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January 13, 2009
Your Personality Can't Come From the Negative
Posted by Brad Abare | Filed under: Brand & Identity
During a Discovery meeting last month with a Personality Profile client, I was working with a Personality Advisor as we guided the client team through the many steps to identifying their organization's personality. About an hour into the meeting, a reoccurring theme began to emerge. I've seen it before, but never has it been so clear as on this particular day.
One of the driving forces in helping a client to identify their personality is to help them think about what makes them unique. If you offer burgers and fries just like the place next door, why should I come to your place and not theirs? If you sell cars and they sell cars, why should I buy a car from you? If you help feed children and they help feed children, why do I want to help you feed more children?
Your answers to these questions will help identity the unique personality traits that make you, you.
The problem with the client conversation on this particular day was that so many on the team kept answering questions in the negative. Instead of focusing on the positive attributes that made them unique as an organization, they were dwelling on everything they were not.
We're NOT a place for those people.
We're NOT the cheapest place in town.
We're NOT like them.
We're NOT designed like that.
Well if you're NOT any of those things, what are you? When pressed, the conversation seemed to get even more negative. So if you're not a place for these people, how about those people? "No way! We're not for those people either!"
If you want to know who you are as an organization, you've got to take a stand for what you are for. Not what you're not for.
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Comments
Great post Brad.
So good to hear you reinforcing that identity comes from what you're for, not from what you're against.
Awesome.
Posted by: Jeremy Scheller at January 13, 2009 12:28 PM