How Well Branded Are You?
You may or may not have been born with the marketing gene, but even the best branding pros find it difficult to brand when the product they are trying to market is themselves.
To make it easier for yourself, read my guest post in the New York Times Shifting Careers blog on five successful strategies from the commercial world of brands that people have used successfully to rev up their careers. You can own an attribute (Think Volvo and Safety), invent a new process (Think Google) or emphasize your special heritage (There’s lots of ways to do that.) Read the post and you’ll learn all five strategies and see how to apply these brand positioning ideas in your own life and career.
After all, in the business world, it’s not always the best and brightest who get to the top, but those who are perceived to be, so we must take their our identity seriously.
Here’s a quiz I devised for you to find out how effective your brand is:
[The Rules]
Answer each question with one of the following words: great, good, fair, poor or terrible.
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1. You can explain what’s different, relevant and special about you in a couple of sentences.
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2. If someone were to Google your name, they would find a wealth of information about you and your accomplishments.
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3. You can clearly define your key target markets (such as senior executives, clients, team members) and the best way to sell yourself to them.
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4. You know your competitors’ strengths and weakness vs. your own and know how to position yourself in a distinct way.
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5. You have a visual identity and image appropriate for your organization, appealing to your target markets and consistent with what you stand for as a brand.
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6. You have a winning personality and leadership style that engages others.
Figuring your score: Give yourself five points for great, four for good, three for fair, two for poor and one for terrible.
26—30
Great—You are a brand! Continue with what you’re doing and keep fine-tuning your brand image. Note the areas where you can incrementatlly improve your brand. Most important, now is the time to set higher goals for yourself.
21—25
Good—You’re on your way with your brand building efforts. Select one or two areas where you can improve your branding and devise tactics such as training courses to take you to the next level.
14—20
Fair—You need to spend more time building your brand You’re half way there, but you need to set aside more time to think of your personal strengths and weaknesses, set goals for yourself and develop a game plan for getting from A to B to C (and eventually all the way to Z).
7—13
Poor— You’re struggling to define your brand. Maybe you’ve secretly felt that everyone should be rewarded solely on work output. Take a broader view of how you are evaluated and put your intelligence and talents to work on behalf of Brand You.
1—6
Terrible—Nowhere to go but up! You’ve probably never even thought about personally branding. Why not start reading about personal branding and make a commitment to think about yourself and your abilities and where you want your career to go.
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copyright SelfBrand LLC 2008
Photo: Dan Demetriad
