If you spend too much time trying to be liked, chances are you aren’t leading effectively – you’re not making the truly tough decisions (that may not always be popular) and assuring that everyone is doing their job well. Maybe you avoid confrontation and cower at the thought of having to deal directly with workplace issues and problem team members. Or, perhaps in your efforts to be liked, you stick with the status quo, not wanting to “rock the boat.” Outcome? Your team members don’t grow, and you end up with mediocre business results.

On the other hand, if you spend too much time trying to be respected without caring enough about being liked, you may struggle to get your team to support you. Leaders who don’t care at all about being liked may cause their employees to feel like victims. Issues aren’t raised up to you until they have turned into crises because people are afraid of your reaction. Or maybe team members don’t come to you with any new ideas, anticipating that you’ll just put them down anyway. Outcome: Horrible morale and escalating employee turnover.

As tough as it may be, leaders with great Leadership Personal Brands work hard at maintaining a balance between the two poles. It requires weighing every situation carefully and thinking about how your actions and reactions will likely be perceived.

So, what to do? Here’s an exercise:

1. On a piece of paper, draw a horizontal line with a “1” at the left end and a “10” at the right end. Now, think about how you operate as a leader. If “1” represents a 100% focus on being respected, and “10” represents 100% focus on being liked, where would you fall in that continuum? Do you worry too much about how much YOU™ are liked? Or do you try to earn respect without worrying at all if your team likes you? Be honest with yourself: How balanced is your leadership style between these two poles?

2. Based on your schedule for the upcoming week, write down a plan that concentrates on creating a balance between being liked and respected. What actions can you take that will promote this balance? What opportunities might arise that will help you maintain the kind of like-vs-respected balance you want? Think about your options, and weigh the consequences of each. Consider which choices will be most likely to bring you this important balance, strengthening your Leadership Personal Brand in the process.

CHICAGO – April 2011: Internationally-recognized branding expert and award-winning author, Brenda Bence, has been ranked #7 among the World’s Top 10 Most Influential Brand Gurus for 2010. Bence was chosen by Brand Gurus International based on her works, her contribution to the global community, and the votes of her peers in industry.

In order to choose the most influential brand gurus, emails were sent to 22,000 business people, consultants, academics, and MBA’s around the world for nominations and a public opinion poll. A top 30 list was compiled from this research, and a top 10 list was compiled based on the number of votes each individual received. According to Brand Gurus International, the criteria for judging focused on “originality of ideas, practicality of ideas, presentation style, international outlook, impact of ideas, quality of publications and writings, dispersion of publications, and writings, public opinion, [and] guru factor.”

“This distinction means a great deal to me,” says Bence. “Anyone who knows me knows I’m passionate about the power of branding – both personal and corporate – so to be recognized as #7 in the world is a great honor.”

With an MBA from Harvard Business School, Bence began her 25-year career developing mega brands for Procter & Gamble and Bristol-Myers Squibb across four continents and 50 countries.

Today, Bence is President of Brand Development Associates International, and she travels the world speaking, training, and coaching individuals and corporations to greater success through creative, yet practice brand development. She has appeared on numerous television and radio programs and has written dozens of articles on the subject of branding. As a certified executive coach, she works individually with some of the world’s top CEOs to help them rise to the top of their careers by building their leadership personal brands.

Bence’s three books in her How YOU™ are like Shampoo personal branding series have won a total of ten national book awards, including the Best Beach Books Festival National Grand Prize. All three of the books walk readers through Bence’s unique personal branding approach, the world’s only step-by-step, start-to-finish system for defining, communicating, and taking control of a personal brand. The first book is targeted to helping people succeed within the corporate world, the second book, How YOU™ are like Shampoo for Job Seekers, adapts the system to help make a job search faster and easier through personal branding. In the third book of the series, How YOU™ are like Shampoo for College Graduates, Bence revised her groundbreaking system to help college grads through the process of creating a personal brand to succeed in job interviews – even though they have little practical work experience.

Click here for the full list of brand gurus.

If I started a conversation with you about the Super Bowl, I suspect you’d reply, “Huh? That was two months ago, Brenda – ancient news by now.” Indeed, one of the biggest sporting events in North America has been long forgotten and has been justifiably replaced by much bigger and more noteworthy news like what has happened in Egypt, Libya, and of course, in Japan.

So, why bring up the Super Bowl two months later? With an average of 110 million people watching every year, the American football sporting event has become the single most expensive piece of “advertising real estate” in the world – each 30-second ad costs just over $3 million to air. That’s $100,000 per second, folks!

