YOU – THE BRAND

Wednesday, 29 November 2006 08:40

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“Branding is now the most important aspect of business. Whether the business is a bank or a toy shop, it is the brand itself that will dictate whether it succeeds or fails”, writes author Matt Haig in his book entitled Brand Royalty. In the book’s introduction, he describes how he was unable to find a single magic brand formula that encompasses all successful brands. Coca-cola became successful by creating a totally new product category while Mercedes-Benz, Nike and Pepsi built successful brands around someone else’s invention. What does this mean for individuals? What does it mean for the young professionals who believe they have the power to change the world? The current Pirelli advert states, “Power is nothing without control”. What personal branding will do for you is to both empower while supplying the tools for effective control of that power.

“Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are the CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called Me” wrote Tom Peters back in 1997 as he kicked off the personal branding trend. What Tom Peters was driving at was the need for each one of us to realize that we are brands and we should strive to manage our careers thus. Each of our careers, whether we choose to work for ourselves or for other people, is a business enterprise in itself. We are all in the business of building our personal brands. In what is reminiscent of Karl Marx’s philosophies, we each do own the “means of production”.

The means of production in the modern world are neither machines nor factories but brands, including personal brands. Several brands have far much more power than entire governments. Think of Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey, Sting, Adolf Hitler, Donald Trump, Michael Schumacher, The Beatles, Pele, Jomo Kenyatta, Muhammad Ali, David Beckham, Saddam Hussein, Ronaldino, Bill Gates, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Kwame Nkrumah, Idi Amin, Bob Marley, Diego Maradona, Wangari Maathai, Nelson Mandela, Osama bin Laden. Yes, Osama bin Laden. Unfortunately I cannot moralize personal branding and if you noticed, Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein and Idi Amin managed to sneak onto the list of great personal brands.

A brand, according to the Landor Lexicon, is “the sum of all characteristics, tangible and intangible that make an offer unique”. Uniqueness is what makes consumer pick one product or service over the other. Uniqueness is what shall make one employer or client pick you over the competition. Uniqueness is what makes personal brands stand out from the crowd. Back to the Osama bin Laden personal brand, many of us may not agree with his cause or tactics but the man, the brand, has been able to take on a uniqueness that makes him impossible to ignore. Wherever the Osama bin Laden brand is mentioned anywhere on the planet, people do stand up and take note. Do people stand up and take note where your personal brand is concerned? Let us now discuss how the principles of branding can be applied to personal branding as you begin the journey towards personal branding greatness.

The good news is that each one of us can be a winner. Perhaps Warren Buffet, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and the second richest man in the world, said it best: “There can’t be two yous”. If you are a winner, and there is only, one “you” then who can beat “you” apart from you? Our uniqueness is what positions each and every one of us to excel in our chosen careers. Unlike organizations, products and services, we are each made unique right from birth and therefore have a head start in the branding war. Even identical twins have their uniqueness. Personal branding is about tapping into that uniqueness, knowing it, owning it and finally, leveraging it. Successful personal branding can be broken down to answering three simple questions, “who?”, “what?” and “how?” Of the three questions, none has baffled mankind more than the “who?” question. That is the question I wish to address. Ralph Waldo Emerson posed a challenge when he wrote, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment”.

The great personal brands have been able to rise to that challenge. In his book, “Good to Great”, author Jim Collins outlined three questions that can help organizations in addressing the “who?” question. The first question is, “What are you deeply passionate about?” Passion drives the engines that keep one on his or her chosen path and it is always easier to inexorably pursue goals that one is passionate about. The second question is, “What can you be the best in the world at?” We all strive to be winners and few things beat the feeling of winning. All the personal brands mentioned above are winners.

They have proven they are the best at something in the world. Again, the question of whether it was morally right or wrong doesn’t arise when dealing with personal branding. The final question is “What drives your economic engine?” Personal branding like branding applied to organizations, products and services must have a financial aspect. Branding would be a futile and an extravagant window dressing exercise if it did not go to the bottom line. The same applies to personal branding. A great brand must be able to be leveraged to some advantage. A great personal brand for the professional can be leveraged to translate into a better pay package or premium pricing for one’s business.

Once the “who?” question has been tacked satisfactorily, what remains is to sort out what we want out of our professional lives and how we want to attain it. Those decisions when well worked out make the difference between a great personal brand and an ordinary one. As Jim Collins once wrote, “the good is the enemy of the great”.

Whatever the nature of your personal brand, its enthusiastic expression will make or break the brand. Christian Nestell Bovee was spot on when writing, "Enthusiasm is the inspiration of everything great. Without it no man is to be feared, and with it none despised”. Wouldn’t you agree?

© Brandscape

The author is a director of Brandscape, a brand strategy think tank.

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