This Is Marketing: You Cant Be Seen Until You Learn to See

We add the flags with intent
The semiotic flags we choose to fly are up to us. Not flying one is as
intentional as flying one.
The people you are seeking to serve are trying to figure out who you are.
If you’re going to show up in their world, make it easy for them to know

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who you are and where you stand.
The lazy thing to do is insist that you don’t need a flag (or a badge). That
you don’t have to nod your head to the cultural memes that came before, or
even wear a uniform.
The foolish thing to do is pretend your features are so good that nothing
else matters.
Something else always matters.
Are brands for cattle?
What’s your brand?
Hint: it’s not your logo.
In a super-crowded world, with too many choices (more than twenty
kinds of toner to choose from for my laser printer, and more than nineteen
thousand combinations of beverages at Starbucks) and with just about
everything “good enough,” you’re quite lucky if you have a brand at all.
A brand is a shorthand for the customer’s expectations. What promise do
they think you’re making? What do they expect when they buy from you or
meet with you or hire you?
That promise is your brand.
Nike doesn’t have a hotel. If it did, you would probably have some good
guesses as to what it would be like. That’s Nike’s brand.
If you have true fans, the only reason you do is because this group has
engaged with you in a way that signals that they expect something
worthwhile from you next time. That expectation isn’t specific; it’s
emotional.
A commodity, on the other hand, has no brand. If I’m buying wheat by
the ton or coffee by the pound or bandwidth by the GB, I don’t have any
expectations other than the spec. Get me exactly what I got yesterday, faster
and cheaper, and I’ll pay you for it.
How do we know that brands like Verizon and AT&T are essentially
worthless? Because if we switched someone from one to the other, they
wouldn’t care.
If you want to build a marketing asset, you need to invest in connection
and other nontransferable properties. If people care, you’ve got a brand.

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