My ‘One Word’ this week is: SIMPLICITY

The difference between a business and a brand is YOU.

This is the first thing I share with the young adults I work with and mentor.

What do I mean by that? 

People buy human connection first!

So if you want to win the branding game, then understand that what you’re really selling is your core value—and it comes directly from YOU.

“But I don’t see Sara Blakely on the landing page of the Spanx website today, or Steve Jobs’s face stamped on every Apple box…” clients tell me.

When you go back to day one, though, they were always front and center. Through storytelling they WERE embodying their core value, and over time (years, for that matter) consumers came to associate the brand with this core value.

Consider the “uniform” Steve Jobs wore on every stage: A black turtleneck, jeans, and New Balance sneakers.

While this deceptively simple uniform made him instantly identifiable, he was intentionally embodying what the Apple brand sells…SIMPLICITY!

Think about it: You’re NOT paying $1,300 for a phone…you’re paying $1,300 for Apple to put the world at your fingertips. Now that’s SIMPLICITY.

Despite Steve’s passing, consumers today still remember his wardrobe because they now know Apple makes technology so simple that everyone can be part of the future.

So, if you want to be like Steve and Sara, then put yourself in front of your business and humanize it. That’s how you win people’s hearts.

But to do that, you have to know your core value.

Mine is CATALYST.

What is your core value…in ‘One Word’?