Q: So should CEOs view their brand identity as an asset that can be managed, nourished, invested in and leveraged?
A lot of people or companies try to chase the market. If you chase the market, then you’re behind the market. If you’re chasing something, you’re saying, “They did it,” by the time you come out with it, you’re late. So you always have to stay true to your customer base and what you created, but you have to come up with innovative ways and take those leaps and bounds and chances to improve the brand you have.
I believe that every brand should be able to be spoken about in three words. Whether it’s BMW – Fine German Engineering – or any other company, you need to be able to wrap up your whole mission statement and identity in three words.
Q: In your book you detail how people are brands just as much as companies are brands. What does that say about the power of a personal brand?
A personal brand is actually more effective than a corporate brand because everything starts with a person. Think about it. If Steve Jobs gets sick, the brand itself, the stock, goes down 20 percent.
When we’re on Shark Tank we judge those people between the time that they open those doors and before they open their mouths. Those people walk up to us and they stand there for about three minutes while the hot light and camera is on them and we’re staring at them. It’s very intimidating.
Some people get shifty. They’re quivering and sweating, and you feel like they’re lying already. Some people have this innocence to them. They’re smiling, they’re looking at people and they’re laughing. They’re nervous, but you can see a pure aspect in them. They say the same thing about juries when they see somebody walk into a court room. They either judge them guilty or innocent. After that, they just want to hear what convinces them of what they already think.
As a personal brand, you’re judged hundreds, thousands, and if you’re on television, millions of times a day. You’re selling every single action you take and every single word you speak. You’re selling yourself, and that is the brand you represent or own. That’s why that’s more important than anything else.
Q: So how can an individual strengthen his or her brand?
Are they being true to the base? A con man’s brand is stronger than anything else. He perfects all the things that let you put your guard down and put trust in him. Think about a con man. He goes out and concentrates on the things that you’re going to brand him with. He’ll make you say, ‘Oh, he’s trustworthy.’
If you’re a person who will go out and perfect things, you have to understand what it is you’re selling. Are you selling a service in the service industry? Are you selling people how have a need or desire for something? Are you somebody who makes life better from an economic standpoint or are you giving somebody a luxury that separates them from everybody else? Those are two different approaches.
The luxury approach, you’re going to brand yourself like this: You’re very manicured. The way you speak and the car you drive say things about you. All of those things are going to be very excessive.
If you brand yourself the other way, you’re going to be very economically safe and not buy high-end products that make it look like you waste money.
Q: One of the definitions of the word “Brand” that you provide is “a type of energy that radiates from an individual.” How did you come to that observation?
All this is from the FUBU days. This thesis I have and the dumbed-down version of trying to explain to people that everything in the world is a brand is from what I’ve acquired my whole life of being out there.
