Personal Branding

When one assesses the need for an application of brand management strategies, it requires the existence of a brand and a contemplation of its characteristics. What does the brand stand for? What are its signature 'deliverables'? Most importantly, what can it offer to the marketplace or an audience that cannot be acquired elsewhere and which imbues the brand with exclusivity?

It is incumbent upon a brand to author and issue its own definition.

Every one of us has been branded to some degree by friends, associates and even people with only a passing acquaintance of us. It is incumbent upon a brand to author and issue its own definition. Otherwise, it may suffer from a seventieth percentile perception of it. At the seventieth percentile one sees a canvas and spilled paint; at the ninetieth one sees a Jackson Pollack rendering of a seasonal upstate New York. Both perceptions are accurate as far as they go. Through which filter do you want your brand perceived?

The strategic management of a personal brand can accomplish many things. The most notable is that it places control of its future in the hands of the brand. Since the goal of personal branding is to maximize the yield from an individual's signature skills it is important that one not leave too much of the branding process to chance.

Yesterday, I conducted a seminar/workshop in which actors had to present their brand in the context of a cold reading in which they had only one line of dialogue. It was fascinating because every actor had the same line to read but each performance was unique and each actor presented the 'sharp end of the stick' of their brand making for an forgettable reading.