2013-12-07



Executive Summary

*Personality Not Included is a book all about redefining ordinary brands to extraordinary brands using personality. Being a “faceless” corporation used to work in marketing; however, Rohit Bhargava “tells it like it is” and successfully defines why it no longer does. If you strive to inspire your customers, this is the book for you. The author displays this in a fun and relatable nature. The basic idea flows with David Ogilvy’s idea of brand image, displayed in the beginning of the book: “You now have to decide what image you want for your brand. Image means personality. Products, like people, have personalities, and they can make or break them in the marketplace.”

The book is broken down into two parts. Although part two is full of useful guides and tools for any business to use, the basis of information is in part one of this book. There are six basic chapters included in part one, all informing readers what personality is and the basic role it plays in marketing. Chapter one opens with explaining why being considered “faceless” use to work for companies. A lost personality develops when employees are looked at as “people” rather than individuals. Overall, three key factors determine how a company can lose personality: through being ordinary (and profitable), focusing on only policies rather than logic, and silencing employees. Bhargava goes into detail of why this ultimately damages companies. He suggest sharing control with customers, which brings us to chapter 2.

The accidental spokespeople of your business should be embraced and not viewed entirely as a threat. Take Jared Fogle, the “subway guy” who lost more than 100 pounds in three months claiming to  be on the “subway diet.” Jared was not a paid actor, he was a real person. Despite several Subway managers’ backlash, the advertising agency of the chain decided to embrace him and use it to their advantage. Customers responded because this person was an ordinary, everyday guy, making him more believable and less as a marketing stunt. He is a prime example of embracing an accidental spokesperson. The rest of chapter two goes into more detail about the types of accidental spokespeople and how they are the unofficial voices of a brand that can work for your company.

Chapter three introduces Rohit Bhargava’s UAT Filter, designed to help readers understand personality, and break it down into what makes your brand unique, authentic, and talkable. Following the UAT filter is reasoning why a company should develop a back story. Brands with personalities have stories that inspire customers and make them passionate about your brand, to a point where they wouldn’t even consider going to another business for the product or service you offer. Details are outlined on how to develop the perfect back story for any company.

The second to last chapter of part one talks about overcoming fears and roadblocks every organization may hit. The author teaches us how to steer through these times with multiple factual stories from other businesses. Personality roadblocks can form from success, uncertainty, tradition, and precedent. Lastly, chapter six gives readers ways to focus on “personality moments.”

Taking action is the basis of part two. Rohit includes several tools and guides mentioned in part one. It assists readers in implementing what they learn in part one.

All in all, we learn the importance of being transparent, talkable, and unique as a company. We fully comprehend that personality is defined as the “unique, authentic, and talkable soul of your brand that people can get passionate about.”



The Ten Things Managers Need to Know from Personality Not Included:

1.    Develop a company of individuals. Creating a company of individuals rather than “people” can create a strong brand personality. Encompass a “likeability factor” by building relationships with customers. People are less likely to attack and be more understanding of someone they like, over someone who seems faceless.

2.    Embrace accidental spokespeople. Your accidental spokespeople are the ones speaking for your brand, whether they have the permission to or not. Some may be attempting to destroy your brand, and others defend the brand. Try embracing them and viewing them as a positive tool to your company—the ones who speak negatively can provide insight on what desperately needs changing about your product or service, while the “cheerleaders” of your brand attract more customers and develop constructive word of mouth.

3.    Talk like a real person. Read your businesses’ “about us” section on your website out loud (in private). If you wouldn’t speak that way in a conversation, that’s a sign your company should work on developing personality. Stray away from using over-fabricated language. Customers want a brand they can trust—a brand that “walks the talk.” Have some humor.

4.    Focus on logic. To not be “faceless” in the eyes of customers, try focusing on logic, rather than strict policies. In today’s business world, consumers are smarter than a policy and most want real reasons why, instead of the generic “because it’s part of our company policy.”

5.    Establish a back story people care about. It’s more meaningful than just the accomplishments your business has made, or the standard how your business came about. It needs to be powerful and compelling enough to attract customers to relate to the brand on an emotional level.



6.    Create relationships and be real with customers. The marketing of a product/service needs to be more than just “bad profits” (profits earned without keeping customers happy), it needs to be about creating relationships with customers. Customer loyalty stems from a brand having personality.

7.    The definition of personality, and how to implement it. Rohit Bhargava defines personality to be “the unique, authentic, and talkable soul of your brand that people can get passionate about. It is a way to introduce and reconnect your customers and employees to the essence of your brand.

