Personal Branding Essentials

A brand is a “Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.” (American Marketing Association – Definition of Brand) “Branding began as a way to tell one person’s cattle from another by means of a hot iron stamp.”—Wikipedia – Branding

From the above definition, the essence of branding is differentiation. This differentiation is more effectively communicated without being spoken. It should exude and make a clear statement through non-verbal communication. That makes it authentic (Forbes – Importance of Branding).

In personal branding, therefore, an individual should view himself/herself as he/she would a product; design him/herself, package him/herself and put him/herself out there as different from others (Harvard Business Review – Personal Branding).

Why Essential

Personal branding has become particularly important in our time because of the knowledge economy we live in (OECD – Knowledge Economy). In the industrial age, physical products were dominant and emphasized. Hence the design, manufacture and packaging of a product mainly had to do with physical products. That has changed now.

Knowledge workers now dominate many of the world’s major economies. “Knowledge Workers are now estimated to outnumber all other workers in North America by at least a four to one margin (Haag et al., 2006)”

It has therefore become imperative for a knowledge worker to brand and position him/herself strategically in order to succeed. Without such branding, he/she would not be seen or felt (Entrepreneur – Personal Branding). And if you’re not seen or felt, you’re as good as nonexistent!

The Essentials

Think strategically. According to the Center for Applied Research (USA) “Strategic thinking focuses on finding and developing unique opportunities to create value by enabling a provocative and creative dialogue among people who can affect a company’s direction (Center for Applied Research – Strategic Thinking).

“It is the input to strategic planning—good strategic thinking uncovers potential opportunities for creating value and challenges assumptions about a company’s value proposition, so that when the plan is created, it targets these opportunities.

“Strategic thinking is a way of understanding the fundamental drivers of a business and rigorously (and playfully) challenging conventional thinking about them, in conversation with others.”

According to Wikipedia – Strategic Thinking, “Recent strategic thought points ever more clearly towards the conclusion that the critical strategic question is not “What?” (usually addressed by conventional thinking), but “Why?” (or “How?”)”.

Strategic thinking, therefore, has its roots in the quest to challenge the status quo and find answers to the “whys?” and the “hows?” That is what you should do if you really want to brand yourself (MindTools – Strategic Thinking).

“Love nonsense”
Information is often found in the most unlikely places such as in the garbage; while reading kids’ textbooks; riding on public transport such as a taxi or tro-tro (bush taxi); playing snooker or monopoly, even ludu; etc. Such information, invaluable though as they can be, can never be found in the classroom (Fast Company – Creative Thinking).

Thus in the quest to brand yourself, look for information from unconventional sources, challenge the status quo and think differently. Generally, strategic thinkers believe that there is always another way of looking at things and doing things; and that may as well be the best one at the moment (Harvard Business Review – Think Differently).

Create your own vision statement. As an individual or a professional do you have a vision statement? Do you have a clearly stated destination to which you’re headed? That is very critical to your success (MindTools – Vision Statements).

However, in creating your vision, be careful to avoid selfishness. If you create a vision with a parochial interest you’ll get nowhere and gain no satisfaction, unless you’re a narcissist, which I believe you’re not!

Create your mission statement
Your vision determines your mission (Forbes – Vision and Mission Statements). Your vision is your goal whilst your mission embodies your objectives. Just as objectives are a break-down of your goals—the steps that lead up to achieving the overall goal—a mission helps to identify the little steps that you need to take towards the realization of your vision.

Determine your values
Your values are things you stand up for; virtues that you espouse and live by (Harvard Business Review – Personal Values). Values serve as an anchor; they stabilize your thoughts and actions. Holding to them helps to differentiate you from others and contributes in no small measure to your personal branding efforts.

Live Your Brand
After defining all the above and putting them on paper, be sure to live them (Entrepreneur – Living Your Brand). Many business organizations project one thing about themselves but act differently. That should not be so in your case. Live your brand by living up to what you define as your standards and values. And be consistent. That makes you authentic.

If you do so, as mentioned earlier, your personal brand will exude itself, making your target market notice and feel you.

The author Jules Nartey-Tokoli is Founder and Group CEO at Groupe Soleil Vision, comprising Soleil Consults, LLC, NubianBiz dot Com and Soleil Publications. He has lived and worked in both Ghana and the United States, having extensive experience in Strategy, Management, Entrepreneurship, Premium Audit Advisory and Web consulting. He has also published several articles on Strategy and Management among others.