Obsessive Branding Disorder

Remove the hype, and branding is just commonsense strategy, rebranded. To successfully build a brand, says INSEAD marketing professor Amitava Chattopadhyay, "is to communicate your key value proposition to the key customer segment, and do so in an integrated and consistent way." In other words, Business 101.

Perhaps a lesson from the self-help industry is in order. Although sales of self-help books have doubled in the past four years, mental illness, obesity, drug addiction, and alcoholism are very much on the rise. Is the craziness fueling the literature or vice versa? Comedian George Carlin captured it when he said, "If you're looking for self-help, why would you read a book written by somebody else? That's not self-help, that's help! There's no such thing as self-help. If you did it yourself, you didn't need help." So go ahead, leave your shadow alone. Run a good business, and your brand will follow.