William Clay Ford Jr. Quotes

Chick-fil-A is what it is today because of its people, purpose and product.

A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.

Branding experts believe that just because they have rethought a company's image or name, the rest of us will automatically fall in line.

Brands' products should be the manifestation of a company's values. Those values should be the subject of all sorts of wonderful stories that comprise your company's narrative.

When we began Starbucks, what I wanted to try to do was to create a set of values, guiding principles, and culture.

I do not work for the shareholder, to be honest. I work for the customer.

You know, we're a private business so we can make our own philosophy and in the end we are business and we're all about creating a quality family brand that both our builders and gamers and players are happy with but their parents are also happy with.

I think the reason that we do things the way we do is because we respect the customer. And I don't look at what we do as anything less than any other brand.

We all know that the Disney brand is our most valuable asset. It is the sum total of our seventy-five years in business, of our reputation, of everything that we stand for.

Customers must recognize that you stand for something.

To me, a 'brand' sounds evil.

So, if you look at what's common among some of the companies I have, including the Four Seasons, NewsCorp, George V, the Plaza, these are all irreplaceable brands in their own fields.

I love being part of a company, and telling a story.

People have asked me, 'Is it about Apple or is it about Jobs?' and I say it's about how a man becomes his company and the company becomes the man. That has only happened a few times, like it happened with Ford, I think, they became inextricably linked together.

I hate to say 'chain restaurant,' but we're sort of a corporation now. How do we defy that concept, where people assume each restaurant can't be good?

I don't think it ever does any harm in any business to feel that there is someone there who cares about it. If you look at any business, fashion being the most obvious, the aura, or the reality of the designer, is part of what creates it. It's true in luxury goods stores and in good food stores. It leaves a palpable sense that someone cares.

Storytelling is the game. It's what we all do. It's why Nike is Nike, it's why Apple is Apple, it's why Walt Disney built Disney World and it's why Vince McMahon makes a billion dollars.

I'm a big believer that it doesn't matter what you call your company, nobody ever notices.

'Have you ever considered changing the name Nasty Gal?' is probably the dumbest question I've ever heard.

A brand is a voice and a product is a souvenir.

The problem often is that aspiring brands wish to be universally loved. Unfortunately, universal love is neither achievable nor desirable. Instead, great brands are loved by some and hated by others because they actually stand for something.

We asked ourselves what we wanted this company to stand for. We didn't want to just sell shoes. I wasn't even into shoes - but I was passionate about customer service.

No one is going to understand your brand better than you.

All I'm saying is that Louis Vuitton and L'Oreal didn't invent branding at some point in the mid-Eighties. Big, reassuring names have been around a long time.

Sam Walton instilled ownership of the products in the stores into the collective consciousness of every associate regardless of what job they did for the company.