BRANDS!
There's a lot of talk surrounding the term, "BRAND". People are throwing it around loosely these days. Build your "BRAND". What type of "BRAND" do you have? What type of "BRAND" do you want to build? Generic "BRAND" vs Name "BRAND? What's the difference? Does it really matter which you buy?
I must admit, I talk to my clients all the time about building your BRAND as an employee/job seeker. What type of employee would you like to be known for? What makes you different from everyone else who has the same skill set as you.
From a company standpoint, there aren't many companies out here that solely offer a service. I mean, think about it. There's Chipotle and Qdoba. McDonalds and Burger King. Mr. Tire and Tires Plus. Dominos and Pizza Hut. I could go on and on. At some point, as a consumer, you should ask yourself; "what makes me choose one over the other?" In my personal opinion, a brand can be created by many things such as quality, customer service, convenience, or price. Whichever it is, that's what make up that particular company's BRAND. Prime example. If you've ever noticed when you go to Chik-Fil-A and you say "Thank You". Their response will be "My Pleasure" instead of the common "You're Welcome". That's apart of their BRAND. You'll also notice, they only play Gospel music in their restaurant. BRAND.
I'll speak of two examples regarding brand. I'm a Facilitator/Trainer & Developer for persons attempting to re-enter the workforce. I train them in areas such as interviewing skills, resume writing, conflict resolution skills, etc. These clients are with me for 30 days. After that, they go to another service provider that has another person who does something similar. Last week, a group of my clients came to visit me telling me a story about their new facilitator saying, "I'm better than Mr. McGee." Long story short, MY CLIENTS WENT OFF! They practically started a riot in my defense and on my behalf (haha). Although myself and this person offered the same service; our delivery, style, and everything in between was different. We had different brands and to my clients, mine was the more favorable (*fist pump*).
My next example is centered around the release of the iPhone 4s. I tend to ask myself, whenever people try to down talk any Apple product, "when was the last time you've seen people lined up outside over the latest Droid or Blackberry?" By no means am I downplaying either of those markets, but it is a valid question. Feel free to answer. I was conversing with my uncle about the Siri feature and his response was, "Droid been had that feature." I didn't think until later, "Why hadn't I ever heard about it? and Why hasn't anyone been speaking so highly of it?" I believe it's because of the BRAND it's connected to. The Apple BRAND has been nothing short of perfection (in my opinion). Go into Panera Bread or a Starbucks and take a look around. As a matter of fact, I was in Atlanta two weeks ago for Catalyst. Throughout the entire Gwinett Arena, there was nothing but Apple products (iPhones, iPod touches, MacBooks/Pros, and iPads). If I collected ALL the Apple products there, I'd probably be able to retire!
What's your personal BRAND? What BRANDS do you like? What Say you?