The brand is like a human being

A brand is born, lives and dies. Naturally. The way it exists, the way it operates decides its longevity and impact. We are involved in building the brand in whatever we do every moment. Here am not attempting to correlate, but see the similarity between a brand and a human body, anatomically. Here are some aspects of the brand that you will see are present exactly the way the human biological system. It’s not a strong alibi but an approach to help enhance our understanding of all that goes into making the brand.

Reputation: We see historically reputation as one of the sole purpose of branding. There is nothing wrong in it, but may be the way we look at it can be modified. Reputation managers for any brand, or yourself for your personal brand is not entirely responsible for the success or failure of it. Reputation statement is like a cognitive shape that you will endow upon your endeavor, and quite likely it will be an ambitious one. After spending more than a decade in communication I have witnessed where great brands struggle. The state of ‘repute’ is an ongoing practice and not a goal, a conduct by the brand that engages all its stakeholders incessantly. The recall of the reputation contributes to the making of a truly inspiring brand. It is contextual, it changes person to person, situation to situation. No single prescription as you and your brand is unique. Reputation is the kind of flesh that gives shape to your brand, for everyone to remember for a longer time and choose or not choose to be with your pursuit. No matter how great your vision is, one single error done consciously or being ignorant, affects the entire brand journey. Famous brands are not all well planned, but there is a sincerity in the pattern that they lived. Every thread, contributed to make the best fabric that sets the tone, the mood, the experience, and that drives the audience to believe in it.

In an organizational context and more so if it is a complex composition, it makes more sense to drive reputation building not through traditional ways, but fast forming up a ‘reputation council’ that has equal representations from all stakeholders involved. A shoe designer will surely manufacture basis global anthropological considerations about human feet and its sizes. But the success for the brand comes only when it matches the trend, the current of audience expectations. May be the colour, or the positioning of the products, identifying the right user base and so on, will be aspects that will contribute positively. You will rarely see a sportsperson promoting a nice leather office shoe brand. Yes, you guessed right, it’s important to stay relevant, every moment in the process of reputation building.

Being Aware: Even before you attempt at building the brand either for an organization, a product or even for yourself, it helps if you are aware of the operational realities for the brand entity, both that exists and those that may come in the journey. Awareness is like the spine that connects the base with the vault, the lowest level principles of operation to the vision that you would have set. Everyone in an organization can talk about the business performance, but no one can have the entirety to present. Its seer collaboration and an eagerness to gather and work upon insights that you may come across in the branding process. Being aware also determines your standpoint, its strengths and weaknesses. Even when you sell a soap, it’s equally important to understand the demographics, the cultural context and things alike. Being aware is being empowered!

Connect to exist:

A brand is like a human. It will attempt to connect with its audience more to survive and succeed. The very nature of branding is connecting with all its stakeholders, something like a nervous system in human body. Needless to say what nerves do to help us live and stand strong no matter how big is the crowd. Quite evidently if you audit the famous brands of the world, the only thing that you notice is all of them are connected to their selected audiences. You will not see a jewelry add in a men’s magazine, or a tie on a women’s website, nor even any luxury car promotional in a children communication. Pick and choose the right audience and engage them till the point they not only believe and buy your product but become loyal advocates for others. When you connect with the audience, it also means a ‘dialogue’; you listen as much as you speak and keep the talk on as long as it benefits both. Make people feel that they are heard, and the rest happens faster. People who are in service will be getting enough announcements and mails from the senior leadership of their organization. But how many time’s in an average employee’s tenure he/ she would have realized that the suggestion/ feedback sent by him/ her is worked upon. Or even the employee is heard in the scheme of things. A great brand is a great conversation too. An annual engagement survey or a portal that takes employee feedback will make us reach only at the problem, not derive the ways to remove them by design of the organization. Can there be platforms that help the leadership and employees both feel involved meaningfully? Can there be any alternative not to do so?

Messaging: ‘I am here, because I have to…’ every brand has a message. It serves like the blood that flows through the veins and nerves and makes every organ equally functional and aligned to something beautiful called as ‘life’. In branding we often carve the best messages, at least those that sound like music to our ears. Rarely do we envisage the way the message connects with the remaining organs of the brand. A brand message is healthy and worthy to support the branding journey only when it has adequate measures of its constituents. Some of them that make the message are honesty, connectivity, source of power for the reputation we intend, sincerity of attempt and so on.

Channels and Communication Platforms: These serve like the organs that function for the well-being of the brand entity. They need to be healthy, understand what other parts and aspects in the communication scheme require to function well. We cannot choose or reject a channel basis a cultural bias, but innovate it to align with the objective of making impactful communication possible.

