 When I speak on reputation management and personal branding, I enjoy telling audiences that as much as I wish the topic were highly sophisticated and complex, personal branding is relatively simple. There are no tricky formulas or graphs. In fact, I share one graphic (the formula to building credibility) and very few statistics.
While personal branding might be simple, it is not easy. The journey to uncover your values, create a strategy for positioning yourself, and sticking to those values at all costs is sometimes challenging. Here are my simple ABCs for building a meaningful and impactful personal brand: A’s The foundation of personal branding rests on authenticity: The ability to tap into your genuine, humble, and individual human qualities from which your identity, personality, and character stem. Most of us walk around without much thought to being “authentic.” We expect that others will take us as they see us. Some of us even boast, “What you see is what you get!” But is it? Are you living authentically — using your values, beliefs, and dreams guide you? Are you letting others know you — truly know you — or are you hiding behind a shield of appropriateness and conformity? By understanding and exploring your passions, interests, motivators, and challenges, you can better articulate your value to the audiences who need to see you as relevant. The goal is to have control over the brand you live, how it’s expressed, and how others assign you value and relevance. Authenticity is the critical component to developing successful personal and business brands that have longevity. Personal branding is the process of articulating your value proposition to a target audience and building a compelling reputation. In order to effectively develop and communicate a solid personal brand, we need to know who we are, how we want to be perceived, who we need to focus our efforts towards, and what results we expect to receive. These are all important ingredients in this personal branding formula. Leave one out and it just doesn’t work the same way. Holding yourself accountable can be a very daunting task! Living up to someone else’s expectations is often easier – there are consequences to not following through. But we can easily let ourselves off the hook when it’s convenient to do so. Put reward/consequence systems in place to keep yourself accountable and stay on track. In personal branding we strive to make ourselves relevant and compelling to a specific target audience — and that’s not everyone! Not everyone you work with or network with will get your jokes, find you compelling, or feel good about you. Targeting those clients, customers, and stakeholders who will find you relevant is critical and cuts down on your marketing efforts! If your goal is to win over a colleague who insists on holding on to their first impression of you, when you were naive and unaware of your personal brand goals (and maybe you made some mistakes in how you treated others), realize that some people will never come around. Instead, focus on building brand relevance with audiences who hold opportunities for you (i.e. your supervisor, clients, vendors, key staff) and not on people who are harder to win over and have little influence on your future. B’s Bold: While authenticity is at the heart of personal branding, in order to develop your own unique identity, you first must identify the genuine traits, skills, and values that make you compelling. It starts with understanding your values: What bold promises will you uphold? What do you stand for? What is so core to your moral and ethical fiber that if it were removed you would not be you? How do your values set the expectation others can have for you? Only after you understand your bold values can you begin to market yourself effectively to the audience who most needs you. Focusing on what genuinely makes you unique allows you to grow your brand from a place of strength, while understanding and managing weaknesses. At the heart of effective brand development is clarity on your beliefs – practicing what you preach; being totally clear about who you are, what you stand for, and what you do best. Not everyone wants to be a leader, a resource for others, or a team player. That’s okay! Only after a critical and honest assessment of your foundational beliefs can you begin to map the distance between how you want to be known (desired reputation) and how you are known today (current reputation). Only with this understanding can you begin building the legacy you desire. The discovery process is very internal and introspective, but when you start from the core, you develop a brand that sticks – because it’s genuine and compelling. Behavior: People form opinions about us based on many things – their own biases and prejudices, as well as our behavior. How we act influences how others see us. And how others see us affects the opportunities we get assigned. In personal branding, we take control of our reputation (perception) in order to craft and manage our legacy. How do you want to be seen by others who matter (your audience)? What will it take to make that perception reality? How are you behaving in person and online. The person who seeks to be known as approachable needs to be approachable — they leave their office door open, have good eye contact, and include others in the conversation. Similarly, the person who seeks to be known as credible backs up their bold value statements with action. Behavior is where we put action to our beliefs. Or not… C’s I mentioned the one formula in my program: The formula for credibility. It is really quite simple: Credibility = Values + Action. You need to make it very clear to your target audience what it is that makes you special; what it is that you value and believe in that are truly assets to your personal brand. Then you need to walk the talk. You need to live those values in everything that you do in order to earn credibility. If you want to be known as honest and that’s something that you really value, then you’re going to demonstrate honesty. You’re going to be honest. You’re going to attract honesty and transparency. After doing this, you will earn credibility and a reputation for someone who is honest. Your personal narrative is the way you communicate, internally and externally about your value. If you’re filled with fear and self-doubt, that undoubtedly is reflected in how you come across to others. Becoming aware of how you promote and communicate your passions and values directly impacts how others will appreciate you. Do you use the wrong narrative when talking to others (or yourself) about your plans and your vision? Maybe the reason people see you as difficult to get along with is because you complain about your work day, instead of celebrating the fact that you have a job and are contributing to the organization? We can easily look outward to find reasons and excuses for missed opportunities and to explain our shortcomings, but it could also be we’re telling the wrong message in the first place. In branding, we drive towards legacy – the reputation we create for ourselves today and the way we will be remembered by clients, patients, colleagues, and our community a long time from now. We pay attention to how our actions, marketing, relationships, and products reflect our values and our vision. Across all mediums — from in-person networking to social media, from body language to image to your messaging and elevator pitch — are you consistently articulating your value and demonstrating action towards that value. That is how you build consistency for your personal brand. Acknowledgement lida360.com ( I is Lida a world authority on Personal Branding ) |
African American
HOW HAS THE PEPSI BRAND EVOLVED OVER THE LAST 100 YEARS?
