Jimmy Gilmore – Writer – Director

Ever met some­one who never takes sides. Never makes a clear deci­sion. Always wants the group to decide so he doesn’t run the risk of mak­ing any­one upset. You prob­a­bly called this per­son wishy washy, inde­ci­sive or maybe even weak. And never a leader.

Now imag­ine this per­son is your brand. A lot of mar­keters are scared to death that some­one may call, email, write a let­ter to the edi­tor or, God for­bid, tweet their dis­sat­is­fac­tion. They would rather stand for noth­ing then have some­one rant about their prod­uct on their Face­book wall.

Now think of a per­son with strong opin­ions maybe even famous peo­ple with strong opin­ions. Those peo­ple prob­a­bly have a lot of lovers and haters. Most politi­cians are that way and many busi­ness lead­ers are that way too  –like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Yet their brands rep­re­sent the two largest mar­ket cap­i­tal­iza­tion in the world (Exxon is the only US com­pany with a larger mar­ket cap than Apple).

Peo­ple find their per­son­al­i­ties both attract­ing and appalling as well as the prod­ucts these com­pa­nies offer. Sure, they are unique indi­vid­u­als and com­pa­nies but that’s the point. So is Tony Heish and Zap­pos. Or Mark Cuban and his Dal­las Mav­er­icks and HDNet. And of course, Martha Stew­art and Omnimedia.

A com­pany doesn’t have to have a strong CEO to stand for some­thing either. You prob­a­bly don’t know who the CEO of Dis­ney is now that Michael Eis­ner (or Walt) is gone but you under­stand what the brand rep­re­sents (yes there are peo­ple who hate the mouse). And what about Porsche? Or say Burberry?

A brand can stand for some­thing just through the prod­ucts it makes or the ser­vice it offers. But is often com­mu­ni­cated effec­tively through it’s mar­ket­ing and adver­tis­ing. I’m not going to dis­sect ad cam­paigns and say which ones run the risk of offend­ing and which make a stand. It’s pretty obvoius when they do and when they don’t.