This week’s quote comes from a former colleague, Dan Morrison. Dan’s the Brand Vice President at Joe Smith Brand Strategy and a great person to follow on LinkedIn. I’m not sure this quote came from him, but it came from a notepad that he posted a picture of, so I’ll give him the credit as he brought it to me.

We spend exuberant amounts of time trying to build brands and convince audiences of our brands. We obsess over the connotation of the words we use. The images we choose. The colors and the fonts. All of the other elements that come together to form our identity. Or what we want our identity to be.

Like the quote says, brands aren’t companies or organizations. Brands are perceptions. It’s easy to forget this when we’re in the weeds. To build a brand, an organization needs to build a culture. They need to truly eat, drink, sleep, breathe, and be who they say they are.

Here’s to creating great experiences that build a brand across all platforms and touchpoints.