When developing and promoting a personal brand, a work strategy should be developed, as the entrepreneur will incur additional losses in case of erroneous planning.
Defining the concept of personal brand and examples
In the classic sweat term, a brand refers to a trademark (e.g. a company producing household appliances, cars or clothes). The emergence of a large number of small companies and individual entrepreneurs has expanded the scope of the concept and introduced personal or own brands.
For example, a person with personal or professional qualities becomes recognizable among professionals, making it possible to talk about creating a personal brand from scratch (the English term personal branding).
Such a characterization is required of specialists involved in financial or scientific fields, medicine and pharmacology. Studies have shown that 81 to 86% of people working in the abovementioned industries are ready to develop their own brand.
The first person to link a brand and business in a single chain was the American journalist Thomas Peters, who published his research in Fast Company magazine in 1997. The article encouraged U.S. entrepreneurs to actively develop and promote their own brands not only in North America, but also worldwide.
This kind of image is being intensively developed by the print and print industry. electronic media and social networks (examples of promoted brands are the names of Ilona Mask or Richard Branson).
In Russia, the formation of a personal brand has not gained popularity among entrepreneurs. Banker Oleg Tinkov and financier Alexander Mamut are among those who have invested in developing their own name.
History of personal brand development
As humanity developed, there were individuals in history who influenced political or industrial activity. For example, the American inventor Henry Ford created the automobile concern and invented the conveyor method of assembly of cars.
Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov created his own image based on popularity in society. At the same time, one should take into account the lack of information technology in the XVIII-XIV centuries, so future celebrities were engaged in their work and did not think about popularizing their name.
The ideas of the personal brand were described by the American psychologist Napoleon Hill in his book “Think and be rich”, first published in 1937 (the work was republished several times, the Russian version can be bought in bookstores or downloaded online). The postulates set out in the book are aimed at finding ways to succeed in various fields of activity.
When writing the manual, Napoleon Hill used his early work “The Law of Success”, which was supplemented by the results of many years of research into the biographies of people who have achieved success in work and business.
Prior to the October Revolution of 1917, there were several trademarks in Russia whose name was associated with the name of the founders or owners. After the revolution, factories were nationalized and lost their official designations, but they were partially preserved in the household of buyers.
At the same time, state enterprises appeared in the USSR, which had abbreviated names of chief designers. Examples of such plants are TU or SU aviation bureaus named after Andrei Tupolev and Pavel Sukhoi respectively.
What kind of people need a personal brand
Since the term personal brand is actively advertised in networks and media, many people start to develop and shape their own image. At the same time, the purpose of the image is not specified and possible benefits or losses from the created brand are not worked out.
A person should remember that creating a brand requires financial expenses, which are not always compensated by the growth of profit. Before starting the development, it is necessary to define the goals, the achievement of which is impossible or difficult without a personal brand.
Building starts with defining fundamental bases (for example, a person’s achievements in the professional sphere). For example, if a plumber or plumber has extensive experience working within several houses or city districts, he or she may extend the geography of the activity. This requires thinking about a strategy to demonstrate achievements, which will attract new clients.
If there is no baseline, it is possible to develop a brand from zero, which will require human effort and investment. At the initial stage, a negative attitude from clients or outsiders is possible. If the person will not look for and then develop professional skills and create a client base, then the efforts made will not allow to get positive results.
The following categories of people require a personal brand:
- who have professional expertise with the ability to prove their skills;
- who wish to gain an additional competitive advantage;
- seeking to use their personal reputation to promote the company;
- seeking additional markets (for individual entrepreneurs and freelancers);
- those who wish to further strengthen their market position.
There are categories of people who do not need to develop a personal brand. These include novice professionals whose ambitions do not match their professional skills. It should be remembered that to order a ready promoted personal brand is impossible, as well as to achieve popularity for 2-3 months.
If a person has not decided on the areas of activity for the coming years, then invest in the development of their own brand should not.