Staying true to your brand
““A brand is a promise. A good brand is a promise kept.””
The famous billionaire investor Warren Buffet once said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.”
The road to brand failure is littered with examples that didn’t adhere to this fundamental wisdom.
As a brand, your reputation rests upon you behaving consistently over time; it’s what builds trust.
In the beginning, you need to tell everyone what you’re about clearly and concisely.
Then, you need to reinforce this message in everything you do.
It’s not any more complicated than that.
One man who instinctively knew this was the founder of Nike.
Phil Knight invested vast sums of money in advertising his brand’s ‘Just Do It’ philosophy.
Consequently, people knew what Nike stood for, which allowed the company to become the world’s most famous sports apparel brand with annual revenues of $50 billion.
The success of Phil’s company attracted other brands keen to collaborate on new products.
The designer Alexander McQueen approached Phil at the height of his fashion label’s popularity.
McQueen was enthusiastic about a potential tie-up between the two companies.
Phil thought about it for a long time.
In the end, he decided to turn down McQueen’s proposal.
Why?
Because he knew that collaborating with another brand that didn’t sync with his wouldn’t work.
It would break people’s trust and damage Nike’s reputation.
Any short-term financial gain wouldn’t be worth the long-term pain.
All the best brands understand this.
