10+ Reasons to Beef Up Your Personal Brand

Posted at May 16, 2009

Personal Branding Series


When I first came to Australia, my shopping trolley was always overflowing with gold. My salt was Black and Gold, my sugar was Black and Gold, my whole shopping trolley was Black and Gold. I always wondered why anybody would buy anything other than Black and Gold.

Black and Gold is a value for money generic brand for hundreds of essential items on supermarket shelves in Australia. Yet few affluent people will be caught with black and gold products on their shopping baskets. It makes me ask myself, why is it that people world over are willing to pay a premium for beefed up brands. How can you beef up your personal brand? Why should you?

1 – Influence

A powerful personal brand can help you get things done. People respond to prestige and powerful personal brands. You will be harder to ignore and your opinions will count. One of the most powerful personal brands is Oprah Winfrey.

Oprah is an American media personality, Academy Award nominated actress, producer, literary critic and magazine publisher, best known for her self-titled, multi-award winning talk show.

She is regarded as the most influential woman on earth. She has the power to cause enormous market swings and radical price changes with a single comment. Her endorsement of Barrack Obama is said to have added over 1 million votes to his vote basket. An obscure book quickly moves to best seller status once she reviews it on her book club.

You may not have the influence to rival Oprah, but revving up your personal brand will make you more influential in your area of life. Being influential enables you to get things done seemingly effortless. Developing a powerful personal brand takes time but it is worth it, just on this one count.

Charismatic preachers who start mega-churches first develop a strong personal brand. They plan in detail how their brand is going to be defined, communicated, represented, extended, associated etc. They reap the benefits of having strong brand through loyalty and become very influential on the lives of their congregation.

Pay attention to your brand image and you will increase your influence in your family, career, business and social situations.

2 – Attention

The world has become a busy place. We are constantly interrupted by thousands of advertising messages daily. Many people have a wide selection of things they could be doing at any one time. I feel privileged that you are reading this blog. Attention is scarce and businesses (and blogs) have to constantly work hard for a slice of your attention.

If you have a generic brand you will be ignored; you will be just another commodity. If you want to command attention and remain relevant, develop your personal brand. People with good personal brands are sought highly sought after and given attention.

3 – Trust

A known quantity is easier to trust than a wild card. If people know what you stand for, they are more likely to trust you than an unknown person. When Americans’ travel abroad, many trust McDonald’s food more than local food outlets in foreign countries, even though they might not eat much fast food at home.

People love and trust those they are familiar with. Developing a good brand within your target market helps you gain trust. Without trust it is hard to get business or meaningful relationships.

4 – Opportunities

When people know what you represent, they bring to your attention relevant information, opportunities and contacts. If you are known as a good web designer, people will refer their friends to you when they need websites.

A powerful personal brand helps you interact with valuable contacts that would have perhaps ignored without a strong personal brand. Developing a powerful brand opens a lot of doors and brings opportunities to your door step.

5 – Competition

In a competitive society you need to differentiate yourself to get ahead. A good personal brand helps in your differentiation efforts. You will always win over weaker and inconsistent brands if you take time to nurture your personal brand.

Google developed a powerful brand by focusing on quality search results and a minimalist approach to their page design. Google tops the Brandz list of most powerful brands in the world and is said to be worth $100 billion. Google’s brand image has enabled it to fight off deep pocketed competition such as Microsoft to retain its search business market share.

Investing in a powerful personal brand will be handy for you down the line to keep the competition at bay.

6 – Leverage

Richard Branson has leveraged the Virgin brand highly. The brand name “Virgin” arose when Branson and a partner were starting their first business, a record shop. They considered themselves virgins in business.

According to his book “Losing my Virginity”; Richard Branson is no longer a virgin in business but a successful entrepreneur. He has extended his brand to Virgin Records, Virgin Games, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Holidays, Virgin Trains, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Cosmetics, Virgin Money, and Virgin Mega stores amongst others.

Tiger Woods perfected his brand image as a top golf player and all round good guy. He now has leveraged his brand to get endorsements for many products earning him hundreds of millions of dollars. The sky is the limit once you have a powerful brand.

