2010: Year of Quantum Branding (Atomic Branding)

The second decade will undoubtedly usher in many new concepts and practices for the world of personal branding. Predictively,  the branding gurus will continue to launch new personal branding terminology to attract viewership to their blogging headlines. Terms such as  Personal DNA branding, Atomic Branding and Quantum Branding are just a few examples of the names given for essentially describing the same personal branding phenomena – to broaden the scope and basis for the strategic development of a personal brand. People are the products of their extended DNA or spheres through parents, families, neighborhoods, social environments and professional environments and the like. Personal branding incorporates the spheres of influence from all these sources and more. The next era in personal branding promises to be much more thought provoking than the immediate past era.

The following is an excerpt from a recent article:

“2010 will see the arrival of what we can call Atomic Branding.   Thought leader predictions tend toward the conclusion that we will see a personal brand renaissance in 2010.  But let’s expand that.  Atomic Branding is a concept that captures the many-layered and concentric-circled features of human brands.

You have a personal brand.  You have a professional brand.  Your family has a brand.  Your neighborhood has a brand.  Your small business has a brand.  And all of them are tightly connected.  At its most atomic level, atomic branding starts at the unit of the individual human.

I predict that 2010 is the year of Atomic Branding and the “business of one” — the birth of and focus on the individual’s personal and professional brand in the world — that will require a new type of digital promotion, control, and security.  Individuals will yearn for online privacy, something that is under increasing threat as social media sites gather and publish more detail about us every day.  We will all need to manage our online reputations.”

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How is Personal Branding Like Celebrity Entrepreneurship?

One form of personal or career branding manifests itself as a celebrity entrepreneur. For example, Apple’s chief Steve Jobs rose from the humble beginnings of his parents garage to become a celebrity entrepreneur and an icon within the tech sector. Today many savvy corporate executives are using person branding techniques to become before known within their own corporate world. The idea being that a personal brand is akin to intellectual property and it is just as transferable as the person who owns his or her brand.

The following excerpt from a recent article provides some additional information:

“with major celebrities, it’s difficult to tell whether the product stops and the person begins. The brand equity of major celebrities (think Oprah) is inseparable from their personal lives, which are documented in breathless detail in the magazines lining supermarket checkout aisles around the world. Having jumped from products to celebrities, it was only a matter of time before branding trickled down to the average citizen.  In the process, a promotional tactic devised to sell inanimate products has evolved into a life strategy adopted by millions of people around the world. New generations are already growing up indoctrinated in an age of marketing determined to reinvent us.

As the personal-branding phenomenon works itself deeper into the fabric of modern life, it’s warping how we see each other, and how we see ourselves. Consumers have become enamored with reinventing themselves. The phenomenon comes hand in hand with our media-saturated culture, in which, to embrace a common understanding of success, we are encouraged to think of ourselves as akin to products more than as emotive human beings.

Raymund Jude Guzman Aguilar, with 12 years of experience in advertising and marketing, became one of the most successful business personalities alive. He is currently president of Electronic Commerce Payments Inc., DAJ Property Holdings Corp., Recycle Plus Inc. and Gate Distribution Enterprise Inc., one of the dominant phone-card distributors in the Philippines, serving Philippine Seven Corp., S&R Price Club, WalterMart and other retail establishments. He was previously senior marketing manager of Merck, Sharpe and Dohme Philippines and Ginebra Inc./La Tondeña Distillers Inc. He has also held various senior marketing and advertising positions in McCann Erickson and Philippine Advertising Counsel (PAC-BBDO). He holds a master’s degree in business from the Asian Business Institute of Management, and is currently director of Payment One Inc. and Alliance Plus.

“It wasn’t that I didn’t love advertising anymore—I wouldn’t have stuck at it for so long otherwise—but I craved a change,” Aguilar told this columnist. He chose a far other medium to advance his career coupled with his background in advertising. “I’d say that it was the hunger for new challenges that spurred the changes in my career path. With the experience gained and the education obtained, I felt more confident in leaving the corporate life and striking out on my own. Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. Many find gratification in corporate life. Some are inclined for public service. Others, myself, included, yearn for independence—to be able to plot our own course. It’s risky but well worth it,” he furthered.

Aguilar encouraged entrepreneurs to better their professional and personal lives by thinking of themselves as brands. Applied to the individual, corporate requirements like developing mission statements and determining asset allocation became inspiring. People envisioned their own metamorphoses in a manner similar to a company rolling out a new logo. Aguilar’s concept is that we, too, can benefit from the tried-and-tested rules of salesmanship. At the end of the day, the word is you. We are the brands. But the point of personal branding is to be noticed and remembered, not to be yourself.”

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Personal Branding: Performance over Politics

For those in the corporate world, personal branding success comes with maintaining and fostering your personal brand within the corporate environment. When your company is looking for new leaders and experts, having a known personal brand is essential to be consider for any new position. And being known for excellent performance should be more important than being known for company politics. The point is you must brand yourself to co-workers and senior management with as much conviction as you would to outside companies and your professional network.

