Branding

“Post-It Note” Your Brand

On January 15, 2010, In Branding, Personal Brand, Professional Development, Purpose, brand you, By DUST!N

We’ve talked about the difficulty in discerning your unique, personal brand.

Here’s an exercise that can help you see a snapshot of your life and/or career, and ultimately help you define the ‘Brand Called You’ (ala Tom Peters).

Post-It Note Timeline

First, you’ll need three colors of Post-It Notes. In this example, we’ll be using

Yellow

Red

and Blue

And you’ll also need a sheet of poster board. 11 x 17 inches is a good size, but you can make it smaller or larger depending on how much information you want on the board.

Step 1: Brain Dump

The first step is to write significant events from your life (or career) onto the yellow post-it notes. Don’t worry about following a pattern or order. We’ll deal with that next.

Step 2: Order

Now you should have a group of significant events to work with. Place your post-it notes on the poster board. Take time to add events, filter out irrelevant events, and/or put items into chronological order. You may start to see patterns emerge or related events in a grouping or repeated cycles throughout many years.

If you see ‘chapters’ emerging in your life, you may group those together into the same column or stop a column when a chapter ends.

Step 3: Seeing Red

Take anything that has negative connotations and transcribe it to a red post-it note.

Replace the yellow note on your board. Now you may notice periods which were difficult in your life. You may also notice how these negative events affected the events that followed (even beneficially at times).

Step 4: Lessons Learned

Now, look at each chapter of your life/career. Try and discern what overriding lesson you learned in that time. Write a summary or title of that lesson on a blue post-it note.

Then place the blue post-it notes below each chapter in your timeline.

Step 5: Share It

The final step is to share your story with others. If you’re married, you might try it on your spouse first. Otherwise, share it with a close friend or relative. They’ll be pretty honest with you about what they found interesting or what you left out (or should leave out next time).

The more you share your story with others, the more comfortable you will be sharing your life experiences and lessons with people.

In the end though, you should be able to see what events have shaped your life… helping you see your personal brand. One that is unique and incredible. Just like you.

Thanks to Dave Jewitt at Your One Degree for sending me this process.

Boldly be yourself!

The Race and The Chase

On December 18, 2009, In Personal Brand, Professional Development, Purpose, Success, brand you, human spirit, By DUST!N

Do you remember chasing anything as a kid?

… chasing friends while playing tag.
… chasing your pet dog as he was running away with the chew toy.
… chasing your dad around the house, eventually falling in a heap on the couch and ending in a tickle fight.

At some point, many of us grow out of chasing and sign up for the (rat)race instead. We…

… race to a job before others can beat us to it.
… race against our peers to get the better car, bigger house and “perfect family.”
… race against time to try and find significance before it passes us by.

Simply running a race lacks passion. What can you do to rediscover yours? Maybe you just forgot what you were chasing. Maybe you need to know your red rubber ball. “Discover your passion and chase it for a lifetime.” As Kevin Carroll says.

Before you can do that though, ask yourself the question. “Am I just running? Or am I chasing something?”

That’s a good (even if it’s scary) place to start.

Embracing Embarrassment

On November 6, 2009, In Personal Brand, Purpose, human spirit, By DUST!N

Fear of failure is overrated.

We don’t care as much about failing as we care about being embarrassed.

Picture yourself on a baseball team. If there wasn’t a chance of losing the game, it wouldn’t be nearly as exciting to play hardball. The mantra is, “Win as a team and lose as a team.” Still, no one wants to be the batter who watches strike three pass by or the infielder who fails to snag an easy grounder ala Bill Buckner. The embarrassment would simply be too much.

Now picture yourself on a business team. If every business decision made was guaranteed success, it wouldn’t be nearly as exciting. If your group doesn’t hit their numbers, hopefully you can absorb the hit, adjust and go on. Still, no one wants to be the one who launches an unconventional marketing campaign that fails to get a response, or the champion for the product that flops. The embarrassment would simply be too much.

Do you believe in something you haven’t acted on? Is there something amazing stirring inside of you, but you quiet it because it scares you?

There are ideas and dreams inside of us, tied up by our fears and insecurities. Innovations and glorious endeavors never begun because we fear embarrassment as an individual.

We resign ourselves to “lose as a team” instead.

