So what exactly is a brand? I’ll give you a hint: it’s not a company’s advertising or logo. Those things are controlled by the company. Instead, a brand is the customer’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company. People create brands to bring order out of clutter.

There really is no other word that can truly encapsulate the richness and complexity of this concept. “Reputation” is the only word that comes close. Your personal reputation, like your company’s brand, lies outside your control. The best you can do is influence it since it’s not what YOU say it is—it’s what THEY say it is.

Today’s competition—competition that’s so pervasive we can’t even see it—doesn’t come from direct or even indirect competitors. It comes from the extreme clutter of the marketplace. There are five forms of clutter: (1) product clutter which is too many products and services, (2) feature clutter which is too many features in each product, (3) advertising clutter which is too many media messages, (4) message clutter which is too many elements per message, and (5) media clutter which is too many competing channels.

So how does the human mind deal with clutter? Simple—by blocking most of it out. Stuff that does manage to get in, those items that seem most interesting and useful, are labeled and stored in little mental boxes. Once a label goes on and a box is filled, the mind resists making changes to it. This simple fact has a profound effect on how businesses now compete.

My wife is expected to bring our first son into the world any day now so as you can image the past few months have been filled with lots of baby shopping. Being a marketer I look at store displays, ads, labels and even materials while shopping and I can’t help but notice how many of our products come with “Made In China” branding. I’m from the Pacific Northwest, a place known for good seafood. Where I grew up there was a shallow creek that you could catch salmon bare-handed. A few days ago I was preparing a fillet of salmon for my wife and as I’m reading the packaging I notice that my salmon is a “Product of China”. That’s extreme, I thought to myself. I’m living in California and with my home state of Washington a hop way and here I am eating salmon from China.

It seems to me that some executives do not have a good understanding of long-term profitability. It’ll take me just a few more sentences and a simply diagram to sum it up. In grade-school we all learned about the cycle of life. That same cycle applies to the flow of money in any community. The flow can’t just go one-way or the resource will eventually dry-up. Buying locally is vitally important to a healthy community. It keeps resources in the place of consumption so that it can be recycled. If the resource is consumed in American and then transferred to China’s cycle then it is not recycled and it cannot be reused. If it is not recycled then it will eventually be transferred completely to a place that does not benefit the community or nation in the long-run. In short; if the resources leave the community that support the company then eventually the company will cease to exist because the community will no longer have the resources to support it. If we’re displacing a penny every time a dollar is cycled through the community then after a hundred revolutions we won’t have anything left. This analogy is missing other variables that make that dollar last a little bit longer but you get the picture.

Why does your organization exist? Is it to make money by any means possible? Are you in the business of reaching for your clients’ wallet before you reach their trust, hearts or mind? I doubt that any organization would admit that they are in the business of earning a quick buck by creating a lust for products and services that are of no value and serve no purpose. I’m sure that it’s not intentional but that is what happens when businesses look first at the wallet of potential customer instead of looking at the need of the individual. It’s not rocket science. It’s not even hard. It’s a change in the way you think. It’s treating human-beings with the respect and care deserved at every level and at every opportunity. If you offer a product or service that fulfils the need of another human-being why not act like it. Genuinely present your product or service in a way that shows how much you care. Be genuine and be respectful. Love your customer, client and neighbor and watch how much your brand will grow.