“Brands don’t build themselves. It takes people.” from Brainfluence Branding by Roger Dooley, a book on engaging consumers of your products based on science. (I’ll post a book review soon too.)
Roger cites a bo0k by Kate Newlin, and her book Passion Brands, Why Some Brands are Just Gotta Have, Drive All Night For. and Tell All Your Friends. In this book, Kate writes that the most desirable brand is what she calls a “passion brand.”
Roger cites the example of Red Bull, where in the early days, employees would leave crunched up cans in bars to make it look popular.
Roger believes passion is too often ignored in hiring, despite the fact that most companies claim their people are their greatest asset. “In the hiring process, we (too often) focus on the objective facts: education, experience, accomplishments and so on. If we really want to maintain passion within the group and extend that to customers, we need to be sure we add passion to the subjective requirements.”
“Your customers can sense the passion of your people, even if they don’t process it consciously…If you want customers to love your brand, when you are looking at resumes, go beyond facts and look for passion!”
I saw this first hand. Some years ago I was working for Business Objects. I saw they were struggling with a very big customer. I asked if I could handle it. I had no experience handling, but I had tons of passion and the unique ability to see the world through others eyes. They gave it to me, to my surprise, and my passions went to work - customer-focused content and recruiting and supporting a global team. After one year, they looked at the results - sales had increased by 242% in just 12 months.
When I left they did the obvious and hired the person who managed the account for their biggest competitor. But he lacked passion and the ability to see through other eyes, like I did. He failed badly and did not last six months.
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This blog is written by the award-winning marketing expert Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor - President of Find New Customers. You can follow me on Twitter at @fearlesscomp
