One Giant Leap for a Brand

Neil Armstrong's journey to the moon launched my brand.

I'm not speaking of a product I invented or an organization I founded. I'm talking about my individual brand.

His actions caused me to build things, question things, even burn things in feeble attempts to light rockets I thought could help me explore the skies.

We tend to think of brands only in the corporate sense: companies, products, political parties and the marketing we apply to them to "build the brand."

But people have brands. People are brands. Think Harley and Davidson, Disney, Kroc and Jobs. Without those strong individual brands, there's no footprint for a corporate culture to stand in, to take shape and grow into something bigger, something better than what the founder could do on his own.

That culture becomes the brand, which when you cut away the systems, processes, and marketing spin is simply an extension of the founder's personality. It sometimes grows too big and moves too far away from the inspiration behind the company, so retooling and reorganizations take place to get back to what made it great.

The most famous astronaut not only had a great brand, he had the most powerful tagline of the 20th century: "That's one small step for (a) man. One giant leap for mankind."

As proof that your brand message doesn't always come across as you intend, but rather how the public interprets it, Mr. Armstrong says he put that "a" before "man" but it was undecipherable and most often scratched from history.

He accomplished what all brands aspire to do: get noticed, inspire and motivate us to take some action.

There's been a lot of discussion lately on whether corporations are people. Yes, corporations are people. Who else makes the decisions—good or otherwise—to govern the organization?

When Mr. Armstrong touched the surface of the moon, I was nine and had no clue what a brand was. And the next few years to follow were about to shape who I became, to myself and to others.

To myself, I was an imaginative explorer who could go anywhere and do anything. My family was nothing but supportive, which I realize is an advantage not all of us have as we shape our brands during these formative years.

To go to the moon, I assumed you had to be really smart. So I began to read more, look through telescopes and pay attention in school (okay, at least in those classes I thought would get me to the moon the fastest).

As with corporate brands, the perception and reality can be different for personal brands.

I've spent the last couple of days thinking about Neil Armstrong by reflecting on his brand, and the impact it had on forming mine. I told members of my family this week that outside of them, Neil Armstrong had the biggest impact on the development of my brand. Maybe he shaped your brand as well.

That's the best tribute I can think of to a man who never sought to be a brand bigger than any of the rest of us.

I never made it to the moon, but thanks to Mr. Armstrong I've always felt I'm going even farther. In my business of helping organizations mold their public personas with the help of the strong individual brands working for them, I constantly get to witness the impact that the actions of one person can make on many others.

That was one small step for a man. And one giant leap for a small brand.

How to Sink a Brand

The captain of the Costa Concordia has certainly tarnished his reputation—his brand.

He's also extremely weakened our perception of the brands he works for: Carnival Corp. and its Italian unit, Costa Crociere SpA. Even though it's very possible no other captain in the fleet will make this kind of mistake, it doesn't matter.

All the advertising, branding and marketing you do is at the mercy of your employees. Even if the people who work with you don't have the ability to completely sink your brand, they surely can put holes in its hull.

Captain Schettino didn't set out to damage either the ship or the image portrayed by the logos adorning it. Your employees want to do good, mainly because contributing to the company Brand (notice the BIG "B") in meaningful ways helps to build their own personal brands (with a little "b").

(Don't let the caps and lowercase fool you into thinking one's more crucial than the other; they're equal when it comes to gaining market share.)

Only when one brand puts itself above the other does the water start to seep in. Say, for example, the brand decides to flex some muscle by showing off for a retiring team member or cute eastern European woman, disregarding what's best for the Brand. Bad things can happen.

But let's not pick solely on the little "b". It works the other way, too.

The genesis of Brand is derived from executive vision, but ultimately becomes what employees make of it. All too often, Brand runs itself aground by, say, making claims to the marketplace that can't be delivered on, or treating employees like, well, employees and not the important "Brandtenders" they are.