Think the opposite of this and free your brand for victory.

“It’s not personal. It’s just business.”

A popular phrase that just doesn’t seem to wanna go away.

And it definitely needs to go away. More on that in a bit.

Maybe we can “thank” (blame) Hollywood for this message. The term was made famous in the 1972 film The Godfather.

In case you missed it, mob boss Don Corleone (Marlin Brando) was nearly killed by a rival mob family. He managed to survive but was temporarily out of service in his family leadership duties while he recovered.

That left the Corleone sons, Sonny (James Caan) and Michael (Al Pacino), to try and figure out the family’s response.

There’s this scene where they are working out the details of whacking (or not) both the corrupt police captain and the offending crime boss.

The whole conversation contrasts the motivation behind the response being either business or personal. As the two brothers work through it, they conclude the hit will be “just business”.

But of course it was personal!

It was certainly personal for Michael who eventually carries out the hit, as he hadn’t forgotten that the police captain had broken his jaw earlier in the storyline. And of course it was personal for the two men Michael whacked in the restaurant.

Fortunately, we don’t have to worry about that level of threat to our lives in business. Nonetheless, there’s still wide acceptance of this idea that business is not personal.

Over the past week or so, we’ve been exploring the nature of business as a brand (a business is a brand and a brand is akin to a person…the WHO and WHY of the business).

We’ve also been digging into why it’s important to see (think) that brand through the lens of the audience…because the audience ultimately determines the worth of a brand.

The AudienceLens frees us to develop the brand to stand out as unique, to achieve growth by making growth activities easier, and so we can inspire loyalty among customers and employees.

AudienceLens is a principled mindset and language for earning and nurturing trust by focusing on the personal WHYs of the audience.

One of the principles of AudienceLens is:

Business is ALWAYS personal.

We spend half our awake life at work. The majority of our relationships are a result of our time and effort in our work.

And our work pays for our personal life.

This is true for you, for me, for our customers, and for our employees.

Even the data supports this principle.

In a recent Gartner study, 71% of surveyed B2B buyers make business purchases based on personal value.

That same report concluded, for that 71%, personal value was 2X more influential than business value in those buying decisions.

So what can we do with this information?

Put your brand messaging to the test.

Go to your website and browse.

Then ask…

Does it say, “look at us!”

Or does it say, “look what you can achieve!”

Does it feel professional, but cold?

Or does the message feel personally appealing, warm, and features actual people (customer people)?

If you want an independent perspective, just reply to this email with a simple note requesting that we take a look.

You will get a simple pros and cons response with a recommendation on what, if anything, to do next.

Here’s to better thinking, as better thinking comes before better doing.

Best,

Peter

Peter A Snell
Founder and CEO