Building a Powerful Brand

How to Create Your Personal & Business Powerful Brand Through Gigantic and Massive Success Strategy.

All of us whether as an individual or an organization, we have a brand.

Irrespective of whether we consciously put planned structured efforts or did not do anything.

Let me cite an example one of the global top 4 organization in their domain, because of their power of brand, get large orders from top MNCs in TOTALLY NON-CORE areas [they are supposed to be specialist in one function of business only] & they fully outsourced the complete process. But the best part, the model is so shabbily designed & executed, but still they get repeat orders.

That is the power of a strong brand.

If you study, you will find hundreds of thousands of such examples.

But then it may also lead to the down fall of few top fortune companies.

There are many other small organizations that are delivering or producing better services or products and are real experts, but the brand that has a stronger recall will always win.

What is a brand – it is a position, a perception or an image through various positive & negative words occupied in the mind of your target clients, prospects or stakeholders.

If you, whether as an individual or an organization or as a product or service have an unshakably strong positive words associated with your brand or name, your marketing people will have easier time

The types of brands

• 1.Iconic business brands with unshakable reputation like Zippo Lighters, Few Swiss watches and many other products
• 2.Iconic Brands that define a elite word like , Bentley-Luxury, Lamborghini-Performance etc
• 3.Iconic brands which have kind of become generic for that type of product or services – Google It, Tweeted, WhatsApped, Fedex it, Jeep[it used to be earlier substitute for 4wheel drive] etc
• 4.Iconic brands that created something then vanished like Motorola [invented 6 sigma & then vanished], Nokia, Kodak etc
• 5.Iconic Individuals those are themselves a brand, Bill gates, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett etc
• 6.Iconic individuals who are brands because of both success & tragedies Elvis Presley, MJ, Merlyn Monroe etc
• 7.Iconic Individuals who were not become as well-known but acknowledged like Nicole Tesla
• 8.Iconic individuals who are associated with scientific discovery like Albert Einstein etc
• 9.Then the brands which are well known & trusted like say Sony, Toyota, Apple[used to be category 2 but have slipped] etc
• 10.Individual Brands that achieve the height for few years & then vanish or get tarnished, like current tribe of Indian Gurus & Babas
• 11.The there are well known name region-wise, category-wise with a smaller following than above types
• 12.Then there are Me-Too type, well known with their own chunk of business segments
• 13.Then there are individuals who have social brands, you can identify many at your local, country & at international level
• 14.Then there are individuals who have leadership brands, you can identify many at your local, country & at international level
• 15.Then there are individuals who have religious brands, you can identify many at your local, country & at international level
• 16.Then there could be brands in categories other than what mentioned above

You have to understand, even if you are an individual and you work for an organization, you can bring down a whole organization, if you falter & fail to follow the immutable rules of branding.

This happened with a IT firm where the chief did activities those are anti-branding & their partner, one of the Global top organization could not catch them & the whole organization collapsed.

The brands are dynamic, either they are growing or they are going down or they vanish all together. Very few can exist in anonymity.

First let us identify our own personal brand – it is a self-scoring exercise

• 1.Focus on yourself objectively & go beyond your self-image which can be totally opposite the way people[especially who are important to you & powerful factor in your life] perceive you & choose from the following words or add any other on what words normally people you are interacting with, associate with your name. In another words what are the top 10 words people would describe you as.
• 2.Then identify your senior, your best friend, your lover, the identify what top words of their character, behavior, nature & attitude comes to your mind when you think about them
• 3.Now identify at least 6 tops organizations or brands that comes to your mind immediately & write how you perceive them

The answer to the point 1 would be your brand & the answer to the 2^nd would the brand of the people you considered.

The answer to the 3^rd is generally how you perceive that organization or brand & if enough people have the same perception then that is what that organization's brand stands for & will reap the according benefits or disadvantages in the market.

The words to consider would be for your impression of others & organizational you are thinking about, would be- you choose any other words by ignoring the complete list given below

Personal – there are some words, those are important as your personal brand to make your character, when they are being considered by powerful & influential people whom you need. The list I made is randomly not a exhaustive one.

