What’s more, The Associated Press reported that his group was killing too many Muslims and that was bad for business. The West was winning the public relations fight, all his old comrades were dead, and he barely knew their replacements. Poor guy.

The problem with the name Al-Qaeda, bin Laden wrote in a letter recovered from his compound in Pakistan, was that it lacked a religious element, something to convince Muslims worldwide that they are in a holy war with America … The documents portray bin Laden as a terrorist chief executive, struggling to sell holy war for a company in crisis.

Why mention this now? To make a point that marketing and branding issues are ubiquitous. Even some terrorist groups “get” branding.

So, my $64,000 question is: Why are there still so many companies and organizations that don’t “get” branding? And, I don’t just mean the name or look of the organization. I mean the entire brand impression and experience.

Whether your organization is a small, mid-sized, or large business, a nonprofit, or government agency, does it have a branding problem like Al-Qaeda’s? What would it take for your chief executive and/or board of directors to invest more in branding? (If you don’t want to share your own org story, give us some generic suggestions.)

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My initial response was to post a comment that wondered what we mean by friend. Because Valeria’s post made me question what I believe to be the most critical strategy in developing business growth–relationship building.
In brief, most of my marketing energies go into building relationships, which I believe is the most important step in building trust. Furthermore, I propose that without trust, we will not be hired to perform work nor will we sell products and services to consumers. I also propose that most of those with whom company marketers build relationships, hence trust, never become friends. In fact, most of the customers will neither know those marketers (beyond the brand image) or ever put a face to the persons behind the marketing of the products or services, except for those employee touchpoints who personally deliver thode products and services.
But as marketers in the b2b world, and especially as consultants and/or entrepreneurs, relationship building often blends into personal relationships. So if we accept that our first job as marketers, consultants and entrepreneurs is to build relationships with our best customers and a level of trust that is strong, how do we avoid destroying the business protocols necessary to produce a great customer experience?
In my world, building relationships with decision makers who will hire my firm means we learn each other’s first names; we get to know each other’s habits, good and bad; we often discover our likes and dislikes; and sometimes we share personal stories over lunch, dinner or a few beers. I don’t believe that makes us friends but it does create a level of personalization within what began as a business relationship. That can’t be bad, can it?
Valeria makes me think it can be bad, if we disrespect that client by treating them as anyone other than a business person for whom we work. That means distancing ourselves from the personal and relating mostly to their business wants, needs and desires. Is that possible? I am certain it is. But how we do it is as important as knowing we need to do it.
Therefore, what are the strategies, tactics and attitudes necessary to build strong business relationships that don’t cross the line into friendships, which Valeria convinced me can disrupt productivity and the quality of the work? Or if you disagree with this thesis, where am I going wrong?

It starts with our presence and with the marketing tools we use to share that presence with the right audience, at the right time and in the right place. That presence usually includes such things as a web site, perhaps a blog or a podcast, marketing collaterals, advertising, PR and so on.
For me, networking (i.e., face-to-face relationship building) is where I invest most of my energy. Asking clients to offer third-person testimonials that we then place on my marketing collaterals are important as well.
But do those things alone result in trust and credibility? Most of us apply those same strategies and tactics, so how do our customers and clients determine that we are trustworthy and credible based on those kinds of marketing efforts? Where is the innovation? The creativity? At the end of the day, how do we ensure that we build trust and credibility with our customers, clients and our audiences?