Great short video presentation from Tom Kelley presenting at the Stanford’s Entrepreneurship Corner back in 2008. In it he talks about having met Francis Ford Coppola who told him  ”Do what you love. You’ll be better at it.” I couldn’t agree more. Watch it now.

Randell Frost reports that people often have less confidence in service brands than they do consumer product brands. When you’re dealing with service brands, you’re dealing with people.

And therein lies the challenge because employees don’t always share the values of the companies they work for — if they even know what they are. Manhattan2270486 In the book Brand Engagement, management consultant Ian Buckingham argues that a lack of clarity about values, behaviors, strengths and expertise within an organization can result in significant problems in meeting customers’s needs.

Specifically, a disconnect between values leads employees to attempt “to protect themselves by adopting on-brand masks,” Buckingham says. “Instead of delivering authenticity, they present the prevailing culture with what they believe it will find useful. Meanwhile, if the culture doesn’t resonate with their core values, they exhibit defensive behaviors.” Bottom line: If your employees don’t trust you, your customers won’t either.

Read the rest of the article at www.brandchannel.com