In today’s competitive business world, individuals are being advised to create a brand for themselves. That includes everything down to designing their own logo and thinking up advertising slogans in order to stand out and succeed. Whether you run your own company or work for a firm, the way to succeed and help your business achieve more is to become a brand yourself. First you must devise a clear perception of yourself, who you are and what you do. They think about your core values and USP. Advise is to ask friends and colleagues what makes you stand out to them or what do they think you bring to the table. For example, “You create one vision out of everyones ideas” or “You bring calm in times of crisis”. Then you must begin thinking about aesthetics, such as the way you dress, any trade marks, how you speak, where you are seen, your website. Even things like your signature, your voice mail message, your email font. What does it say about you? They key, like in corporate branding is clarity and consistency. By creating a brand for yourself you are helping clients, colleagues and employers understand you best and make best use out of you. You are also creating a way to stand out from the competition. If you own your own business, personal branding is a starting point to marketing your business. Here below you find 5 steps of personal branding (surce: Harpers Bazaar UK ):
1. Be virtually visible: Google yourself, get a website, become present on search engines and make sure you delete anything you dislike on their.
2. Mimic another well-known brand, for example : Be “the next Bill Gates”
3. Think small: from your handbag or laptop case to your business card.
4. Give speeches at events or industry conferences to become visible in your field.
5. Be sure before you launch your brand; once you market yourself as something it is hard to retract or change it.
BRANDING YOURSELF
Would you tattoo a brand name to your skin? A new company does just that. MyBrandz.com is a new start up that offered free tattoos of brands to people who really want to “live the brand.” One of the founders says: We’d like to let the people do what they want with the brands, enjoy the life of the brands and not only buy them and let the brand owners tell them what to with them. The real attraction here is that consumers get more control over the brand names they love, rather than simply becoming walking billboards for them. It’s common knowledge in branding circles that the Nike swoosh is the most popular brand tattoo out there, but the launch of this company indicates that the branding tattoo trend isn’t going to end anytime soon. Even brand names like Pratt & Whitney get some serious love from tattoo enthusiasts. In addition, people have tattooed themselves with the Louis Vuitton Logo as well as the interlocking C in Chanel. In one case, the latter tattoo was put on a blogger’s buttocks – the blogger in question points out that it’s now “mine and mine alone. “As previously mentioned, tattoos, it seems, allow consumers to own the brand. I am reminded of the Apple tattoo William H. Macy wears in the film Wild Hogs and his line “”I know. Trademarked. But what are they goanna say? It’s in my skin b**ch!” The point is that this seems to be a way in which people can “own” a brand beyond the product. Not surprisingly, Apple tattoos appear to be one of the more popular needle choices as of late.
