For better or worse, in today’s world everyone is a brand. Whether you’re applying for a job, asking for a promotion, or writing a dating profile, your success will depend on getting others to recognize your value. So you need to get comfortable marketing yourself. In…
Much of professional and personal success depends on persuading others to recognize your value. You have to do this when you apply for jobs, ask for promotions, vie for leadership positions, or write your dating profile. For better or worse, in today’s world everyone is a brand, and you need to develop yours and get comfortable marketing it.
Personal branding is an intentional, strategic practice in which you define and express your own value proposition. And though people have always carefully cultivated their public personas and reputations, online search and social media have greatly expanded the potential audience for—and risks and rewards associated with—such efforts.
Unfortunately, while we’d like to think that we’re in complete control of our personal brands, that’s rarely the case. As Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is quoted as saying, “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” It’s the amalgamation of the associations, beliefs, feelings, attitudes, and expectations that people collectively hold about you. Your goal should be to ensure that the narrative created about you is accurate, coherent, compelling, and differentiated.
A strong, well-managed personal brand benefits you in several ways. It enhances your visibility, particularly among those who matter to you and to the things you hope to accomplish. It can also help you expand your network and attract new opportunities. And on a deeper level, the process of building one can help you uncover, celebrate, and share the unique abilities you bring to the world.
We—a branding thought leader and a professional matchmaker and dating coach—have come together to map out a personal branding process that draws on the latest academic research on branding, brand storytelling, and brand management, as well as on decades of practical experience helping people craft their professional and personal images.
Our hope is that this article will give you the guidance you need to create a personal brand that you can comfortably and authentically live into each day to achieve your most important goals….
The internet is more crowded than the loos at Glastonbury and, for a business, standing out from the crowd can be a pretty tall order. Because of this, most business owners, when first starting out, believe that their brand needs to be the only of its kind for it to be successful. While that may be the case for some, I’ll let you in on a secret, this is not always useful when it comes to branding.
Here’s an example; you’ve got a box of cherries and they’re all shiny, lush and juicy, except for one which is rotten. While the rotten cherry might be the only like it in the box, that isn’t a good thing. For a one-of-a-kind brand to succeed, it needs to be super-innovative and also something of use, otherwise it’s no more than a gimmick – and one which almost certainly won’t last.
What’s that you say? You need an example? OK, here it goes. In 1999, Napster burst onto the market with what was considered to be a pretty darn groundbreaking music service. In fact, it seemed too good to be true – and it was. Fast forward to 2001 and Napster had gone off to the big tech dump in the sky amid numerous legal and reputational problems. While Napster may have been a one-of-a-kind brand, it wasn’t a good one.
So, we’re agreed that your brand doesn’t necessarily need to be the only of its kind then what, I hear you ask, should you be doing? What your business needs is one of two things – or both if you’re going to get fancy – a unique proposition, and to offer value.
A unique proposition
Common thinking is that a unique brand proposition means that your product or offering is the only one of its kind (hence the unique bit). In essence, this means that you’re offering a product which is not similar to any other on the market. An example of this might be Amazon – while there are many sites which encompass a part of Amazon’s offering, there’s nothing else that quite matches it.
While this may be the holy grail of unique brand propositions, it’s not the only kind. A unique brand proposition can also encompass those brands whose products or services are so successful that the brand name becomes the description of the product. A good example of this is the Hoover brand. Launched in 1908, the Hoover brand produced a residential vacuum cleaner which became an instant hit with the company’s customers.
Although there are now hundreds of vacuum cleaner brands worldwide, the word ‘Hoover’ is still synonymous with these devices and has even become an adjective. For example, ‘I’m just going to do the hoovering’ or ‘I need to buy a new hoover’. Modern examples of this kind of unique proposition would include Lego, iPhone and Coca Cola due to the fact that these are all widely considered to be superior, even though similar products are available.
The recipe for a unique proposition
Creating a unique proposition is no easy task – and it’s not a quick one either. However, to set yourself on the right path, your product or service should:
Offer a real solution to a problem
Offer a superior alternative to existing brands
Offer something that nobody else has
Come from a place of integrity and customer-centric thinking
Without these things, your offering is set to be just one of many inside an increasingly congested and competitive marketplace. Ideally, you should be able to sum up your unique proposition in just one snappy line in order to communicate what you’re about to your audience.
