Wednesday, October 22, 2008

What's your brand?

Says adweek:

Obama = BMW McCain = Ford
 
 

Fair enough. By the way... who founded BMW? Internet hi5 to whoever gets that one. What's that say of Obama? What do the brand associations say in general?

While we are on the topic of brand associations: brand tagging--check it.  What is the first word that comes to mind when people think about your company? This tool tells you exactly that...

How about your personal brand? At Oliver Wyman they are always huge on the mantra "build your own brand."  OW's staffing policy can be very informal which means that you can live or die by your brand.  If you build a brand that says dependable, smart, fast, and fun you find yourself working the top cases with top partners. If your brand says unproffesional, young, or slow... you can sit.

FastCompany concurs: The Brand Called You.

I am with them. But at OW this largely means building a reputation for yourself.  I would extend that building a brand for yourself can go so much further in today's webby world.

What is the difference between a reputation and a brand?

Brands are made up of concrete symbols, images, slogans, taglines, that convey the message of a company. Reputation is the opinion that the public holds of you and your brand.  

The most effective personal brands today have three components:
  1. Name recognition. The Trumps, Clintons, and Feys of the world are the Starbucks, Apples, and Googles of the personal brands. A good reputation without name recognition is worth little.  Build your name. 
  2. Social media.  This is the address, local, logo, and environment to your personal brand.  This is your distribution channel and design architecture.  Work the social media.
  3. Own a network. Powerful brands can earn loyalty and can mobolize people to purchase or to act.  Powerful people do the same. Grow the network. 
And just for fun... what brands do you associate with me?? Get'r in the comments.

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