With that kind of price tag, agencies and brand leaders who decide to advertise during this important event spend months and months – and millions more in preparation – all to produce ads that justify that kind of price tag. And, from watching hundreds of Super Bowl ads over the years, it seems like almost all of them strive to include some kind of humor factor – to stick out of the pack and get people talking about them.

And the ads do become “talk of the town” for days before, during, and after the event. In fact, this year, I checked out – literally – dozens of web pages, blog posts and articles all written about the ads that aired.

For those of you who watched the game, I ask you – two months later – which ads do you remember, and, more importantly, which brands did those ads represent?

Stumped? If you’re struggling to remember, sadly, you’re not alone. That’s because too many ads aired today don’t have true “sticking power.”

In order to build your brand, your marketing efforts need to stick like Super Glue. As Chip and Dan Heath teach in their book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, ads that make a splash don’t always count. It’s the ads that change a pattern of some kind – and then stay consistent with that pattern – that stick in the minds of a target market.

A clever one-off ad that might make people laugh for a few seconds but walk away with nothing won’t keep the brand in their minds. Successful brands are built by being consistent – 24/7/365.

And, importantly, this is true of both corporate brands and personal brands. The way you communicate your brand must stay the course to make a real impact on how your target market or audience perceives, thinks, and feels about your brand – or YOU™.

So, what are you doing to make your brand stick like Super Glue? Take a look at the Super Bowl ads again. Do you remember any of them? More importantly, will you remember them again in two months’ time? Sound off and let us know if you think any of them are truly “sticky” enough!

So what is Starbucks doing to celebrate its 40th anniversary? Changing its logo. Yep, after decades of using the same corporate ID (with a mermaid inspired by Moby Dick – or so the legend goes), Starbucks recently revealed its new logo.

Here, side by side, is the former logo and the newly-released one:

A January 5 post by BrandChannel writer Abe Sauer contends that this move by Starbucks is a “logo no-no.”

Starbucks, of course, has a different point of view. Here’s what Starbucks has to say:

“Our new evolution liberates the Siren from the outer ring, making her the true, welcoming face of Starbucks. For people all over the globe, she is a signal of the world’s finest coffee – and much more. She stands unbound, sharing our stories, inviting all of us in to explore, to find something new and to connect with each other. And as always, she is urging all of us forward to the next thing. After all, who can resist her?”

So, what do you think? Is the Starbucks logo change a good one or not? Let your caffeinated voices be heard!

Here’s what you said:

Biggest Corporate Brand Winners:

• Apple (89%) vs. Samsung (11%)
• Facebook (82%), Twitter (12%), Google (6%), and LinkedIn (0%)
• iPhone (82%) vs. Blackberry (18%)

Biggest Personal Brand Winners:

• Sarah Pailin (53%) vs. Barack Obama (47%) – a close one!
• Lady Gaga (76%), Miley Cyrus (12%), and Taylor Swift (12%)
• Oprah Winfrey (89%) vs. Larry King (11%)

Biggest Country Brand Winner:

• China (88%) vs. India (12%)

Biggest Corporate Brand Loser:

• BP (76%) vs. Toyota (24%)

Biggest Personal Brand Loser:

• Tiger Woods (95%) [ouch!] vs. Charlie Sheen (5%)

Of those brands whose dollar value decreased dramatically this year, which one also earned the distinction of the biggest brand “image” loser?

• Goldman Sachs (82%)
• Google (6%)
• Nokia (6%)
• Sony (6%)
• Dell (0%)
• Adobe (0%)

Looking to the future… Any prediction as to which brands will be the biggest winners and losers in 2011? Let me know what you think!

Author Brenda Bence’s book focused on helping college graduates find a job using personal branding — entitled How YOU™ are like Shampoo for College Graduates: The Complete Personal Branding System to Define, Position, and Market Yourself and Land a Job You Love — is a winner in the Young Adult: Non-Fiction category in THE NATIONAL BEST BOOKS 2010 AWARDS. USABookNews.com, the review website for mainstream and independent publishing houses, announced the winners and finalists of the awards on October 26, 2010. Awards were presented for print and audio books published in 2010 and late 2009.

How YOU™ are like Shampoo for College Graduates is the first practical, step-by-step personal branding system designed specifically for job-seeking college grads. “The first two books in my personal branding series helped job seekers and people at work use personal branding to achieve greater success. So, I felt it was important to write a book for college graduates because their challenges are unique,” says Bence. “A graduate’s job search requires a special approach to personal branding. I wanted to give grads a chance not only to find a first job, but to land a job they would truly love – right out of college.”

