adminNyaradzo Mavindidze Motivation for Success
Defining and communicating your unique personal brand on the job is a powerful way to further your career. Have you ever thought about the connection between your personal brand and your company’s brand? What role does that “connection” — or lack thereof — play in your career success? And how do you determine if your personal brand is out of sync with your company’s brand?
Whether we are talking about personal brands or corporate brands, great brands don’t get to be great by accident! There is a tried-and-true formula for building great brands.
There are six elements that fit together like pieces of a puzzle to define your personal brand or your company’s brand, and they reflect what you want your company — or YOU — to stand for.
1. Target market/audience
Who does your company target as existing or potential customers for its products or services? BMW targets wealthier customers than Toyota, for example. Just as your company focuses on who it wants as its customers, your personal brand should also focus on the people who can have an impact on your career and future. They make up your personal brand’s “audience”.
2. Needs
Your company meets the needs of its customers through its products or services. It’s no different with your personal brand. Think about it: What does your personal brand audience need from you, and how well are you meeting those needs?
3. Competition/comparison
Corporate branders need to know their competitors well in order to understand why a customer would choose their brand over another.
Similarly, personal branders must know something about the other people that their audience will compare them to. Is there someone else who can fill your personal brand audience’s needs? That’s your personal brand “comparison”.
4. Benefits/unique strengths
A corporate brand must offer specific benefits to its target market, just like your personal brand needs to communicate the unique strengths that set you apart from others.
5. Reasons why
A big name brand must have “reasons why” — reasons that convince a company’s target market that the brand can deliver the benefits it offers.
Your personal brand also needs to have reasons why — reasons your personal brand audience will believe you can deliver the unique strengths you promise. What credibility do you have, and why?
6. Brand character
Every brand — corporate or personal — has a personality or “character” that makes it different from any other brand. Think about the difference between Pepsi and Coke. The products contain almost the same ingredients, but each brand has a unique character that has been carefully created by marketers — and that character is what helps you choose one drink over the other. Your personal brand character does the same for YOU.
Comparing your personal brand with your company’s brand
If you apply the above framework to both your company’s brand and your personal brand, do they connect well with one another?
Is your company’s target market of interest to you, and are they the kind of people you enjoy pleasing? Are you passionate about working to fill the needs of that market?
Everyone who works for a company is a marketer for that company. You represent the firm whether or not you deal directly with customers or perform direct sales as a part of your job.
The bottom line? To be successful on the job, you need to have a connection with the company’s brand, character, and mission. Your personal brand definition needs to “fit” like a glove with the corporate brand definition.
Nyaradzo Mavindidze is a motivational speaker and the Managing Consultant at Avodah Consultants, which specialises in soft skills training and coaching. For feedback email [email protected]
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