Don’t Chase

Bad brands chase after people. Good brands get chased after by people. 

Every advertising and marketing professional has been in the room working on a client who wants his sinking, aging brand to find its way in the hearts, minds, and hands of a hipper, cooler youth market. We in the industry have all sat in those rooms hopelessly brainstorming ways to turn, for example,  the ice tea market into the market for energy drinks. These are usually awkward blurt-out sessions where ideas get thrown around until the creative team, tired and losing confidence, starts getting the giggles at their own suggestions for a task that seems dead on arrival. That’s when someone in the room usually realizes the problem: we’re chasing people. We have to get the people we want to come to us -- our product, service, or brand -- or we’re never going to find them. 

The same applies for personal branding.

Global networking expert and bestselling author of the book How to Build Your Reputation Rob Brown gave a TEDx Talk lecture a few years ago in which he shares his own experience chasing people in order to build a network to reinvent himself in a new career. Newly married but dissatisfied with his teaching career, Brown talks about how he went from seminars to events to industry mingles collecting business cards and schmoozing 5 days a week for two years without generating any interest in him and what he had to offer. And just before he was about to throw in the towel, it occurred to him that he was doing it wrong. It wasn’t about building his network so much, he says, as it was about building his reputation. As Brown put it, “Your network is who you know. Your reputation is who knows you.” Brown realized that getting people to talk about your reputation leads to getting people to choose you when their business has a need for a skill that happens to be your specialty or expertise. This is personal branding. Getting people to come after you.  

Bad brands chase after people. Good brands get chased after by people.

And for the record, Refresh Your Vibe. No One’s Too Cool for a Glass of Ice Tea. And just like that, the kids were coming for it.