What differentiates your reputation and does it answer the need of your customer? Not just weave stories well, but also ensure the experience you offer is the best among your competition. Is there a gap between the brand promise and brand experience? No one to blame, fix it soon in alignment with the collective pursuit. Here are some thoughts from my journey and may help you decide:

Do you have a Reputation framework?

Being in communications for a decade and half I must admit none of the places I worked had a reputation framework, but each one of them had an insatiable dream to be the best brand. And same is the state with other brands too, where my network of communicators work. Am not negative with them, but disclosing what perturbs. The customer needs something, we make something else that won’t work, as their choices are led by innovations arrived at by the competition. Pause and rethink, the perception that drives your stakeholders and your audience. If the need is not addressed you are not the choice, but a baggage for your customer. Dissonance does more damage to any brand than anything else. Series of consultants making millions of presentations and advices, even some of the global ones if brought onboard won’t serve, unless the business and its people are in alignment with the time and effort they spend every passing day. Most leaders honestly today dream for reputation, but hesitate to have a framework for the same in place. Is it inclusive? is it intuitive? Is it inspiring at all? Not just being logical but one with the dexterity of being decisive and create meaning enough for the future helps build the best brand.

Catch an animal from its head, a human from its heart

Almost two decades back on a winter morning with puddles still filled with the left-over rains and a distant sky blurred with fog, I had a learning that continues till now. I was trying to catch fishes with a Sadhu (Indian Hindu monk) standing beside me and smiling. I failed after sometime, trying hard my luck and the Sadhu said, “Catch an animal from its head, a human from its heart”. I got the message and tried again and clicked. Since then have followed it and seen it work every time.

No matter what we are in our journey, the very idea of conversing and listening especially helps get our message across. Our personal brand succeeds when we create value for the ecosystem we operate in, the more the value, the longer the brand stays. Whether it’s a toddler fumbling words or a manager at work or even an old acquaintance signaling a message, do listen to it. Have seen true leaders pausing and listening to it, sometimes they help if they can, else comfort the soul with enough hope.

We are dealing with humans, and they go by their heart. Respect their existence, their journey, their stories as much as you want yours to be delivered. It works almost instantaneously.

Successful corporate brands are a collection of personal brands

From Google to Apple and Tata to Tesla it’s always been a tale of inspiring personal brands that these entities have been revolving around. They ignite hope and nurture their audience’s dream, make their idea in short, a relevance for millions of humans they don’t even know. It’s the people, the leadership in them that organizations must endure and inspire to be the message in everything they think, say, and do. However, the story has been a bit different; a huge gap between the corporate and personal brand. Have seen great leaders when not in alignment with the corporate brand leave, seeking for a better time, somewhere else. The running doesn’t stop till they realize it’s a community of collective leadership that builds brands that stand for centuries. Imagine the greatest leaders you know come together and work on a common project assimilating their personal hopes, and making the corporate brand a cause to believe in. Magical it would be!

Time is the greatest currency

Yes, it’s always about the timing. Whatever you are in awe with is largely because you experienced it with a time factor embellished. An Apple iPhone is a serious hit today. Had it been a hundred years back customers would have bought something else largely. Timing defines the context for your brand, hence make the most of it. ‘Candles in the Wind’ still is a great song because it came as a tribute to a great brand exactly when it’s audience were seeking for it. It wasn’t created as a need but as an appealing message. Craft your pursuit in alignment with the meaning that your audience seeks. And ensure it stands responsible for the generations to follow.

Of course, there will be tempests, but stay determined like the mast of your ship. When confronted with a crisis always remember the saying: “a stitch in time, saves nine”. The experience so far has been interesting, brands that were alert while they voyaged could stitch it on time for the common good. Size doesn’t matter in bringing in transparency and accountability for the brand. A customer is a customer and has the power to amplify your experience to the best.

Reputation is a great responsibility!