In branding do it the right way, and the right way is only one that you can establish positively. In a decade long stint my only learning is a brand stands for ‘TRUST’. Either it’s there or its not, there isn’t a middle way. Understanding each of the aspects and keenly observing the natural pattern your brand offers helps keep it healthy and long-lived. Every brand that way is a story, an experience that the audience remembers, only if it inspires.

You are the brand

Campaign effectiveness and communication strategy for the brand you

Yes, you inspire! Sometimes the simplest yet honest attempt to brand your campaign can work a magic that your communication intends. What are you trying to sell? Who is the audience? And how will you make them buy your product or service? Muddled with these ideas? Here is how many of our successful iconoclastic personal brands do it. These are simple steps you can start with. You are here to win it all. Remember you are the brand.

Define the goal for your personal brand

When did you last write about yourself, your own journey, your personal dream? Start scribbling about your desired goal. What will you be doing a decade from now? How will you be doing it? What will people and your audience know you for? Your current job may not be the answer, your passion may be. Define a more tangible goal for your personal branding. Add all glamour while defining it. Time will serve as a litmus test to remove all redundancy and make your effort an inspiring story. Personal branding is both the goal and the journey you will cover to reach it. Like all good schools of thought there need to be the highest levels of sincerity and discipline in all your endeavors to reach the goal. Ensure your goal should be the one that no one would have experienced ever before. Remember Mark Antony who never got shadowed by Caesar’s persona, his own individuality continues to be historic and appealing as ever. Yes there you are. While defining your personal brand identify your own strengths and weaknesses, and these should guide you well. It’s equally important as well to know the time you have to reach your destination. Be more realistic and appreciate your existence, live your purpose. This is the key to a great personal brand.

Who is your audience?

Like all product managers identify whom to sell and analyze their audience base, it’s essential to identify your own audience in personal branding too. Find the audience demographics, their cultural implications, trends that they are surrounded with and other details that you can accumulate. For some of the leaders whom I have helped in their personal branding, this is one of the most difficult tasks. There is a crowd and indeed a huge one in this world scattered for several reasons. The more diverse the audience is, the more complex it becomes to address them and keep them hooked to you. Remember in your personal branding effort, the audience size has to be ever increasing as well as not losing those you started with, because the initial ones will serve as loyal brand ambassadors and contribute more to your cause. You and your audience have to come together for a cause that does common good, and become one that helps you achieve make it an inspiring movement. Build trust over a period of time through action and not words, make your case as much credible as possible. No matter how honest and loyal the audience appears to be, all it takes for them to disperse is either a mistake at your end or a new persona they would start following. Define the audience and remember they are your buyer. Any audience is quite reasonable and will believe in your story only if it’s honest.

Draw a strategy to reach your audience?

Like any product manager, you will need to prepare your own personal brand strategy. A personal brand strategy is like the blueprint that will guide your actions. However, this blueprint has to be prepared basis various parameters like your strengths, weaknesses, your past, your choices, and composition as a personality. This is your own personal brand strategy, you will not be asked to share in public, so be extremely honest and logical. List down the five W’s (Who, What, Where, When, Why) and one H (How) that will help you reach your brand goal. The ‘how’ is the strategy. Once done, list it in a chronology basis the logic you think that fits the best. Also, often what we miss out is also a list of ‘don’ts’, it’s ideal we have it in place to cut down the vulnerability that you think may affect. Over a period of time the strategy need to be relooked, reshaped and retouched to stay relevant.

Carve the message; it’s going to be the soul of your brand

The crux of any personal branding effort has always been the message that makes it memorable. A message need not be the sentence or the topic you talk about to your audience but the experience they get from your presence. Authors like George Bernard Shaw, DH Lawrence, James Joyce, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters and all in the genres of those that made society the very canvas where they painted the fabric they believed in has enriched literature. Similarly, in your personal branding endeavor ensure you identify early the very message that your being, your existence desires to communicate. The message is the communication of your intention. Mahatma Gandhi lived for truth and non-violence, Salvador Dali depicts creative passion, Steve Jobs stood for innovation, Dalai Lama for peace, Barack Obama conveys the voice of the crowd and so on. Your message is the very thread that when woven in a pattern makes the fabric worth wearing for the audience. Find and live the most memorable message and your consistency and passion will draw the audience to believe more.

