Identity

Identity is something that defines you. It’s what you stand for and what people expect from you. It is important for everyone to create an identity and be true to it. The same holds true for a business.

Why is it that important to have an identity? The reason is quite simple. You cannot be everything for everyone. You need to define your niche. The one thing you are great at doing. The one thing you do better than everyone else.

Take entertainment industry for example. Most successful individuals as well as businesses in this industry have an identity. Aaron Sorkin, the guy behind TV shows like The West Wing and The Newsroom, has an identity. His shows focus on the what goes behind the scene, whether it’s how the people behind the President runs a country (The West Wing), or how a great anchor does news (The Newsroom), or how a live sketch comedy show is put together in a week (Studio 60 at the Sunset Strip). He is great at it and has stuck to the same pattern even when doing movies like Moneyball (how a perfect baseball team was put together with limited resources) and the Social Network (what went behind creating the biggest online social network).

Same is true for successful businesses. Disney has an identity of being the perfect place for wholesome family entertainment which ranges from a dozen TV channels to movies to theme parks. They are always true to it and you as a consumer have perfect sense of what to expect from them.

It all seems to simple and straightforward. You find your niche, understand what you are good at and stick to it. So why does everyone not have a strong identity? There are a couple of reasons for that. First is greed. You think you can do everything and can be the best at everything. This is rarely true and leads to losing the identity. Second is lack of focus. It is hard to be really good at one thing and build an identity.You got to have good focus and stick to that one thing. It takes time and effort at building the identity and many people get lost in between.

We at MavenMagnet have defined an identity and are true to it. We do market research leveraging the power of online conversation and are great at it, better than everyone else.