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Pepsi (Photo credit: Tera Rift)
PEPSI (Photo credit: Fillmore Photography)
English: An old 7 Up soda machine. There’s Coca-Cola available in this 7-Up (A Pepsi product) machine. Very nice –Allstick (talk) 01:54, 28 June 2008 (UTC) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Coca-Cola (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Pepsi (Photo credit: elmada)
English: A Coke pin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Coca-Cola logo is an example of a widely-recognized trademark representing a global brand. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
HOW HAS THE PEPSI BRAND EVOLVED OVER THE LAST 100 YEARS?
Advertising, Business, Creative, Editor’s Pick
On a blisteringly hot summer’s day, nothing could be more mouth-watering than that crisp mouthful of thirst-quenching delicious goodness found in a cool can in the fridge. Condensation droplets drip down the red, white and blue logo that has become forged into the subconscious of the public for several years since the recognisable symbol came into being in 1905. Vintage EraUnlike its domineering competitor and icon of pop culture Coca-Cola, Pepsi has undergone several transformations in its branding, from vintage typography to Hollywood-style bling, from elaborate to minimalist. Originally under the name of Pepsi-Cola, the delicious drink followed the same kind of typography as Coca-Cola and continually reinvented itself, particularly during the Great Depression when it was marketing itself as an accessible, refreshing beverage that the hard-working American could afford. “Pepsi-Cola hits the spot / Twelve full ounces, that’s a lot / Twice as much for a nickel, too / Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you.” A popular feature on the radio, it ran with the principle that consumers could enjoy a drink equivalent to Coca-Cola and twice as much for the same price. It proved that even during a time of economic turmoil, by meeting the needs of the consumer at a reduced cost, it could boost profit. Social RevolutionReaching out to the public would become a character trait of the company, whose progressively-minded President Walter Mack and Edward F.Boyd, an ingenious African American marketer, engineered one of the first advertising schemes to feature adverts with African Americans portrayed positively, recognising them as a valuable demographic. This would be the beginning of an innovative new marketing strategy which would become known as “niche marketing,” making Pepsi one of the most forward-thinking companies of its generation, as well as achieving a deep resonance with its audience by persevering with the campaign despite discrimination from racist extremist groups. Once again, its endeavour resulted in a positive sales increase.Pepsi continued to “hit the spot” for several years and enjoyed an invigorating rebranding in the 70’s when Joan Crawford began to reignite its advertising ventures by making television appearances. Hubby and President Alfred M. Steele began to increase his presence in social events like pageants. Blind-testing competitions (which would become known as the “Pepsi Challenge”) against Coca-Cola and an exciting new logo (the iconic red, white and blue colour scheme streamlined with a circular shape) would garner attention and recapture imaginations worldwide.Sponsorship VenturesPepsi continued to push itself as an “everyman’s brand” by sponsoring Major League Baseball, National Hockey League and National Football League sporting events. It would soon cater towards a younger generation by revitalising its logo several times over to implement the use of 3-dimensional graphics, which symbolically tied it to the refreshing carbonated water and intensified the vibrancy of the colours. The brand would surge into the world of Hollywood and pop culture by beginning a series of adverts helmed by the likes of Michael Jackson, Jackie Chan, Shakira, Britney Spears and Beyonce. This wasn’t to isolate Pepsi as a brand exclusive to the rich and famous, but rather to suggest that the popular drink was representative of the emerging generation just as the iconic figures were stealing the stage. This indicated a shift from niche marketing to direct targeting of the mainstream. Once again, this resulted in a considerable sales boost, putting Pepsi’s profits up and instilling yet another refined and reinvigorated logo in the mass consumerism psyche. Cultural FollowingsThroughout these various brand changes, Pepsi’s definitive place in the hearts of people across the globe has remained steadfast. Countries like India, Saudi Arabia and the Dominican Republic are just a few; particularly in Canada, the drink is a beloved beverage for several provinces, including Quebec. The Quebecois culture embraced the drink with the bespoke slogan “Ici, c’est Pepsi,” in defiance of Coca-Cola’s claim to being the world’s favourite refreshment, followed by endorsements from French-Canadian personalities like Claude Meunier. In regards to the Pepsi vs Cola movement, being the underdog allowed Pepsi to avoid the heat of the fire commonly directed at corporations like Coca-Cola and continue to boast mainstream presence, while having an edge in niche marketing, as well.With the advent of drinks like Pepsi Max and earlier schemes such as Pepsiman in Japan – an endeavour which worked with the country’s avid following of Sega and Playstation beginning in the mid-90’s – Pepsi has continued to expand its audiences and market itself a product which is not only delicious but also energising, as well as low in carbs (in the case of Diet Pepsi). “Every Pepsi Refreshes the World” states the famous slogan of 2010. Its international presence is an angle which Pepsi has pursued as a partial departure from being the “all-American drink” – a heavily emphasized focus throughout the more domestic ideology pursued by Coca-Cola. Some critics may argue that Coca-Cola’s timelessness is reflected in its unchanged emblem and its distinctness, but the fact that Pepsi is willing to take a risk and continuously reinvent itself – thereby offering the same great product, but attuning it to modern trends – suggests a kind of adventurousness and commitment to consumers. And it must work, because to this day it continues to dominate the billboards and pop machines everywhere.
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Stephen Darori on Brands and Branding 