Jeff Keen, President and CEO of USABookNews.com, said this year’s contest yielded an unprecedented number of entries, which were then narrowed down to just a few finalists and one winner per category. “The 2010 results represent a phenomenal mix of books from a wide array of publishers throughout the United States,” Keen says.

A complete list of the winners and finalists of the USABookNews.com National Best Books 2010 Awards are available online at www.USABookNews.com.

About the Author:
Brenda S. Bence is an internationally-recognized branding expert, certified executive coach, and powerhouse speaker and author. With an MBA from Harvard Business School, her 25-year career has included developing mega brands for Procter & Gamble and Bristol-Myers Squibb across four continents and 50 countries. As President of Brand Development Associates International, Brenda now travels the world speaking, training, and coaching individuals and corporations to greater success through creative yet practical brand development. Her three books in the How YOU™ Are Like Shampoo personal branding series have won a total of ten national book awards.

Brenda Bence, President of Brand Development Associates International Ltd, is available for television, radio, and press interviews nationwide to talk about her book and topics on personal or corporate branding.

Visit www.BrendaBence.com , contact +1-312-242-1830, or email Daniel.Jackman@BDA-Intl.com for availability.

Most of you know I travel a lot, but September and October were filled with two personal “never-done-that-before” travel feats: I worked on four continents in the span of seven days in September and four continents in the span of 11 days in October. Yes, in those very short time frames, I was in such places as Singapore, Sydney, Bangkok, Manchester, the U.S. Midwest, and Prague, just to name a few. (By the way, I didn’t experience any jet lag during the entire journey. If you’re curious about how I do that, stay tuned! I will be releasing a new book in 2011 that shares my proven system for achieving jet-lag-free and easy travel.)

While visiting these far-flung locales, I was able to squeeze in a few moments to enjoy some of the sites they are famous for. As I gazed at the Sydney Opera House and watched the men of Manchester raise their Boddingtons Beer bottles, I was reminded that places are branded just like people, companies, and products. And that most cities and countries have iconic symbols that have come to stand for those places – like the Grand Palace in Bangkok or the Old Town in Prague.

Then, I got to thinking … what about ‘icons’ that represent the brands of the companies we lead … and, well – why not – our own personal brands? I’m not necessarily talking about any kind of “logo” or “sign” here, per se … but something more tangible that others would say represents either the product brand you market, your company brand, or YOU™ – the Trademarked You.

Getting clear on a representative icon is a great way to pinpoint your brand and what it stands for. So, ask yourself: If people were to think of one visual symbol that represents you as an individual or represents what your company stands for, what would it be?

THE BRAND ICON CHALLENGE:

I challenge you to give this some thought and come up with a representative icon for yourself or your company — and I will reward you for doing it!

After you’ve given your brand icon some thought, let me hear from you about it! Write to me and answer one or all of these questions:

1. What is the brand icon of the place where you live? If you’re in San Francisco, for example, you’d probably say the Golden Gate Bridge.

2. What is the brand icon for “YOU™” – your own personal brand icon? Is it an animal… a flower… a type of tree… the list could go on and on…

3. What is the brand icon for your company? Get creative here, and remember: it’s important to think about how your customers would see it.

NOW, HERE’S THE ‘PRIZE’ PART…!

When you use the comment box, below, to share your response to any one of these questions, you will automatically be eligible to be one of TEN lucky winners (chosen out of a hat) to receive the 2011 Woman’s Advantage Shared Wisdom Calendar, with my compliments.

This calendar is a great page-a-day type of calendar filled with quotes from successful women entrepreneurs. Now, if you’re a guy, don’t be fooled by the calendar’s name – the calendar definitely isn’t just for women! In fact, many of my male clients have commented on how much they enjoy – and have been inspired by – this annual calendar. Each page is filled with innovative ideas on strategy, teambuilding, marketing, finance, and more so it’s jam-packed with 365 valuable insights for anyone in business.

Over 5,000 quotes were sent in for the calendar this year, so I feel fortunate that my quote was selected (I am also featured on the cover this year!). I have been quoted in the past two years’ calendars as well, and I’m so grateful for this that I want to give away TEN free 2011 calendars in hopes that my e-newsletter and blog readers will enjoy them as much as I have in the past.

It’s a gift of over $20 USD, and I want to give one to you – free – because I know it’s something that will provide you with meaningful, thought-provoking information that you can use every day.

So, don’t miss out – click the comment button below, and enter the brand icon challenge!