8.    Create something talkable. Remember, “The trick to marketing is to have something so cool, you’d want to talk about it even if you weren’t in the business” by Hugh MacLeod. Although personality cannot create a product someone wants, however, creating something talkable can create word of mouth and buzz about your brand.

9.    The “Four Great Barriers to Personality.” This includes barriers caused by success, uncertainty, tradition, and precedent. Success can cause the mindset of “what we are doing is already working.” Fear can cause uncertainty of future. Tradition is doing something because it is what your business has always done. Lastly, do not do something because everyone else is doing it, or vice versa.

10.    Relevance is key. If your product or service is relevant to the target consumer, it will be effective. It is all about reaching the right person at the right time. Companies need to figure out a way to more selective with the attention we give. Put more effort in reaching your target market, and not just everyone around.

Full Summary of Personality Not Included:

Introduction:

Having a great product is the first step to becoming a successful entrepreneur. However, this book explains that there is another step to this process. The title of this book basically explains what your company, product, or service must have in order to be successful: it must have personality. Personality is defined in this book as “the unique, authentic, and talkable soul of your brand that people can get passionate about.”

    Personality Not Included begins with the story of the distribution of Apple’s iPod shuffles in the early 2000’s. Being that this new product was the smallest MP3 player created, the marketing team at Apple knew that marketing for this product had to be different in order for it to sell and create a want for it: “Do Not Eat iPod” was added to the bottom of the instructions the iPod shuffle was shipped in. Soon enough, buzz was created about the small joke and people were curious. Did Apple really put that on their product? Blogs were made about the joke with a picture of it attached. People had to buy it to see for themselves. It was a success! The moral of telling this story is to show the importance of personality to a brand or company. Apple creating that tagline and adding it to their product instructions shows that the company is irreverent, different, and non-traditional, which seems to be truth.

    The following sections briefly go over other reasons why you want your company to have personality: you want customers to be as passionate about your product or company as a whole, so much that they want to tell others of it. It’s almost free advertisement!

    Think differently. Put less focus on marketing your brand, and put more on using personality in creating relationships with customers. Find what makes your company different and use that to your advantage. Having a personality brings your companies marketing closer to truth of your product. Most know that there are so many marketers are labeled as liars because all they want are sales which more than often mean telling of an untrue quality of the product. This book will cover how continuing a lie is nearly impossible to do, especially when you are relying on word-of-mouth to get your product out there.

    Rohit Bhargava says that he believes the 4 P’s of marketing should include a 5th part: Personality. The rest of Personality Not Included  will review how to not be a “faceless” company and why that use to work, “accidental spokespeople” and the impact of social media, how to define your organizations brand, importance of telling the back story of your product, conquering fear and embracing personality, and implementing.

How Organizations Lose Their Personality:

    The first chapter of this book summarizes the reasons that make some company’s ordinary, instead of extraordinary and unique. This can occur when organizations begin to view their employees as “people,” instead of “individuals.” Bhargava says that when this happens, that is when an organization loses their “personality.” They do not enable employees embrace a sense of individualism and allow the company to be ordinary. Bhargava then goes on the say how this can cause people to view the organization as “faceless.”

    Consumers are not typically able to connect with “faceless” organizations. When a company has no personality, it makes people more prone to “attack” that company. For example, we all know that it is illegal to steal cable, however many consumers view cable companies as “big, faceless corporations” which makes it “okay” to steal from. They are only after the money, right? This goes the same of pirating music. In order for this to not happen, companies need a “likeability factor.”

    Likeability does in fact matter when it comes to customer complaints. Bhargava gives a perfect example of this: “In the medical profession, for example, one thing every doctor knows, is that likeability matters. Statistics time and again prove that people don’t sue doctors that they like, regardless of how badly they screw up.”  The key is that a company needs personality in order for customers to relate and be understanding.

    Although it is common belief that companies lose their personality through growth of employees, the assumption is flawed. Even small businesses do not have a distinct factor that sets them apart; likewise, large corporations can keep that uniqueness with them no matter what size they are. However, being a small company can help in developing a personality. The important factor is learning to develop bonds with customers.

    Believe it or not, being faceless use to work for some businesses. In the past, companies’ have deliberately chosen to hide their personalities. Bhargava highlights top three reasons personality is lost: being ordinary and profitable at the same time, focusing on policies rather than logic, and silencing employees.

