The Power of Branding

If you have a good brand, you can get away with a lot.

Case in point, I was speaking in Nashville recently and decided to catch a concert at the Grand Ole Opry. The featured act was Marshall Tucker, the southern rock group that had a few superb songs in the ‘70’s.

Unfortunately, their lead singer’s best days were behind him. He barely made it through the first song, “Heard it in a Love Song. For their second – and last – song, “Can’t You See?” some teenager on stage delivered the vocals. He did a pretty good job and he got a standing ovation from the crowd – which was no small accomplishment considering that the average age of the audience was 90.

People didn’t care – or couldn’t tell – that the front man they came to see was a shadow of his former self. They did care that they heard the iconic song from an iconic band. That’s the power of branding. If you have a good brand, you can get away with a lot.

As long as you deliver on the promise – a great song performed well – in this case, then the audience is happy. For you, this could mean that your clients would be happy if the work is done by one of your assistants as long as you supervise the process and maintain the high standards for which you are known and for which the audience expects.