Personal Branding
After reviewing the resources below, respond in 2 pages word documents minimum to the following:
� Why is branding important to an organization?
� Should the personal brand concept become a part of the DNA of 21st century professionals? If so,
what steps must a person work through to develop an effective personal brand? If not, what are your
reasons for thinking so?
� Compare how the process of branding an individual would be similar to branding a product. How would
it differ?
� Defend your answer with specific examples
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Personal Branding
Personal branding is a recent invention whereas the trend of people labeling themselves
based on status and character is as old as individual relations. One’s personal brand is that
dominant, vivid, positive thought that comes to the brain whenever one is thought of, such as the
principles, abilities, and dealings that others relate one with. It is designed for the reason of
influencing how others perceive one, and turning that view into prospect. For effective personal
branding, one’s personal brand should induce the perception that one is different, superior and
authentic relative to others already in the market (Burnett & Hutton, 2007). This implies that
personal branding is a promise to the customers on what they should expect, for example, it’s an
assurance that makes the buyer trust, “By buying this, I will be getting that.” This paper will,
with the use of examples, explain the importance of branding, justify why personal branding
should become an essential item of the DNA of the 21 st century and finally compare and contrast
personal branding and product branding.
Personal branding is of much benefit in marketing management. It works for all
regardless of circumstances and conditions since all businesses are based on associations. Some
of the benefits are that it creates more right kind of clients, it increases earning ability, ensures
consistent business flow. It also draws many beneficial people that can benefit an individual, for
example, Secretary of State Colin Powell’s straightforward and decent, and leadership won many
in 1996. It enables one to get “Top-of-mind” class (Redsang, Peter, & Sanfranc, 2012). Personal
branding increases credibility, creates opportunity for one to exercise leadership role, such as
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan could sustain up Wall Street with very few well-
chosen terms. It gets one to achieve desired goals by enhancing prestige since it adds financial
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value to an individual (Burnett & Hutton, 2007). Additionally, it brings greater recognition of
one while within his associates with a trend. These suggest that personal branding is important.
However, there are steps that must be considered during personal branding. These include
transforming individual reflection into a personal brand that creates business prospect by taking
an active control of the process and cutting and polishing ones brand so that everyone who gets
in touch with it forms a similar fundamental set of expressions in their mind when they hear your
name (Keller, 1993). Building a brand requires understanding, endurance and perseverance,
failure of which results into loses. For example, some Internet firms misused millions on Super
Bowl as they thought branding take place overnight (Margaret, 2002). Generally, brands take
time to expand, for example, Oprah Winfrey spent time performing, carrying out talk shows and
laboring to aid women before becoming universally-famous (Peters & Jeremie, 2027). Secondly,
brands undergo organic growth as the best brands increase at the grassroots level since it is
enhanced by strong communication, a sense of commitment. And finally, brands are not rational
and demand consistency and clarity. For example, in 2001, K-Mart filed for insolvency in a
budget that left buyers and sellers in upset state (Keller, 1993). Another aspect of personal
branding is the fact that it is already element of individual interaction and is everywhere.
Personal branding is in use by celebrities such as Stephen Covey, Meg Ryan, Charles Schwab
and Joe Montana, as they try to turn their names into industries.
At the moment, judgments can be made about people with only little information at hand.
For example by meeting casually meeting someone, you may get to know certain information
about his education, his manners and characters. This is because his individual image has been
encountered, as revealed by the DNA of his individual manner (Margaret, 2002). Therefore,
personal branding is an organic and natural part of human culture, though the difference today is
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that we have learnt how to detect how others perceive us (Cayla & Arnould, 2008). This
therefore necessitates personal brand concept to become a core element of the DNA of 21 st
century professionals.
In conclusion, following the importance and illustrations hinted on above, personal
branding concept should become part of the DNA of the 21 st century professionals. Product
branding is in most aspects similar to personal branding, however, while the latter is a natural
aspect of human beings, the former is not natural as it has to be done physically.
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References
Keller, K. L. (1993). Conceptualizing, measuring and managing customer-based brand equity.
Journal of Marketing 57(1), 1-22.
Margaret, C. C. (2002). Building brand equity. International journal of Medical Marketing
Journal, 2(3), 1-16.
Burnett, J. & Hutton, R. (2007). New consumers need new brands. Journal of Product and
Brand Management, 16(5), 342-347.
Cayla, J. & Arnould, E. (2008). A cultural approach to branding in the global marketplace.
Journal of International Marketing, 16(4), 86-112.
Peters, T. & Jeremie, K. (2027). The brand called you. Fast company. International Journal of
Medical Marketing, 3(1), 234-239.
Redsang, T, Peter, J. & Sanfranc, K. (2012). Impact of personal brand in the world market.
Journal of International Marketing, 45(4), 23-87.