If done correctly, a little bit of controversy can go a long way for your brand. It builds word-of-mouth awareness and can also better inform your customer (or encourage them to be better informed) about your product. What do YOU think? (This brand video made me laugh out loud) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n09SejxpcFA&feature=related

Entrepreneur’s Advice Presented in Woman’s Advantage Shared Wisdom Calendar

Brenda Bence, Founder and President of Brand Development Associates (BDA) International, Ltd, was selected from 5,000 submissions to be featured in the 2011 Woman’s Advantage Calendar. The calendar provides advice from influential women leaders across the US and Canada.

Mary Cantando, Growth Expert of The Woman’s Advantage, recently announced that, for the third year in a row, Brenda Bence’s advice will be included in the calendar which was released in early October, and this year Brenda will also be featured on the calendar’s cover.

“Brenda Bence’s quote was selected because it was powerful yet easy to understand. Her idea is relevant to almost everyone in business today,” says Cantando. “Business owners and those who dream of starting a business will learn so much from the advice provided by Brenda Bence and the other successful women quoted in the calendar.”

The Woman’s Advantage 2011 Calendar will provide sound bites of advice on key business issues including: organization, promotion, sales, marketing, and human resources. While the quotes are from female entrepreneurs like Bence, the advice is relevant and valuable to business people of either gender.

To view the calendar and place an order, visit www.WomansAdvantage.biz/calendar.

About Brenda S. Bence:

Brenda Bence is an internationally-recognized branding expert, certified executive coach, dynamic speaker and author of the award-winning How YOU™ Are Like Shampoo series of personal branding books. With an MBA from Harvard Business School, her 25-year career has included developing mega brands for Fortune 100 companies across four continents and 50 countries. As President of BDA Int’l, Brenda now travels the world speaking, training, and coaching individuals and corporations to greater success through creative yet practical corporate and personal brand development.

For more information, please visit www.BrendaBence.com or www.BDA-Intl.com.

Click here to read a recent interview about the second book in my personal branding book series “How YOU™ Are Like Shampoo for Job Seekers.”

The actual Johnnie Walker logo came from a lunch meeting between a famous cartoonist and JW execs, where, after a meal and a drink, the cartoonist was asked to draw a figure that would personify the brand. It was drawn on the back of a menu. Now, the company and its logo are recognized worldwide, and they sell over 11 million bottles per year, almost enough to stretch around the globe.

Are you making your brand recognizable, unique and representative of what you hope to achieve? If you don’t know your brand’s value, no one else will either. Learn more at www.BrendaBence.com

All the best – and here’s to YOU™!
Brenda Bence

Join Us Online! www.brendabence.com/enewsletter

PUMA developed as a rivalry between two brothers. It has gone from signature soccer apparel to a line of clothing representing a hip, cool fusion of sports, fashion and high-style. Though it used to compete primarily with Adidas and Nike, it now competes with brands such as Gucci, Armani Diesel and D&G. Not happy with your current brand’s results against existing competition? Try changing who you compete with!

All the best – and here’s to YOU™!
Brenda Bence

Join Us Online! www.brendabence.com/enewsletter

But, now – amazingly – not only has Martha Stewart’s brand survived public scarring, but it seems as if her brand may become one of the few iconic personal and corporate brands of our time.

What do you think Martha did “right” to rebuild her once-tainted brand?

Click here to read the full article.

Many thanks to those of you who responded to the call for questions that appeared in my last e-newsletter. We had some great questions that came in on the topics of both personal and corporate branding.

Our winner this month is Trish Meecham from Credit Suisse. In return for her question, Trish received a complimentary copy of the book The Power of the Platform: Speakers on Purpose that I wrote along with other professional speakers such as Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy, and Les Brown.

See Trish’s question and my response below. Thank you, Trish, for writing in — it pays to ask great questions!

Trish’s question:
“What are the recommended process steps to align company brand and [employee] behavior?”

My answer:
What you’re talking about here is what I like to call successfully making the personal brand/corporate brand connection. Let me share an example.

When speaking at conferences on this topic, I share a true story about the high-end Ritz-Carlton hotel chain. This particular story is about how a hotel guest, who left his laptop at the Ritz-Carlton in Atlanta, had his much-needed computer returned to him in Hawaii – personally – by an Atlanta-based housekeeper who flew all the way there just to bring it to him. This housekeeper was empowered to do that, without hesitation, because key leaders of the hotel chain had established a clear credo and had set up a system to enable any employee – whether a housekeeper, receptionist, driver, or guard – to do what was required to communicate the very specific brand of customer service the hotel wanted to craft for itself.