Dependable Creative, Gossiper & Rumor Monger, Initiator, Sincere, Lacks Energy, Always honors commitments, Risk-taker, Lazy, Enthusiastic, Rude, Plays Politics, Always Comes with Problems, Just does the work given no more, Polished, Problem Solver, Has Attitude Issues, Brilliant, Short Tempered, Innovative, Hardworking, Always Creates Problem, Learns faster Team worker etc etc

Organizational – the following & many other words that creates the brand image for an organization. The list I made is randomly not a exhaustive one.

But they decide if the organization will prosper your perish.

Prompt Response, Quality of Service, Excellent, Dependable, Complaints don't get answered, They Do Not care, Very Good product, Staff very pleasant, Environmentally responsible, Ensures great customer experience, Fantastic Follow-up, Have to chase but still no satisfaction, Socially responsible, Disgusting service, Add value by going out of their way, Considers out of turn requests too, Gives feedback & follow-up till resolved ,Will never recommend them, I always talk about them as an positive or negative example, Why the hell I had to buy from them, Their advertisements are just to hook the people, Not professional, I will never change them for any other brand, Low prices even lower quality, High prices but worth it

Now let us get to the brass tack what we need to create, the Dos, The Don't, The Absolute Musts, The Never Ever Touch One along with basic principles of branding in as brief as possible.

Actually the basics are always same, whether we are talking about organizational brands or personal brands.

Our brands affect & impact our relationship both professionally, socially & personally

Identify the words you yourself or your organization would like to be known for

• 1.As a leader
• 2.As a specialist & expert
• 3.As a generalist – but then you have to have many brands & follow the strategy given below
• 4.As a local, national or international brand
• 5.As a very narrow totally monopolistic brand that provides products and service nobody can offer[e.g. John Grisham types of legal thrillers or say Zippo lighters]
• 6.Celebrity brand
• 7.Non-profit social cause brand
• 8.Generic brand
• 9.Luxury Experience
• 10.Cult Brands or elite status brand
• 11.Symbolic Brands
• 12.Disruptive and or innovative brands

