Just what is a brand? How does it relate to customer loyalty? Can you control a brand? Can you build customer loyalty? Does it matter?

I argue that brand is what happens when your customers become loyal. A brand is the name that encapsulates customer loyalty. Amazon didn’t have a brand until they had customers who were loyal. That’s the moment when they became Amazon, and were no longer just a cheap bookseller. That brand allowed them to buy into the world of publishing AND while the customer loyalty allowed them to begin selling cleaning supplies.

A brand is like a savings account that pays interest. You make deposits by delivering on your promises. Just like a savings account though, you can draw the funds down. Apple did this in the 90’s by breaking promises. By the time Jobs walked in to rescue the day, Apple’s brand balance was negative. In fact, he used his own “Steve Jobs” brand to loan a bit to Apple.

He was able to take that tiny balance and by sheer force of will, energize the whole company. As a group, they then focused on a single thing. Quality of experience. That is the Apple promise, and that is what they deliver.

Amazon promised a great book buying experience and that’s what they deliver. To this day, buying a book on Amazon is fun. It is painless. So is buying a new home theater. That is their promise and they deliver.

Dell’s promise is very different. Dell promises to be the best deal. They promise to never be a waste of money. They aren’t the quickest. They won’t even guarantee a delivery date, but you always know it’s a good deal. They are the Honda of the PC world. It may not be the flashiest, but damn if it doesn’t start every time!

My experience is that when you tell people what they want to hear, it never works out. Brand is what happens when you tell people what you believe and then you deliver it. Not everyone will want to hear it, but those who do will buy and they will love you.

Two cents worth…

As a spiritual buddhist at heart, I find myself very leery of organized religion and the legislation of actions between consenting adults.  With that said, I agree that a large percentage of Americans (US Citizens too) define the United States as a christian country.  Christian or otherwise, I consider freedom of religion and separation of church and state to be the single thing that has allowed our country to survive for more than 200 years.  What do I really mean by that?  Our legal system identifies morality, separate from religion.  This is what allows two people from differing religious viewpoints to be in the same courtroom.

In the US, many christians have felt the need to equate religion and morality.  The two are overlapping circles on a vin diagram at best though.  Many religions, christianity, judaism and islam especialy, commit incredible acts of oppression in the name of god, yet still feel the right to imply that I am not a moral being because I don’t embrace an organized religion.

When they equate religion and morality, people are abdicating their moral responsibilities to a “higher power”, or worse yet, to a religious entity.  Deaths and atrocities seem to follow.  I just read, “The Places in Between” about a trek from Herat to Kabul undertaken on foot by a single Scottish guy three months after 9/11.  One of the things that stands out the most is the death in the name of islam by people who haven’t ever read the Koran (it can’t really be translated out of Arabic) nor questioned it.

Morality is a complex and layered thing, and religion is about “faith”, often in impossible things (miracles).  Wonderful and Terrible things are and have been done in the name of gods, but few deeply moral solutions to human suffering seem to have come about.  Morality is about loading the scales of justice and using logic, while religion is about the aforementioned miracles and divine intervention.

In many cases, religion may be a great way to become a moral being, but religion and morality take opposing roads regularly (birth control comes to mind quickly as lack of birth control is a direct cause of overpopulation and death by hunger).  People are judged not by who and what they espouse to follow, but by the intentions and results of their actions.

So you can think of the US as a christian nation if it gives you comfort, and I’ll fight for your right to live that way.  But only with the assumption that you will fight for my right to view it as a secular government.  AND, I’ll fight for the right of anyone to have their own religion, as long as it never compels anyone else to join or live under it!

Ben

So Mike Rowe has some advice on a “Prison” workout.  Were you a CEO at AIG?  Bernie Maddof, are you reading this?  Did you invent some new esoteric financial product about 15 years ago?  Perfect.  Here’s some advice on staying fit in prison!

Mike Rowe’s Prison Workout

Actually, I’m just kidding.  If you were one of those people, you’re going to get yours pretty darn quick in prison would be my guess.  But enjoy your time while you still have it!

Tom Peter’s blog has a great post from Steve Yarrow today.  One that comes to mind every time I hear a the “Across the Board” statement.  Basically, he is saying that any time you hear, Across the Board Cuts, you should be leary and call the person out.

While I’m not sure it is always a good career move to call your boss (or her boss’s boss) out, the thought is spot on.  What you should be doing, just like in good times, is taking a hard look at ops and expenses throughout the organization.  Across the Board should refer to the look, not the cuts.

Maybe you can’t afford an expensive gamble project right now.  Maybe however you have a new team looking at making an investment to save you 10%.  That team probably shouldn’t get cut right now!  Not to be too heavy on Tom today, but Tom posted another one today about Warren Buffet and his investment rule about understanding every company in which he invests.  Same thing here.

You have to understand something to invest in it, internally or externally, and you had better understand things before you cut them!  Just a thought!