98 Branding, Position your Business and Self
b'Let\\u2019s talk about branding and positioning your strategy. I truly mean your strategy. This can be your business or yourself. If you\\u2019re dating, you must have a brand to position yourself. You must be appealing to someone else. It doesn\\u2019t matter what you\\u2019re talking about. This is crucial.\\n\\nI\\u2019m going to get to products very quickly and very soon, but first I want to talk a little bit about the positioning, and the scope and breadth of a brand or a strategy. If you have it too narrow a scope, you may have difficulty broadening your appeal. We\\u2019re always hearing about find your niche. Find your niche. If you define it so narrow you will not be able to branch out very easily. You\\u2019ll have to create a new brand or a different brand, it becomes very, very difficult. However, if you can position it in such a way that it implies something more even though you\\u2019re selling. Can it easily adapt to something more, that can be very different? It depends on how you position it, how you sell it. What you do with that brand as you\\u2019re marketing it, as you\\u2019re selling it.\\nEven Big Brands make Branding Mistakes or Over Reach\\nLook at some of the big brands that really stand out. As soon as you mention them you immediately know what they are and what they stand for. Colgate, Heinz, Harley Davidson, Xerox. All of them have very strong brands, and you know what it means as soon as you hear the name. Wasn\\u2019t always that way.\\nYes, Colgate always was toothpaste, but they decided they had something else and they actually introduced lasagna. Can you imagine Colgate lasagna? Just the thought of it doesn\\u2019t seem realistic.\\nHarley Davidson came out with a cologne. Maybe that might work for some limited group of people who like the smell of Harleys, but for most people cologne and Harley Davidson just don\\u2019t match very well.\\nHeinz came out with another sauce. They were so good with the Heinz-57, the Heinz Ketchup, they came out with a green sauce. The green sauce for Heinz was at first attractive to a bunch of little kids. The kids thought it cool or fun, but they of course aren\\u2019t going to be the ones that are going to stay interested in something like that for a long period of time. It wouldn\\u2019t matter what the flavor and other things were. It just was not consistent with their brand image. It\\u2019s not appealing.\\nBranding even relates to your own image\\nYou may have a very good product, but if the image of your company or your own image is very different\\u2026 Relating to yourself, think in terms of social media. I\\u2019ve helped and guided several people and companies on social media habits, etc. I\\u2019ve tried to help others, but they just know better for themselves. What happens? Something like 30% of people are rejected in job interviews because of their social media content. They have branded themselves with social media. I have some people who I know who would like to expand and up-level their careers, but they\\u2019re so infatuated with the responses they get from their friends, they think: \\u201cWow, that\\u2019s neat, that\\u2019s cool,\\u201d or whatever they say today. It fits into a narrative that may not mesh with places they\\u2019re trying to get into. While you\\u2019re branding your product or yourself you have to maintain that capability. You have to be able to have it so that you can transfer and move yourself, make progress.\\nSuccess necessitates Product Positioning Regardless of the Product\\nSuccess is usually includes moving from one place to the next with a different group of people. You can\\u2019t eliminate or become a distraction. On the other hand, you could have a bad product and there are ways to actually increase and develop good sales strategy even with a bad product. How do you do this? You match it.\\n\\nI did this with Chrysler. If you remember the Chrysler Advantage campaign, they had horrible cars at the same. As a matter of fact, when I brought this campaign idea to them, they said: \\u201cWe don\\u2019t have any advantages. We don\\u2019t have anything.\\u201d At that time they were in the depths of depravi...'