Now the basics of brand building

• 1.No brand can last forever & neither will it stay at the same level all the time.
• 2.You can never set own your own laurels, even if you have created an iconic brand like YouTube, Skype, Amazon, Google, WhatsApp, Facebook etc
• 3.You have to constantly reinvent, recreate & make your earlier offerings/words/brand image Obsolete, as per the technology change, customer preference change, social changes, values & needs changes etc
• 4.Narrow the focus, dominate the category & create your own very niche in which competition can not dare to venture
• 5.Create the leadership & the specialist effect ­ ­
• 6.If possible be first company to offer a product or service
• 7.Choose a name that is simple yet conveys your USP
• 8.Create a tagline like Nike's "Just Do it", which is simple memorable & impactful
• 9.If you have multiple product/services/offering, create separate brands & separate words to match them
• 10.Ideally they should separate profit centers with totally & very narrow focused niches for each of the
• 11.Don't let your companies name become a generic brand for all your offerings
• 12.Please understand that Consumers have many choices & Most of the customer perceive that the bestselling product best quality as well
• 13.Always try to foresee the future, predict the trends & emerging markets by choosing the best people & resources allocated and focused on this principle only
• 14.Make your organization a learning organization, where you keep reinventing, keep failing in newer fronts & keep introducing the product & services of the future
• 15.Do not keep any product or services that pulls you down or belong to yesterday's market just fort ego
• 16.Make each team focus on only one service or product
• 17.Be patient and keep putting your efforts, the brands don't get build up overnight, they take years to build but very little time to get destroyed, remember Kodak, Motorola, Nokia etc
• 18.Your marketing efforts have to be focused on attacking the competition's weaknesses especially if you are a new entry & me-too category & you are dealing with giants, as that would make you the specialist
• 19.Beware of the trap of "If we are successful in this line then we would be successful in that also". Once the largest General Motors had to make its units into several ones & GE became profitable only when they got rid of many non-core businesses
• 20.Try to get publicity attached with your brands by doing positive things that makes your brand newsworthy & people starts associating with it at personal level
• 21.Always settle with excellence & nothing less. Quality was one that put Japanese product on the top & except the price advantages keep pulling the Chinese brands down
• 22.You should be a category leader, the narrower the better, learn from education institute's ranking system, all of them can project themselves as the number in some weird niche
• 23.Never confuse company name with your brand let them be separate, you don't try to associate them
• 24.Please ensure that even if the market changes but the perception of your leadership or your quality of your brand IN THE MIND OF YOUR CONSUMERS should never change
• 25.You have to respect the, The Law of Respect, People Naturally Follow Leaders Stronger than Themselves
• 26.A great brand generates a sense of appealing curiosity
• 27.A great brand communicates the kind of results you produce for others, A great brand establishes you as the best choice
• 28.A great brand appeals to people who have the decision-making power and money to work with you, If your brand appeals to leaders, then you're on the right track
• 29.A great brand is bold
• 30.A great brand uses diversified techniques to reach out
• 31.A great brand engages its audience with interesting hooks
• 32.A great brand takes the help of influencers, mentors, bloggers, social media experts
• 33.A great brand creates experience for people to remember
• 34.A great brand ensures monetizing its name & encashing the financial rewards
• 35.It tell the story of what it can do for its people in a compelling & mesmerizing ways
• 36.A great brand offers unparalleled value to its clients by balancing the cost & profit
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• The action steps
• 1.Identifying your emotional appeal, Describing yourself, Identifying your specialty
• 2.Your own website, Blog , Twitter ,Facebook Profile, linkedin , Use Quora ,
• 3.Distinct & memorable logo plus tagline
• 4.Make your activities news worthy to get press & social media publicity
• 5.Identify & Connect With Mentors and influencers
• 6.Ask yourself the following questions & work on them
• 7.What one action, decision, or choice has had the single biggest impact in the growth of your personal brand
• 8.If you were building an online presence from scratch today, what 3 things would you consider to provide the biggest ROI on your time and money What one action, decision, or choice has had the single biggest impact in the growth of your personal brand
• 9.If you were building an online presence from scratch today, what 3 things would you consider to provide the biggest ROI on your time and money What one action, decision, or choice has had the single biggest impact in the growth of your personal brand
• 10.Create an elevator pitch that states in a story telling way
• I.What you do for people
• II.Why they need it
• III.Provide proof of your value
• IV.Address the common issue that your clients face
• V.Share your story of struggle
• VI.Share your success stories

11. Figure Out I. Your Place in the Market II. Identify the solutions to your target audienceIII. Identify what makes your offer unique among all the competitors IV. Create an positioning that will Addresses the most critical element of your client's problem V. Identify What words would appeal most & occupies your prospects mind VI. What metaphors or concepts describe your brand
12. Understand your market, your customer, your competitors & the future emerging trends through [these following next 6 points are taken from the internet]

I.Google your product or service category and analyze direct and indirect competitors that come up.

II.Check subreddits that relate to your customers and eavesdrop on their conversations and product recommendations.

III.Talk to people who are part of your target market and ask them what brands they buy from in your space.

IV.Look at the relevant social media accounts or pages your target audience follows and are receptive to.

V.Go shopping online or offline and get a feel for how your customers would browse and buy products.

VI.Since your brand name will also affect the domain/URL of your website, be sure to shop around to see what's available before you decide

13. Identify your core values, create the pathway for people to feel, see & experience your living your values, that is called, Sense Versus Sensibility -. What really matters to you & how can you live them in the mind of your customers

• 14.Identify your passions What things or ideas do you love?
• 15.Identify your talents
• 16.Communicate with people openly and constantly, Network all the time
• 17.Find your allies & join forces with them
• 18.Communicate even when you're not
• 19.Let people see you, be visible on social media, industry forums etc