Customer relationships are similar to friendships, in which promises are made, and agreements are kept. The way a company behaves – to the environment, to its employees, to the public – all factor into its reputation and standing in the marketplace.

Not all messages about a company are deliberate, or advertised. Companies get talked about. A person will tell stories about a customer service experience, or how long a product lasted – to many others, who may be your potential customers. The same ways friendships are forged and broken occur to increase or diminish your company's sales figures.

A friend who is dishonest, disloyal, unpredictable, or cruel, will get dumped – and the rules are no different for companies. Additionaly, with the advent of social networking and communication technology, word travels faster than ever. A company's reputation can be torn down quicker than an effective PR strategy can be mounted, or even before a company's executives become aware of developments. Thus, it is crucial that companies begin to cultivate a trustworthy and well-structured personality from within.

No longer can you expect hearts and minds to be won over by a smiling cartoon mascot – were they ever? More frequently, companies are making a shift from caricature to real character, with environmental and social involvement, employee buy-in, and putting customer connection before profit. The payoff is that by adding depth through responsive, generous and people-oriented policies, companies are seeing the people who were initially attracted to it sticking around, and encouraging their friends – i.e., more customers – to come.

Branding that only covers the initial moments of attraction and does nothing for customer retention or deepening relationships does not accomplish all that it is capable of. Marketing through hype may be briefly effective, and even profitable, but when the fantasy wears off, people turn away sharply, unless they can find something real and meaningful in your company's brand personality – something worth talking about, worth investing their selves more deeply.

A logo should be the least remarkable thing about a company. When done right, a brand becomes a world of its own, adding to the human experience, and chosen repeatedly and happily by its audience.

When my nine-month-old son saw this image of Elmo on my computer screen, he dropped what he was dooing and crawled eagerly over to it, growling enthusiastically. It can be argued that if Elmo's sole purpose was to sell gasoline, my son wouldn't have reacted that way. Brand personality goes beyond image.