By the way, Bill Buckner was not a failure. Amazingly, he ended his (over 20 year) career just 285 hits shy of 3,000. This (near) milestone is so great, baseball enthusiasts created a term for it… The 3,000 Hit Club. Only 27 players achieved 3,000 hits, while still only 88 players reached 2,500 hits since the inception of the league in 1869.

The Onus of Loyalty

On October 24, 2008, In Customer Experience, By DUST!N

When you hear “customer loyalty,” what do you imagine?

The Happy Couple
The customer gleefully spending all their money with you out of some sense of belonging.

The Ol’ Ball & Chain
The customer is locked into a relationship with you because of terms and conditions or simply a lack of better choices.

The Gold Digger
The customer only stays with you because of the ‘gifts’ you give them. Once the flow of giving stops, so does the love.

I saw a billboard for U.S. Cellular the other day. It read, “We Believe Loyalty Matters.”

It was unclear what they meant by that and it made me think. I wondered, “Whose loyalty matters?”

Businesses today are so focused on creating customer loyalty. It is a lofty goal to aspire to be such a great company that people will not leave you for a lower price or better rewards program. How do you do that? Which above version of customer loyalty do you pursue?

What if we completely changed our vision of customer loyalty to something like this:

Be loyal to our customers.

Now, what does that change?

Living Among Critics

On October 10, 2008, In Personal Brand, Persuasion, Professional Development, Society, brand you, human spirit, By DUST!N

Last night, I attended a meeting held by my daughter’s teacher. She was explaining the structure of the class and led us through some sample exercises she uses with the students.

Occasionally, she called upon us parents for volunteers to read or give answers.

I was stunned by the silence and awkward glances downward.

The teacher shared her observation that her students were much more eager to participate than their parents.

It gave me pause to wonder – why were we so hesitant to speak up, give answers… hesitant to take even the smallest risk? Much has been said of our fear of failure, but failure was not the deciding factor here. It’s not like our success would be dictated by how well we read “See Jane run.”

How come parents paused when our children would have eagerly spoken up?

I think somewhere between 3rd grade and our 3rd year of college, we have been beaten, chiseled, hardened and restrained by perpetual criticism. We’re a cynical society. We make snide remarks all the time about someone’s speech impediment, religious affiliation, choice of wardrobe or choice of friends. The constant wear has made us paranoid… even as adults.

It’s obvious in politics. Candidates like McCain, Palin, Obama and Biden know the very words they speak will be used in an attempt to hang them later. But should they let the critics dictate their speeches, let alone their policies?

How about you? Are you paranoid because of living among critics? And how much power do you give them over your life?

Top 5 Ways Advertisers Use Camouflage

On July 25, 2008, In Ad Agency, Advertising, Branding, Marketing, Tulsa, Tulsa Ad Agency, Viral Marketing, Word of Mouth, By DUST!N

The military spends tons of money to make something blend in and then loses it. Sounds pretty stupid when the army does it, yet advertisers do something even more inept. They spend an insane amount of money buying ad space to get attention, but then camouflage their ads. They still remain invisible because of clutter, attention-spans (Oh, look, there’s a bird!) and generic messages.

Top 5 Ways Advertisers Use Camouflage:

1. Look like the competition.

Ads should highlight what makes you special. To quote the Incredibles, “When everyone is special, then no one is.” That’s especially true when everyone tries to be special in the exact same way.

This Reebok ad is very similar to the Nike ad below (10 years before the Reebok ad).

(source: AdPulp)

Let me emphasize this point.

One of my clients has an employee who previously worked for the competition. Before I worked with this client, their ads were very similar to their biggest competitor’s spots. The employee said before we came in and changed my client’s ads, the competition always knew when my client was advertising because they had more shoppers coming in THEIR doors.

By looking like their competition, my client was sending customers to ‘the enemy.’

2. Advertise where all the competition is.

Why do advertisers have to be right next to their competition? It’s like the CEO went to the marketing department and said, “Castrol is on a NASCAR, why aren’t we?” So then their logo is slapped next to MOROSO and something unreadable (even in a close-up) typed in a script font.

What if you had the audience to yourself, like Sweet Pete’s Bicycle:

(source: Guerrilla Promos)

You get an audience all to yourself.

