BRAND INSIDE 211 G O L E M BR AND S Without the engagement of the entire brand culture, brands can behave like the golems of Jewish folklore. They look and behave like humans, endowed with magical personalities and wondrous talents, but they fail to live up to human expectations because they lack a soul. When you hold the golem brands to account, you find yourself sifting through phone trees, decoding complex statements, and getting lost in cluttered websites. The golems of the brand universe troll around in social media, drawing attention to them- selves with catchy promotional offers and popping up in the press for mak- ing themselves wealthier. It's enough to make you hate all brands. Sadly, this dim view is shared by millions of consumers. In December 2010, Harris In- teractive polled more than two thousand Americans with a simple question: "Which industries are generally honest and trustworthy?" To the seventeen industries listed, which included banks, hospitals, supermarkets, airlines, and computer companies, nearly half of those polled responded, "none of the above." 1 Our tolerance for lip service has completely eroded, and it isn't purely a factor of poor customer service. It's driven largely by a failure to align people inside with the promise of the brand. British Petroleum won our hearts and minds with a refreshing rebranding campaign that promised to go "beyond petroleum" and improve the quality of our lives by investing in sustainable energy solutions. A leaky pipe in Alaska first made us question BP's intent. Then, a preventable catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico summarily ended our willingness to believe anyone at BP. If BP were truly aligned with their promise, neither incident would have occurred. Employees across the com- pany should have had an incentive to deliver on the promise of the brand. Legions of Toyota owners received the proverbial punch to the gut when they learned that the substance of the Toyota promise--exceptional safety and quality--was in question as a result of a widespread safety recall American Management Association · www.amanet.org