I like that story because it illustrates how much of an impression every single employee – and his/her individual personal brand – can make on a corporate brand.

So, how well do the individuals – the unique personal brands – of you and all the people you work with reflect the total brand of your company?

Here are a few specific actions to consider when trying to strengthen the “Personal Brand / Corporate Brand Connection.”

• Be crystal clear about what your desired corporate brand is. If you’re not sure as a leader or an employee of the company, then you can be certain that you won’t be successfully communicating a consistent company brand to anyone else – customers, potential employees, or fellow team members. If you haven’t already, carefully define the six elements, that make up your corporate brand [need some help defining your company brand? Refer to Assume the Position! How to Use Positioning to Make Your Brand Irresistible.]
• Consider how well your team really knows what your company’s brand stands for and how to reflect your company’s brand values in everything they do. Do your team members know exactly what is “correct” and “incorrect” actions that best communicate the brand? Remember that Ritz-Carlton not only made sure its employees knew what the brand’s credo was (employees carried it around in their pockets!), but the hotel chain also empowered its employees with the specific tools and resources they needed to put that credo into action immediately. That’s key.
• What Actions, Reactions, Look, Sound, and Thoughts are consistent with the company brand as you want customers and consumers to perceive it? If you’re not sure yourself and/or your team is not fully prepared to represent the brand in their daily interactions with others, take action to make sure they are:

• Find employees who are embodying the company brand well, and make them role models to illustrate to other members on your team what they can do as well to best embody the brand of the company.
• Reward those employees for their actions, making it clear to others that what those employees did was a great reflection of the way you want the company’s brand to be portrayed.
• Make sure everyone you work with has the tools and resources they need to represent your company well. Is there a system in place to allow employees to take action to help build the brand if a need arises? Have you set up parameters as to what an employee is free to do in support of the brand?

Doing all of these things is a great way to make sure customers will perceive, think, and feel about your brand exactly the way you want them to.

Those are just a few tips for how you make a strong Personal Brand/Corporate Brand Connection. To learn how our Corporate Brand/Personal Brand Connection Workshop could help your team develop strong personal brands while also strengthening your company’s brand in the marketplace, click here

Principle #1:

“Lead from the back – and let others believe they are in front. The trick of leadership is allowing yourself to be led too. The chief’s job, Mandela said, was not to tell people what to do but to form a consensus. ‘Don’t enter the debate too early,’ he used to say.”

What Mandela is doing here is advocating a democratic, or participative, leadership style. Let’s face it: As a business leader, there may be times when you have to use an authoritarian style and make a fast – and sometimes lonely – decision. But, the majority of the time, it makes sense to include direct reports in the decision-making process. Otherwise, why have you hired them in the first place? Great leaders know that they, too, are learning and growing every day in the job – even from those who are in subordinate positions.

So, build your leadership personal brand by (1) allowing others to have a say in decisions, and (2) getting clear on when you need the expertise of others in order to make the most informed choices.

Principle #2:

“Nothing is black or white. Life is never either/or. Decisions are complex, and there are always competing factors. To look for simple explanations is the bias of the human brain, but it doesn’t correspond to reality. Nothing is ever as straightforward as it appears.”

This is an important reminder for all of us in every aspect of life – both personal and business. It’s fundamental to success to be able to see the nuances in any business situation, whether it involves launching a new product, dealing with a challenging employee, managing a tough boss, etc. The mind naturally wants to categorize everything in black or white terms, so most of us have to constantly remind ourselves to stop and look at all aspects of a situation. Otherwise, it’s easy to fall victim to making decisions based on tunnel-vision, and that can lead to costly mistakes. Make sounder, smarter business decisions by pointing out nuances and contradictions to your team, and they will begin to see the situation more multi-dimensionally as well.

Applying these leadership principles can strengthen your leadership personal brand.

(Here is a link to the entire article: http://tinyurl.com/6pgaeb.)

As a college student getting ready to graduate, do you find yourself worrying that you’re at a disadvantage in the job pool because you don’t have as much experience as older applicants? If so, you’ll be glad to hear that you have some definite advantages while looking for a job just by virtue of being young and new to your job search. If that sounds too good to be true, here are six reasons you may very well be chosen for a job over an older, more experienced candidate:

The Millennium Generation Perspective. No one knows the needs and interests of younger customers better than … well, a younger customer! And that means you — a college grad. You can leverage this knowledge in your job interviews by helping potential employers see how you can uncover the needs of the company’s young target market and find a way to respond to those needs.

