Image
To millions of fans, John Wayne was a cowboy. Strong and generally silent, fighting bad guys, saving the day. That’s the image that captured hearts.
That image didn’t come quickly. He earned it by playing those roles repeatedly through a career that spanned 45 years. From his hat, boots and revolver, to his unusual walk and speech pattern, and his characters’ willingness to stand up to corrupt power and evildoers of all kinds. All of it shaped his image.
Over time, people came to see John Wayne as the embodiment of things they admired and even aspired to.
High profile people have an image that they cultivate and carefully guard. Singers, actors, politicians, athletes, entrepreneurs. How people view them helps determine their professional success.
Successful local businesses have an image, too. Local businesses that struggle either have a bad image or, more likely, no image at all.
What people think of a business—if they think of it—matters very much. What shoppers think of a particular company determines whether they spend money there or somewhere else.
With celebrities, we tend to use the term image. But with businesses, we talk about its brand. They’re the same thing.
“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.” -Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos
The aesthetics of a business matter. Is it clean and neat? Does it look modern? Does it smell good? What about the lighting? How are customers greeted and treated—friendly and fun or cold and formal?
That’s just the outside. What a business really IS matters even more—what it believes and stands for; how its owner sees the world; the principles it won’t compromise no matter what. What are a company’s values, and what is its personality? How does it really do business?
The way the business is portrayed in its public messages matters a great deal.
“Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution to the complex symbol which is the brand image. If you take that long view, a great many day-to-day problems solve themselves.” -David Ogilvy, Confessions of an Advertising Man
A business should build and display an image that’s true to itself. It can’t be made up. It has to be an authentic representation of the owner and the company.
People need to be themselves, and a business needs to be itself. The image, or brand, should simply reflect what the business is. A business’s ads should reveal that image.
The image is NOT “great service, quality products, good prices, and family-owned.” Those things may be true, but they’re also claimed by most local businesses. Those things don’t distinguish a business and set it apart, any more than a man being 5 ft. 10 in. tall with brown hair and blue eyes distinguishes him from all the others.
A man trying to win a woman’s heart doesn’t list his physical characteristics and then hope for the best. He shows her his personality—who he really is. Aesthetics are important, but personality wins hearts.
Common surface traits don’t make for a brand that gets remembered. As Ogilvy said, businesses that put that kind of message forward end up “with a brand that has no personality of any kind, a wishy-washy neuter.”
Listing products and claiming great service makes a business blend in with ALL the other businesses that do the same thing. No personality emerges.“The manufacturer who dedicates his advertising to building the most sharply defined personality for his brand will get the largest share of the market at the highest profit.” - David Ogilvy
If a business will decide what it really is, and then relentlessly reveal its image in messages week after week, it will pay rich dividends.
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