Your Brand Neighborhood (Redux)

We tend to talk about competition, most especially when we’re battling head-to-head to win a new client.

Competition. Battle. Winning.

Is that really what selling our work is all about?

Uh, no.

Selling—and doing—great work is about deciding who you are and focusing your efforts on the right client base. It’s playing YOUR game. Not dancing to someone else’s moves.

Which is why, when we talk selling and marketing and branding, try replacing the notion of competition with “brand neighborhood”.

Instead of obsessing about competitors, why not direct that energy to creating an ideal cadre of the stellar brands—people, products, companies—that speak to you?

Brands you can channel as you make key decisions about the work you want to take on, how you price, whom you most want to welcome into your tribe.

You can get out of the trap of only looking at how your industry or specialty does it and take notes from those you admire most.

You get to decide who lives in your ‘hood.

Financial advisor with a creative streak? Maybe your neighbors include Bono and Jeff Koons.

Non-fiction author with a penchant for social good? You might “live” with TakePart.com, Good.is. or your favorite causes.

We humans are hard-wired for community. Neighborhoods—real and virtual—matter.

So let’s go create the ones we want to live in.

p.s. For more on brand neighborhood, check out this previous post

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