How your likeability can enhance your brand

Posted by: Krishna De | Posted on: August 22nd, 2005 | 0 Comments | Posted in: Recommended reading

A great thought provoking read is The Likeability Factor by Tim Sanders.

As he points out, we are in a world of abundance – we have more choices of where to eat, where to work, which service provider we choose and so on.  We are consumers in a global market place and we can access products or services quickly and easily thanks to the Internet.

As consumers, we look for shortcuts to our decision making as we have multitudes of choices. 

Increasingly, as a result of information overload, we rely on how a product, service, relationship will make mus feel about being associated with it – brands can no longer rely on functional benefits alone to ‘woo’ clients or consumers.  We need to increase our likeability factor (L-factor).

Sanders provides a wealth of research sources to back up his proposition and provides ideas on how you can increase your likeability – in summary, the winning qualities of friendliness, relevance, empathy and realness.

A quick but sober read, it made me reflect on relationships I have had with others in the past and why I am more likely to go the extra mile for someone that demonstrates a high L-factor towards me. (The same goes for my own L-factor as I relate to others but I’m keeping those scores under lock and key!  My school report would definitely say ‘could do better’!).  Common sense you may say!  Yes – but how often do we overlook it as we seek to build our business or career.

Definitely a recommended read with great tips for building your L-factor in an authentic way which should improve your likelihood of securing your dream job or that client you would love to work with.