Likewise, an motor oil company could “rent” a parking spot from their local Auto Zone. Place a temporary sign stating the spot is reserved for users of their product because their engine runs better, fewer leaks, etc.

3. Being irrelevant.

Who cares:

How long your furniture store has been in business?
You’re the #1 car dealer in the metro area?
Your kid is in your TV ad?

When creating your ad, only think and talk of yourself and the customer never will.

Think and talk about the customer and your relationship with them, and they’ll reciprocate.

4. Never change the ‘wrapping paper’.

Has anything changed in your business over the last five years? I would guess so. Then why are you running the same ads?

First, those who didn’t respond to your message yet, won’t.

Second, maybe some responded and didn’t like it. Now they think nothing changed and they’ll still be dissatisfied.

I’m not saying you have to change the brand message, but give it some new wrapping paper every once in a while. If you have a powerful enough message, then it should have legs to adapt.

5. Basically… play it safe.

Being different seems risky. But being the same is even riskier.

“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”
— General Eric Shinseki, retired Chief of Staff, U. S. Army

—————–

If you’re going to spend money, time and effort crafting a message… don’t throw it all away by painting it camouflage.

Communers and Commuters

On December 7, 2007, In Customer Experience, Word of Mouth, By DUST!N

A friend of mine was considering a position as pastor of a church. The church is an hour or so away. He declined the position because of the distance. My wife said the church probably would want someone who lived in their community anyway.

She’s right. Not only is proximity an issue, but there’s something comforting in another person knowing the “hole-in-the-wall” restaurant we love or the fact we had a relative in the obituary this morning. Not because we told them, but because they experienced it… they saw it.

Don’t we all want that? We want communers at our table, not commuters interrupting our lives. When we go to buy hiking equipment, we want an experienced hiker to help us find what we need. But more than that, how comforting is it to hear, “I remember my first hike. I wish I had one of these smaller backpacks. I wore myself out carrying too many unnecessary items. Since you’re going on a weekend hike, I’d recommend keeping your load light.”

As marketers (which we all are, to a degree), we have to remember this.

Do we drive in, drop off our marketing message, then speed back home? Or do we take the time to experience real community with our customers? Do we experience a part of their lives? Eat from their table? Drink from their cup?

Our agency helped a client develop a customer advisory board. We brought in 15 of their top customers, fed them dinner and discussed the company, the community and the customers. It was eye-opening. Assumptions were shattered and revelations came forth.

We made new friends and discovered something new about ourselves. I’m so glad we did it.

Try to commune with your customers. I think you’ll be amazed at the information, insight, and loyalty you gain.

Potential

On December 7, 2007, In Human Resources, Personal Brand, Purpose, By DUST!N

Hope you had a great November. I’m glad to be back on my blog. ~~Something is wrong with previous comments. They disappeared. I’m trying to fix it.~~ Is feexed.

During a recent lunch with a friend, he asked me, “What do you believe Dustin?”

I thought for a moment, then his cell phone rang. I was grateful for the time to ponder his question as he took the call.

There’s something powerful that happens when you ask yourself what you believe. The moment seemed filled with mystery and depth.

I realized this: I believe there is incredible, untapped potential inside each person. Most people never reach that potential. They are bound by something. Maybe a hurt, a habit or a false story they tell themselves over and over again.

I believe, at our core, we all desire to see that potential unleashed – yet on the surface it scares us to death.

We’re afraid of reaching that potential and then discovering it wasn’t enough. It didn’t matter. I was rejected. I failed anyway.
We’re afraid of others reaching their potential also. What if he won’t need me anymore? Maybe others will think she’s better than me.

So, we bind them up.

I believe companies and organizations do this all the time. We create rules to a game we don’t even understand. Then we expect everyone else to follow them.

“You can’t move to that square, you don’t have seniority.”

I think we hire, promote and fire people for the wrong reasons.

I believe we condition people to be something they’re not… then reward them for it.

The word ’standardize’ makes me want to puke!

I believe there’s a way for people to be set free…

…and I believe it is worth the effort. Every bit of it.

