Your Brand Is Dead! Unless…

Written on May 11, 2011Apr 16, 2021 by Viktor Nagornyy | 2 mins | 6 comments

It has a personality.

Brand Personality

Brand identity is lifeless. I don’t want to identify you, I want to deal with you, let you be part of my life, be my friend, let you help me make decisions. I need you to have a personality, that’s what matters the most. That’s life, that’s unique, and that is what people respond to.

Brand personality is an excellent way to consolidate personal brand and business brand terms while eliminating “brand identity” (graphic designers can use it to talk about your logo, period).

It is the personality that matters; what really DRIVES your business and you! It’s like driving two cars with one wheel, and this is the sole item your competition can never duplicate. Personality. They can try, but they WILL fail. They don’t know what it’s like to be you.

Corporate Hypocrisy

Yes, a corporation is a person in legal terms. They get the same benefits as a real human. But when it comes to their brand, they are so far away from being “human” that even Frankenstein would not be able to give them life. Some are getting better at it, but in general, they all suck at being human.

If you want to “be human” be human! Have a personality. Have a voice. Don’t be afraid to upset people. That’s what humans do. You CAN’T make everyone happy. Someone will always be upset, deal with it. If 100% of your customers are happy, then you’re either not pushing creativity and innovation forward or your feedback communication channel is broken.

Wrong Engine

Can a car engine make an airplane fly?

Here’s my pet peeve with brands these days. The brand is driven by the marketing/PR department with a pretty face to show off. Who makes the business decisions? Marketing/PR department? The pretty spokesperson? Or the CEO/owner? You get the point.

That’s why I love Richard Branson, his personality is the company’s brand personality. Also, President Obama is another great example. He’s been criticized for doing a lot of appearances on TV, but he’s doing what most leaders (business and political) don’t do: be the face that drives their organization (or country in this case).

Personality

We don’t like dealing with brands, we like to deal with people. A personal brand is a business brand, the business brand is a personal brand. They are synonyms, that’s all they are. A better, deeper, term is the brand personality. That’s what differentiates you from the rest of the white noise; on a personal level and business level. Personality definition does not change, it remains the same.

From now on, I won’t use personal and business brand terms; you should stop too. It’s the brand personality that fascinates people. You might disagree with me, but that’s the beauty of personalities. They’re all different! They all are entitled to their own opinion.

What is your brand personality?

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Michele Price 12 years ago

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Viktor, I love p2p, yes Richard is a great example. One that I like to think I am modeling.

Many tried to tell me how to brand myself 3-4-5 years ago and I said HEY I am gonna be me and if they do not like me cool they self selected and saved us both the trouble.

Another great example is Gary Vaynerchuk.

I am seeing an interesting valley of corporate business VS entrepreneurs. They each have different dances with different code of dress and behavior. Why is it the entrepreneurs seem to be ones making a lot of money recently, why big corporations are breaking apart.

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Michele Price 12 years ago

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Viktor, I love p2p, yes Richard is a great example.Â One that I like to think I am modeling.

Many tried to tell me how to brand myself 3-4-5 years ago and I said HEY I am gonna be me and if they do not like me cool they self selected and saved us both the trouble.

Another great example is Gary Vaynerchuk.Â

I am seeing an interesting valley of corporate business VS entrepreneurs.Â They each have different dances with different code of dress and behavior.Â Why is it the entrepreneurs seem to be ones making a lot of money recently, why big corporations are breaking apart.

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Michele Price 12 years ago

Reply

Viktor, I love p2p, yes Richard is a great example.Â One that I like to think I am modeling.

Many tried to tell me how to brand myself 3-4-5 years ago and I said HEY I am gonna be me and if they do not like me cool they self selected and saved us both the trouble.

Another great example is Gary Vaynerchuk.Â

I am seeing an interesting valley of corporate business VS entrepreneurs.Â They each have different dances with different code of dress and behavior.Â Why is it the entrepreneurs seem to be ones making a lot of money recently, why big corporations are breaking apart.

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- Viktor Nagornyy 12 years ago
  
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  Hi Michele,
  Thanks for your comment. Yes, I agree with you. Corporations are too large, too uptight, and profit-driven machines. They spend a ton of money on marketing themselves as friendly, happy, friend next door. They need to stop spending money on TV commercials and instead invest money in their employees, make every single employee a brand ambassador. A janitor, security guard, mail room clerk, everyone. Especially customer service reps. Empower them to be decision makers.Â
  
  I love it when customer reps go an extra mile to help me. When I moved and needed a phone change, customer rep said I couldn’t get a number in my new area code even though my billing address changed too (keeping my current plan benefits when VerizonÂ acquiredÂ Alltel). But then he went ahead and got his manager on the call too, two of them figured a way out to give me a new number and retain my benefits.
  
  Entrepreneurs are decision makers, so they have an easier time making their customers/clients happy. Corporations need to focus on empowerment and delegation. Customer satisfaction is where profits hide.
  
  Gary V is great, still need to find the time to read his new book.
  
  Reply
Mila Araujo 12 years ago

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I love this post, very well said and your example of Branson is excellent. CEO’s are often too “busy” to get involved and once they meet and work with a PR or marketing team that they feel represents them, it becomes too easy to get back to “normal” work, and let the ship sail off on its own. I think, unfortunately its the reality, but at the same time I agree with you 100%. It would be interesting to come up with that solution – the recommended manner in which the true “personality” shines through – right now, I think its a matter of who is outgoing and truly interested vs. who is doing it just to follow the crowd or maximize sales. Personality is really going to shine through here. Its a whole new dimension of opportunity. Your post is 100% bang on. Thank you 🙂 Its great.

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- Viktor Nagornyy 12 years ago
  
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  @Milaspage:disqus Thanks for commenting Mila. Really appreciate it. CEOs need to believe in their company. Primary job of a business is to provide service or product to others, solve their problem. Profits come after that, which a lot of businesses forget. They need to stop shoving their services and products down people’s throats. Let people swallow it on their own, they will be much happier and willing to spread the word.
  
  There is no such thing as b2b or b2c, there’s only p2p. Person to person. Companies don’t make decisions, people do. And people like to deal with people. That’s why CEOs need to come out of their office and drive their brand personality.
  
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