A friend with a small startup business asked me not long ago what single piece of advice I would give him to build a successful brand. Just be interesting, I told him. If you don’t have the time or money to embark on a full-fledged brand development effort, then at least make the effort to be interesting. In itself, this will go a long ways to setting you apart. And setting yourself apart is a key objective of brand work.

I realize this piece of advice risks leading the less savvy and emotionally honest among us astray. And so, a few caveats to go with it:

First, watch out for being interesting simply for the sake of being interesting. Your “point of interest” needs to be grounded in some real facet of your business. This is probably a roundabout way of saying, “In being interesting, remain true to who you are.”

Second, remember that your goal is to be interesting to your customer, not to yourself. It’s okay to start with what you personally find interesting about what you offer or do. That may, in fact, be the best place to begin. But it’s by no means the place to stop. If you think you’re interesting but your customer doesn’t, you aren’t. So pay attention. Eric La Brecque