How I Became a Chameleon

Posted at May 14, 2009

Personal Branding Series


I grew up on a small farm on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. As a little boy I used to do what now reeks of animal cruelty. On Saturdays when I had time on my hands, I would grab six towels for my crazy experiment. Red, Blue, Green, Orange, Yellow and Grey.

Then I would go to the bushes behind out house and spend an hour or four looking for a chameleon. They were hard to find for the same reason I was seeking them (camouflage). I was sinfully fascinated with how they would change color. Placing the poor reptile on the red towel turned it red; green turned it green. Little did I know that one day, I would turn into a chameleon.

Marketing on the Internet

On my last year of university, I took a class called Marketing on the Internet. Up to that point, I was not really sure what I wanted to pursue for a career. I was doing a business degree with a double major in marketing and information system. I was divided between marketing and IT. I got clarity when our lecturer invited a guest speaker from AdultShop.com to talk to us.

He was a charismatic communicator who implanted in me the desire to combine my IT skills with marketing. He talked about the “real” world of eCommerce. Most of my classmates were more intrigued with his statistics about the percentage of Australian women who owned a sex toy or three. I was interested in his talk about GoTo.com.

Goto.com was the first company to successfully provide a pay-for-placement search service. It was an innovative company that allowed marketers to bid for placement on leading websites. AdultShop.com was using the service with good results. GoTo.com later became known as Overture, and is now known as Yahoo Search Marketing. It was the company that remotely triggered the chameleon in me.

I immersed myself in learning all about performance based marketing online. I dug deep and wide into what sells on the internet. I learned how to drive targeted traffic to websites. But something kept bugging me. Why were some companies spending so much money on branding campaigns instead of results based marketing? I figured they were probably not as stupid as they looked. Perhaps there was value in building a brand? I asked myself.

Turning into a Chameleon

I found selling on the internet fun but without a strong brand behind me, I had to turn into a chameleon. I could morph into whatever I wanted to be in any given situation. I would read voraciously to understand the market I was targeting. For example, if I was selling toys to middle aged women, I would literally become one of them. I would turn red when the towel was red.

It was funny but sad when some middle aged women would write to me and thank me for telling it as it is. They imagined that I was one of them and with needs too.

If I was promoting a web hosting package to website owners, I would immerse myself into their world and talk like them, write to them. I would turn yellow when the towel was yellow.

Then I came to understand the power of brands. The best brands are not chameleons. They are consistent and they have value. Google and Coca-Cola are some of the world’s most powerful brands. They are not chameleons. Coca-Cola tastes the same in Kenya as it does in Australia. I got tired of being a chameleon. I wanted to taste the same everywhere. It was time to develop my own personal brand.

Personal Branding

When I first came to Australia, people would ask me what my name was. I would say “My name is Ngari, Daniel Ngari“. Within a very short time, I realized that that did not quite sound like “My name is Bond, James Bond“. So I dropped my Bond act and became “just” Daniel Ngari. Since then, I have always introduced myself as Daniel Ngari; not Dan, not Danny, not Daniel.

Your branding effort starts with your name. What is your name? How does your name sound to your ears? What image or memories does your name evoke in your friends, associates, or customers? A good name is worth more than diamonds. By a good name, I mean the person, the image, the meaning behind the name.

Do you have a powerful personal brand? Does your reputation precede you? What kind of first impression do you make? Do you have a consistent brand image that gets the results you desire? Do you project an image of success or hardship? These are some of the questions that we shall be answering in this new series. Welcome to the Personal Branding Series!

I am happy in my own skin. It feels good to finally be myself without becoming a chameleon online. Over the years, I have met people who are master chameleons in life. They turn red, green, and then yellow at the drop of a hat. They don’t even wait for the towel.

A time has come in my life where I have had to grant myself the freedom to be myself. IT feels good to be myself around anyone. Are you happy in your own skin? Are you the same person at home and at work? Do you feel the need to put on an act? Do you taste the same world over? We shall be exploring these issues, looking at the pros and cons, in this series.

Summary

The purpose of this blog is to inspire you to be the best you can be. In this new personal branding series, I will share with you my lessons on perfecting a brand called YOU.

I invite you to join me in this series with an open mind and with the aim of enhancing your image, name, reputation, perception and self packaging. A strong personal brand will open a world of opportunities for you.

What do you think about personal branding? I would love to hear your comments. I may use some of the comments on the blog posts in this series.

Series Navigation3 Seconds First Impression»

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