Branding your brand with a brand new brand

When it comes to existential market-speak, no catch-phrase sends my imagination into a whirlwind quite like the phrase “brand yourself.” To me it elicits the image of a small version of myself sitting on a store shelf, with consumers walking by weighing my pros and cons against those of my competitors sitting on the shelf next to me. Would I be a best-seller? Or… shudder… would I end up in the bargain bin?
There are several ways to brand yourself, whether it is in a business environment or in your personal life, that you have been actively utilizing your entire life, maybe without even realizing it. They are simple, seemingly trifle factors that often slap a brand on your forehead without you even saying a word. The way you dress, the way you send emails (whether formal or casual), your work habits; the combination of these factors and more create an image that you often don’t even realize you have. Viewing yourself as a brand can potentially enhance both your personal and professional life, and I’ve put together some tips that can help you sell yourself on a whole new level.

1) Get to know yourself. Self-awareness is a skill that takes a lot of developing, but is vital to maintaining a strong brand image. What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? It’s a universal theme in marketing: Sell your strengths. The better you know yourself, the more precisely you can label your “brand”.

2) Identify your target market. There’s a trade-off involved between the size of the audience you’re trying to reach and the level of involvement you expect to receive. Of course you want to position yourself so that everyone perceives you favorably, but by appealing to broader audience, you’re allowing less one-on-one time on an individual level.

3) Identify your product. It’s easy to identify a marketer’s product, but identifying an individual’s product can be slightly more involved. Your social life’s product may be different than that of your work life, but like any brand, there is an underlying theme everything you produce. Take the produce company Del Monte, for example. If you purchase and enjoy their corn, you’re more likely to try out their green beans; if your social personality is delicious, employers will assume your work personality is too.

4) Market yourself according to your brand. Focus your efforts on strengthening the brand you’ve created for yourself. If you realized, for example, that your work ethic is a major selling factor for you, concentrate your efforts on living up to your image. If your brand is having a hands-on leadership role, roll up your sleeves and show your employees that you’re on their side. The more specific your goals, the faster your brand will establish.

With the economy how it is, it’s easy to keep our eyes so fixed on the big picture that we forget how important it is to manage our own image. But the reality is, our image is the most enduring trait we have. Is yours worth investing in?

Oh, and this week’s music recommendation is “The Great Land Rush of 1866” by Don’t Sigh Daisy.