RadMark has a new MD

RadMark (the largest independent media sales house in SA) has a new MD – the announcement was made in BizCommunity.com today and the full article can be accessed at:

http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/59/28465.html. 

Of course this leads to a whole new discussion around the vexing question of ….. advertising ethics!

How to use ‘reputation’ to create a brand

Jonathan Yudelowitz*, writing in Business Day Management Review (August 2008), starts off his piece with a quote from Benjamin Franklin:  ‘if you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading or do something worth writing’. The quote is used within the context of how a reputation can be used to create and nurture a brand and that leadership is critical in the brand building process. 

As with a brand, a personal reputation is just as important for individuals.  In my opinion, reputation has one foundational personality trait:  Integrity.  Integrity is an often misused word.  It means doing what you say you are going to do with honesty and truthfulness. To use Jonathan’s words ‘a good reputation enjoys public trust and strong equivalence between appearance and reality’.  How often have you met someone who can talk-the-talk but when it comes to delivery … well that’s another matter?

Make a decision today to walk-the-talk, not just talk it.  To help you do that ask yourself two questions: What are you reading? and Who are you associating with?  The idea here is that both influence who you are – this is something a parent readily recognises as they seek to protect their children from the influences of peer pressure and yet how few adults follow their own advice.  Where you will be in 5 years depends on both these factors – What are you reading? and Who you are associating with? – something obvious to Benjamin Franklin and Jonathan Yudelowitz and critical to establishing your own personal reputation based on integrity. 

Make integrity the foundational personality trait in your life.  Integrity is inspirational.  Be inspired.

* Jonathan Yudelowitz is joint MD of consulting firm YSA-Lapin, and the author of Smart Leadership

The ‘problem’ with a reputation …..

The problem with a reputation is that it’s owned by others – I’m not convinced that reputation per se can be measured and managed in the way marketing people like to think it can.  For one thing the modern day corporation firmly resides in the world of humanity – people are your single most valuable component of sustainable competitive advantage but so too are they fallible.  People forget, they have tempers, they can be having a bad day just as your call is picked up by them in a call centre.  The result is that your experience is anything but conducive to a positive corporate reputation.

Corporations also reside in a technological era where it takes very little to start an information tsunami.  An unguarded comment, a digital salary file that gets distributed to all and sundry,  an email intended for one recipient but in error the reply-all-button is the consequence. These things happen on a daily basis – the issue is not that they happen but how they are handled. 

Reputation is ultimitely about character and character is about values.  Character is inspiring.  Be inspired.