Think of It as a Personal Ad

I just love those Heath guys (Dan and Chip)…the brothers who wrote Made to Stick, my still-fave book on branding. They blog for Fast Company, and in an article today, liken corporate branding to online dating. In looking for love online, you hold only two cards in your hand–your picture and your ad headline, so they better be good. Say the brothers Heath:

With the headline, you can start from scratch. Given the stakes, these headlines should really zing.
They don’t. We examined more than 1,000 Match.com ads–from men and
women, old and young. Our search yielded headlines like this one:
"Hey." Folks, if your opening line is "Hey," you better be hot.

Another said "Looking for love." Well, duh, you’re on Match.com. At
least two-thirds of the headlines said nothing–and did it poorly.

As a brand, you have to know who you want to date and leave the rest behind. As in the dating game (not that I am an expert in this) you cannot be all things to all people, both tall and short, outgoing and reserved, depending upon who you are talking to.

The "Hey" phenomenon is rampant in the corporate world. Branding is
nothing more than a company’s personal ad, and companies are as bad at
it as singles. Gap , for example, is the "Hey" of fashion,
thus its recent woes. And Ford Motor Co. — who, exactly, does
it want to date? Brands with enough scale think they can get away with
being generically likable. And some can, at least for a little while.Everyone else has to be ready to turn some people off.