When I was in my late twenties, I had to turn back from a five-mile run because of a hangover. As my head pounded on the walk back, I decided to never drink again. And I never have. Not in 35 years.
But I do miss the buzz. I remember how nice it felt. Just a couple drinks and not only would I feel great, I sensed that my IQ had gone way, way up.
I had to laugh the other day when I realized that using the term brand had a similar intoxicating effect. There’s just something about saying brand multiple times in a conversation that makes a person feel all warm and superior inside.
Have you ever met someone who uses the term brand as a synonym for their product as a way of sounding smart? Oh my goodness. They just can’t say it enough. They sound something like this:
“You should consider using our brand. You can purchase our brand on our website. You’re really going to love our brand. Not only is our brand better than the competition’s brand, our brand is much less expensive. Brand, brand, brand, brand, brand. Look how smart and sophisticated I am.”
The problem is, they’re not. They’re just using the term wrong and don’t know it. It makes me wonder if they ever stopped to ask themselves, what is a brand?
I’ve said this before: The word brand is not a synonym for product. Brand is the term for the definition people hold in their minds of your company and its products. That definition is built in two ways: by what you tell someone and by what they experience.
If you replace the word brand with the actual meaning, you can see how silly it sounds when someone uses it as a synonym for product.
“You should consider using our definition people hold in their minds. You can purchase our definition people hold in their minds on our website. You’re really going to love our definition people hold in their minds. Not only is our definition people hold in their minds better than the competition’s definition people hold in their minds, our definition people hold in their minds is much less expensive.”
Resist using brand as a synonym for product. Like a couple martinis, it might make you feel good. But it can also make you look silly to someone with a clear head.
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If you are a CEO, marketing manager, writer, graphic designer or anyone else who has a hand in marketing, you need “The CEO’s Guide to Marketing.” I’m not kidding when I say it will make you the smartest marketer in the room. You are going to wish you had this book years ago.
