Do You Have a Gold Medal Brand?

The Summer Olympics has got me thinking about striving for excellence. Even though it is a major accomplishment  and an honor just to be able to compete, every Olympian has the desire to be the best and win a gold medal. This desire for excellence is not often true for small businesses.

The quest for extraordinary is very rare in businesses these days. Most strive for good or even very good but few strive for excellence. Yet despite their lackluster effort, most businesses still expect to receive gold for their less than stellar performance. When they’re not rewarded, most businesses settle for what they can get.

What would happen if an athlete took the same attitude of many small businesses and claim that it is too hard to be the best, settling for what was easy to attain? None of them would even qualify to compete and it would be impossible for them to achieve a medal-winning level of greatness.

Do you find yourself saying, “We are a great company, so why aren’t we a winning brand?” Instead, ask yourself, “How can we strive for excellence and provide brand experiences that people will perceive as extraordinary?”

Being extraordinary is hard work but the reward is priceless. The top get the medals and the rest sit out and watch. As a small business you must remember that every time a customer interacts with your company, you need to provide a gold medal experience so they won’t remain passive towards your brand. If your company provides an extraordinary experience at each and every customer interaction, you will build passion in your customers and recruit advocates who will tell the world just how extraordinary your brand is. Remember, no one talks about the runner-ups but rather about the one who consistently wins the gold.

The Olympics is also like business in that once you achieve a certain level of success everyone expects you to continue to perform at that level or get out of the game. Michael Phelps cannot just win a medal now. He must win multiple golds. For some sports, gold is not even good enough. The fans expect a new world record. This expectation makes it even harder and harder to be extraordinary.

So what are you to do as a small business? Should you give up because the game keeps getting harder? Should you blame a broken shoelace for your inability to compete? Is sitting on the sidelines a viable option?

No. You should push even harder and do whatever it takes to break ahead of the pack. Set a world record experience for your customers and turn your brand into gold!

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