Acronymania

On October 5, 2007, In Customer Experience, By DUST!N

Kem posted:

What is it with the human need to turn everything into an acronym? Really. I cut this out of a magazine I was flipping through last week about, of all things, CUSTOMER SERVICE.

acronymphobia

Branding in the Third Person

On August 17, 2007, In Branding, Personal Brand, brand you, By DUST!N

Personal branding can be tricky. It’s difficult to see yourself objectively. It can be hard to judge yourself fairly without overestimating or underestimating your talent or ability. You’ve probably seen self-proclaimed ‘gurus’ who seem laughable, while more impressive people fail to give themselves any credit.

Formulating who you are is hard because it’s like the investigator trying to investigate himself. Biases and personal agendas cloud good judgment.

Try this when discerning your personal brand: Think in the third person.

View yourself from the outside, not the inside. See what others observe when they look at you. As you recall life events that affected the course of your life, replay them like scenes in a movie and yourself as a character. You may see something totally new you never noticed before.

I have an encounter I replay in my head occasionally. I’m embarrassed every time I think about the immature things I said to other people that day. By viewing the situation in third person, I see how that was an atypical day for me and I’ve grown since then. By recalling the scene in first person, I relive the feelings and perceptions I had that day – making me believe I still act that way.

This New York Times article describes how people see themselves differently when they view past events in the third person. Researchers see this as an important step in self discovery.

Seeing oneself as acting in a movie or a play is not merely fantasy or indulgence; it is fundamental to how people work out who it is they are, and may become.

â€œThe idea that whoever appeared onstage would play not me but a character was central to imagining how to make the narrative: I would need to see myself from outside,â€ the writer Joan Didion has said of â€œThe Year of Magical Thinking,â€ her autobiographical play about mourning the death of her husband and her daughter. â€œI would need to locate the dissonance between the person I thought I was and the person other people saw.â€

This might be considered superficial or shallow. It’s not. Your internal perspective will still influence your external view of yourself. Seeing yourself in the third person will give you a more complete picture of who you are… and help you create a more complete personal brand.

A Plug for Our Plugs

On July 27, 2007, In Ad Agency, Advertising, Customer Experience, My Reel, Tulsa, Tulsa Ad Agency, Viral Marketing, By DUST!N

A few weeks ago, I was doing research on eHarmony commercials. I thought I’d show you what we did with that research.

These were some fun TV ads we created for a Tulsa area business. It really fits their brand, since they’re known for matching people with just the right appliances. We’re hoping to build on this concept.

Battling the Generic Brand

On July 13, 2007, In Branding, Personal Brand, Professional Development, Purpose, Society, By DUST!N

I’ve loved, I’ve laughed and cried
I’ve had my fill, my share of losing
And now, as tears subside, I find it all so amusing
To think I did all that
And may I say, not in a shy way,
“Oh, no, oh, no, not me, I did it my way“

- Frank Sinatra, My Way

As popular as it is, I know there’s a lot of people who don’t like that song. They find it arrogant and self-centered. And, left to itself, I suppose it is.

But, isn’t there something inside you that says, “Yeah, that’s what I want.”?

I think we all have that. I also believe we were each created with a unique purpose in life. And if we truly seek out “our way” we will have to tap into that purpose we were given… not just selfish desires.

Very few of us do, though. Instead, we look for some sort of standardization to make us comfortable. What would a good business leader do in this circumstance? What would a good mom do here? What would a good husband say now?

We look to the generic.

We even ask “What would Jesus do?” or WWJD for short. Maybe asking this is a good step in the right direction toward finding a moral compass, but I don’t know what a first century carpenter would do about managing his email inbox or explaining the birds and the bees to his daughter.

Models, mentors and case studies are great. But it seems like we’re starving for a means of expressing “our way.” We personalize our iPods, coffee, t-shirts, Scions and stuffed animals. I think it’s because we’re living generic lives.

Have you ever asked, “How was I created to deliver this presentation?” Or “What talents and experience can I use to show my husband how much I love him?” Maybe you’ll choose a personal story over a PowerPoint slide. Or you’ll eschew the Hallmark card in favor of writing a song from your heart.

May you say, not in a shy way, you did it Your Way.

What’s Your Story(line)

On July 6, 2007, In Branding, Marketing, Word of Mouth, By DUST!N

Great article by Guy Kawasaki explaining Lois Kelley’s Nine Best Story Lines for Marketing.

