Steve is always telling me that “brand is what people say about you when you’re not around.” Of course, this begs the question, “is it still brand if you’re paying attention?”
Obviously, I’m being silly. If anything, knowing what people are saying about you when they think you’re not around empowers your brand more than anything else. Which is why zuzz monitoring is so damn helpful.
But just like there are new ways to monitor people’s perceptions of your brand, there are new ways to respond to what you find out. Some companies move right away to counter people’s perception, while other companies are quicker to look within and see if there’s a problem that goes beyond brand. Dell is one example of the latter. In the face of overwhelming criticism, they didn’t hire an advertising firm to tout the benefits of their customer service. They didn’t try to change the direction of the conversation.
Instead, they admitted that they had outgrown a system that was built for a smaller company and moved to correct the problem. Obviously, there are still some issues, but they’re working on them. They’re not trying to gloss things over with “brand.”
I’d say that your response to your brand radar is as important, if not more important, than being aware of what people are saying about you.
Via Jeremiah Owyang.
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