Keep the interest alive – stay focussed

Consistency and appeal are two most significant principles to follow when you decide to hook your audience to your brand. Some personal brands go to the level of having a signature pose, greeting or even a sign-off. Steve Jobs for example you will always see in his later year appearances was in signature black turtle neck with jeans and sneakers. But the appearance alone doesn’t keep the interest alive unless you appeal through the message, way you deliver, and how you make the audience feel with your presence. Ensure your audience gets to know something relevant, fresh and stuff that will help them, not you. Play to them judiciously. As you keep growing your personal brand, you will experience the audience keeps an eye on your every move. Honesty thus helps at each step. As you progress, it’s more likely there will be others who may divert your audience group to their own brands. The only key is not to focus on competition, but stay focussed on yourself, your own brand goal and grow it more, bigger and bigger.

Measure like a tailor, engineer like a weaver

Early in my career I got to work on websites and applications, where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) taught me the very basic of knowing the success of these IT platforms and get insights and trends that would help decide the way forward. The same logic applies to personal branding too. Keep measuring yourself. If you are on a social platform, then by your klout score and audience/ connection demographics, if you are measuring among people in the real world then through followers and loyal ambassadors who will spread your message. It helps as measurement tell you when, where and how to do the correction. When it comes to making changes in implementing your personal branding strategy, ensure you adhere to ‘Quality by Design’ (QbD). Ensure you have quality as an incorporated principle. All successful product and service brands do it today. It helps save time, and bring down the rate of fault generation during the process. You can’t waste time either yours or your audience’s. Attend to every single change that you see can impact your personal brand. Ensure no noise or clutter is ever experiences in the message that you intend to communicate.

Technology is not an end; it’s just another great medium

Technology evolves every second, and so do we, our habits and ways of consuming information and life overall. Of course you will need a grasp on the technical know-how of communicating these evolving platforms. You have a basic rule now in place that you need to be where the audience is, before turning the table and make them loyalists. Digital and social media in recent times have an incredible penetration and success rate when it comes to communicating any personal brand. From politicians to businessmen, actors to activists all in recent years have leveraged these channels to make the message reach. The greatest attribute for technology today is, its speed and reach which multiples your intent of communicating the message. Ensure you are on all meaningful digital and social platforms. Not one shoe fits all, so every time you have to implement a value generating strategy as well as a customized set of such channels that can be employed.

Technology and innovation are for doing common good. However, your own physical presence, reach among the crowd, personal touch with the audience has far more enriching returns. All global leaders are seen among people, on the ground, shaking hands, conversing more, and standing for all people related occasions. Be there personally.

Engage more with the audience

“With great power comes great responsibility” like it was told in Spiderman – the movie. When your personal branding gains momentum, ensure you take accountability of all communications and all your positioning activities. Being responsible in personal branding or branding in general refers to being respectful to all diversities of thought that exist as well as demonstrate continuously that you care for the cause and the audience community no matter how small or big they are. When the news spread about the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F Kennedy (New York’s Senator who was in Indianapolis then) had his memorable presence and speech among the black people (who had just lost their voice, their very own leader), while the local police warned him of a possible outrage. See the speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoKzCff8Zbs A leader, a powerful personal brand does not need to dare but habitually and quite naturally finds it comfortable to get into the crowd, join hands with the audience and come forward to touch every single member present in the audience. You can be one too.

Chisel your brand if necessary; discover

When you started you were like the huge and untouched rock in unknown land, when you finish, it will be the most memorable and well sculptured brand experience. All that happens in between those two states is the journey you will have to take, and it’s always worth it. While carving your personal brand ensure you are becoming more mature, and your point of view becomes more macro and you are no more perturbed by information that reach you, but give it a shape for delivering right feeling. Chisel yourself whenever needed to remain relevant, else time by default shapes you as a toy. The greatest joy for you as a personal brand will be the very moment you see you are discovering your own personal brand. Like success is a journey, personal branding too is a continuous process. You can’t unwind it at any stage. Find and establish your brand.

Do not benchmark; you are unique

I remember beginning of my career I had my gods to follow, leaders to hear from more, even wanted to dress like some of them at times. However, with time I realized, it’s important to stay yourself. It is human to follow all that attracts us, but not surrender blindly to someone’s brand. No matter how strongly you are inspired by a personal brand, but never lose your own self. You are as unique as anyone else you would want to be. It’s tough often and you will in the initial stages of branding yourself find it hard to remain who you are. Benchmarking is an old school thought devoid of the idea that certain personalities are the culmination of circumstances, conviction and the center of an organized action over a period of time. Of course you are unique and that’s USP in selling well. The most successful personal brands like Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King Jr. Barack Obama, Dalai Lama, and John F Kennedy never competed with anyone, at least to build their brands. It’s a beautiful journey between your present and the goal you have set. It’s time you fall in love with your own being and there’s nothing wrong in it. You need to be an ever inspiring persona.

Remember there is a reason why you are here! Discover it.