Article originally published in the Philadelphia Business Journal on September 25, 2018
Business Brands and Personal Brands
All of us are familiar with a business brand. It’s the marketplace recognition of the promise of a company or professional services firm to meet or exceed the high expectations of its customers or clients in the delivery of products or services. Less familiar is a personal brand, which is the recognized promise of an individual to help a client or employer to be successful in their business.
Customers and clients buy from companies with strong brands, such as Nike, Mercedes, Apple, Google and Starbucks, to name a few. These companies have a reputation for consistently offering high-quality products or services and delivering a great customer experience.
Companies with a great brand reputation are often not the lowest price offering in the marketplace but offer perceived value for the price charged. The strength of their brand gives these companies a competitive advantage. They become the preferred provider in their marketplace. They are the companies that customers and clients want to do business with, and they hold a significant market share within their market.
The same holds true for personal brands. Individuals develop a reputation such that clients want to do business with them. Employers want to promote them to their next job within the company or hire them as new employees. They differentiate themselves and develop a competitive advantage over their peers.
Ram V. Iyer of The Business Institute writes, “Personal branding is the intentional identification, packaging and marketing of a person’s mission, strengths, capabilities, talents, background, appearance, etc. as a brand. A big objective of personal branding is to establish a specific image or impression of the person in the mind of others that evokes positive emotions.”
Iyer continues, “If you build a strong personal brand, the benefits could increase your popularity, credibility, prestige, customer loyalty and market differentiation; it could attract new (and the right) clients, partners, employees and build bigger networks; and it could increase your perceived value (ability to charge higher prices) in the marketplace while negating your competition.
“Personal branding involves self-packaging – combining your mission, strengths, capabilities, talents, background, appearance, etc. – to define your uniqueness.”
So, as an individual, how do you build your personal brand?
How to build your Personal Brand:
- Do your job and do it well. Develop a reputation within your company,
client base and industry as someone who achieves results, is a problem
solver and facilitator with high emotional intelligence, is an individual
who improves business processes and is someone who brings people
together to find common ground. - Develop your reputation as a thought leader – a recognized authority in
your field of expertise. Get what you have accomplished and are
accomplishing out in front of an audience. Volunteer to speak in front of
groups. Help others be successful. - Write articles or blogs on LinkedIn. Develop a website that can feature
your articles and share your views on industry trends and on how to be an
effective leader. Exercise caution not to criticize the company at which
you work or its leaders and don’t reveal confidential information. Build
an email list of individuals who would be interested in what you convey
and send them what you write. - Develop your networking skills. Attend industry conferences and
network with other attendees. Your goal should not be to hand out as
many business cards as possible at these events, but to develop
relationships with a small number of attendees. Connect people with
common interests or who can be helpful to each other. Become well
known by others within your industry. - Hone your leadership skills. Become known as an individual who creates
a culture in which employees are empowered and encouraged to develop
a sense of ownership in what they do. Develop a reputation for holding
people accountable for results, as well as a boss people want to work for.
Become known as someone who develops future leaders. - Develop a reputation for honesty and integrity. People will not want to do
business with people they don’t trust. If you make a commitment to
someone, be sure to keep that commitment. She may have made a
commitment to others based on your commitment to her. - Always have and project the right attitude. It is a significant determinant
of your success. Develop a reputation for seeing a world of possibilities
and abundance, vs. seeing nothing but limitations and scarcity.
Individuals with positive attitudes move forward in their career. Those
with a negative attitude do not. - Always be on a journey to be the best in the world at what you do.
Follow the above advice to build your personal brand. It will help you advance your career, especially when in transition to your next job. When employers vet potential new employees, they look for the traits identified above.
Stan Silverman is founder and CEO of Silverman Leadership. He is a speaker, advisor and nationally syndicated writer on leadership, entrepreneurship and corporate governance. Silverman earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering and an MBA degree from Drexel University. He is also an alumnus of the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School. He can be reached at Stan@SilvermanLeadership.com. Follow Silverman on LinkedIn here and on Twitter, @StanSilverman.