    An example of being ordinary, yet profitable and how that can go wrong is the story of Kmart. Kmart use to be an old, reliable department store that sold ordinary products at normal prices. This worked well for the company in the beginning until Target came along with successful fashion merchandising: instead of discounting last season fashions, Target keeps up with trends and does not discount their fashions, putting them ahead of Kmart.

Next, is a business that focuses on policies rather than logic. Over the years, policies have overtaken businesses. Customers, and even employees, sometimes do not even know the reasons why they can or cannot do something. Faceless corporations are known for these off-the-wall policies. Consumers are smarter, and want explanations for certain procedures. Logic is not important to faceless companies. Silencing employees is another big issue.

The story of Starbucks coffee shops is used as an example of a unique, coffee shop with personality when it first opened in 1987 with 11 stores. Now, critics argue that Starbucks has lost that personality over time. For example, in the beginning, Starbucks would freshly grind coffee beans in front of customers. Of course, after the huge growth of the coffee shop, now up to 14,000 stores nationwide, it seems to be quite impossible to keep up with this. The company now has automatic grinders, which some feel take away from the personality of the chain.

    The end of the chapter then goes on to explain why companies need to not only focus on new customers, but marketing to existing customers. It’s important for a company to focus more time and money spent on marketing to existing customers than what they normally tend to do.

How Unlikely Voices Are Shaping Your Brand:

    In the past, Microsoft seemed to allow outside voices to shape the image of their brand. Many consumers thought of Microsoft as an evil monopoly, attempting to “take over the world.” The brand had a negative reputation, which has currently seemed to have diminished over recent years.

      How could Microsoft’s image go from being evil to not so evil in just a couple of years? The project given the name “The Blue Monster Project,” is the reason for consumer’s change of heart. Microsoft changed their brand image by Hugh MacLeod’s Blue Monster illustration, captioned with “Microsoft: change the world or go home.” The illustration went viral and changed the minds of employees and consumers of Microsoft.

    The chapter then goes on to explain how companies need to make a name for them and learn to explain their story to everyone. It says to not allow outsiders to create that image for you. Companies with a bad rep must being telling their story better through answering: what they do, why they do it, and why it matters.  Hugh MacLeod, not even an employee of Microsoft, changed consumers’ perception of the brand, and even gave a reminder to its employees of why they wanted to work for Microsoft in the first place: for that feeling of changing the world, not just writing codes.  

    The idea behind this story is that people will believe an authentic, truthful person. Hugh MacLeod was a blogger, and that gave him the power to have a sort of “natural authenticity” because he can write, draw, and say whatever he wants to about the brand. The next example given about “accidental spokespersons,” is Jared Fogle, the “Subway guy.” He never intended it, but after losing so much wait by his claimed “Subway diet,” Jared became a spokesperson for the healthy food chain.  He, as well as many others, is a spokesperson only expressing their feelings about a brand.

    The next part of this chapter talks about deliberate spokespeople. The book labels that there are five types of deliberate spokespeople: The Founder, The Character, The Authority, The Celebrity, and The Enthusiast. Some of these deliberate spokespeople have worked and benefit companies, but other have not.  The founder can be viewed as biased, however, having brand knowledge and real passion. The “character” is typically memorable, however fabricated and not real. Next, is the authority, which may have a limited, product-focused message, but credible and unbiased. Some people question the motives of the celebrity, being that many are paid to speak on behalf of that brand. Lastly is the enthusiast, who may have a “lack of name recognition,” yet offer a believable, real opinion.

    Lastly, the end of the chapter goes on to talk about the accidental spokesperson. It is said that these people can be employees or customers already speaking for your brand, usually without knowledge of them. It’s important to embrace these people because they can usually benefit your company.

How to Define Your Organization’s Personality:

    The next section of the book opens with how signatures have lost their meaning. How many times have you seen forged signatures or a copied signature on something? There are three reasons labeled in this book as to why signatures have lost their value over time: they are easily forged, they carry little weight with no context, and they are no longer as personal or unique as they once were. It is argued that today’s consumers value authenticity over convenience.

    There are several companies who label themselves as having a special service and being convenient. However, these attributes do not set the business apart from other businesses, because they all say this. According to this chapter, what people want is a company that attends to the customer’s vulnerability. An auto repair shop is used as an example. It is believed most mechanics shops try to get the most money from their customers, and usually not as concerned with customer satisfaction with the job. Customers will feel that they overpaid for the service because they usually do not really have another option. They will have to get the problem fixed and will take whatever the mechanic suggests because they are the “experts.”  Oil Can Henry’s is one example of a mechanics shop that looks to fulfilling the customers’ needs and keeping their trust. This shop allows customers to watch mechanics as they work on their car, which puts customers at ease and they can actually trust who is working on their car. The detail that separates this mechanic shop from the others as labeled at the start of this paragraph is that Oil Can Henry develops a trusting relationship with its customers. Many customers do not they were taken advantage of.

