It used to be called "making a statement". Watch anyone today, anywhere, any time. We all send subtle (and sometimes not subtle) signals about what we stand for, what we want, who we think we are, and where we'd like to be seen in our societal strata.We think that we are individuals, choosing to do our own thing, but in reality, even in making that selective choice albeit as loner or the star of the evening, we are conforming to a pattern of expected behaviour.

For most people, it is almost an unconscious thing even though great care may have been taken to dress a certain way, certain hairstyle, choice of shoes, jewellery, body ornaments and so on.

While the statement may say "look at me", there is no real 'sale' of value, or is there? Aren't we all subliminally selling our personal value, confidence, ethics, and integrity to complete our standing in a community. And aren't we trying to deliver on that value every single day of our lives, even though we may slip off the path, once in a while. Making amends, however, can redeem us back into good faith recognition of that society.

Take the concept one step further and it becomes the selling of your personal brand. The positioning of the brand is only half of the equation — the other half is building the relationship with the buyer of your brand.

Instead of 'just making a statement' you are now in the full-time business of customer relationship management. Still, it is just you and the client — a fairly personal interaction.

Gross this up to one more level to that of a company. You are now looking at branding and the ubiquitous Client Relationship Management mantra that you hear, see, and experience to some degree or another with every single business and purchase/sell experience you have in your daily lives.

Customer relationships in a basic sense are just like a marriage. They are reciprocal in nature and need to be continually reinforced at every point of customer contact. In today's world, developing, caring, maintaining and increasing relationships with customers or clients is an exacting and never-ending endeavour.

The trouble is that many companies just don't get it — still operating under the old-fashioned doctrine that if we are open for business, the customers will come in the door.

We've all experienced this mindset in one way or another (hopefully, we have not delivered this indifferent attitude to anyone) and we don't like it. What do we do? We reject that brand and move on, hoping once again to receive the customer satisfaction that we feel we deserve.

In the book "Married to the Brand" by William J. McEwen, Ph.D (Gallop Press 2005), he describes the conditions that precede the decision to embrace or reject a competitive brand: "When customers seek to participate in an implied relationship dialogue, what happens? Do they receive the all-too-familiar voice mail that assures them that 'your call is important to us', while they hold to speak to an outsourced representative somewhere in India, Canada, or other.

"Do they wait in line at a service desk to finally reach fruition (or so they think) only to have the representation unable to authorise the resolution of their problem. Or they send an email or another voice mail to a disembodied recipient — a message that may never be acknowledged, or shunted back to the service desk representative."

That does not sound like a reciprocal relationship where the company actually listens and engages in dialogue with the client.

So, the client moves on again.

What is an optimum client relationship? Those who get it right — who truly understand, respect and value their clients rise to the top of the heap in perception and in the most important category of all — long-term PROFITS. Anyone can generate short-term profits, but maintaining that high-end bottom line year after year, takes consummate skill and the willingness to continually innovate.

In other words, they do not tell their client what they want, or try to sell them what the company needs to sell. They listen to their client and embody the passion that is built by constant communication with the customer: with ethical statements, by superior delivery, and by respect for the client needs.

What brands inspire undying loyalty? In spite of everything that is known about branding, or what used to simply be called good old-fashioned customer service provided by vendors with a tremendous passion for their work, it is often hard to understand why some brands inspire such loyalty, blind devotion and constant purchasing power. Yet, these companies exist and have extraordinary distinctive cachet within the framework of inspiring consumer consumption.

They are not all 'brands' in the true sense of the word, for instance only three global financial services companies (Citi, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo) made the top 25 list. Somehow in spite of extraordinary efforts by these financial groups to provide unlimited customer satisfaction, the mouth-watering appeal of the purchase of a luxury good item ranks higher.

Living testimony to the fact that sorting out and dealing with your finances does not give anyone near the same thrill as the spending on a name brand luxury good.

BRANDZ 2: MillwardBrown Optimor, a market research consultancy interviewed more than 1 millions consumers regarding more than 40,000 brands on a world-wide basis to classify the world's most financially powerful brands into three large categories:

[bul] Dollar value, the present value of all earnings that that the brand is expected to earn in the future.

[bul] Brand contribution reflects the share of earning attributable to the "brand alone".

[bul] Brand momentum, an index of a brand's short term growth — that is the likelihood the brand will gain market share in the future.

In the subcategories, fast food (alas) experienced the most growth, followed by luxury items, fuel, personal care and technology. When broken down further, the classifications are: apparel, beer, cars, coffee — love that Starbucks — fast food (the Supersize Me message is obviously being ignored), financial institutions, motor fuel, personal care, soft drinks, water, retail, and technology.

The winners are, by dollar value:

First, Google with a brand value of $66 billion, followed by in decreasing brand value, 2-GE, 3-Microsoft, 4-Coca Cola, 5-China Mobile, 6-Marlboro ( for the life of me and everyone else why this is number six is unbelievable), 7-Walmart, 8-Citi, 9-IBM, 10-Toyota, 11-McDonalds, 12-Nokia, 13-Bank of America, 14-BMW, 15-HP, 16-Apple, 17-UPS, 18-Wells Fargo, 19-American Express, 20-Louis Vuitton, 21-Disney, 22-Vodafone, 23-NTT DoCoMo, 24-Cisco and 25-Intel with $18 billion.

Bet you weren't surprised to see Louis Vuitton up there, by why don't his brands appreciate in value? I don't see the logic of some of these, but then these brand rankings are predictors of how successful these companies will continue to be over the 5-10 years and may certainly be indicators of the health of their stock performance. You didn't, however, get that recommendation from me, go to http://gmj.gallup.com online and decide for yourself.

Martha Harris Myron CPA CFP is a Sr. Wealth Manager at Argus Financial Limited. She is U.S. licensed Certified Financial Planner practitioner specializing in objective comprehensive financial solutions for private clients planning for retirement and lifestyle transitions. DirectLine: 294 5709 Confidential email can be directed to mmyron@argusfinancial.bm

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