Value proposition
Your value proposition is a little different from your unique proposition as it, essentially, exists to articulate to your audience the ‘value’ of your product or service – i.e. how it can improve your customer’s life. An example of this might be Slack with its slick value proposition of ‘Be more productive at work with less effort’.
In just one line, Slack tells the customer precisely how their life might be improved by using the product. With a value proposition, you don’t necessarily have to stick to one line – particularly if your product’s value is a bit more complicated – but you do have to communicate the value clearly and simply without trying to be too clever.
Flipping this on its head, we’ll look at an example of a bad value proposition courtesy of browser, Opera. Opera went with ‘fast, secure and easy to use’. While this might sound like a good value proposition, it’s not – these are just features of the product and don’t actually communicate the value of the product to the customer’s life in a way that speaks to them personally.
Value added facts
When you Google the word branding, you’ll be rewarded with around 1,420,000,000 hits, most of which aren’t worth a click. This is because business success is really a lot simpler than a lot of people try to make it.
When it comes to making a business work, the secret sauce is simple, create a product or service which is better than anyone else’s and which offers value to the customer’s life. While this sounds easy in principle, you do need to be able to put your money where your mouth is and make sure that your offering lives up to expectations.
Typically, we take vitamins as a preventative measure for long-term health. On the flip side, we take pain relievers in the hopes of fixing immediate problems or easing suffering. In my 26 years as a brand strategist, I’ve found that most companies view brand strategy as taking a vitamin, but I think it can also be a pain reliever.
Brand strategy is the process of stepping back to assess your market, better understand your consumer and their unmet needs, establish a differentiated position and develop a core list of signature moves that serve as evidence of your brand’s differentiation and value. This is a long-term proposition and takes time to build. After all, brands don’t shift their overall strategy month-to-month or quarter-to-quarter.
However, many brands are wasting valuable marketing dollars with weak, undifferentiated and, sometimes, irrelevant strategies in the hopes of growing their share or remaining competitive. Sometimes, companies are bringing new brands to market without a solid brand strategy behind them, which is also a waste of resources.
Stepping back to assess your brand strategy will have long-term effects on your business, but it can also have immediate implications for your marketing—making it more effective and successful now, not just in the future.
How do you know if you’re wasting money marketing with your current brand strategy? Beyond the performance data from your marketing, there are a few strategic questions that, if answered either negatively or with a “don’t know,” could tell you it’s time for a fresh look at your brand strategy.
• Do you know which audiences will create growth for your brand?
• Do you know the current and unmet needs that your brand is meeting?
• Does your brand meaningfully stand out from the competition?
• Do you know the signature moves your brand makes that serve as evidence of its differentiation?
• Is your brand creating meaningful moments with consumers in ways that can’t be forgotten or ignored?
• Have you identified the biggest threats to your brand in the near future?
Answering “no” or “don’t know” to any of these questions means you may be misusing marketing dollars to support a flawed brand strategy. Worse yet, you could be building the business of other brands in the category.
Enduring brands make brand strategy a habit and reexamine it on a regular basis. However, there are moments when it becomes necessary to undergo the brand strategy process. Some inflection points include when:
• New competitors are entering your category.
• Your competitors are shifting their messaging.
• You’re launching a new product or service.
• Growth is flattening out, or you’re losing market share.
• Brand health measures are trending down.
• Your brand experience is receiving negative feedback.
• There is a shift in your audience (i.e., a new generation of consumers).
• Cultural forces are changing how people interact with your brand.
• You feel your brand has lost relevance.
Stepping back to assess your brand strategy isn’t just a preventative measure. It is an immediate thing brands can do to ensure their short-term success. Immediate implications could be:
• A change in messaging and positioning.
• A change in your target audience and how to reach them.
• Development of new signature moves or equities that can set you apart from the competition.
• Better alignment of your brand experience with your marketing.
• Introduction of new products or services that could increase growth.
• More effective marketing and demand generation.
Take your vitamins, but don’t forget that brand strategy can be the aspirin your company needs right now.
Managing Director and Principal at the brand consulting firm Dendro, helping build business through brand strategy. Read Brandon Murphy’s full executive profile here.