    The rest of this section highlights ways to develop the three core qualities of personality: being unique, talkable, and authentic. Rohit creates a filter to define personality called the UAT filter. He labels this not as a scientific model, but a creative one. This framework is outlined more in his book and used as a way to position and define an organization; however, I will go over ways given on how to be unique, authentic and talkable.

    The book gives us steps for each of these three traits. To be unique, you must: find the uncontested space, position yourself, create a twist, and think outside your region. Next, be authentic by defining a credible heritage, demonstrating passion and belief, fostering individuals and not people, and having motives beyond making profits. Lastly are the steps given in order to be a talkable brand. To be talkable, one must offer something of value that can be limited, create a hook, step back and let people talk.

    We can learn from this section of that book a number of ways to use personality to set you apart from other companies and to focus on something more than just a signature. Three important principles to take from this is to talk like a real person, be honest and admit that you are marketing, and learn to have a sense of humor.

Crafting a Backstory People Care About:

    Bringing a product to life can be done through having a meaningful back story. Every company has a back story. The story involves real people over taking real challenges that many can relate to. The book highlights that a back story is not necessarily what is published in the About Us section on your website. This chapter reviews ways on how to tell a story people care about and to place product benefits into emotional terms.

    Having a “human voice” is one key tip in crafting a back story that is credible. One way to ensure this is using the correct dialogue. The idea is that you want to present your story as real as you can. People want stories that they can talk about in everyday conversations. Rohit explains how in order to figure this out, read your companies’ “about us” story out loud to yourself and compare that to a real life conversation telling your story to a person. There’s a big difference, right? You can still be successful in using this type of language; however, Bhargava is making a point to be real and authentic. One example used is the television show Lost. Audiences relate to this show because they are able to feel for the characters through the flashbacks of their pasts. The overall lesson taught from the show Lost is to use a back story that drives into customers emotions to build a connection.

    In order to get started in crafting your companies back story, Bhargava creates the Backstory Model Picker which offers a starting point to route the story. This model labels the backstory type, what companies use the stories, and what the story is. The basic types revealed in this model are stories involving the “passionate enthusiast,” “the inspired inventor,” “the smart listener,” “the likeable hero,” and “the little guy versus the big guy.” These types are basically self explanatory and have several examples of each type of story used by these models.

    Many times, these back stories can overlap. One story in particular is shown as both an “inspired inventor” and the “smart listener.” In general, all of these stories share the same idea to focus on the people behind the product or service. It encourages one to think differently in order to create a unique and truthful story.   

Getting Your Organization to Embrace Personality:

    Creating personality in your workplace or for a product can be challenging and difficult for many. If the company you work for doesn’t have a distinct personality and you feel it should be changed, it could be near to impossible to do so without some position or sense of authority. This chapter of the book presents readers with ways to get over the definitive obstacle of fear.

     After reviewing the different points of having a personality and what it takes in creating one for your brand, it certainly can seem like a risky task for some. Fear of being unique and different holds companies back from embracing personality. Rohit explains how we live in a culture that bases decisions on a cautious view of the world. Ultimately, the book shows us there are four key places where fear holds on to: success, uncertainty, tradition, and precedent. Let’s look at what the author says about each of these.

    Why would someone fear success? The book shows us that many companies do not change and want to create personality because what they are doing at the moment is working for them. This mindset is dangerous to companies because it causes arrogance and lack of aspiration. It’s important to remember that one success does not mean later successes will follow if you do nothing to create that success. Businesses need to always be learning and growing or could lead to failure in the future. In order to overcome this barrier is creating the mindset to always thinking of the next threat that could be right around the corner.

    The next point is fear based on uncertainty. It is all created from lack of knowledge of the future. I think this reason of fear speaks for itself. To conquer the fear of uncertainty, learn a way to remember that one mishap or mistake will not throw you off too far. Just like taking the wrong turn on a road trip, if you are using a GPS, it’s going to re-route you to where you need to be. You aren’t going to be lost forever.

    Tradition is another barrier to personality. Many believe that staying on task with what has always been done, will work in the future. Rohit says that this is far from the truth. Although some traditions can work for the future, this is not always the case. Do not let what has worked in the past dictate how things will be run in the future. The world is constantly changing and we can’t get left behind with this mindset.

