Brand Camp University | Personal Branding 2.0 - Hajj Flemings

Is your brand built on perception or reality? The purpose of this post is to separate the truth between the two. As personal and corporate brands can we reap the benefits of our perception, which is ultimately our reality or is reality greater than perception.

Brand Promise vs. Brand Guarantee

Perception (Brand Promise)

Every successful brand has a brand promise, it’s what is communicates to its customers that it plans on delivering. Brand promise is theory. The value of brand promise only comes when there is execution. One of the worst examples of brand promise is BP Oil - ‘Beyond Petroleum’. With the oil spill in the Gulf did BP live up to it’s promise?

Reality (Brand Guarantee)

What is more compelling than the brand promise? It is the brand guarantee. It is what the brand actually delivers on. A brand guarantee is the brand promise that you have delivered on in the real-world. Most personal and corporate brands have to deal with what is called the reality gap. (Reality Gap = Brand Guarantee – Brand Promise). The truly great brands minimize or eliminate the reality gap.

Brand Guarantee: Gary Vaynerchuk – He is a hustler. He isn’t a social media expert and doesn’t claim to be one. In reality he demonstrates his hustle: produces winelibrary.tv video post daily which has translated into a Sirius Radio Show, he is working on his second book, and the list goes on.

# of Followers vs. Reach

Perception (# of Followers)

What is the value in having a large followership in a social network like Twitter? Is influence measured by number of followers alone? No. If you have 50K followers does this mean influence? The answer is that it depends. People with large followerships like Chris Brogan and Brian Solis get opportunities and their ideas can spread faster because of what is behind these numbers. What is behind these numbers are followers that were earned the hard way through consistency and creating great content.

Reality (Reach)

Even though Chris Brogan has 100K followers how many people respond to his call to action particularly when it is targeted at a specific market. This video by Brandtailers illustrates Chris’ reach with a charity tweetup at Wahoo’s for lunch.

Reputation vs. Character

Perception (Reputation)

The perception of a brand is a reactive approach for reputation management in guiding the values of your brand versus character development. Perception is setting up Google Alerts with the propionate keywords and feeling that you proactive in your brand management philosophy.

Reality (Character)

Character development is much more important than reputation because reputation isn’t necessarily accurate it can be incorrect based upon data. A strong reputation however can be ruin overnight if the person’s character isn’t strong. A person with strong character and a poor reputation can have his/her reputation restored the reverse isn’t true. (e. g Tiger Woods & Roger Clemens)

Win-Win vs. Give-Give

After having a conversation with CD Vann I wanted to illustrate this point as she shed some light on the Give-Give proposition. Most business deals are based on the pseudo concept of Win Win.

Perception (Win-Win)

In business one of the classic cliques is let’s create a ‘Win-Win’ but most people don’t live by this creed. In business we all have an ulterior motive for doing what we do.

Reality (Give-Give)

If we all have a ‘Give-Give’ attitude the end result will be that you create an environment where both sides benefit.

ComcastCares vs. Frank Eliason

One of the great social media stories of customer service is Frank Eliason formerly known as @Comastcares.

Perception (ComcastCares)

When Frank was @ComcastCares he had approximately 44K followers and was the classic example of customer service was the new marketing and how Twitter was the vehicle.

Reality (Frank Eliason)

Frank left Comcast in August of 2010 and is now @FrankEliason and has under 4K followers. Does this mean that Frank has lost his magic? Does this mean that Comcast customer service in Twitter will cease to exist? The answer to both is no. The reality is that there is a halo effect from working with a big brand. In the long run I believe Frank and Comcast will both be successful.

Disruption vs. Genius

Perception (Disruption)

When you standout and are different people don’t always appreciate the way you think, the way you solve problems, or the value you bring to the table. Being disruptive in this context is not a negative attribute just a misunderstood one.

Disruption Talent: Steve Jobs. He gets removed as CEO of Apple then is brought back to save his beloved company.

Reality (Genius)

In reality a disruptive talent is just expressing their Genius to people that don’t understand it. As a culture we are conditioned to be average. To stay the course of least resistance doing what has always been done or what is safe. The Genius is the person that connects their passion to someone ‘s problem and a business model to help someone outside of themselves.

In the end is your personal or corporate brand based on perception or a reality?