IT Skills. Unlike many older job applicants, you have grown up with computers as a natural part of your life. You probably understand software, hardware, and the Internet — including social media — better than anyone who is older than you. Never underestimate the importance of this knowledge!

Multi-Tasking Abilities. If you’re like most people in their late teens/early 20s, you’re probably capable of listening to your MP3 player, talking on your cell phone, texting someone, checking Facebook, and answering a Skype message all at once. Studies show that people from ages 12-24 today use an average of 5.5 media at the same time, while people over 40 only use 1.7 media at the same time. This means that you’re probably better at juggling a lot more things at once than an older candidate who is competing for the same job as you. And what employer wouldn’t want that?

Lack of Baggage from Past Jobs. You come to the job market with very few preconceived notions, a fresh perspective, and a clean slate. Some older job candidates can get set in their ways. They learn how to do things at one job and then, find it hard to learn new ways of doing those things at a new job. So, make it clear in your job interviews that you’re open to learning the company’s system and that you’re excited about discovering their processes.

Lower Salary Expectations. In tough economic times, older candidates often apply for lower-level jobs, but companies are reluctant to hire them because they might bolt to a better job as soon as one comes along. This is why a company could actually find it more attractive to hire someone like you for a starting position. So, be open about your willingness to begin a new job at a lower salary so that you can prove yourself in that position.

Willingness and Hunger. When you’re just starting out in the job market, you may have more of a “hunger” than the person who’s been working for a number of years. That willingness to do whatever it takes is key to success, now more than ever. Companies want people with a “can-do” attitude.

So, don’t concern yourself with your title or whether you’re doing work that you feel is “beneath” you. Everyone has to start somewhere, and the difference between success and failure is often the attitude and willingness you show toward helping your employer. Use every job as an opportunity to learn and grow, and you’re almost sure to be rewarded in a big way.

Billie Burke — the actress who played Glenda the Good Witch in the original Wizard of Oz movie — once said, “Age is something that doesn’t matter unless you are a cheese.” Change your mindset from what you don’t have as a college grad to what you do have, and remember these six advantages.

“You can’t complain on a Saturday.”

I paused, certain that I’d misunderstood. “Pardon?”

“Our Complaint Department is only open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Central time. You can call back and share your complaint during those hours.”

It was hard to believe that I was hearing this from a customer service rep of a major U.S.-based international airline – one which operates all over the world, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

“But, what if I want to complain on a Saturday?” I asked.

“You can write an email to our Complaint Department, and they will get back to you in writing within four days.”

As a frustrated customer, I wanted – and needed – immediate attention, but I was being told that I would have to wait to be helped.

This situation reminded me of just how dangerous it is for businesses and brands to ignore the needs and concerns of the very people who keep them afloat – their customers. As someone who travels a great deal, I could easily choose to buy my next ticket from a different airline. And my rejected airline would never even know why because they had made it so difficult for me to complain.

Use Complaints to Build Your Brand

One of the most overlooked ways to build your company’s brand is to encourage your customers to complain. It sounds counter-intuitive, but the best brands recognize they not only want, but need their customers to complain. It’s the #1 means of finding out how to make your services or products better – and that’s what will strengthen your brand equity in the marketplace and ultimately grow your business.

How well does your brand leverage complaints? Here are some tips for using complaints to your brand’s benefit:

1. Make it as easy as possible for your customers to complain. Think about all the possible ways your customers might want to complain… by phone? in a posted letter? via your website? via e-mail? Make sure you have all those possible complaint outlets available.

2. Allow customers to complain around the clock. If your customers use your products or services 24-7-365, then you should be prepared to receive complaints 24-7-365, too. Maybe you don’t have a customer service rep available all day? Then, at a minimum, have a dedicated complaint voicemail system that assures customers they will be heard and that their problems will be addressed quickly. Then, make sure someone checks the complaint system regularly and lives up to that promise.

3. Place an online complaint or ‘contact’ form on your website, and make it easy for customers to find it in your navigation structure. If they have to search for how to complain, you’ve just created yet another complaint!

4. If you maintain a store or office where customers visit, have pens and complaint forms readily available to fill out.

5. Make sure that designated employees are responsible for following up immediately on all customer complaints. Don’t make a customer wait for a response, and do everything you can to address the customer’s concerns. If you go the extra mile, you’ll most likely have a loyal customer for life.