    The last barrier to personality is precedent. This is the idea that what has worked for other companies will work for yours. Often times, this is when someone says “well, has this idea worked before?” This approach holds us back from being original. It makes us the “copy cat.” The author explains that while it’s okay to look at other successful companies and see what they did to get there, you should find your own creative way and put a twist on what they did.

    Overall we can learn from this chapter to find a position of authority and do not allow these fears to come into the workplace. Always think outside the box and take initiative NOW. All we need to know is how to find personality moments and use them.   

Finding and Using Personality Moments:

    A personality moment is a point in business where there is an open chance to create a relationship with customers and is basically a prompt to get started. This moment can be a point where you have all the attention of a customer. For example, when a customer is researching about your product or trying to find answers. After all, brands that do the best are the ones that capture our attention at one point, and keep it. The author labels three ways that usually capture the attention of audiences. These are shock, sex appeal, or relevance. Relevance appears to be the most useful and productive way of keeping attention.

    Rohit Bhargava goes into detail about the buying cycle, which we can apply the attention factor to. Usually, this cycle starts with research, followed by a purchase, interacting, and then sharing.

    “The trick to marketing is to have something so cool, you’d want to talk about it even if you weren’t in the business.” This quote is presented in a drawing in the book. It sums up the idea of this chapter. Personality can create a star product that without it, would just be ordinary.   

Putting Personality Into Action:

    The last section of this book is divided into two parts: techniques, and guides and tools. The entirety of part two is to provide resources to put the six chapters in part two to life. It is full of questionnaires, graphs, and other tools to help guide business leaders in developing personality for their brand. If you are part of a company that feels the need to make a difference in your company and create a personality for you brand, I suggest utilizing this part of the book. Personalitynotincluded.com also gives plenty of helpful resources to use.

The Video Lounge

Video 1:

    

    The first video is an interview with the author, Rohit Bhargava. He speaks about his book and the basis of what personality is: being unique, authentic, and talkable. Personality is not necessarily individual personality, but that of an organization and showing that to the public. It shows the importance of using personality to increase connections with customers.

Video 2:

    This second video is a presentation given by the author. This is an important video to view in order to understand the concept of using personality. Marketing is an idea used in everyday life, such as trying to get friends to go eat at the restaurant you prefer to eat at. Rohit shares three stories with the audience that can be used as examples in how to use personality in the business world.

Personal Insights

Why I think:

The author is one of the most brilliant people around…

…Because after reading this book, I find that several companies focus too much on the business aspect and completing tasks in a conventional way. Rohit Bhargava focuses on creating something unique, and different, which I feel has dwindled over time. I like how he “tells it like it is” and cuts out all of the jargon. I feel like I am listening to a real person and having a real conversation. The entire book is filled with resources many companies could use. Not only is this book just for business leaders, but people can use the ideas presented in their everyday life. I have learned the importance of building a strong personality to create powerful and meaningful conversations with customers.

If I were the author of the book, I would have done these three things differently:

1.    I would have made sure to not repeat certain topics in the book. I found many tools and guides to be repeated several times in both parts. It may sound redundant to many readers.

2.    I would have made part two into a type of index, rather than in paragraph format. I feel that it would help people to navigate through the tools and guides better. Many of the paragraphs repeated in part two were repetitions that were already included in part one.

3.    Although Chapter 5 provides good advice for those who are already leaders in their organizations, I feel that most readers are not executives in their businesses to implement this kind of strategy. I realized this about the book after reading one review where social media author, Krista Neher, states “The Chapter is essentially about inciting organizational change and discusses techniques for encouraging change. I would imagine that a small % of the people reading this book 1) work in a large enough organization for this to be an issue and 2) are in a position to actually incite a change using these techniques. Plus, there are many thorough in-depth books written about this subject. Unless you are in one of those positions, I would probably skip this section – it reminded me of a college textbook about leading organizational change.” I agree.

Reading this book made me think differently about the topic in these ways:

1.    Why being faceless doesn’t work anymore. This made me open my eyes to why companies should have a face in order to have a personality. Consumers want to hear from real people. When a customer has questions or complaints about a product, they want to get more than a generic response. They want to speak to real people. Having brand personality removes the common idea that large corporations have no concern for their customers and are only in it for profits.

2.    Too many rules and regulations take away from the personality of a business. They are important to have regarding certain things, but I hope to make sure to not get out of hand with policies. In order to develop a relationship with customers and employees, it’s important to have truthful reasoning behind the way you do things.

