Let me take you back about, mmmm well a few years when I was walking through Dad's factory as a young child. I had heard him talking on the phone about branding and so I asked him
"How do you create a brand?"
Interestingly, Dad looked and said "You don't create a brand, a brand is a manifestation (he had to explain that word to me!) of every person who works on the product. A brand is not what you say it is, a brand is what you live and die by...."
I asked so"What is your brand?"
He looked at me and said "Whatever the customer thinks it is, Anna and to influence the customer you need to pick employees who you admire and want as part of your brand family"
I remember thinking of a company as a brand family - its true in a way. A brand belongs, a brand needs love, a brand needs nurturing, a brand needs 'friendly disagreements" to move forward...a brand creates a bond that withstands the hard times.
But then again you can't choose your family, but you can choose your brand :)
LOL ... sometimes you cant even choose your brand ;)
In my last job I worked in a family business. It was a big business, but it was owned by a single family. And it was an agency.
And while it was intense and challenging, there was a weird emotional attachment to the job ... when I left, I removed myself not just from the workplace, the brand and the people, but also from the family.
Posted by: Gavin Heaton | Oct 01, 2008 at 11:12 PM