Your brand is your reputation, make sure the reputation you have is the one you want and deserve.

Earning the reputation you want starts with having values and being principled, like Neil Young. And sticking to them, no matter what. Getting the reputation you desire, not the one you want, starts by only valuing money, transactions, and greed, like Spotify.

Transcript

It’s your boy, Bobby G from Propr Design. We always talk about brand equals reputation. Why do we say that? Well, you know, there’s there’s a lot of misconceptions or ideas around what a brand is, you know, it’s a logo or a product or service or feature or ingredients, those are part of a brand but those aren’t, what your brand is your brand is your reputation. And that means, you know, it’s what you care about most that defines your brand, what you do, not what you sell, or who you connect with. But what your principal and about where you take action. Spotify for example, I’ve been along longtime Spotify customer paid with multiple accounts the office at home, you can probably hear the music in the background. That’s not Spotify but it they’ve doubled down on what they care about most transactions, money, revenue, that’s all that matters to them. You got a guy like Neil Young right legend gives a shit has a point of view. Great. He said you know I don’t want to be associated with Spotify, and Joe Rogan and his BS misinformation crap, right? Which is causing real pain and worse. So principled man, like our friend Neil says, Yo guys, I don’t want to be associated with that right? Because his brand is his reputation by staying on Spotify, he felt that that doesn’t align what he really cares about Spotify goes off whatever did later Joe Rogan money but all Spotify has to do is say yo, Dude, you know, chill with that. Bs stop, you know, like people are getting hurt. So you get the reputation you get the brand because you get the reputation you deserve, not the reputation you want. Unless you really care, right? So Neil Young is getting the reputation he wants and he deserves by being principal by standing up for something he believes in fighting against something he thinks is troubling. Joe Rogan, whatever about that dude, but Spotify saying. Okay, our reputation is like, this guy’s making us money. So let’s leave it. See ya, Neil. Think about how that applies to your brand. What’s your reputation? Is it the reputation you want? Do you believe internally that you had the right reputation, but externally you don’t let they need to be aligned. Right. And apparently people are unclear about what is important to you. What you give a shit about what you would go out and and fight for literally fight for. And that’s how you make true connections, authentic connections with real people, you attract the right people to your brand, when you are clear about what you stand for what you care about. You repel the wrong people. So in terms of business and marketing, right, if your marketing gimmicks, or BS or something disingenuous or whatever, right? You’re not getting any more brand equity, you’re not building out a reputation. You may be top of mind, you may be seeing some success. But how does that scale it can’t roll back and say okay, the core, what’s the most important thing to us?

Then you do those things. You hire people to care about those things. Your customers care about those things. They will find you likable. They want to engage with brands that share their values. The numbers like 90% of people want to work with brands that are principled and share their values. They’re not finding it relatable that you have the latest ingredient or the latest feature, they’re finding what’s relatable is that you stand for something that they feel as important. It’s not exactly the same values, but they appreciate it. Right. So if you’re struggling with your core values, if you’re struggling with what your principles are, they’re right there as leaders of our brands and our companies and our teams. They’re there, right?
How do we get them out of our head? I don’t make them concise. To the point, actionable, practical, tactical, right? That’s what we do for our clients all the time. We couldn’t work with someone like Spotify, they don’t share our values. We would never worked with them. Because all they care about transaction, how do we get more transactions? How do we make more and more, more, more, more and more and more and more and more money? How much is enough? For them? A lot of Silicon Valley companies that there’s it’s never enough, right? No matter how much harm it causes, but that’s, the minority. Very few companies that are like that. And the ones we work with, the ones we want to work with are the ones that are the opposite of that. They have principles, they want to make authentic connections. We help them do that. We can help you do that. Well, they know what you care about. Throw me a message. Happy Friday. It’s snowing here in Baltimore. We’ll see you soon.