Quick summary: In this week’s Thought Bubble, I unpack Jeff Bezos’ famous line about brand reputation — and why the real power is in deciding what you want people to say, then actually engineering your business to make it true. Here’s the gist.
When Jeff Bezos said, “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room,” it sparked a whole industry of brand-strategy quotes and PowerPoint slides. I don’t know whether he actually said that or not, but for today’s chat, let’s roll with it.
So if your brand is what people say when you’re not around, that gives you two very important questions to answer.
1. What do you want people to say about your business?
Many people default to: “We want customers to say we’re better.” But better is a slippery little word. Better how?
- Faster?
- Slower and more considered?
- Cheaper?
- More premium?
- Lighter? Heavier?
- More helpful? More innovative?
Your customers decide what “better” means, not you. And working that out takes a bit more thought than most people expect.
2. What are you going to change to make that actually happen?
Once you’ve nailed what better really means in your customers’ eyes, the next step is looking inward:
- What needs to change in your processes?
- What needs to improve?
- What do you need to drop?
- Where do you need more polish?
- And — the big one — how will you clearly communicate that difference so customers know exactly why they’d choose you?
This is the homework I set in the video — because a brand doesn’t just magically appear. You build it, day by day, choice by choice.
Need help answerign these questions? We have a workshop for that… Read about it here.
