“The Personality Not Included” Interview Series
- Posted March 30th, 2008
- Filed under: Customer Service, Social Media, User Experience
Rohit Bhargava, a writer and a forward-thinking, interactive marketer for Ogilvy Public Relations, has just launched a book called “Personality Not Included: Why Brands Lose Their Authenticity And How Great Companies Get it Back.”
As part of the innovative promotion for the book, he offered to answer five questions from fifty bloggers about the book:
“Three days ago I issued an open call on my blog to ask for any blogger to send me a 5 question interview that I would personally respond to (without cutting and pasting responses)…If you want to follow along through the day, you can do that here or just wait until the end of the day and I will produce a compilation of some of the best questions and themes that emerged.”
I thought this was a cool idea and so snuck in just under the wire (#50!) See a complete list of participants on the Influential Marketing Blog.
Below are my questions and, as promised, Rohit’s thoughtful responses. His answers (and the book) will be helpful as you build your own business and brand.
1. Do people really want to like a company or do they just want a good product? Can you love the player but not the game?
This is a great question, and one that I imagine many people considering getting my book will be asking. I happen to believe that the brand is the context around buying a great product that will not just be important to the person buying the product, but will also be a key influence in whether or not they decide to pass that experience on. The idea of the book, however, is not as regimented in parent brands. I shared an example in a few of the interviews so far about how a parent brand may not matter as much as the component brands in particular situations. For example, all the brand affinity for Darden restaurants like Olive Garden or Red Lobster (if there is any) belong to the restaurant brands. Do people care if its Darden or not? Not really. But the lessons of personality are equally relevant if you talk about Red Lobster or Olive Garden themselves. It is the same principle with products.
2. Are traditional ways of reaching niche markets still relevant (conventions, tradeshows etc.)?
Yes, I think they are – because people are still going there. I think the larger debate that you touch on is whether in person events are ever worth it anymore in this age of virtual conversations and virtual relationships. To answer that, I would point to a gathering of marketing bloggers next week in NY called Blogger Social which is essentially a chance for lots of marketing bloggers who have only corresponded virtually to finally meet in person. Ask anyone attending about the excitement they feel and you’ll have a pretty good idea of whether real in person events matter anymore.
3. Especially in the micro-business sector, many folks are completely untouched/unaffected by social media etc. Isn’t technology a bunch of hoo-haw that only us fancy Internet types care about (the Twitter-stricken, latte-sucking, city-living hipsters)?
If you talk about some of the newer tools, then I would have to agree. I am a big fan of twitter, but that doesn’t mean I would tell every client to use it. I can accept that for some people it will be totally useless, just as I can accept that for some people blogging is just a waste of time that they cannot justify. The view we technology-types (myself included) need to get away from is thrusting our point of view upon others as if it were a religion. Just because a tool works for you doesn’t mean everyone else needs to have it. Just because a certain belief works for you also doesn’t mean that everyone else wants to share it. Do you like when those Jehovah’s witnesses knock on your door? Don’t be that guy (or girl)!
4. What should a very small business owner (say 1-5 people) care about as far as building a great, personable brand?
The main thing to care about is how it impacts your relationships. A small business brand (or even a personal brand) has the same ability to inspire belief if done right. I spend a lot of time in the book talking not just about large companies but also how the ideas relate to small businesses. I think that is a very important audience for the message I was trying to share in the book … and I’m looking forward to hearing from some of them if I got it right.
5. IF YOU BUILD IT, WILL THEY COME?
It’s not really that easy, unfortunately … but if you do this right and they come, you CAN get them to stay, come back and tell others. What value would you put on that?
Thank you for sharing your insight, Rohit! I look forward to reading the book.
