In an economic downturn, brands need to be strong and well-known to survive and thrive and the same principle applies to you. Here is how to become your own personal marketing, promotions and brand manager.
Think of Brands
When we think of brands we tend to think of icons like Nike, Coca Cola, Virgin, Ferrari and Gucci. But what about considering yourself as a brand, marketing yourself as Brand You (Pty) Ltd? In a soft economy, brands need to be strong and well-known to survive and thrive and the same principle applies to you.
Become a household name, attract the work you love, be head-hunted, be a sought-after expert constantly called upon for comment, elevate your status from consultant to specialist and watch your bank balance swell like a river in flood. Jenny Handley believes that if you follow her advice on marketing your personal brand, it is all achievable.
Raise your Profile
Jenny, 45, is the co-author, with marketing director and sports personality Gavin Cowley, of Raise your Game, a motivational book which found a local audience of 6 500 (it’s considered good to sell 2 000 books in South Africa). Her latest work, Raise your profile, is aimed at a wide audience from leaders to learners and entrepreneurs to employees.
It promises, on a zero budget, to elevate you into a premium brand by developing your personal brand strategy. Jenny has years of experience in brand development, as a successful brand strategist and owner of JHP - a PR, marketing and brand management company she founded 15 years ago. Her clients range from Mercedes Benz to Ernie Els’ restaurant to the Shuttleworth Foundation.
In 2004 she launched JHP Personality Portfolio for high-profile professionals needing strategic management of their personal brand, sponsorships and endorsements and public speaking engagements. These include media personalities, businesspeople, sports stars, auctioneers, celebrity chefs and DJs. This petite pocket rocket also writes a weekly column on careers for the Cape Times and conducts workshops in individual brand strategising for everybody from the emerging entrepreneur to senior executives and professional sports people.
Added Value
Jenny believes that successful personal marketing results in becoming a household name, with visibility creating the perception of added value. The rewards result not only in a swelling revenue stream, but in the fact that one can pick and choose the work one loves and have better bargaining power due to a high profile. She concedes that men are often much better at achieving this than women.
‘With men it seems to be more natural, they are perhaps more aggressive, there is more testosterone. Men automatically believe that they should be moving forward. Their persona is tied up in the work environment, whereas women see themselves as whole beings, with work being just a portion of the whole. In my workshops I do an exercise where I ask people to compartmentalise their life. With men, the big portion is work, with smaller portions allocated to sport, family life etc. Women see their lives as one big whole – as a friend, a sister, a daughter and a workmate. They are reluctant to come forward in the workplace, they are afraid to be seen as pushy or self-promoting.’
She adds that women, particularly working mothers, tend to have different priorities. ‘I’ve never heard a man say that he feels guilty about going to work.’
Undervalued in the Workplace
Women also have a tendency to undervalue themselves in the workplace, particularly when it comes to negotiating money. ‘Women are not naturally good negotiators because they are not confident about what they can offer and what they should be asking for,’ says Jenny.
‘You have got to benchmark, to work out what people in your industry are earning and what you have to offer. Add a price for your expertise and where you are positioned in the industry. Be confident that what you have to offer is your natural instinct or flair for what you do. Don’t be afraid to put a price on experience. And that’s why writing your own profile as part of your marketing document is essential.’
CV as Personal Profile Document
Jenny recommends that everybody, apart from school-leavers, should take their CV and elevate it into their personal profile document. This creates a visual picture of someone who has established themselves and has something to offer, rather than someone who is looking for something.
It can be used on a website, as an introduction at public speaking occasions or sent as background material to prospective clients or employers. A flattering, high resolution photograph should accompany your profile. But it is in this instance, too, where Jenny feels that women potentially fall short, being reluctant to promote themselves lest they are perceived as arrogant.
‘It’s about being confident, not arrogant,’ she says. ‘Don’t be shy about sending out your profile when it could benefit you. Include recommendations and testimonials from ex-employers, current bosses or clients. This carries weight. Have an electronic signature noting any awards or accolades you have received. It’s all part of your personal marketing and promotion strategy.’
Market Yourself as a Celebrity
The average business person might ask, but why raise my profile? I am doing fine as I am and don’t need to market myself like a celebrity. Raise your profile enumerates various reasons why.
These include, for the entrepreneur, to be considered first choice rather than most convenient or cheapest choice – a perception of offering higher quality. Individuals, consultancies and companies that have built a visible brand are not as dependent on pitching for business – premium work comes their way. For ‘intrapreneurs’ - what Jenny describes as someone within a corporation who ‘owns’ their work as if it belongs to them – the benefit could be to be noticed for all the right reasons.
This could offer more responsibility and result in promotion. For senior managers, an elevated profile could mean attaining the status where you are called upon for comment or endorsement. The book notes that ‘to develop and enhance your reputation is the cheapest and most cost-effective marketing campaign you could ever embark on. It is the equivalent of building brand equity.’
Identify Your Strengths
In her workshops, Jenny begins the process of building a personal brand by asking people to identify their strengths and challenges (she does not like the word weakness). Again, the difference between men and women is marked.
‘In every single workshop men go straight to listing their strengths and women start by looking at their challenges and apologising for their weak spots. I make them look at what their strengths are so they can work out their competitive edge and use that to make them stand out head and shoulders above the rest. I stress that people have to be accepting of who they are.
‘It is about authenticity, about taking what’s inside and reflecting it on the outside. It’s not about being something you’re not, but it is about highlighting your strong points. This can be hard for people who are shy or don’t have a high level of confidence. But once they work out what they’re good at they can concentrate on growing in a working environment. They concretise their own brand and see how it can work together with their company’s brand.’
Positive Spin-offs
As Raise your profile notes, this has positive spin-offs for the bottom line. If each team member is given the chance of enjoying personal growth, the business simultaneously develops. Happy individuals are productive individuals, and they are more likely to be positive brand ambassadors and marketing mouthpieces for the company.
By the same token, raising the profile of the leader of an organisation automatically elevates the profile of the business. The book asserts that: ‘Strong brands survive a soft economy. In an abundant economy, people can afford to take risks. When they cannot, they stick with familiar, trusted, known brands. That is why you cannot afford to be anything other than a well-known brand.’
Your Reputation
Jenny expands on this. ‘A brand is your reputation, what you say and do and how you look – a package. We are initially judged on how we look. Bear in mind that there is a fine line between trendy and tarty and maintain a level of decorum. Don’t dress for the job you have, dress for the job you want. If you want to be the CEO, make sure you look like a CEO.’
She advises circumspection when communicating. ‘Sometimes women say too much, give too much information. They are inclined to be more verbose than men who tend to just give the facts.’
Acquiring Skills
Jenny stresses that personal branding, marketing and promotion should be an ongoing process. ‘Tweak your brand and raise your profile by acquiring new skills. Improve your public speaking skills, your writing skills; get knowledge of financial management and legal matters. Reinvent yourself and you will find that other people are influenced by you raising your game.’
Raise your profile says: ‘In the quest for excellence we need to ensure that we constantly aim to be better, to be brilliant…The aim of personal marketing is to take your product, “you”, to the consumer. In an age of quantity, the best possible way of presenting and marketing yourself is as a quality product.’
In the words of David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, ‘Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.’
