In other words, if you lack even one of these essentials, you risk the stability and longevity of your brand. Worse, you might piss-off or alienate your target market and inadvertently drive business elsewhere.
Here are the eight essentials:
Clarity: You must be clear about who you are, what you stand for and what you offer your clients. WHY do you do what you do? You have to be able to communicate this verbally and visually in a clear, easy-to-understand manner.
Authenticity: How congruent and aligned are you with the real YOU? In our hyped, cluttered world, people can smell a fake from miles away. They are yearning for transparency and real-ness. When your brand message is clear, authentic and aligned with your values, AND you walk your talk, you’ll attract a large following of the people you are meant to work with.
Remarkability: What is the tone and intention of your brand? Can someone see and FEEL your brand personality within seconds of engagement? It’s okay to step out of the box – in fact, it’s your uniqueness and point of difference that will set you apart. You’ve got to be willing to separate yourself from the “safe and comfortable” herd and be a little outrageous. Fearless, really. Seth Godin calls this your “Purple Cow.” Brown and white spotted cows are a dime a dozen, but a purple cow, now that’s remarkable.
Energy: Everything is made up of energy, and your brand is a living, breathing organism. With every interaction, your clients are picking up on subtle energy cues. If you don’t have any real passion for what you are doing (or you’re doing it for all the wrong reasons), your lifeless brand will sputter along, wheezing and gasping for air. On the other hand, if you imbue your brand with passion and oomph, your brand will be irresistible.
Emotional Connection: Emotions make the brain sit up and pay attention. In order to have a truly powerful personal brand, you have to understand how you make your audience FEEL. Someone once said, “People won’t remember what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel.” This is the core of an influential personal brand. In order to resonate strongly with your target market, you’ve got to make an emotional connection. The most powerful question you can ask yourself is, “How do I want people to FEEL when they experience my brand?”
Consistency: I see it all the time; entrepreneurs putting the cart before the horse, marketing to everyone and anyone, before developing a solid brand foundation. In order to be consistent with your brand message and your marketing, you first have to create your brand platform. Take the time to identify your brand attributes and target market, develop your compelling message and create your unique offerings of value. Once you have a clear foundation, then and only then are you ready implement consistency across all of your marketing channels – from your website and blog, to workshops, speaking engagements and social media platforms.
Distinctive Design: People make a decision about you and your brand within a few seconds of initial contact, so first impressions do count. We process through our eyes, so design has a keen emotional and memorable impact on the brain. Design will speak for you when you aren’t present and has the potential to stimulate a meaningful emotional response. Make sure that your visual branding elements are not only consistent across all media (business card, website, advertising, collateral materials, social media platforms etc.), but they are conveying the message AND the feeling you want your brand to evoke.
Social Engagement: Is your brand sparking any conversations? If not, then you haven’t found your Purple Cow. A powerful, authentic brand is an act of social engagement. YOU are making the conversation happen. You are participating, connecting and collaborating.
© Liz Dennery Sanders 2010
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Hi Liz!
This is a great overview of these essentials for a personal brand. I love the whole “Purple Cow” thing – heard someone else talking about it the other day too. So important to stand out, to be unique and different from the crowd. 🙂
Thanks, Jess! I agree, Seth Godin’s Purple Cow analogy is a super powerful one when it comes to branding. In order to really stand out in today’s cluttered marketplace, we better be remarkable! I’d love to drive by a purple cow on a road trip one of these days…:)
Good remark here on personal branding, all these characters of personal branding are ineluctable. Authenticity, remarkability, and social engagement these characteristics are so impressive here. If someone want to stand out differently they need to apply these characteristics to their brand strategy.
Hi Liz,
I think asking ourselves that question around emotional connection is really important – how do I want people to FEEL about my business? Even those of us who are not designers can really ‘get’ that side of personal branding.
Cathy
Exactly Cathy! It’s about the total brand experience. How do people FEEL when they not only interact with you, but when they experience an extension of you, such as your website, Facebook page, business card or workshop materials.
Exactly Cathy! It’s about the total brand experience. How do people FEEL when they not only interact with you, but when they experience an extension of you, such as your website, Facebook page, business card or workshop materials.
Wow! This article has really answered a lot of questions that I had. I was challenged mainly by what you had to say on Consistency and clarity. Thank you very much
Many thanks for sharing, Oleva!
Hello Liz,
I want to thank you for this. I am a junior in college working with a difficult teacher on a difficult course. I just want to tell you that this post has helped me more than my teacher has this entire semester so far. She really thinks she knows her stuff but you really know your stuff and I want to thank you. These tips will definitely help me further with my course and with my final project of a self-branding video. I plan to use all your tips above in order to have a branding video worth watching. I would love to share this with my teacher in order for her to realize how she should teach her students about branding! You are a life-saver. Just ten minutes before I read this I wanted to drop out because I was afraid of how I was going to brand myself without the proper help from my teacher, and now that I have discovered you, I feel confident and I will be referring to this for future guidance. Thank you so very much again, I hope you see this, I know this post is from a few years back haha! Thanks again!!!
And another thing, your website is amazing, I am currently working on a website for this same difficult course with the difficult teacher haha!! This website is definitely an example I will be referring to, although my website will not compare, being that this same difficult teacher has given us no examples of amazing websites such as yours. Thank you again! I am clearly obsessed with your work now!! I plan to read your book as well!
Hi Taylor,
Thanks so much for reading, and for your kind words. I’m so glad that this post was helpful and that you can use the material for your branding video. I’m sure it will turn out great and that you’ll be able to turn around and help a lot of the other students, too! Sometimes difficult teachers can be a blessing in disguise (although it may not seem like it at the time!), because we are forced to look for the answers ourselves and gain confidence as we realize how resourceful we really are. All the best to you.