If you ask anyone who their favourite brands are, the likelihood is you’ll hear global, big household names within a few seconds. But the bigger question is: why those brands in particular?
Is it that their products and services tick all your boxes?
Do you resonate with their mission?
Are you inspired by their leaders and people?
Does the aesthetic please you deeply?
Have you experienced 5-star interactions with them?
Does their rich history speak to you?
Whatever it is, the brands you choose will likely make you feel a certain way. And this is true of people too.
Good brands are consistent.
Sometimes I like a brand despite liking another for the opposite reason. Two things can live in contradiction, and often do in life.
Take Gymshark for instance. This is a brand I feel positively towards, primarily because of their founder, Ben Francis. I like his approach, the idea that by consistently working hard, putting one foot in front of the other, you will see results. His public image sends me a message that he is someone who truly believes in his brand and has done for years and years (he has the receipts). I’ve also experienced good customer service when things went amiss with an order, building on my perception that this is a brand that cares. That consistency is reassuring to me and makes me much more likely to engage with the brand.
McDonalds, another brand I'm fond of, that would probably sit far away from the Gymshark sphere - although a girl can like fries and squats, you know. But I didn’t even know who their CEO was, until writing this article (for anyone interested it’s Chris Kempczinski). Instead, I have strong childhood nostalgia, reinforced by positive experiences when I frequent the big M as an adult (I also think their Iced Lattes are the best in the biz).
These are two very different, very big brands, but they are both continually consistent. Good brands are - everything they do comes back to what their brand actually is.
Brand is the blood of a business, not just a nose ring.
Sometimes the brand doesn’t sweep through the company, touching every function as it should, and instead becomes an add-on metaphorical nose ring, rather than the blood pumping through its body.
From the outside, we can tell – it just smells fishy! We can read positive sustainability promises on a brand’s social, but then see that their production process doesn’t match. We scratch our heads and say, ‘but the math ain’t mathing’.
Or we hear about putting the customer first, but those same customers have spent over an hour talking to customer services without reaching a solution. If you’ve eaten the customers treasured time, let’s face it - you don’t care, and it’s jarring to say you do.
And that kind of disjointed approach can chip away on what might have been a positive first impression, until we choose to take our business elsewhere.
We can learn a lot from the consumer brands we like and engage with, and also from those we don’t.
So, what about your brand?
Each of us have our own personal brand, whether we know it or not. We build it by the things we do, what we prioritize, and who we actively listen to.
What do people consistently say about you? Do you know how you make people around you feel? If you don’t know, ask them.
I find it interesting when writing in colleague’s leaving cards to see if similar words/feelings are shared by different people. When they are, I think that person has been themselves and it shows through all their interactions. Their brand shines through.
A quick social stock take is also another interesting exercise. It’s like when I see people using words like ‘thrilled’ on LinkedIn about things I categorically know they are not thrilled about and would never say in-person – it feels ingenuine and tbh I’m probably going to skip over that post.
Take another one of my favourite brands, Victoria Beckham, who has hands down the best eyeliner, and that’s coming from someone who is a long-time eyeliner girlie (I wish I could write #gifted here but alas I’m not on their books). My experience of interacting with VB online and in-store matched, one being the extension of the other, and I am now a repeat customer (and a self-confessed advocate) because of their consistent delivery in all aspects.
What do your last six posts on social say about you?
Are they representative of who you are and what you care about?
Are the online and offline versions of you in tune?
If not, why not?
The best brands, the ones we feel most positively towards, have embedded their brand deep into their core. They are, say it with me now, consistent. And I think the best people, the ones we want to hang out with, employ, bounce ideas off are like this too.
So, build your own brand with that same consistency, evidencing what you say with what you do. Paraphrasing Beyoncé to bring this article to a close, to say it’s time to get comfortable in your skin, cozy with who you are.
This article was kindly contributed by one of our fantastic community members. You can find out more about her below!
Anna Shannon is a publishing professional having worked in marketing and communications for over 10 years. She has written articles for publications such as The Independent and the Metro, is always on the hunt for a good poem/quote, and is a self-proclaimed Oxford Comma fan girl.
LinkedIn: Anna Shannon
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