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April 28, 2008
Personality Not Included by Rohit Bhargava
Posted by Brad Abare | Filed under: Marketing
When I first heard about Rohit Bhargava's new book, Personality Not Included: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity--And How Great Brands Get it Back, I got a little nervous. What would his philosophy be? Would our approach differ? What if he's right and we're wrong? Yep, I had all the typical fears and jealousies you'd expect from an entrepreneur who has built his entire company on the idea of personality-based communication!
Up until recently, the conversation about companies having personality has been for the most part silent. And while I am not so naive to think that we here at Personality™ have a corner on the conversation, it has been a little lonely. Thanks to Rohit's book, we may be meeting some new friends.
I've got to say up front, unfortunately, that I read Personality Not Included with a bit of skepticism because of how engrossed in the idea of organizational personality I have been for the last several years. While I don't apologize for the bias, it does temper my enthusiasm because a lot of Rohit's ideas are echoes.
That aside, the book is indeed a decent read. It's divided into two sections. The first section is comprised of just six chapters because, says Rohit, of the more than 100 marketing and business books on his shelf, "Chapter 6 is the sweet spot." The second section of the book is packed with techniques, guides and tools that work alongside the first half's six chapters. Combined, the book is an argument for why personality matters in your company and how to go about doing something about it.
Rohit Bhargava definitely knows how to keep a reader's attention. The pace and flow of the entire book is really well done. It's very well organized and easy to digest. I was particularly fond of what Rohit calls a "Sellevator Pitch" which he included at the end of each chapter. Rohit's way of selling the big idea of the chapter in the length of an elevator ride.
Here were the six "sellevator" pitches for the six chapters:
1. How Organizations Lose Their Personality
Being faceless doesn't work anymore. Today you need to have a company of individuals (instead of people) who are empowered to share control with your customers.
2. How Unlikely Voices Are Shaping Your Brand
Your accidental spokespeople are the employees or customers who are speaking for your brand already (often without your approval or knowledge) and your first challenge is to find ways to embrace these individuals.
3. How to Define Your Organization's Personality
The personality of your organization is the combination of what is unique, authentic, and talkable about it. The UAT Filter helps you identify your personality by looking at these elements sequentially.
4. Crafting a Backstory People Care About
A backstory offers a reason for your customers to believe in your brand. There are five key models of backstories: the passionate enthusiast, the inspired inventor, the smart listener, the likeable hero and the little guy versus the big guy.
5. Getting Your Organization to Embrace Personality
Fear is the underlying reason behind most of the barriers to personality and manifests itself through success, uncertainty, tradition, and precedent. To overcome these, you need to find a position of authority within your organization (based on respect or authority).
6. Finding and Using Personality Moments
Focusing on personality moments means making better use of the times when you already have your customers' attention (during and after purchase) as well as using your personality to attract attention during other phases.
Conclusion
The biggest problem I had with this book was the lack of depth and real tangible application you'd would expect from someone with Bhargava's impressive background. If anyone has the credentials to talk about organizational personality, Rohit is it. However, the actual application--particularly when it comes to figuring out the personality of an organization--was lacking. To his credit, Rohit tried hard to do this, but it seemed more like an afterthought. And in all fairness, I'm partial to the way we here at Personality™ approach this stuff. For us, it's our business. For Rohit, it's the last half of a book. Big difference.
Overall, Personality Not Included should be recommended reading for everyone involved with marketing and communication, especially business leaders that are starting new initiatives or leading in the midst of change.
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Comments
Brad,
Thanks for this excellent review and your reasoned approach to looking at what worked and didn't work for you about the book. I tagged it so it will appear on the book site as well. To be honest, I expected that there would be more than a few folks like yourself who would find the book a bit repetitive because they are already doing much of what is suggested. It's the tough part of writing a book for people at many different levels of understanding. You and your team have obviously gone a long way to building an entire business that helps brands understand and use their personality. The end goal for us both, as you suggest, is to convince more business owners and marketing professionals that personality really does matter ... and that they need to start focusing on it. Hopefully the book offers just another piece of ammunition to help you make that case!
Posted by: Rohit at April 28, 2008 9:29 AM
Rohit,
What a pleasant surprise to see your comment. I hope the book is going well for you--it is definitely a welcome guide on this road toward helping companies lead out of their personality, not just their profits.
I think we actually share a mutual friend, Ryan Moede at Viget Labs, who said his wife worked with you. Small world.
Posted by: Brad Abare at April 29, 2008 6:55 AM