All credibility is sticky. If you have it and live by it, people remember it. They associate you with it. Credibility is the Super Glue of branding. Without credibility, it doesn’t matter what your message is.
All of this is a huge duh. So why aren’t more companies concerned about credibility?
They give the word different definitions in different situations. They make it conditional. Like so many other aspects of corporate machinations, management often puts credibility into silos. When it comes to marketing, credibility means one thing. For manufacturing, credibility has another definition. For distribution it means something else. Same for customer service. Of course (and sadly), inside the company, among employees, credibility may have no meaning at all. It is an external-only message to be spun and manipulated into whatever fits this quarter’s earnings goals.
We believe that if we organize and plan our credibility into charts and PowerPoints and bulleted lists, we will have captured it and can store it for future use. But if you have to explain your credibility, you probably don’t have any. That is why real credibility is so sticky – and why manufactured credibility is so slippery.
I don’t have to get up in the morning and decide what my DNA will be today. It is an inherent part of me. It is woven into my fabric and built into my genetic coding. It is who I am. That is how credibility should be. You can’t put it on and wear it around and then take it off and wash it and wear another version tomorrow.
You don’t have to create credibility for your company any more than you have to create DNA in your body. You just have to find it and understand it and not screw it up. Credibility is a lot like breathing. In and of itself, it isn’t too exciting, but the simple act keeps you alive – and as such, it can be smothered.
Finding your credibility and making it sticky is not just the job of branding and marketing. It is everyone’s job, from the CEO to the regional manager to the person answering the phone in customer service. Credibility is not 9-5, it is 24/7 hard work.
Several years ago we worked with a transportation company. They had all kinds of mission statements and mantras and internal branding and external messaging. Far down the line fro the C-suite, one of the truck drivers, however, didn’t talk about his commitment to the mission statement; he lived it. He took care of his customers like they were members of his family. He would personally deliver an important package on his day off or at night. He even used his own vehicle once to bring a package to a customer stuck at the airport. He did what said – and he did a lot more. His passion was so obvious, his customers began to invite him to family functions and he became more than a delivery guy to their business. He was a problem solver. He made his company’s credibility stick to everyone he came in contact with.
He didn’t always follow the rules. He refused to fit in a corporate silo (and there were plenty inside this company). He didn’t sit in management meetings. He never gave a presentation. He didn’t talk about credibility. All he did was put proactive action to work solving customer’s problems. He never talked about the future. He was too busy delivering the now. He also outlasted several CEO’s.
Sometimes, credibility comes down from the company’s executives. Sometimes it comes up in a truck.
