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Simply put, a brand is the “unique” experience evoked when people remember about an item or person.
For example, Coke is a brand not just because you recognize it as an icon for a familiar soda, but because you’re familiar with its commercials, logos, advertising, colors, designs, taste, and its sizzling sound.
Branding is the marketing process of achieving brand impression.
What is Personal Branding and Why It Is Important Now?
Branding is what helps people to connect with a distinctive characteristic that causes them to retain the experiences from their engagement with that brand. The goal of branding is to stimulate prospective customers to identify with that brand as their prime reference or “go to” to solve a specific problem they have.
Brands create audiences and evoke emotions. They motivate new behaviors and establish reputations. Ultimately it’s how a brand can differentiate itself and create a perception of value, that really determines the brand equity – its real value.
Brands are everywhere. Look at the shoes you wear, the car you drive, the restaurant you eat at and the cell phone you prefer. You chose to go with that brand because you thought it demonstrated a clear and real value for you.
A brand can be a company, service, product, or person. Branding is about “standing out” from the crowded competition in their category and then about creating a “buzz” like the Apple-like buzz .
The Power of Personal Branding Today
In recent years the term “personal branding” has taken on a whole new meaning.
Just as in business or product branding, personal branding is the sum of all the experiences you create in other that are memorable. It is simply you and all you do. You are a distinctive brand that people will engage with, recognize and form opinions about. Your email address, your website url, and your social network user names for instance are all part of your brand today.
Having a strong personal brand can be key in putting your company’s name on the map. Think about celebrity endorsements: Oprah can instantly help sell your book for you, simply by her recommending it. Billionaire, Richard Branson made Virgin Group popular by connecting the fascinating story of his life and entrepreneurship to it. Powerful brand become credible leaders in their category.
How Can I Differentiate?
What is Personal Branding and Why It Is Important Now?
Personal brands connect your audiences to the perception of your fame and renown. They can create visibility, trust and loyalty for your audience. Brand experiences are subjective perceptions, but that’s OK – the goal is to earn votes from people around you, regardless of how much they know you personally, as long as they are comfortable with your brand.
As skills and knowledge become ubiquitous, the value of personal branding becomes more important now than ever –especially in a recession when the value expectation is for greater delivery for less.
Under pressure the top few brand duke it out, because only the top few will win the lion’s share of the market choice. It’s simple: if you are a powerful brand, you get more leverage. More leverage means more business opportunities. More opportunities to generate more wealth, a greater likelihood of winning jobs where you couldn’t before, more opportunities to network and meet other movers and shakers in your category.
How do you become a powerful personal brand?
You must start now if you haven’t already. Here are seven tips to help you differentiate your brand:
1. Network, network, network – remember it’s who knows you…not who you know that counts
2. Become an expert at something that has high value and stay focused on that “one thing”
3. Help others to succeed. Leave your mark by becoming best at what you do
4. Treat it like a business. Focus on pragmatic outcomes and customer feedback
5. Have a vision, a mentor, be a leader, an entrepreneur
6. Market yourself. Build a platform for your audiences to see you often
7. Never stop educating yourself to establish your slight edge that will put you over
There is no magic bullet to success in personal branding. It’s a combination of all the above. You must be in charge of your personal brand. You just have to start building your brand equity in everything you do. Here is your opportunity to emerge as a brand that people look up to want a piece of!
Simply put, your personal branding plan is your growth strategy, to create deep lasting value that is wrapped up in a powerful brand: “YOU.”
Why not share your personal branding strategies, share what worked and what didn’t? What marketing tools do you use to establish, differentiate and enrich your brand?
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