Once you are known as an authority in one thing, it is easier to leverage your brand to do something else. Do not try to be a jack of all trades at first. Focus on one core area and build your name, then use that to spring on to something else, then something else after that.

7 – Memorability

The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis Presley died in August 1977; he had many admirers and critics. More than 30 years after his death he is still regarded as an icon and his estate is still making money that would put many living artistes to shame.

If you are an average generic brand, people will forget you as soon as you are out of sight. People make an effort to remember those who they perceive as worth the effort; those who represent value.

You may not really care about being remembered after you die, but being forgotten as soon as you walk out the door can cost you opportunities and relationships when you are still here on earth with us. Developing a strong personal brand will make people remember you and perpetuate your legacy.

8 – Perceived Value

Having a strong personal brand will increase people’s perception of what you bring to the table. People are generally self serving and will seek to interact with those they regard as good value. Perception is everything, it is the new reality.

You will be treated as people perceive you. It is therefore imperative that you develop a good brand, and communicate with others, letting them know, perhaps in subtle ways, what your brand is about.

In his book, The Idea Virus, Seth Godin says that “it’s the idea of Air Jordan sneakers, not the shoe that permits Nike to sell them for more than $100. It’s the sizzle, not the fit. The idea makes Nike outsized profits.”

What brand image are you communicating with the world? Are you selling the shoe or the sizzle? Are you perceived as being of high value?

9 – Loyalty

With an array of choice, consumers could pretty much pick a different brand of biscuits or ice cream from supermarkets, but after a while, they settle down on a handful of brands.  It is like that in relationships, people end up being loyal to a select few friends. If you develop a reputation as a good friend, as a good brand, you are more likely to attract loyalty.

Smart companies realize that they get the most value from repeat business than in constantly paying for advertising to get new customers. If you develop a good personal brand, people are more likely to stick with you for the long term. There are life long benefits of building a strong brand.

Many people are not willing to pay the cost of switching. They stick with familiar brands and resent new brands. They would rather stay at their comfort zone. Having a good personal brand will position you in people’s comfort zone.

10 – Forgiveness

Sometimes things do not work out as planned. If something goes wrong or you mess up, you are more likely to be forgiven if you had developed a consistent brand image. People might be more likely to understand, forgive and give you a second chance if you have a good personal brand. But don’t count on it; try not to mess up.

11 – Confidence

You will walk with your head high when people recognize and respect your personal brand. If your brand reputation precedes you, it will open doors and make life easier. A good brand earns respects and does wonders to one’s confidence.

A good personal brand will give you a level of control on outcomes. Knowing what to expect or how people will react to you is confidence inspiring. This confidence is able to manifest itself in other areas of your life, further enhancing your personal brand.

Summary

I hope you have been inspired to beef up your personal brand. A good personal brand increases your perceived value and makes people pay a premium to be associated with you. They may not necessarily pay you money, but they will give you the attention, trust, remembrance, forgiveness and opportunities.

A strong personal brand enables you to be confident in your own abilities and person. It helps you become influential in many spheres of life and opens up a world of opportunities.

I would love to hear from you about how a good personal brand has worked for you or anyone that you know. Thanks in advance.

Series Navigation«3 Seconds First ImpressionAre You A Purple Cow?»

Other articles you may enjoy:

  1. Why SWOT Your Personal Brand? You are the CEO of brand called YOU. Imagine calling a board meeting to discuss...
  2. How to Ruin Your Personal Brand Personal branding is not easy for the vast majority of people. However, over the...
  3. 10% of Your Actions Define 90% of Personal Brand Transform your personal brand by identifying the key 10% of your actions and habits...
  4. How to Get Results Using Your Personal Brand Why go through the trouble of personal branding? Why spend time, money and energy...
  5. 7 Habits of Highly Effective Personal Brands We all have personal brands by default. However, to get an effective personal brand,...
  6. Personal Branding for Rich Men Most of my theories on personal branding would not resonate well with people in...

If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leaving a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader or via email.

Comments

7 Responses to “10+ Reasons to Beef Up Your Personal Brand”

Leave Comment

(required)

(required)