Personal Branding: Identity & Image

• Personal branding involves crafting and communicating an image
• Unique qualities, skills, and behaviors define individual identity and values
• Brands can be the product itself e.g. Toblerone
• Toblerone's brand extends to Switzerland and the Alps
• Brands act as "frames" that influence perceived value and product perception
• Brands are not static but dynamic ideas.

Internal vs. External Brand

• Brands showcase what is internally stood for and what is externally stood for
• The internal aspect reflects the organization's character
• The external aspect reflects the associations and meanings in people's minds
• Branding expert David Aaker refers to internal as identity and external as image

What is a Brand?

• A brand creates a distinctive style, feelings and ideas, through product language and action
• The American Marketing Association: A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or any feature to identify a seller’s good or service as distinct

Brand vs Branding

• Branding is establishing what is stood for, what is done, the technique for standing for something and shaping product perception
• Difference = Branding is the activity, while brand is the result that companies use to create and shape a brand in consumers’ minds with aligned actions

The Branding Method

• Brands create associations in the minds of consumers; what you stand for in the eyes of customers
• Focuses giving meaning to a specific organization, company, product or service
• The objective is attracting loyal customers and other stakeholders by aligned action in line with promises
• Helping people quickly identify and experience a brand, giving them a reason to choose particular products

Brand Elements

• The 6 Brand Elements:
• Voice: Your brand should have a consistent personality and is infused in communications
• Identity: Aspects of your company recognizable to consumers
• Promise: Expresses your business's uniqueness
• Values: Guiding principles behind your company
• Targeting: Knowing which market you want to reach
• Positioning: Where your brand stands relative to competition

Personal Branding Today

• Modern personal branding helps individuals stand out, especially professionals, recent graduates, and entrepreneurs
• Professionals can influence opportunities
• Graduates can break from the circular file
• Entrepreneurs can inspire investors with confidence

Historical and Modern Personal Branding

• Historical personal branding has been around for a while
• Human beings always wanted to emphasize their abilities and achievements
• Modern personal branding has roots in `90s America from Tom Peters
• Self promotion and authentic self expression is key

How to Build Your Brand

• Start by defining your character, know yourself and determine the audience you'll influence
• Evaluate competition and consider your own unique branding profile

Personal Branding & the Self

• Personal branding is just as much about what value you bring in an authentic manner with a unique voice
• Personal Branding (Just because people know your name, know what value you bring)
• Start with self awareness
• Focus on 5 key areas:
• Authenticity, Awareness, Authority, Action, Audience

Ten Golden Rules for an Engaging Personal Brand

• Maintain focus on key messages and your target demographic
• Be genuine and showcase authentic content
• Tell your brand's story
• Be consistent to be recognized
• Be prepared to fail
• Have a positive impact building community
• Follow a successful example and apply a twist
• Live your brand and align lifestyles
• Let other people tell your story
• Leave a legacy

5 C's of Personal Branding

• Clarity:
• Know unique value proposition
• Communications highlight beliefs and what controls behavior
• Consistence:
• Consistent messaging, image and behavior, leading to building trust and credibility
• Content:
• Create content to showcase leadership skills
• Credibility:
• Building reputation
• Confidence:
• Show value to your audience and evoke emotions

Knowing Your Needs

• Self branding requires understanding needs; a popular theory is Maslow's hierarchy
• Base level needs must be met before higher-level needs are considered
• The hierarchy starts with:
• Physiological (hunger, tiredness)
• Followed by safety
• Followed by fulfilling needs for belonging and love
• Higher-level goals require reaching each step
• Focus on Self-Esteem (Doing work with a sense of self), then self actualization
• Reaching self-actualization helps you shine brightly

SWOT Analysis

• SWOT is an analysis technique to understand strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
• SWOT analyzes business from the inside out as tool to understanding
• Goal = Identify strengths, optimize opportunities, minimize weaknesses, and acknowledge threats

The SWOT Quadrants

• Strengths and Opportunities lead to achievement
• Weaknesses/Threats need avoiding
• Strength = (What you do well and unique resources you can draw on)
• Weaknesses = (What needs to improve and what do others see as you weaknesses)
• Opportunities = (What opportunities can you take to capitalize of trends)
• Threats = (Competitions and threats that your weaknesses expose you to)

Rationale vs. Emotional

• One must consider what qualities people consider rational vs emotional:
• Rational = the solid qualities that signal reliability and trustworthiness.
• Emotional attributes explain why people want to be around you, creating personality
• The challenge is meeting minimum requirements then adding personality

Brand Positioning

• Brand positioning designs an image to occupy a distinctive place in the target market's mind
• Kotler: Creating distinct mental associations in the minds of customers to make them perceive a brand in a specific way
• The goal being how a brand differs from competitors and how it sits in customers' minds
• What the consumers need to want, what your capabilities are and what your competitor does