Referral Marketing: Value of Your Brand

What's the value that you place on your brand? How important is it to you? At what cost would you place it at risk?

Establishing your reputation and your brand is a crucial component to your referability. Without it, people won't refer you. In fact, without it, people are likely to speak poorly about you and that's the kiss of death with word of mouth marketing.

Imagine that every time you refer someone, a piece of your brand goes with them. Will they take care of it? Will they protect it? Will they enhance it? For this reason, some people actually shy away from giving referrals because they aren't willing to risk any blemish to their brand. I believe that we can control who represents our brand by choosing referable referral partners. We can educate people how to enhance our brand by teaching them how to refer us appropriately. We can enhance our brand and reputation by ensuring that all those who represent us adhere to our standards of excellence.

As a Steeler fan, I can only imagine the turmoil that the Rooney family is facing with such a blow to their brand through the recent actions of Big Ben. How much of their brand and reputation are they willing to risk on one reckless player? Will they take control of who represents their brand? It will be interesting to observe from the grandstand.

What would you do if this were your brand?