To Brand or Not to Brand
As I study the need for personal branding, I find there are many writers and professionals that speak out against the practice. I read an article that was anti-brand and stated that personal brands make people robotic. The article stated that personal branding is a myth and and a social media trend for the professional. Which is it?
I believe in the personal brand. A brand is the identifiable product that is manufactured by an individual or company. The brand represents the individual and has value to both consumer and manufacturer.
The Coca-Cola Company manufactures 200 brands worldwide. If we select one of their brands and review the marketing of that brand. We can understand why we also need a personal brand. Let’s take a look at Dasani. The product is water. How do we make water look appealing and stand out amongst it competitors? You can get water anywhere, why should we pay for Dasani? Coca-Cola would say that the
“process of reverse osmosis filtration with a proprietary blend of minerals creates a fresh, clean, and premium tasting water that is pure and delicious.”
Dasani’s mission is simple: DASANI® was created to make premium tasting water accessible to everyone.
We may purchase Dasani due to the reputation of Coca-Cola or we may drink Dasani because we trust in the brand itself.
A personal brand is the product or skill that an individual brings to the table. You may be a talented writer that has social media influence and can bring attention to specific company or product through a blog post. Your name carries recognition. You can either develop your own brand or represent the brand of another.
A roofer may have many technical skills and may do the work that many other roofers perform to earn a regular paycheck. If Gary the roofer has a specific set of skills to install and fix gutters. His employer may give him specific tasks to only work on gutters. Gary the roofer may decided to develop his personal brand and become “Gary the Gutter Guy!”. Gary may continue to work for his employer or he may choose to work for another roofing company that specializes…
