We’re about to wrap up another successful year at Identity. 2011 was a pretty big year for us. It was the first full year we spent in our new office space. We added both new clients and new team members. And most importantly, we have tons of examples of great work that we can be proud of from this past year.
At trick-or-treating time when costumes aren’t easily identified, you commonly hear “What are you exactly?” At many points where I share with others for the first time that I have a Public Relations degree, I commonly hear “What are you exactly?” I am happy to say that although I decided to graduate in the crux of this uncertain economic climate, I picked a profession that dressed me for success.
In honor of Halloween, I started thinking about the many masks of PR pros—masks that enable us to be anything we want to be. We can carve our craft any way we want it to face.
Identity played host to the Detroit Bloggers meetup last night with speaker Hajj Flemings, who talked about personal branding and blogging. Hajj is a personal brand strategist, speaker, author, CEO and founder of Brand Camp University and CEO and Co-Founder of Gokit.
If you know anything about Hajj or have ever heard him speak, you know the man ain’t fakin’ it when it comes to personal branding. He knows his stuff!
B2B companies seem to take comfort in a common denial that their organizations are capable of achieving brand persona. In other words, a “brand” is something that the Apples and the Nikes of the world have, but Johnson & Thomas P.C. can’t expect to have—nor should they care about—a brand experience. In the B2B world, a great many purchasing decisions are made on a comfort level—we entrust our company’s endeavors to those with a proven track record, and we prefer to work with people and organizations that we “like.” That “like” factor is all about experience, and until we begin working with another company, we base it all on perception.
Few organizations work so hard to discover and define the why—their reason for being…the motivation behind their every action. But this is what truly motivates nearly every purchasing decision. Whether buying a car or hiring a consultant, we are motivated not by the ingredients on the tin, but by what the experience will be and how it will ultimately change our lives.
