Walk Like a Giant, Sell Like a Madman

10.3. Discovering Your Unique Brand Focus

Close your eyes and imagine the president of the United States or Martin Luther King Jr. or Donald Trump. You can probably come up with a clear image of what each of these characters looks like, because they have attained celebrity or even legendary status. That's what you want, and proper branding can deliver it; but first, you need a central brand focus—something unique that is totally you, and something that will excite you and everyone around you.

A real estate colleague of mine in Montgomery, Alabama, Sandra Nickel, is known far and wide as the "Hat Lady." She wears a distinctive hat wherever she goes. Her hat logo appears on her business card, on all of her correspondence, and even on her web site, Invest in Montgomery, Alabama (www.investinmontgomeryalabama.com). Sandra has a solid team of real estate professionals who handle the daily business. She functions as the rainmaker, ensuring that the phones keep ringing and the Internet remains abuzz with the voices of interested buyers and sellers. She tells the story of Midtown, and she volunteers tirelessly to improve the community. In the process, the Hat Lady attracts a lot of attention and lots of business.

Several years ago, I decided to form a brand around an 11-foot-tall, 500-pound nail. The nail already had some local appeal; in 1998, to demonstrate how their NailGard® self-sealing passenger tire worked, Uniroyal placed the nail into the tread of its 80-foot tire, which had ...