6. Train your staff to handle customer complaints properly and, most importantly, in a way that is consistent with your company’s brand values. Remind your staff that they represent the company’s brand and that how they talk to customers – and address their concerns – is fundamental to success.

7. Designate someone to track incoming complaints and watch for trends. This is how you know what needs to change to take better care of your customers and avoid damaging your brand.

Turning a blind ear to customer complaints is an exercise in denial and won’t get you anywhere when it comes to building a powerful brand. So, if you or your team are afraid of complaints, it’s time for a mindset shift. Think of complaints as a gift that will help you better manage how your customers perceive, think, and feel about your brand.

After all, if customers don’t complain to you, it’s guaranteed that they will complain about you… to others! Case in point: I never did write or call the airline to complain, but here I am sharing my frustrations with you. Don’t let that happen to your brand.

What do more than 50 seasoned college recruiters from top-level corporations and universities say are the biggest mistakes college grads make in job interviews? That’s the question I recently posed to recruiters from companies and schools like Google, Disney, Sony, and Stanford University. The outcome of their votes? Their 20 ‘biggest bloopers’- five of which are outlined here. Are YOU committing any of these mistakes in your job search?

1. Not paying attention to YOU on the Internet. Chances are your interviewer or future boss will do a “Google search” on you before they decide to call you in for an interview. In fact, I found out about 45% of recruiters now go beyond Google and search for you on social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. So, think twice about what you post online, even if you think it’s protected by a password.

What does this mean for you and your online personal brand? Think twice before posting those wild photos from last year’s spring break on your Facebook page or a picture of you passed out on your friend’s living room couch on your blog. Veda Jeffries from Stanford University, says, “Students feel that Facebook, etc. is their personal thing, but it’s difficult to erase negatives about who you are when it is open to anyone and everyone.”

Pay attention to what you say in your blog or other social media, too. Negative comments about professors, internship colleagues, or dorm mates – or using bad language – may find you out of a job. Remember: Privacy is virtually non-existent on the Internet. As soon as you post it, your secret is out, and you may be unconsciously hurting your personal brand faster than you can click your mouse.

2. Believing a company’s “greeter” at a career fair is a peer or a confidante. Recruiters made it clear: The job of a company’s greeter at a career fair is to check you out just as much as an interviewer. Even if a greeter seems casual and talks to you like you were a friend, his or her job is to report back to the company whether to call you in for an interview or not. So, keep in mind that the greeter’s opinion counts! Also, make sure that you don’t say one thing to the greeter and something different to your interviewer. You’ll get caught, and that could lead you to being branded as inconsistent — or worse, dishonest. Keep it professional when interacting with every company rep.

3. Thinking the interview only begins when you’re across the desk from the interviewer. HR professionals repeatedly told me: From the moment you walk into the location where you’ll be interviewed, you are “on.” That means no talking on your cell phone, listening to your MP3 player, or texting in the lobby while waiting for the interviewer. It means remembering that how you treat the receptionist may be shared with your potential boss later on. And, it also means remembering that the time you spend following the interviewer from the reception area to the interview room is also part of your interview. I found out that some recruiters are purposely quiet during that time just to see how you respond to the silence and to see if you’re outgoing and personable enough to talk. So, be sure to start some conversation during that time; a little small talk will go a long way to communicating a strong personal brand.

4. Not asking for clarification when you don’t understand a question. One of our worst fears is to look “stupid,” right? But it will look even more stupid if you fumble around and answer the wrong question! In fact, recruiters told me they think it’s stupid not to ask question. Maggie Yontz of ConAgra Foods says, “Nine times out of ten, when a candidate asks for clarification on a question I’ve asked, I figure that I have not communicated clearly, not that the student can’t comprehend what I’m asking. I appreciate a candidate who’s confident and direct enough to ask for clarification on a question that he or she doesn’t understand.” So, most interviewers actually prefer you to ask for clarity. It lets them know you want to make sure you give a good answer. Now, who in their right mind would consider that stupid?

5. Not being prepared with good, thoughtful questions to ask at the end of the interview. Recruiters told me you should expect to be asked, “Do you have any questions?” How good your questions are will show not only that you did your research on the company and the position, but that you really gave some thought to how you could fit in at the company. It will also show that you’re listening to the interviewer.

Nora Bammann, Assistant Human Resources Manager of The Kroger Company, says: “Always have questions ready. The questions interviewees ask really tell me (a) how the interviewee processes the information they heard, and (b) if the interviewee was not only listening but if they understood what they heard.” So, be ready with some questions in advance, but also feel free to ask questions in-the-moment based on what you’re told by the interviewer.

