,000 P.O.’d people a year saying negative things about your business. And it will take more than putting your finger in the dike to stop the flood. 

The branding that shows on the outside must be backed with integrity inside.

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Hal@TheWriterWorks.com  or comment below.

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God bless you!