Be Unique or Be Ignored: The CEO's Guide to Branding

A brand is not a jargonized, functional description of your product; it is your value proposition, your billboard, your opening statement, your barcode, your reason d’être, the jar that exposes your jam. Products and technologies change every six months, but a strong brand outlives both.

Likewise, we gravitate to a vendor that gets to “the point” quickly, succinctly, memorably: We know your problem, have a unique solution, and urge you to act now. Never do we confuse a unique vendor with its jargon-spewing, white-noise-dwelling rivals, which force us to play eenie meenie miny moe.

Branding has two components: the message and the megaphone (the branding platforms): homepage, tradeshows, CEO keynotes, radio/TV interviews, salesforce, sales training, product/corporate brochures, financial documents, industry and financial analysts, IPO roadshows, advertising, PR, joint ventures, partnering, articles, and social media.

Finally, the antithesis of brand is commodity. If your brand is indistinguishable from those of your competitors, you are selling a commodity; customers will treat it and buy it accordingly—if they notice it at all. Is that what you want?

If people don’t “get” your brand—your value proposition—within 15 seconds, they’ll resist purchasing from, investing in, and writing about your firm. Or, they’ll ignore it altogether.