The Art of Self Branding

How executives, salespeople and professional of all types can use personal branding to be more effective and successful. You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are included. The Power of a Self Brand By Catherine Kaputa Today, branding isn't just for companies, Hollywood celebrities, or highly-paid athletes. People in all walks of life are starting to use personal or self branding to get ahead in the game of life. The single factor that often explains the difference between a professional who is competent and doing okay and one who earns a significant income and generates lots of business is self branding. Self branding defined: Self branding is a strong personal identity based on a clear perception about what you stand for, what sets you apart from others, and the added value you bring to a job or situation. Your self brand is the sum total of other people's feelings about your attributes and capabilities, how you perform, even their perceptions about what you are worth. To brand or not to brand? Many people think that if they do a good job, their career will go fine. But no matter how secure your position seems to be, you are in competition with more people than you think. To some people, branding may seem manipulative or phony. "I'd just rather be myself," they say, "to with the flow and see where my career takes me." Or, the familiar line, "I'm not good at marketing myself." If you don't brand yourself, others will. The fact of the matter is you're giving the power to other people to brand you if you don't do it yourself. Let me give you an example. A new client came in who was fuming because of the way another executive introduced her at a conference. He branded her as the company's direct mail maven. That may have been the way she started out at the firm, but not quite how she saw herself now. Self brands are created not born. Branding is mainly a process of analyzing a product in relationship to a market and figuring out how to maximize the brand's potential. Branding is creating an asset out of something. It is a matter of satisfying a market need in a different way. And figuring out a plan of action - the marketing plan - to build awareness and trial of the brand. Launching a person on a drive to become a successful personal brand is essentially the same process. It is a conscious strategic process, a branding process, a process that Hollywood celebrities and high profile athletes have been using for some time. The Self Brand mindset: Self branding means looking at yourself as a marketer would look at a product that he or she wants to make a winning brand. You don't think of yourself as an employee even if you work for a boss. You think of yourself as working for yourself marketing the brand, You. The first thing a marketer does is analyze the market and the product to understand what the opportunities are, what the threats are. What are the current conditions? What are the assumptions about the future? What problems need to be solved? What needs aren't being met? Act like the marketer of the product: You. In personal branding, after analyzing the market, you do a self audit. What are my strengths and weaknesses? How does my brand compare with the people I am competing with? You focus on key attributes and resources that differentiate you. Skills, abilities, even personality traits you have that are a solution to a market need. Then you adopt what Theodore Levitt called "the marketing imagination." You build a personal brand identity that is different, relevant and adds value. Plan to dazzle: write out a marketing plan. I often work with clients to develop a formal marketing plan that lays out a personal brand strategy and action plan. It is often in the writing that new creative options come to light. It is important to set personal brand goals with a specific time frame and plan of action for achieving the goals. So just like a marketer would, you write down personal marketing activities to achieve your goals. And, of course, you execute the marketing plan. You can't get to where you want to go unless you plan it and then do it. The final step is measurement. You assess your effectiveness. How is my "portfolio" different now than it was last year? What new projects did I take on? How did I expand my network? What new learning did I acquire? If something isn't working, you change trains. Branding is a dynamic process that offers the greatest rewards to the receptive individual. Thinking and acting like a brand can create and maintain demand for your most important product - you. Copyright 2003 All rights reserved. About the Author: Catherine Kaputa is a personal branding strategist, seminar leader, speaker and coach who works with executives, entrepreneurs and others who are good at what they do, but want to use branding to be more effective and successful in their lives. Visit www.selfbrand.com or catherine@selfbrand.com About the Author Catherine Kaputa is a personal branding strategist, seminar leader, speaker and coach who works with executives, entrepreneurs and others who are good at what they do, but want to use branding to be more effective and successful in their lives. Visit www.selfbrand.com or catherine@selfbrand.com

Personal Branding Techniques for Real Estate Agents and Brok

A key principle of marketing is to find something unique about what you offer as
the basis of your sales message. Even if what you offer is a commodity, there is
always one thing unique in your business -- you. A big error made by many Real Estate
Agents and Brokers is to try to develop an institutional image like most big companies.
People do not like to do business with institutions; they like to do business with people.
In advertising terms, branding is the "image" created in the minds of people when they
see or hear a name, product or logo. Companies invest a lot of money in creating and
maintaining their brand, but the Internet has sparked a new trend called "Personal
Branding". Personal branding isn't only important for promoting a product, business or
political cause, but also for promoting yourself for advancement within your own
organization. It involves developing your personal reputation. Branding can be done
to any product, or any person. Before undertaking an exercise in personal branding,
however, consider your distinctive strengths and abilities and what they offer the
market place. Traditionally personal branding was for sporting celebrities who gained
enormous coverage and following through their sporting prowess. Movie stars have also
had celebrity status and association since movies began.