The following excerpt is from an article that provides further information:

Oddly enough, in many large companies, managers don’t have a clear idea of their people’s strengths and capabilities.
The resulting lack of awareness of in-house skills and experience often makes it a lottery when a company is looking for leaders or experts.

This is when effective personal branding becomes a big opportunity for individuals to differentiate themselves.

This is important for companies to nurture, if we consider the concept of ‘hypercompetition’ — a concept formulated by Richard A. D’Aveni which frankly states that advantages don’t last very long before competition, imitation and matching erodes any competitive advantage. Rivals become more efficient, but don’t increase their profitability.

The principles of personal branding help an individual to initially define their goals, identify their strengths and hone leadership qualities, but it also goes on to help establish an appropriate profile with co-workers and management.

This is the kind of environment where leaders spontaneously appear, where people are motivated to improve their skills because the route to greater advancement is very clear.

James Speros, CMO at Ernst and Young U.S. said: “A company, that embraces personal branding as part of their culture… allows individuals to gain recognition for what they do well and move up the career ladder based on their performance, rather than on politics.”

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Personal Branding Do’s and Do Not’s

Personal branding takes place on social media websites, not exclusively but certainly very significantly. It is also true that your personal branding will be viewed and reviewed by many potential employers or your clients. And your personal brand’s “professionalism” will be reflected in what you create as content for your social sites. The best rule is to keep it “professional” with all social media in your real name, especially your full name.

The following excerpt from an article provides some further detail:

“Having a strong, consistent personal brand will help you land an entry-level job and build the foundation for your career. Gen Y has mastered the cheap and effective Internet medium to network with peers and share ideas through social networking platforms such as Facebook and blogs. But when it comes time to search for a job, personal branding becomes much more important and mistakes can be costly.

The most obvious mistake Gen Y makes is a lack of professionalism on their social networking profiles. It is no secret that employers check candidates’ social networking profiles and are apt to make decisions based on what they find. Inappropriate photographs and conversations are the most commonly cited blunders Gen Yers make that hurt their personal brands. Some other mistakes that may cost Gen Yers the job include:

- Speaking negatively about your current or former employer.

- Not thinking before answering a question.

- Talking only about what you want out of the job.

- Not being prepared with good, thoughtful questions to ask at the end of an interview. “

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Personal Branding: Truth Is Key To Success

Is your personal brand truly authentic? Are you and your personal branding congruent, are you telling the truth about yourself as expressed as a personal brand?  These are the foundational questions that need to be answered in order to own a successful personal brand. And they are questions that require confirmation from your targeted audience – a perspective from the outside looking in at your personal brand.

The following excerpt from an article provides some additional information:

“The most important thing to consider when creating a personal brand for yourself is that “you” are the most important product. The way you position yourself in the marketplace will determine how hard you have to work in the future to get the results you desire. You want to work smart, not hard. You want to attract the right customers and clients that want what you have.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you want to be able to have the freedom to work when you want, and have the freedom to choose the clients you want to work with. If you’re a business owner, you need to realize that your brand and your business are connected. Neither one can truly succeed without the other. So, the success of your brand will depend on how true it comes to the real you and, how well you manage and communicate that image to the marketplace. Either way, you’ll need to know who you are, what you stand for, and what qualities make you unique.

A personal brand is exciting because it tells the world about you, your values, and your beliefs. When properly crafted, your brand will allow your customers to know, like, and trust you. This feeling will build into a relationship between you and your customer, giving them the confidence to expect the same quality experience with you every time. Don’t try to be something that you’re not. Just be authentic and true to yourself. You’ll go much further in long run.”

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Post Your Personal Video on YouTube.com

Previously we discussed the power of the a 30 second “elevator pitch” video to quickly convey the essence of your personal brand to your desired targets. Of course, the distribution of a personal video can take many forms, everything from a dvd to uploading on any of the major video hosting sites such as – YouTube, Blip.tv, Vimeo, MegaVideo, Twiddeo and more.

The following is an excerpt from an article by Dan Schawbel:

“There are thousands of different websites that you can leverage to build your own personal brand, but only a few that will give you both the reach and credibility to make a major impact. Here at Mashable , we’ve provided you with a detailed look at how you can build your personal brand on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  Today, we’ll focus in on the largest video sharing site on the planet, more commonly referred to as YouTube.

With over 120 million U.S. viewers, YouTube is used by President Obama for his weekly State of the Union Address, by universities who share lectures from star academics, and by celebrities such as Miley Cyrus who use it as a lifestream. Aside from the popularity of YouTube, the site exploits the most powerful branding medium of them all, video.

The reason why video is so effective in communicating your personal brand is because your audience will already feel like they’ve met you by the time the video is over.  With video, you get a sense of who someone really is based on their voice, their face and their body motions.  Video can support your branding efforts like no other medium on the web.”

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Slide Show – Red Ladder/Blue Ladder

As a follow up to our feature article “Red Ladder/Blue Ladder” we have created a non-narrated slide show that highlights the main points in the article.

SlideShare.com

or click below for Scribd version

Career Branding