So let’s say that you’ve just been called on the carpet because third quarter results were dismal and fourth quarter, the home stretch, is looking a little shaky.  What are your options?

You can be afraid, very afraid and try to control everything.  Bring all of your brand managers into your office and tell everyone that its time to kick some ass.  Work ridiculous hours.  Don’t have fun.  MAKE fourth quarter happen.

Or you can catch your breath and be smart.  I’m not talking about smart, I’m talking about being a genius.

Here’s how.

Take 5 and listen to the brand. Respond to her needs.  Then release her and let the magic of the universe unfold before your eyes.  Invite the customers to come play with your brand.  Welcome them when they do.  Don’t hold back.  Show them how glad you are to see them.  Watch them buy.  What the world needs now is love – love, sweet love and the brands that show it will receive it.  It’s like karma on steroids for retailers.

Easy, right?  Well, not really because most of us start in the other place first.  We begin by being afraid and we definitely don’t listen.  We react.  And then we wonder why our controlling ways aren’t getting results.  It’s because the customer can and does recognize a phony every time.  You need to play it real.

If your brand sucks, it sucks.  If you don’t love your brand, neither will anyone else.

Now we’re getting to the heart of the matter.

How do you feel about your brand?  How do your customers feel about your brand?  Is it on life support?  What are you willing to do to bring it back to life?  Are you willing to change everything or nothing?  Are you willing to take time to listen to your brand – to hear the sad stories and the bad stories and everything in between?  And once you do, are you willing to do something about what you hear? Really?  Are you willing?  Or are you going to sit there and blame it on the economy and commiserate with your colleagues after work about how the whole damn world is going to hell or are you going to face it head on and fix it?  You get to decide what happens next.

Are there processes or systems in place that worked once but no longer work anymore?  Find out.   Then change it.

Are there people in leadership positions who are apathetic/in the way/not willing to change?  Do the Donald and fire them. Today.

Are there ways that you can connect with your customers that actually mean something?
What are they?  Go on a real adventure and find out everything about them.  Find out what they are passionate about.  Be passionate with them.  Find out what they love about you.  Be in love with them. Stop playing it safe and live out loud.  Your brand will change.  You will change.  The world as you know it right at this moment will change.

Do you remember Kennedy’s Camelot?  Camelot was Jackie Kennedy’s way of preserving her murdered husband’s legacy.  It was also her parting gift to this country – she helped a country in mourning, a country whose grief was too great to bear to believe again.

If a widow in the White House can change the way a whole nation feels and thinks, you can do it with your brand before the holidays.  You can and you should.

So let’s review.

First step:  Take 5.  Listen.  Learn.  Fall in Love.  Again.  Put some romance into your brand.  Dance. Have fun.  Live out loud.  Your brand lover will come back and she’ll be more crazy about you than ever before.  Now you really are the smartest person in the room.  Chew on that.