I would probably add one more story line… Leaving Ruin. These are stories of the pheonix rising from the ashes. How a person, group or organization survived certain peril. How they turned the ship around when all seemed lost. This story can be similar to David vs. Goliath, but it doesn’t have to be the little guy. It could be how IBM reinvented itself or the story of a successful man who lost everything to alcoholism… only to rediscover what is truly important in life and fights to get it back.

Read the article. Let me know what you think. Which story is yours? And as Guy asks, which story SHOULD be yours?

SnapThoughts (6/29/07)

On June 29, 2007, In Advertising, Creativity, Customer Experience, Ideas, Word of Mouth, snapthoughts, By DUST!N

As a fun little riff, I thought I’d share with you a variety of snapshots from my cell phone and a few thoughts on each:

Whisper Phone

This is called a Whisper Phone. Our daughter’s elementary school teacher showed it to us at a parent/teacher conference. Children use the whisper phone so they can hear themselves read out loud, but not disturb the other students. Our innovative teacher had created hers out of PVC materials and spend less than a dollar on each phone. The manufactured versions retail for about $8.

Homemade Tuna Salad?

Interesting how homemade is a style instead of a process now. Trust me, Ryan did not make this at his home. If it were homemade, you think it would come with a mass-produced sign containing a registration mark?

Boise Football

OK, who was the genius who decided to use Boise State quartertback Jared Zabransky to promote NCAA 08 in Oklahoma Wal-Marts?

I understand he’s on the cover of the game, but don’t they realize Boise State upset OU last year in the Fiesta Bowl (it was an amazing game, by the way)? I would think the promotional materials, if not the game cover itself, would be made as appealing as possible to each region it’s shipped. A Big XII player would have been much more appropriate. But being an Oklahoma State fan, I find this rather humorous.

White Fluffy Cat
I’m sorry, but I have a hard time sympathizing (literally) with someone who doesn’t put the name of their pet on their sign.

Apple Store - Woodland Hills

Tulsa is finally getting an Apple Store! This one is within just a few miles of my home. It won’t be done in time for the iPhone debut today. Below are the construction photos I took through a hole in the facade (geek alert).

Apple Store - Woodland Hills Mall

Looks like we’ll be waiting a bit longer for our Apple Store to be fully operational.

Buy One Get One?
Why have this sign at all if the exclusions are so broad? Why not put stickers on the Quarts that do come with a free pint? Of course this same frozen custard shop locked the doors behind us at 9:45 when their sign stated they close at 10:00. They had a bucket of mop water on the customer side of the counter (YUM!). They turned the outdoor lights out as we were enjoying our deserts al fresco. Guess they were in a hurry. Too bad we inconvenienced them with our business.

Flat Tire

This picture isn’t very good, but you can probably tell it’s a flat tire. Nothing surprising, until you see what this tire is attached to.

Tire Rack

It’s the tire rack at our local tire and lube center. The irony was too good to pass up.

Hope you enjoyed today’s SnapThoughts.

Where There’s a Will, There’s No Way

On June 1, 2007, In Customer Experience, Human Resources, By DUST!N

Will

My brother-in-law and I had an interesting incident over Memorial Day weekend. We were having a party for my son’s first birthday. So, we went to Albertson’s to pick up my son’s birthday cake and some propane for my grill.

After we paid for everything, the clerk tells the grocery bagger to help us exchange my empty propane tank for a full one.

Bagger: (Blank look) I don’t know how to do that.

Clerk: Ask Suzie.

Bagger: (Blank look)

Clerk: Suzie? Can you help him exchange propane for these customers?

Suzie: Sure. (pulls out and holds up keys) Here are the keys, you know where the tanks are.

Bagger: (Blank look) I don’t know how to do that.

Suzie: (Scary look) You’ve got to be kidding me. They just gave me these keys this morning and I’ve been doing it all day.

Bagger: (Blank look)

Then Suzie helped us.

Wanna hear the REALLY ironic part?

The baggers name was “Will”.

I think his middle name is “Not”.

Update: Looks like Mike Wagner at Own Your Brand ran into his own “Will” recently. He’s asking for suggestions to overcome the “$30,000 Toothbrush Scandle”.

Maybe we can volley suggestions back-and-forth on how brand managers can overcome issues like Albertson’s Will and the Mike’s Toothbrush Nazi.

Casual Fridays

Ideas put to work.