Personal Brand
Tom Hitchcock
The Aldi of Recruitment Agencies | Good | Different | Mistakeologist and Transitional Coach
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Want to have a personal brand that works for you? First you need to understand:
1) What is a brand?
2) How does a brand work?
3) How do companies use them commercially?
4) How can you use the same strategies for yourself?
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Where does the word come from?
Brandr = Ancient Norse "To burn"
1552: to mark by burning
1665: a mark made on cattle?
1827: first trademark made on a product
1958: The impression?of a product?in the mind of consumers?
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The different attributes and stages of a brand
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Brand version 1: marking ownership
Brand version 2: guaranteeing quality
Brand version 3: promising pleasure
Brand version 4: inviting belonging
Brand version 5: enabling action
How do companies create a brand?
There are many systems that companies use to create the brand that will work for them. Ultimately, however, they start by trying to define what makes them different from the competition; by establishing their DNA and defining their USP (Unique Selling Proposition).
This starts with the What? Why? and How? These translate into the three ‘Ps’: Proposition, Purpose and Personality.
If you think about the evolving versions of brand, it’s clear to see how going through each of these steps can create a distinct identity. What is vital is that the brand promise matches the reality. For example, if a business advertises itself as innovative, but it’s using the same standard methodology as its competitors – that’s false. Therefore, it’s important that this stage is 100% honest. It’s common to find a different USP than what you thought you had. It’s a bit of a soul searching practice.
The table below gives examples of questions on each category that will help to get the ball rolling.
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What???????????????????????????????????????????Why ?????????????????????????????????How
Proposition????????????????????????????????Purpose???????????????????????????????Personality
What do I get??????????????????????????????Why should we do this???How does it feel?
Why is it better than the others???Why should I care????????????????????How do you do things?
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The Why is at the centre for a reason. It’s the core of what you do. It’s not wanting to make a profit that creates a successful brand. It is the Why! Why are they doing what they do? What is the motivation behind it? What are they trying to achieve? This is where the eventual BUY IN to the brand manifests itself. Not the logo. This is well documented by Simon Sinek and if you haven’t seen it you should watch it here:
The Why is where companies start and then they build in the What and How to create the unique brand.
The next step is Positioning.
Below is an example of how you would map this out. It’s very standard example, just comparing price and quality on the matrix. However, you can use many other more relevant variables to determine where you are positioned. More importantly, how you are positioned against your competitors. From this stage, it could be that your competition is not your competition! You’re aiming to attract different people with a different agenda and offering.
Once this is complete you then need to build your brand out. There is a golden rule here. Its not simply about getting your logo, website and various mediums out there so that everyone knows who you are. If you do that you will have dismissed the previous stages. The rule is to use:
SEARCH BASED TARGETING!!!
In short, this is the mindset of being easier to find by the RIGHT people.
This is the trick, and this is how you use all the research into yourself, your Why and subsequent USP.
A very good trick for this is via ASSOCIATION. To give your brand propulsion, try to link up with a company or individual that your target market is associated with. A company that has credibility, security and other strong brand traits.
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An example of this is RIBIT https://www.ribit.net/
They connect high quality students to innovative businesses. You may or may not have heard of them. However, they are part of Data61, which is part of CSIRO. The chances are that you have heard of these brands and will thus have more faith in the work of RIBIT. Speaking with Karen Lim of RIBIT, she says:
?“The importance of having CSIRO Data61 is simply because they are very well-known institutions, with a reputation of innovation and highly regarded research programs that seek to solve the greatest challenges affecting not only Australia but other parts of the world. It shows that we are serious about we do and supports our mission on connecting and growing the Australian innovation ecosystem.”
Brands can go to extreme lengths to coin their identity. This is how important individuality is. A famous example of this is Cadbury’s. They tried to secure the shade of Purple as exclusively theirs. It took 20 years of legal dispute…but they eventually lost their battle.?
https://www.thedrum.com/news/2019/02/05/after-two-decades-cadbury-finally-cedes-its-purple-trademark
Maybe my company Purple Patch Consulting could have a better chance of trademarking the colour purple?
These are some of the steps that are made in creating brands in the business world. It figures to use these steps for yourself. To know and understand your offering and what makes you different. What is your Why? Who is your target audience?
Everything can be applied to how you market yourself. What companies and roles do you look for? What is your social media presence? How do you carry yourself? Who should you surround yourself with?
I spoke to Keith Cox, Creative Consultant at https://macparkcreative.com/ about people as brands. ?
“It’s interesting to look at David Beckham and how he became ‘Brand Beckham’. He was a decent footballer but certainly not a top, top player. So how did he become so famous? Well, by making the most of his assets. He’s a good-looking guy so that led him into contracts outside of football in modelling and fashion. He upped the ante by marrying a Spice Girl. They were soon seen at parties of the rich and famous as the glamour couple ‘Posh and Becks’. He traded one famous football club (Manchester United) for another (Real Madrid). He changed his haircuts every 5 minutes. He had a huge social media presence. And to cap it all, at the end of his football career, he moved to LA Galaxy and ‘cracked America.’ Every step of the way he has carefully cultivated his image so that to many of the younger generation who never saw him play he’s now more famous for being Beckham than he is for being a footballer.”
How about you? How do you stack up? Don’t forget to Google yourself every now and then to see if you like what you see. Potential employers do this. You may have many different social media profiles, each with a different perspective of your life. Great on their own platform, but are they hindering you on Google Search?
Finally, we are giving away a FREE tool to help you follow these processes to create your personal brand. Simply email me and it will be sent to you: