Modern Business Magazine June 2016 | Page 10

MODERN MARKETING You’re Boring - Your Brand Doesn’t Have To Be By Scot McKee Your brand strategy needs to be inclusive, not exclusive. Listen to your audiences – internal and external. ‘Listening’ means allowing them to speak, and be heard. The brand is not about you. It’s about them. 10 ModernBusiness June 2016 The CEO was talking about his brand. Everyone should have been listening, but they were all stifling yawns. Last time I looked, yawning wasn’t really the same as listening. There comes a point when you just ‘look’ like you know what you’re talking about. I practice that look. It’s a bit like, ‘Blue Steel’, with a little less eyeliner. I’m invited to speak to companies about their business brand strategy fairly regularly these days. I think it has something to do with my greying temples and ever receding hairline. So I turn up to the meetings, which are always couched in words like, ‘exciting’ and ‘opportunity’, and, ‘unparalleled’, but they’re not. They’re accidents waiting to happen