Posted under Branding, Career Management, Resumes on April 22nd, 2008
On his Personal Branding Blog, Dan Schwabel lists a series of insightful quotes he’s come up with over the years. He encourages anyone to use these gems, as long as he’s given credited.
I was particularly drawn to this one, which I think is dead-on advice for defining and crafting one’s authentic brand:
“You are the chief marketing officer for the brand called you, but what others say about your brand is more impactful than what you say about yourself.”
After all, your own evaluation of yourself is just one person’s opinion. Seeking the opinions of those who know your work and style well validates your own assessment and opens you to a deeper appreciation of your value, as well as what differentiates you from others doing the same work.
In my executive resume writing practice, I follow this direction when developing branding for my clients’ career marketing documents – especially for stand-alone brand statements. I have them ask several people who work closely with them about their performance and leadership talent. What these co-workers say may be the best indicator of my clients’ true value to their next employer.
Often the feedback is consistent and certain qualities and strengths shine through with each person’s input. Using this consensus, my job – differentiating my clients and reinforcing their brands throughout any documents I create – becomes much easier.
Posted by Meg Guiseppi
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Jonathan Salem Baskin on 05 Jun 2008 at 5:47 am #
funny, but the challenge that corporate brands face is that there’s no good measure for brand equity that can drive forward-looking decisions (or warrant actual commitment of money past the hazy attributions given to balance sheet results that defy better explanations). i’ve pondered the challenge of brand measurement on brand strategy magazine’s blog, in an essay (just posted) entitled “mad metrics.”
http://brandstrategy.wordpress.com/2008/06/04/mad-metrics/
Meg Guiseppi on 10 Jun 2008 at 10:30 am #
Jonathan,
Thanks for commenting.
Isn’t the problem with brand measurement (or advertising in general) that a marketing campaign, whether for a person or product, which deeply appeals to one person, may not appeal at all to another and may, in fact, completely turn them off? You just never know when you throw it out there.
Meg
Galen Tinder on 20 Aug 2008 at 7:39 pm #
The current infatuation with personal and professional branding has become more than tiresome. Is our profession so desperate for jargon that we need to invent meaningless terms? What after all, does it mean to call a resume “branded.” Is this different than a full and accurate representation of a person’s qualities and qualifications for a particular position? Do we think that when we refer to a branded this and a branded that and to constructing a person’s brand that we will be viewed masters of a mysterious and arcane process for which we should be paid more money than would be our due as mere career consultants and coaches?
Eventually our clients and potential clients will figure out that all this branding talk is merely an artificial lingo we have concocted to make what we do sound more impressive and less within the reach of ordinary mortals. At that point many of them will decide it is better to be a person with abilities, skills and experience than it is to refer to themselves as a thing called a brand.
Galen Tinder
Part I - Pimp Your Brand | Sales Job Interview Questions & Sales Interview Tips on 06 Apr 2009 at 5:13 am #
[...] If you’re having trouble defining yourself, ask others what they think is special about you. What makes you different from others in your field? Go to Dan Schwabel’s blog. It’s THE source for info about personal branding. [...]
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