If only half of startups survive more than five years and only one-third make it to 10, what’s the one thing you could do to ensure your company is sustainable? The answer is to create a growth strategy for your business, of course.
A growth strategy involves more than simply envisioning long-term success. If you don’t have a tangible plan, you’re actually losing business — or you’re increasing the chance of losing business to competitors.
The key with any growth strategy is to be deliberate. Figure out the rate-limiting step in your growth, and pour as much fuel on the fire as possible. But for this to be beneficial, you need to take the following steps:
1. Establish a value proposition.
For your business to sustain long-term growth, you must understand what sets it apart from the competition. Identify why customers come to you for a product or service. What makes you relevant, differentiated and credible? Use your answer to explain to other consumers why they should do business with you.
For example, some companies compete on “authority” — Whole Foods Market is the definitive place to buy healthy, organic foods. Others, such as Walmart, compete on price. Figure out what special benefit only you can provide, and forget everything else. If you stray from this proposition, you’ll only run the risk of devaluing your business.
2. Identify your ideal customer.
You got into business to solve a problem for a certain audience. Who is that audience? Is that audience your ideal customer? If not, who are you serving? Nail down your ideal customer, and revert back to this audience as you adjust business to stimulate growth.
3. Define your key indicators.
Changes must be measurable. If you’re unable to measure a change, you have no way of knowing whether it’s effective. Identify which key indicators affect the growth of your business, then dedicate time and money to those areas. Also, A/B test properly — making changes over time and comparing historical and current results isn’t valid.
4. Verify your revenue streams.
What are your current revenue streams? What revenue streams could you add to make your business more profitable? Once you identify the potential for new revenue streams, ask yourself if they’re sustainable in the long run. Some great ideas or cool products don’t necessarily have revenue streams attached. Be careful to isolate and understand the difference.
5. Look to your competition.
No matter your industry, your competition is likely excelling at something that your company is struggling with. Look toward similar businesses that are growing in new, unique ways to inform your growth strategy. Don’t be afraid to ask for advice. Ask yourself why your competitors have made alternate choices. Are they wrong? Or are your businesses positioned differently? The assumption that you’re smarter is rarely correct.
6. Focus on your strengths.
Sometimes, focusing on your strengths — rather than trying to improve your weaknesses — can help you establish growth strategies. Reorient the playing field to suit your strengths, and build upon them to grow your business.
7. Invest in talent.
Your employees have direct contact with your customers, so you need to hire people who are motivated and inspired by your company’s value proposition. Be cheap with office furniture, marketing budgets and holiday parties. Hire few employees, but pay them a ton. The best ones will usually stick around if you need to cut back their compensation during a slow period.
Developing a growth strategy isn’t a one-size-fits-all process. In fact, due to changing market conditions, making strategic decisions based on someone else’s successes would be foolish. That’s not to say that you can’t learn from another company, but blindly implementing a cookie-cutter plan won’t create sustainable growth.
You need to adapt your plan to smooth out your business’s inefficiencies, refine its strengths and better suit your customers — who could be completely different than those from a vague, one-size-fits-all strategy.
Your company’s data should lend itself to all your strategic decisions. Specifically, you can use the data from your key indicators and revenue streams to create a personalized growth plan. That way, you’ll better understand your business and your customers’ nuances, which will naturally lead to growth.
A one-size-fits-all strategy implies vague indicators. But a specific plan is a successful plan. When you tailor your growth strategy to your business and customers, you’ll keep your customers happy and fulfill their wants and needs, which will keep them coming back.
Nothing propels a company more quickly than innovation, and nothing stifles it more quickly than a “that’s how we’ve always done it” attitude. News startup Axios is an excellent example of a company breaking barriers and thinking outside the box. The company is making a big bet that other companies will pay to learn how to write like Axios reporters.
The new communications platform, AxiosHQ, launched in February and enables companies to send Axios-style, just-the-facts internal newsletters. Its cost? At least $10,000 annually. It remains to be seen whether executives will be willing to invest that kind of money, but it’s a fascinating proposition.
What does it take for organizations to vet, approve and develop similarly innovative ideas? The answer is not simple, and it varies from company to company. Innovation efforts get plenty of lip service, but it’s much harder to perfect a process for selecting and implementing top ideas.
