The Art of Self Branding

How executives, salespeople and professional of all types can use personal stigmatisation to be much effective and successful.
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The Power of a Self Brand

By Catherine Kaputa

Today, stigmatisation isn't simply for companies, Hollywood celebrities, or highly-paid athletes. Folk in all walks of life are starting to use personal or self stigmatisation to get ahead in the game of life.

The single factor that often explains the difference between a professional who is competent and doing okay and one who earns a significant financial gain and generates lots of business is self branding.

Self stigmatisation defined: Self stigmatisation is a strong personal identity based on a clean perception simply about what you stand for, what sets you apart from others, and the adscititious value you bring to a job or situation.

Your self brand is the sum total of else people's feelings simply about your attributes and capabilities, how you perform, even as their perceptions simply about what you are worth.

To brand or not to brand? Many an folk think that if they do a nice job, their career wish go fine. But no matter how secure your position seems to be, you are in competition with much folk than you think.

To several people, stigmatisation may seem artful or phony. "I'd simply rather be myself," they say, "to with the flow and see wherever my career takes me." Or, the familiar line, "I'm not nice at marketing myself."

If you don't brand yourself, others will. The fact of the matter is you're giving the power to else folk to brand you if you don't do it yourself.

Let me give you an example. A new client came in who was fuming because of the way another executive introduced her at a conference. He proprietary her as the company's direct mail maven. That may have been the way she started out at the firm, but not quite how she saw herself now.

Self brands are created not born. Stigmatisation is primarily a process of analyzing a product in relationship to a market and problem solving out how to maximize the brand's potential. Stigmatisation is creating an plus out of something. It is a matter of satisfying a market need in a several way. And problem solving out a plan of action - the marketing plan - to build awareness and trial of the brand.

Launching a person on a driving to become a flourishing personal brand is fundamentally the same process. It is a conscious strategic process, a stigmatisation process, a process that Hollywood celebrities and high profile athletes have been victimisation for several time.

The Self Brand mindset: Self stigmatisation means looking at yourself as a merchant would-be look at a product that he or she wants to do a winning brand. You don't think of yourself as an worker even as if you activity for a boss. You think of yourself as working for yourself marketing the brand, You.

The 1st thing a merchant makes is analyze the market and the product to understand what the opportunities are, what the threats are. What are the current conditions? What are the assumptions simply about the future? What problems need to be solved? What of necessity aren't being met?

Act like the merchant of the product: You. In personal branding, after analyzing the market, you do a self audit. What are my strengths and weaknesses? How makes my brand compare with the folk I am competitive with?

You focus on key attributes and resources that differentiate you. Skills, abilities, even as personality traits you have that are a resolution to a market need. Then you adopt what Theodore Levitt called "the marketing imagination." You build a personal brand identity that is different, relevant and adds value.

Plan to dazzle: write out a marketing plan. I often activity with clients to develop a formal marketing plan that lays out a personal brand strategy and action plan. It is often in the writing that new creative options move to light.

It is important to set personal brand goals with a specific time frame and plan of action for achieving the goals. So simply like a merchant would, you write down personal marketing activities to bring home the bacon your goals. And, of course, you execute the marketing plan. You can't get to wherever you want to go unless you plan it and then do it.

The final step is measurement. You assess your effectiveness. How is my "portfolio" several now than it was last year? What new projects did I take on? How did I expand my network? What new learning did I acquire? If thing isn't working, you change trains. Stigmatisation is a dynamic process that offers the greatest rewards to the receptive individual.

Thinking and acting like a brand can create and maintain demand for your most important product - you.

Copyright 2003 All rights reserved.

Just simply about the Author:

Catherine Kaputa is a personal stigmatisation strategist, seminar leader, speaker and coach who works with executives, entrepreneurs and others who are nice at what they do, but want to use stigmatisation to be much effective and flourishing in their lives. Visit www.selfbrand.com or catherine@selfbrand.com

About the Author

Catherine Kaputa is a personal stigmatisation strategist, seminar leader, speaker and coach who works with executives, entrepreneurs and others who are nice at what they do, but want to use stigmatisation to be much effective and flourishing in their lives. Visit www.selfbrand.com or catherine@selfbrand.com