Brand You
Monday, 9 March 2009
‘Make things new’ – Ezra Pound
Shukurriya. Wakiwanee. Kihineh?*
What makes a great brand? And why should you care? According to Tom Peters, it’s all about Brand You. You are your own brand. You are your own product. It doesn’t matter that you consider yourself as just an employee. Think of yourself as You Inc. You Unlimited.
Brand You is made up of your values, your knowledge, your experience and your achievements. Brand You is also your word (or not – in any case, you may be able to fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of time). The success of your product depends on it.
Here are my top 5 acceptance criteria for building Brand You:
- Know what you value
- Know your target audience
- Be credible in what you do
- Have a proven track record of achievements
- Say what you do and do what you say.
This is all just common sense, of course. The magic happens when you add in the secret ingredient: Insight. Take a good look at the familiar to gain a deeper understanding of who you are and what you stand for.
* Phonetic Maldivian for ‘Thank You’, ‘Goodbye’ and ‘How are you?’