Confidence

Confidence, confidence, confidence. I love the word 'Confidence'. I love what it represents and I am yet to find anyone who dislikes the word and what it represents. When I was about to set up my water refinery, my strategy team asked me what I would like the core attribute of the brand and content to represent? They made several suggestions – convenience, satisfaction, purity, trust etc and my simple answer was ‘Confidence’. Bottle confidence and ensure that the brand exudes confidence, lots of it  I said and I believe that that is what we have managed to deliver with Ice H20 (water). 

Management gurus will tell you that you have it made if you find a human need and fill it in a unique way. While that is largely true, my hypotheses is that people desire CONFIDENCE more than SERVICE. When you get on a plane, you get a service right? And you paid for that service right? Wrong! YOU PAID FOR CONFIDENCE. The confidence that the airplane will lift off, and successfully deliver you at your destination. When you pay for a business class seat, you paid for convenience right? No! YOU PAID FOR CONFIDENCE! The confidence that when you get on the plane you will have a comfortable bed seat and that you will not be sandwiched between two obnoxious people like they have back in economy.

That people essentially buy CONFIDENCE and it does not matter if the human need has already been met by several players, if you can package and sell confidence, you have it made! When you buy a mercedes benz or BMW, you are buying confidence – the confidence that the car will perform at the highest level and elecit stares, acknowledgement of your status, envy and admiration. That is why I am confident in my consulting practice when I advise businesses on how to repackage and deliver their products and or services. At the core of my advisory intervention is CONFIDENCE. From mentoring and prepping prospective interviewees to big corporates, we always win whenever we are able to deliver confidence. Confidence is universal. 

All top brands and services, irrespective of the service or utility they provide, sell one thing- CONFIDENCE. NIKE, MICROSOFT, APPLE, CATERPILLER, NOKIA, FACEBOOK, HP, BOEING, TOYOTA, SIEMENS, BRACKBERRY, McDONALD, DIESNEY,  HILTON, COCA COLA, ICE H20 (Lol!) etc. I could go on and on. All these great brands provide different services, but the common thread that joins them all is CONFIDENCE. These brands no longer sell their brand attributes, they sell you CONFIDENCE. The confidence that if you use their product, it will PERFORM TO ITS SPECIFICATION – EVERYTIME ! – CONFIDENCE.

It does not matter what service or product you provide, I dare you to look beyond delivering a service or product, I dare you to change your paradigm and sell or deliver Confidence. Same goes for your personal brand! Let your Product, Service or Brand elicit, evoke or represent confidence and the world will beat a path to your door. 

Remember……..the lack of money is the root of all evil!