A personal brand is about creating strong, favorable associations in the minds of
people that you encounter. If you don’t actively do this, they will still make associations.
Therefore, it may be better to be proactive and undertake the branding exercise for yourself,
you cannot control what they think but can give them some information to assist with the
associations.

WHY BRANDING OURSELVES?


* Places you in a leadership role

* Enhances prestige

* Attracts the right people and right opportunities

* Adds perceived value to what you are selling

* Earns recognition

* Associates you with a trend

* Increases your earning potential

* Differentiate yourself from the competition

* Position your focused message in the hearts and minds of your target customers

* Confers top of mind status

* Increases authority and credence of decisions


HOW DO WE BRAND OURSELVES?

Like any branding exercise, the key to personal branding is having a good product, one
which you understand and pitch to the right market. The first step in personal branding
is knowing who you are, find out what strengths your brand possesses and how these strengths
can help you. Personal branding is not about presenting a façade to the public; a poor
product will not stand up to market scrutiny. This is also a choice of brand elements,
people you deal with, the look that you have, and how you conduct yourself. Once this has been
done, determine what you are going to offer. As a product what do you do, what need does the
product of you satisfy in the market. Next figure out the position you will take in the
audience of your mind. What unique space do you wish to occupy and what unique associations
do you want people to recall when they think of you? Finally, once you have established the
first three steps, manage your brand over its lifecycle. That is keep visible, be consistent
and be yourself. According to Montoya, the well-known personal branding guru, the key to
managing your personal brand is word-of-mouth (WOM), the most trusted form of communication.

How does one go about building a personal brand? Recognize your personal strengths and
gifts! Think about how you best connect with people, consider what your target audience
needs and wants, identify the value you deliver to meet those needs and wants, and communicate
in a way that reaches your constituents in their hearts and minds and via the channels
that work best for you

Functional associations are important such as timeliness, quality, dedication; as are
emotional associations like inspiring, leadership, being an innovator.

The three C’s of personal branding are clarity, consistency and constancy.

Clarity deals with being honest about yourself and your strengths and promises of value
attached to your personal brand and being clear in the way you communicate them. Often,
for simplicity, you must focus on one or two aspects that are most vital and focus on
communicating them. Think about the things you associate with prominent artists or mangers,
and they are unlikely to be complicated.

Consistency is keeping things consistent for the customers. This does not mean staying
stuck in the past, but just not undertaking drastic changes. Coca Cola have had a
consistent message for 50 years; the message evolves continuously and is not stagnant
but is consistent. Artists like Madonna change every three or four years, but there is
a consistency to the change.

Constancy means being visible with your brand and maintaining an on-going level of
awareness in the marketplace. Oprah Winfrey is visible constantly, and although most
of people do not have the visibility or exposure of Oprah, they can still be visible in
a smaller audience. There is no point trying to build a brand image quickly to coincide
with a new exhibition or performance you may have coming up – brands take time to build
n consumers minds.

A FREE PERSONAL BRANDING TOOLKIT FOR REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS

NetReal.net, a company noted for its template-based Real Estate Web design solutions,
offers a Winter Holidays Gift for Real Estate Agents and Brokers – the Personal Branding
Toolkit: http://www.netreal.net/personal_branding.php The Personal Branding Toolkit
contains the “Essential Marketing for Real Estate Professionals” ebook and 17 Real Estate
Reports and the tools to personalize them with your name, contact info and photo.

NetReal’s editorial team put together the top 25 highest- rated Real Estate marketing
articles of 2004, and created a must-have e-book - “Essential Marketing for Real Estate
Professionals”. The ebook covers Marketing 101 , Network marketing, Personal Marketing,
Customer acquisition and retention, Telemarketing & Direct Mailing, E-marketing. You can
personalize this e-book with your data and send it to your contacts, absolutely free of charge.
This is a great way to offer a helpful gift to your colleagues and partners.

The “17 free Branded Reports” allow you to create your own branded Real Estate reports
(for buyers, sellers, investors, movers) with your contact info and photo/logo and an
exquisite design. Distribute them to your prospects or clients as e-docs or printed
materials, or upload them on your website. Show your professionalism with these great
tools to acquire new clients.

The Personal Branding Toolkit for Real Estate Professionals
(http://www.netreal.net/personal_branding.php) is free for everyone.

Dan R. Vella is marketing editor for NetReal.net. NetReal.net (www.netreal.net)
is a privately-owned company providing real estate web sites and marketing solutions
for real estate industry, focusing especially on the low-cost end, and empowering the
real-estate agents through the use to Internet technologies with the most affordable costs.

by: Dan R. Vella
webrealtor@gmail.com

Branding

Often the more a thing is discussed the less it is understood. Words have a point
of diminishing return. That point is crossed when the effort to be clear and precise
counts every tree standing, but misses the proverbial forest. Such is the case with
branding.

