Discover Your Brand

We have discovered the secret of life!

Francis Crick (1916 - 2004) - British biophysicist, 1953.

To rejoice for the fact that they had unraveled the structure of DNA, Francis Crick made the above quote, on entering a Cambridge pub with James Watson

Basics

Understanding how to brand ourselves begins with discovering our personal brand. Your personal brand is a combination of your interests, beliefs, philosophy, values, talents and skills, among a number of other characteristics.

Once you discover and identify your personal brand, you'll be ready to learn how to brand yourself. So let us take a quick look at the basics.

Brand

A brand is a unique name or mark that is used to identify an entity. It is a distinctive label that is used to tag a person, product, or service.

Branding

Branding was originated in the past to identify human beings, who were bought as slaves. Their fleshes were burnt with hot iron to produce a recognizable mark. Branding of living things for identification is now limited to animals.

The Microsoft Encarta dictionary defines branding as the identification of product with manufacturer: the use of advertising, distinctive design, and other means to make consumers associate a specific product with a specific manufacturer.

Personal Brand

Every man has a personal brand. Just like your reputation, your personal brand is built from the opinions, words and responses of other people about you.

Your personal brand refers to the way other people see you as a person, professional, entrepreneur, idea representative, organization, or movement.

You can form one by how you present yourself in the public. You have control over how you would like to be seen by people, and then work on being that image openly. The easiest things you can present to people for your personal brand identification are the values you stand for.

When someone hears your name, what comes to mind? What do you represent? What are your values?

When you have a personal brand, people distinguish and give attention to your name, projects, products, services, and total being.

Personal Branding

Personal branding, otherwise called self-positioning or individual branding, is the practice of people presenting and marketing themselves and their careers as brands. The concept of personal branding is both about self-improvement and self-packaging.

Basically, Personal Branding is the ongoing process of establishing a prescribed image or impression in the mind of others about an individual, group or organization.

Dare to Be Different

While Microsoft was booming, Apple brand struggled for years because Steve Job(Apple Founder) chose to think differently. It eventually built one of the most loyal customer centers in the world. The success came about overtime because as soon as consumers tasted good design, they refused to go back.

Carve a niche for yourself. Fight the fear to be different even if it takes time for everything to connect. Do you really want to be like everyone else? I don't think so.