3.    The value of speaking like a real person. The author presented this book in a relaxed way. He “tells is like it is.” It is professional, yet still gets the point across by cutting out “business jargon.” I find myself enjoying that I can relax while reading this and still learn valuable lessons. I think that companies who want passionate and understanding customers should bring this idea into their business.

I’ll apply what I’ve learned in this book in my career by:

1.    Never letting the barriers of personality keep me out of the game. I feel it is easy for many businesses to be afraid of thinking outside of the box or changing the way things are done. Change can be a great opportunity of success and should be embraced when well thought out. “Change is not death. Fear of change is death.”

2.    Developing logical reasons instead of policies that do not make sense. It is valuable to have a set of rules in place for employees to have a guide to follow.

3.    All in all, the purpose of this book is to present to readers why personality is evidently important in today’s business world. I want to take what I have learned from this book into my everyday work experience. I want to always present myself as a unique and full of personality employee. I will challenge myself to think outside of the box.

Here is a sampling of what others have said about the book and its author:

I found both positive and few negative reviews of Personality Not Included. One inparticular review was by TopRank Online Marketing, an online marketing blog, whom had the opportunity to interview Rohit Bhargava himself. This review suggested all readers, whether they are students or leader of a company, to hold the book dear. TopRank concludes, “In the end, *Personality Not Included exists in equal measure as a text book new marketing students will find themselves hiding behind the jackets of stodgy, traditional marketing tomes; and as a vital “how-to guide” for rapid cultivation of something many corporations will be embarrassed to admit they may have never had.”

    Another review I found to be interesting was by Jennifer Berk, an MBA student and internet strategist. Overall, Berk favored Bhargava’s conversational styled book; however, she does finish off by stating one downfall of the book: “On the other hand, I’m not really sold on the Guides & Tools, the last 50 pages of the book. Too much of that seemed repeated from the chapters – though that may be by design, as the Note to the Reader at the beginning of the book suggests you don’t have to read from front to back but can skip around. The Guides & Tools do expand on the earlier material; I was just hoping for more concrete advice (maybe a blog series on rewriting backstories?).” Many readers may also find this true about the book. However, I believe Rohit did this because the book is set up into a Part 1 and Part 2, allowing readers to skip to whichever part they feel without needing to complete the other section. The guides and other tools provide helpful points that if missed, could take away useful hints that readers should gain from the book.

    “Rohit Bhargava as an author is right up there with the likes of Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki. Why? Because he tells it like it is. Jargon is left at the door and the book uses great worldwide examples of excellent personality branding. It’s nice to see an American author who shows a refreshing awareness that we all don’t live in America!” says Jas Dhaliwal, International Social Media Strategist. This is the exact reason why I chose this book to read. Even by the cover, you can conclude that the book will be one of the most honest and real business book to read.   

Bibliography

Berk, J. (2008, April 27). Review: Personality Not Included [Web log post]. Retrieved

    November 11, 2013, from

http://www.jcberk.com/blog/2008/04/27/review-personality-not-included/  

Bhargava, R. (2008). Personality not included: Why companies lose their authenticity–and how

    great brands get it back. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Dhaliwall, J. (2008, August 16). Personality Not Included – A Book Review. Retrieved

    November 11, 2013, from

http://www.thewebpitch.com/opinion/personality-not-included-a-book-review/

Neher, K. (2009, January 29). Book Review Personality Not Included. Krista Neher: Social

Media Keynote Speaker. Retrieved November 12, 2013, from

http://kristaneher.com/book-review-personality-not-included/

Personality Not Included: Cultivating Corporate Personality With Rohit Bhargava [Web log

post]. (n.d.). Retrieved November 11, 2013, from     http://www.toprankblog.com/2008/04/personality-not-included-cultivating-corporate-personality-with-rohit-bhargava/   

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Contact Information

To contact the author of this article, “A Summary and Review of the Book, Personality Not Included: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity and How Great Brands Get It Back, by Rohit Bhargava,” please email lana.guay@selu.edu or lanaguay@hotmail.com.    

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About the Publisher

David C. Wyld (dwyld@selu.edu) is the Laborde Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator. He also serves as the Director of the Reverse Auction Research Center (http://reverseauctionresearch.org), a hub of research and news in the expanding world of competitive bidding. His website, My Management News, can be viewed at http://mymanagementnews.com/. He is also the author of the book, College Success 101. Learn more about the book at collegesuccess101book.com.

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