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
yoursel

f 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@...




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