Branding*

*Adapted from a basketball blog post

"Your reputation is who people think you are, your character is who you really are." - John Wooden

Wikipedia defines "brand as a name, term, design, symbol or other feature that distinguishes one seller's product from those of others." 

Brand is often associated with style, performance, quality, attributes, and emotion that DIFFERENTIATES among products or organizations. I believe your brand flows from character, the perception defining "who you are." 

Some have success playing "the villain" in professional wrestling, but most individuals and organizations want brand positivity, excellence, and desirability. 

We hear company slogans like "Quality is Job 1", "Coke is It", "We Bring Good Things to Life", and more which promote excellence, service, and industry leadership. Conversely, we see brands suffer after quality failures like the recent Chipotle and Volkswagen incidents. 

Effective branding means commitment at the individual and the organizational level. The African proverb "it takes a village to raise a child" competes with "but one child can destroy a village." Some programs like the Oakland Raiders had a slogan of "Commitment to Excellence" but a culture embracing an outlaw mentality. Fairly or not, Kentucky has become known as a "One and Done" basketball weigh station, Michigan State became synonymous with rebounding toughness, and Butler under Brad Stevens radiated discipline and overachievement. 

Former Coach Bo Schembechler advised "avoid the 'troubled kid' who can beat you once a year on another team, instead of beating you every day on yours." 

Effective branding needs a worthy product - leadership, people, and attention to detail. It exceeds customer expectations day after day, year after year. Connect with people at many different levels...everyone from custodians to community leaders. Melrose volleyball has done that. 

Brand leadership means commitment to sustaining your core organizational values. When you stand for anything, then you stand for nothing. 

Bill Walsh said it best in "The Score Takes Care of Itself", “I directed our focus less to the prize of victory than to the process of improving — obsessing, perhaps, about the quality of our execution and the content of our thinking; that is, our actions and attitude. I knew if I did that, winning would take care of itself, and when it didn’t I would seek ways to raise our Standard of Performance.

What is your personal brand?

Happy Thanksgiving.