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The Power of Brands
A brand is a living entity—and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures.
— Michael Eisner, former CEO of Disney
No book about leadership personal branding would be complete without an understanding of the powerful and influential role that brands play in our modern-day lives. Time magazine once reported that the average American citizen living in a large urban area runs across an estimated 3,000 brands every single day. When I first read that statistic, I couldn’t believe it. But then, the proof was right in front of me when I would walk down Michigan Avenue in Chicago and look at all of the signs, or I would stand in Times Square in New York City and see brand after brand after brand.
In fact, I suspect that seeing 3,000 brands—which is almost certainly an even larger number today—holds true for anyone living and working in a large urban environment anywhere in the world. Ride in a taxi from downtown Bangkok out to the airport with hundreds of billboards lining the way, or walk down a supermarket aisle in London with the myriad of brands peering down at you.
Think about it. How many brands have you seen today on product labels, the side of a bus, the top of a taxi, or on the Internet? Everywhere you look, brand names are screaming for your attention. Brands are everywhere, and they are such a part of our day-to-day lives that we may not even think about them.
But out of those thousands of brands you encounter every day, if you’re like most people, you will probably stay faithful to a handful of brands throughout most of your life. After all, great brands build intense loyalty. How about you? What brands are you loyal to? Would you consider it out of the question, for example, to buy anything but a Canon camera or to switch from using your Gillette shaving cream? Why? What is the allure of that favorite brand of yours? What does it offer you that no other brand can?
Brands can be extremely big and influential, too. Take Coca-Cola as an example. That one brand alone brings in an estimated $16 billion in sales every year, more than $1 billion every single month. As of this writing, that represents more than the Gross Domestic Product of 86 different countries. How’s that for powerful?
The Untouchables
So, what do we know so far? We know that brands are everywhere, that they can create intense loyalty, and that they can be mighty big. Is there any question why I find brands so fascinating?
But what’s even more amazing about brands is that they are all this … yet, you cannot touch them. You can smell the aroma of a Starbucks cup of coffee, you can taste the kick of a Mentos when you pop one in your mouth, you can hear the sound of Microsoft’s Windows booting up, you can feel the wet aluminum of a cold can of Sprite in your hand, and you can see the golden arches of McDonald’s logo. But you cannot touch a brand. The smell, touch, or sight of a product is really only a representation of that brand. The brand itself is actually intangible. Its power exists only in your mind.
Can these intangible “brands” truly influence the way we act and think? Let’s explore.
Powerful Brand Images
Great brands are like people. They have a personality and a character all their own. To demonstrate what I mean, pause for a moment, look around you, and find two doorways that you can see from where you are. In the first doorway, imagine that Mercedes Benz—the brand—is standing there as a person. What kind of person would the Mercedes Benz brand be? Is it a man or a woman? What profession does this person have? What is this person wearing? What is the income level of this person—low, medium, or high? What is his or her favorite pastime?
Now, look at the second doorway, and imagine that Ferrari—the brand—is standing there as a person. What kind of person would the Ferrari brand be? Is it a man or a woman? What profession does this person have? How is this person dressed—more formally or more casually than Mercedes Benz? What is the income level of this person—higher or lower? What is his or her favorite pastime?
Compare the answers to both sets of questions. If you’re like most people, your answers will be quite different. Even though Mercedes Benz and Ferrari are both high-end luxury cars that can get you from one place to another, the brand images of Mercedes Benz and Ferrari are not the same. That’s because you perceive, think, and feel differently about these two brands. Those perceptions, thoughts, and feelings have been carefully created in your mind by smart marketers who understand the art and the science of branding.
That’s right. Branding, whether of a product or a person, is both an art and a science. On the one hand, brands appeal to your logic—you think rationally about them—so, this is where the science comes in. But branding is also an art because brands appeal to your emotions—how you feel about them.
Consider This
Think for a moment about the brands that have earned your loyalty. Maybe you have even traveled out of your way to find and buy that special brand that’s like no other. What if you could harness that same kind of power with your own individual brand as a leader? You can. Building your leadership brand at work can help you have that type of influence on the job.
Branding People?
I firmly believe that people—just like products—are brands, too. Let’s use examples of people we probably all know—starting with celebrities. What do you perceive, think, and feel when you hear the name “Ashton Kutcher”? What do you perceive, think, and feel when you hear the name “Hugh Jackman”? Both of these actors are good-looking leading men, but they create very different perceptions, thoughts, and feelings, don’t they? Now, let’s throw “Jackie Chan” into the picture … you have different perceptions, thoughts, and feelings about him, too.
Think of any category of well-known people—how about singers this time. Consider Taylor Swift … Lady Gaga … Adele. Again, they’re all very different. That’s because each of these individuals has a very specific brand that is absolutely unique and ownable as compared to the others.
“But, wait a minute, Brenda,” you may be saying. “These examples are celebrities, and they have the funds and the means to hire full-time image specialists to manage their personal brands!”
Fair point. But you don’t need high-priced help to define and communicate your leadership personal brand. The system shared in Master the Brand Called YOU™ will help you build your brand without writing checks to a publicist. It’s designed for the millions of people all around the world who may not be famous and certainly don’t plan on turning their individual brand into a global household name. What you want to do is define yourself in your world in order to achieve your personal career goals.
Leadership Personal Branding Is Not All About You
What is this concept called “leadership personal branding”? I like to define it as:
The way you want people to perceive, think, and feel about you as a leader in relation to other leaders.
Just like product brands such as Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari exist in our minds, so your own leadership personal brand exists in the minds of others, as they perceive, think, and feel about you in relation to other leaders at work.
Let’s look carefully at this definition, and focus on three key words: perceive, think, and feel. They’ve been carefully chosen for a reason.
Perceive: Perception