I’ve been thinking about, working with and generally immersing myself in what it takes to build a brand for many years now and I’ve always had an internal war going on about which is more important – skill or will.
Not that it’s a contest, because in truth you do need both. However, over the past year I think will has taken the lead.
Because building brand is about making choices and sometimes the right choice is the road less obvious and more difficult to navigate.
It’s about making decisions that can be unpopular with some people because everyone is not your customer and everyone isn’t the best fit to work with you.
It’s about sticking with it when it’s the last thing you feel like doing because for others it’s the first time they are experiencing it.
It’s about saying no to something even though it’s a great idea but it’s not a fit for what you care about.
It’s about throwing out something that is working great so something even better can emerge.
It is also about creativity and play and innovation and blue sky thinking. About brainstorming sessions to be better. About quirky, curious and flat out weird stuff that makes your organisation and its brand totally unique in the world.
And, yes, it takes skill to do all these things. You have to have a basis for what and how so I’d never suggest that skill doesn’t matter. But without that layer of will the sheer weight and unrelenting barrage of stuff can crush you.
So it takes will to build a brand.
See you next week with my last blog of 2014.
Michel is an independent brand analyst dedicated to helping organisations make promises they can keep and keep the promises they make – with a strong, resilient organisation as the result. She also publishes a blog at michelhogan.com.
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