Because the idea of branding is all the rage, people are tempted to think that it is
a new idea. It is not. It’s roots reach back into history.

The Old West
Let’s go back to the Old West where brands were burned into the hind
quarters of cattle. The thing branded was the cow, the product produced by the ranching
endeavor. The brand itself was the twisted iron logo on the end of the rod that left
its image or mark on the hide of the cow. Cows were roped, tied and branded in order
to identify them, should they be stolen. The brand was a mark of identity, as it is
in the corporate world.

Some ranchers also used their logo as a welcome sign wrought in iron over the gates
of the corral or over the road leading to the rancher’s home. Again, the brand
identified the ranch. Some ranchers even got their cowhands belt buckles with the
ranch logo to identify them as employees. And over time logoed merchandise began to
pop up on boots, hats, shirts, etc.

Identity
The brand is essentially a mark of identity. It identifies the ranch or company,
and has come to represent or suggest the values and character of the company, and
of its leaders. The brand is associated with the character of the company, as well
as its products.

The early history of branding was always personal. Where does the ranch or company
get the values and character that are associated with it? From its owners and leaders,
and from their business practices.

Branding as we know it today is the art of instilling and communicating the values and
character of a company or organization through association with its logo. Psychology
calls it symbolic association, and finds it to be foundational to the learning process.
Symbolic association has deep roots in human experience and in history.

Fish, Cross & Swastika
We find that branding as a practice began very early in history. The sign of the fish
and the cross were symbols used by the early Christians. Over time they became
Christian brands.

The Roman Emperor Constantine had a vision of a red cross in the sky before the
battle of Saxa Rubra, October 28, 312, near Rome. He put that red cross on his shields
and flags, branding the Holy Roman Empire for centuries.

On August 7, 1920, at the Salzburg Congress, a red flag bearing the Swastika became
the official emblem of the Nazi Party, as Hitler branded the Third Reich. While our
emotional reaction to the Swastika is usually negative, both the fact and the intensity
of our response to it points to the power of branding. Most people probably have an
emotional reaction to the examples above. That emotional reaction is the aim of branding.

It must be recognized that a branding effort does not always turn out the way the
campaign intends. The cross was intended to be a symbol of derision, but became
a symbol of grace and mercy. The Swastika was intended to be a symbol of the triumph
of the Arian race, but has become a symbol of evil. In both cases branding was achieved,
but not in the way intended.

Of course, companies want the emotional association to their brand to be positive—even
to generate an urge to splurge, or trust sufficient to sustain a transaction. But
regardless of one’s personal reaction to a symbol, the fundamental mechanics of
branding involve soliciting an emotional response to a symbol.

There are two fundamental elements in the branding process. The first pertains to the
symbol, the second to the association.

The Symbol
The symbol itself must be familiar. The more the symbol or logo is seen, the more
familiar it becomes. The most successful branding campaigns will have a lot of sustained
media coverage and use a variety of advertising mediums. This does not mean that smaller
campaigns cannot be successful, only that their success will be smaller. Familiarity is
primarily a function of exposure.

The Association
Secondly, the emotional content of the association also needs to be familiar. Of course
it is true that new desires and/or emotional content can be created. But the effort is
both time consuming and risky. The result might be other than the desired effect.

The more successful method for creating a symbolic association employs well-established
and widely valued characteristics, like love, honor, truth, freedom, etc. Successful
branding campaigns establish symbolic associations between their products and/or
company and such noble characteristics. What is noble inspires people, and what i
nspires is remembered and discussed. It creates buzz. And buzz is branding’s engine.

To discuss the art of branding apart from these foundational elements is to miss the
forest for the trees. However, branding is more than a mere advertising campaign can
accomplish because the symbolic association that needs to be made for the branding to
be successful involves the core values and character traits of the company— its leaders
and its business practices.

Prior to branding, core values, character issues and company policies need to be
determined, developed and deployed within the company. Because the process of branding
reveals the values, character and policies of the company, those things need to be
right, and be in place before they can be successfully revealed.

Premature Branding
A premature revelation of these things can be disastrous to the intention of the
branding campaign. To be branded as hypocritical and shallow is worse than no branding
at all. Again, branding occurs when an emotional response—any emotional response—
is associated with a company symbol. The art of branding is to solicit the right
emotional response.

So, what can be done to promote a brand? Begin by working to establish core values
and character within and throughout the company. To be successfully branded is to be
known widely for who you are. You want a great branding campaign? Be a great company.
Aspire to the values and character traits of greatness and nobility. Herein lies the
key to branding success.

©2003 Phillip A. Ross

About the Author

Phillip A. Ross, entrepreneur, freelance writer and owner of Business Specialties
(www.business-specialties.com), lives in Marietta, Ohio, and provides identity
products and promotional services to position companies and organization for
substantial success.