No magic wand for innovation
In the same way that data-driven decisions run many aspects of an organization, leaders need to use data to create a rubric for vetting innovative ideas. This enforces discipline and keeps everyone on the same page.
Without an evaluation process, innovation programs become short-sighted and may fall out of alignment with long-term organizational goals. Having an organized process also removes emotion from decision-making to keep project focus and dollar spend as data-driven as possible.
For innovation to succeed, leaders also have to be aligned around critical factors. This forms a living rubric that can be adapted throughout the organization as business needs shift and evolve. Generally, some sort of innovation leader — a chief innovation officer, a chief strategy officer or a business unit leader — will lead this team to ensure the process runs smoothly and stays on track.
When we developed our rubric at Coplex, we struggled to find a technical solution that was flexible enough while still enabling us to manage our ideas. We ended up building one ourselves. We now use this tool to drive the underlying engine of our entire idea management process, and it works because effective innovation strategy always starts at the top. Bring your entire leadership team together from the beginning of the process to discuss priorities and foster conversations about ideas, outlining your concrete vision along the way.
Here are three ways to evaluate your innovation ideas and create a framework to make them a strategic reality:
1. Create an innovation blueprint
Before you begin to gather ideas from your team, you have to first come up with a blueprint — such as Google’s Eight Pillars of Innovation — that defines the initiative’s overall structure. This helps put up guardrails around the problem spaces the organization is willing to play in and, more importantly, which problem spaces are off-limits.
An innovation blueprint consists of three distinct components: statement, antithesis and thesis. Your statement defines your company’s ambitions and outlines why you believe in what you’re doing, why now is the best time to do it and what makes you the best candidate for the job.
From here, develop an antithesis that defines the problems, business models and core technologies you don’t intend to address. Why? It removes distractions and keeps the focus on priorities. Finally, create a thesis that gives you a clear lens into how you’ll invest in problem spaces, business models and technologies to create the change you want to see.
2. Define innovation themes
Once you’ve developed a solid blueprint, it’s time to identify the themes of problem spaces you intend to solve. This step will define the categories in which your innovation ideas should fall while clearly outlining how your solutions could come into play.
Think of this as similar to how the National Association of Engineers (NAE) outlines the many challenges left to overcome in its field. In its report on the grand challenges of engineering, NAE defines themes (e.g., joy, sustainability, health and security) as areas ripe for innovation and abundant with opportunity.
The core reason for taking this approach? It allows you to consider potential ways to innovate beyond what the organization had imagined before — and to set goals with those parameters in mind.
Once you’ve defined your innovation themes, it’s time to develop the criteria you’ll use to measure your success. Global design firm IDEO made it a goal to quantify innovation by looking at its clients’ internal team dynamics as well as other companies focused on innovation.
The firm identified six areas key to innovation and then sent its survey, coined “Creative Difference,” to larger organizations to understand how team members were performing when it came to innovation. Once the survey was complete, IDEO sent results with tangible innovation metrics and recommendations on how to follow and meet them moving forward.
As you define how you measure innovation and create your unique rubric, keep in mind that you aren’t limited to traditional metrics. Feel comfortable being creative and innovative as you decide on those! It’s possible to measure everything from societal impact and economic value to organizational scale and new market discovery.
The process of pursuing innovative ideas requires much more than a quick brainstorming session or selecting an appealing idea from a list. By creating an underlying philosophy and structure governing the prioritization of ideas that flow through an organization, you can retain control over your innovation program’s outcomes instead of leaving anything to chance.
Business ideas that solve problems are fundamental to developing the world and companies such as Curemark are one of many who do this. Curemark is a biotech company founded by Joan Fallon, who noticed that a lot of the children she treated were low on an enzyme for processing protein and since then she has quit her job and has built Curemark to solve this problem. Curemark has now raised $50 million and is on its way to solving a problem that truly exists.
Profitability is a business’s ability to generate earnings compared to its costs over a certain period of time. This is possibly the most important aspect of any business idea in the long term, as this is what makes a business survive in order to keep having the impact that it has. Profitable ideas need a strong revenue stream against its costs and this tends to create the success of the business, however, some companies defy this and make losses to begin with, yet are still exceptional business ideas that are worth billions.
By: Brenda Schmidt / Entrepreneur Leadership Network Contributor
Lulu Dubreuil
