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ShareThis morning just after I woke up, I chilled out. Listened to Coltrane, a dose of Sade and then played some music by Diddy (the artist formerly known as Puff Daddy and then P Diddy; my name seems so boring now). I needed something to jumpstart my day (and wake up the kids). Reflecting on him and the business empire he's built got me thinking. About brands.
To win in your market space, your organisation needs to develop a magnificently cherished and superbly respected brand. (Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi, doesn't even use the term "brand" anymore, preferring "lovemark." Nice.)
And for you to get to professional greatness, I suggest that you work on, polish and protect your personal brand: your good name. (It could take you 30 years to build a great reputation -- and 30 seconds to lose it, with one act of poor judgement.)
Everyone's into brand-building these days. Law firms. Accounting enterprises. Retail organisations. Paris Hilton recently said: "I'm a brand."
This raises the question: "How can we get our brand from where it now is to where we want it to be?" My answer is simple: Model Diddy.
Sure, you can read the books out there (lots of excellent ones, such as Seth Godin's Purple Cow and The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al Ries and his daughter Laura Ries). And sure, you can invest in getting your brand managers to world class (every company should have brand managers).
But I'll save you some money with a simple suggestion: Hip-hop artists like Diddy and 50 Cent and Jay-Z (whom Fortune magazine recently called "America's hippest CEO").
You'll learn all you need to learn about taking a brand to the top of the mountain. These guys are amazing. Constantly reinventing. Relentlessly innovating. Endlessly improving.
They have one hit record that drives their name -- their brand, sorry-- into the public consciousness and then they extend their line into clothes, books, movies, colognes, etc. Study the way they build community, cement loyalty and tattoo what they stand for onto people's brain cells.
I'll leave you with an unforgettable quote from Jay-Z: "I'm not a businessman. I'm a business, man."