Of course, keep your questions relevant. Gillian Taitz, Senior Recruiter-College Relations for Staples, said, “When candidates ask me things that really just prove they are trying to sound intelligent and have done their online research, it really turns me off. I’d much rather we spend time talking about what is important to this candidate in terms of culture, management style, etc.”

So, how did you do? Have you committed any of these mistakes? As John Luther Long, author of the short story “Madame Butterfly,” said, “Learn from the mistakes of others – you can never live long enough to make them all yourself.” By being aware of the biggest blunders other college grads have made, you can avoid committing them yourself. That’s how you sail through interviews and land a great job that you’ll really love — right out of college.

Author Brenda Bence’s book about how to find a job using personal branding – How YOU™ are like Shampoo for Job Seekers: The Proven Personal Branding System To Help You Succeed In Any Interview And Secure the Job of Your Dreams – is the Winner in the Career Category of the 2010 National Indie Excellence Book Awards.

How YOU™ are like Shampoo for Job Seekers is one of 80 category winners for 2010 in both fiction and non-fiction categories out of thousands of new books submitted by independent publishers from across America. Bence’s Job Seeker book also won the Grand Prize in the 2009 Best Beach Books Festival and was an award-winning finalist in the USABookNews.com National “Best Books” 2009 Awards.

Author Brenda Bence is Founder and President of Brand Development Associates International, Ltd., a firm that specializes in helping companies and individuals around the world build successful, growth-oriented corporate and personal brands.

“My aim with this book was to help job seekers find great jobs fast, even in this difficult economy,” says Bence. “We have been surprised and delighted that the book has also gained critical attention and accolades.”

The National Indie Excellence Awards are designed to bring recognition to titles from independent publishers and celebrate excellence in independent publishing. The competition is judged by an independent panel of experts from all aspects of the publishing industry. For a complete list of finalists, visit http://www.indieexcellence.com/indie-results-2010.php.

Brenda Bence is available for television, radio, and press interviews to talk about her book and/or topics related to personal or corporate branding. Visit www.BrendaBence.com, contact +1-312-242-1830, or email Daniel.Jackman@BDA-Intl.com for availability.

Author Brenda Bence’s book aimed at helping College Graduates find a job using personal branding – How YOU™ are like Shampoo for College Graduates: The Complete Personal Branding System to Define, Position, and Market Yourself and Land a Job You Love – was named an Award-Winning Finalist in the Career Category of the 2010 National Indie Excellence Book Awards.

How YOU™ are like Shampoo for College Graduates was among the selected finalists in various fiction and non-fiction categories out of thousands of new books submitted from independent publishers across the U.S. Ms. Bence’s other books in the How YOU™ are like Shampoo series have also won awards, including the Indie Excellence Award 2010-Career Category, Grand Prize in the 2009 Best Beach Books Festival, and Award-Winning Finalist in the USABookNews.com National “Best Books” 2009 Awards.

Author Brenda Bence is Founder and President of Brand Development Associates International, Ltd., a firm that specializes in helping companies and individuals around the world build successful, growth-oriented corporate and personal brands.

“This book was designed to help college grads learn how to use the power of personal branding to get the best possible job after graduation, despite a tough economy,” says Bence. “That the book has been recognized by the publishing industry, too, is a wonderful plus.”

The National Indie Excellence Awards are designed to bring recognition to titles from independent publishers and celebrate excellence in independent publishing. The competition is judged by an independent panel of experts from all aspects of the publishing industry. For a complete list of finalists, visit http://www.indieexcellence.com/indie-results-2010.php.

The front cover of this Monday’s Nation newspaper – an English-language publication in Thailand – showed a photo of Thais and foreigners rolling up their sleeves and digging in to help with the massive clean-up process required as a result of the events of the past few weeks. Armed with large plastic bags and rubber gloves, thousands of people who call this place “home” – whether for a week, a month, a year, or a lifetime – were out in droves to do their part in restoring the magnificent capitol to its normal state.

But, what about “Brand Thailand?” Can the country’s brand – defined as the way people perceive, think, and feel about Thailand – be equally restored? It’s probably fair to say that the brand has taken a hit… but, do you think it will fully recover? If so, how much time will it take? If you’ve never visited Thailand before, how has your impression of the country changed as a result of recent events? If you have been to Thailand before, would you return again – why or why not? Or, if you are like me and you spend a large part of the year in Thailand, what impact have recent months’ events had on your overall experience of living in the Land of Smiles?

I’ve love to hear what you think. Post your comment and to share your point of view.