By Ed Delia, president of Delia Associates

Come election day, the jock delivered a terrible speech as he read word-for-word from a crumpled piece of notebook paper. He stumbled through his speech, with a great deal of nervousness, but managed to finish to the tune of sympathetic applause.

The funny guy spoke off the cuff. He had no notes, cracked jokes, made us laugh, and garnered an enthusiastic response.

Then the smart one stepped up to the podium. Many of us began to tune out, but moments into his talk, we were caught off guard. He spoke with great passion about what a great class we could be, of all the wonderful things we could accomplish, about being proud to be a part of our school, about making our mark. Slowly, he was winning us over. He was nearing the end, and we were really taken by his words. But then he shot himself in the foot, concluding with "I just want to remind you all that this is not a popularity contest. Vote for the best candidate." And he lost in grand fashion.

The reason is simple: It is a popularity contest, and the most popular candidate (or in business, brand) always wins. Perception shapes our sense of reality. And regardless of whether we should, we inevitably do judge a book by its cover.

When a customer picks a competitor over you, it has very little to do with the quality of their products or services over yours. It has very much to do with the fact that they liked the other brand more. They were won over. The other company brand represented a more popular choice.

A company, much like a person, has its own distinctive character. And more often than not, customers base their choices on the nature of the corporate character, not on the products and services provided.

Proactive companies go out of their way to highlight and augment that distinctive character through branding activities. They control the perceptions of the brand and work very hard to stay true to their brand's character in all facets of the company, and at all customer touch points.

How would you define your company's character? What are some things you could do today to further augment your most remarkable attribute? Imagine the difference it would make.

Think about it.