Make It, Don't Fake It

CHAPTER FOUR

BECOMING AND STAYING AN AUTHENTIC BRAND

There is a plethora of excellent books about branding and brand management, and I am not going to try to boil that ocean here. Instead, this chapter focuses on how the values of the reality-based leader permeate a corporate culture and are critical to the creation and long-term success of an organization’s brand.

There are many definitions of “brand.” I think of it simply as the unique relationship a person has with a company and what the company produces and sells. Successful brands create the feeling of trust that buying a certain company’s products or services delivers real and reliable benefits. To succeed, a brand must always represent reality. It must be and remain authentic. Yet, as ...