The Importance of Personal Branding

That’s a great idea there, but sorry, who are you?”

 

7 billion people in the planet – and YOU want to do something meaningful with your life… You may have a great idea, or a vaguely special skill or a goal to realise, but have you thought about how you will do these things?

The people who have achieved greatly and who are remembered for doing it too, did not just build an image – they built a brand.

To even seem somewhat worth paying attention to – whether you want to start a social movement, sell your ideas for a fortune or be featured on TED, you need to have a bona fide strategy which will put your brand on the map.

 

So what will the world recognise about you? What will symbolise you? What must people see, hear or feel to recall you and everything about you?

 

We all have some unconscious idea about what a brand is – we know Adidas, Shell, Coca-Cola, Levi Strauss – we also know Barack Obama, Kiefer Sutherland and Diego Maradona – brands may be symbolised in labels (among other things) but are not limited to saleable goods and services, brands are people too.

 

These brands have one thing in common: the power of association.

They publicise themselves via developing strong, favourable and unique (tangible or abstract) associations channelled through various media, for people to develop a psychological or emotional connection to who they are and want they are about. 

As personal brand expert William Arruda aptly says, “your brand is held in the hearts and minds of those around you”- so make sure people can and want to connect to you.

Thus when confronted with associated stimuli, people immediately think of what they want them to – cue top-of-mind-awareness, what every marketer wants. What you want.

The rider is though, make sure you’ve got something of value to share, or something that makes you valuable.  There’s no point in branding something worthless – otherwise your strong, unique associations will only be unfavourable and your brand, your name, will be ruined. If you haven’t got this, start afresh.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)-based strategies say that in order to find, be successful and enjoy one’s life mission, one which is valued and valuable – you need to find congruency between what gives you pleasure, what you are skilled at and what you value in life.  In this way, determining what is most important in your life, will help you find what makes you both valued and valuable – because you will work your hardest at that.

So if you’ve got a great idea or skill and you’ve got the will to get it somewhere, all you need is learn how to market yourself correctly – and given a decent dose of common sense and the diligence to maintain your brand – it’s relatively simple.

Read More:

Arruda, W. 2002. An Introduction to Personal Branding: A Revolution in the way we handle our careers. Reach CC [Online]. N.d.

<http://www.reachcc.com/reachdotcom.nsf/ed8b12ad19f4f661c1256b700081e7e3/79325a245696e988c1256de000431539/Body/M2/intropersonalbrandingv3.pdf!OpenElement > [5th July 2010]

Bhalotia, N. 2002. Personal Branding: “Me Inc.”Brandchannel [Online]. April.

<http://www.brandchannel.com/images/Papers/PersonalBrandingMeInc.pdf> [4th July 2010]

Frost, R. 2003. Me Incorporated: Your own Magnetic Brand. Brandchannel [Online]. 4^th August.

<http://www.brandchannel.com/features_effect.asp?pf_id=169> [4th July 2010] 

Levinson, M. 2010. 6 Personal Branding Mistakes that can threaten your Job Search. CIO [Online] 13^th January.

<http://www.cio.com/article/515613/6_Personal_Branding_Mistakes_That_Can_Threaten_Your_Job_Search> [5^th July 2010]   

And if you’re really keen on the pioneering theory behind brand value:

Keller, K.L. 1993. Conceptualizing, Measuring, and Managing Customer-Based Brand Equity in the Journal of Marketing. 57(1). Pp. 1-22.

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