Personal branding - competitive advantage for individuals

This is according to Clayton McCoy, a brand consultant at HKLM Middle East, who says building a personal brand is equally important for individuals as it is for groups.

“The obvious advantage of such branding is that it allows ordinary people to differentiate themselves from other professionals offering the same skills or experience. But it can also assist in building a family legacy by facilitating the continuation of heritage and unity - the British Royal Family being a case in point,” McCoy explains.

The critical question, says McCoy, is how do people and groups distinguish themselves?

“What are individuals doing to stand out from the masses? Is an impressive résumé enough to differentiate ourselves in a world of 6.7 billion people? Probably not. This is where effective personal branding comes in.

“Oprah Winfrey has shown that, when building a personal empire centred around an individual's personality and actions, a strong personal brand is essential. Similarly, people like Greg Norman and David Beckham use their personal brands to sell related products,” he adds.

Creating a successful personal brand is no different to building the professional image of a company, and many of the tools used here can be applied in personal branding.

“While I don't believe attaching a cheesy pay-off line to your name is the best strategy for personal differentiation, corporate brand-building techniques provide a good foundation on which to build a solid personal brand,” McCoy notes.

The first step is defining your personal competitive advantage - isolating your brand offering and what make you different from, and better than, the rest. McCoy says this essentially comprises your skills, talent and personality traits.

These attributes then need to be communicated to the market. “How you market yourself is key. If Virgin didn't communicate through Richard Branson what it stood for, it would just be another mega-firm. You need to tell the world what you offer…become your own brand manager,” he continues.

Finally, live your brand and manage your reputation. McCoy says as your own brand manager, you need to continually monitor your performance and consistently strive to deliver on your brand promise.

“It's inevitable that you will not always be able to deliver on your promises. What's important, is how you deal with slip-ups and manage your reputation. Every decision you make will either strengthen or detract from your brand promise. If things don't go according to plan, rectify the situation and turn it into an opportunity to strengthen belief in yourself,” he adds further.

Ultimately, you need to take charge of your personal brand. McCoy says the advice provided by branding guru, Tom Peters, is best followed: “...we are all the CEOs of our own company, Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called you.”


About HKLM: Brand DNA
HKLM is a multi-disciplinary marketing services company that turns ideas into effective solutions. Our passion and purpose is to build and nurture clients' brands to ensure that their reputations rest on only the most convincing ideas.

HKLM Middle East draws on the HKLM group's extensive branding experience to create strong personal brands.

In 2008, HKLM Johannesburg successfully undertook the global rebranding of renowned international speaker and author, Dr John Demartini. The project involved rejuvenating the entire, personal Demartini brand. In addition, HKLM Middle East has recently created a Coat of Arms for the Hiranandani family, one of India's most prominent families.

For more information on branding and HKLM, visit www.hklmgroup.com.