Brand Extensions and Personal Branding (5-2-24)

Happy Thursday!

I thought I was done with the series on personal branding, but then the universe tapped me to write this one about brand extensions and personal branding.

What if I told you that Tide was going to open a laundromat? Would that make sense to you? I’m assuming you could see how that would fit with the Tide brand. The Tide brand stands for cleanliness and dealing with tough stains. Tide deals with tough stains as a liquid detergent, pods, and a to go pen. Having a Tide laundromat, isn’t too much of a stretch because of what the Tide brand stands for. If I told you that McDonald’s was going to open a laundromat, that would probably be a harder one to figure out 😉

What does this have to do with personal branding? If Tide only looked at itself as a laundry detergent, then it would have just stayed in that narrow space. Instead, Tide saw itself as a stain fighter, and realized that it had the opportunity to compete in any spaces that fight stains. On the personal branding side, I’ve had people in the past tell me that they wanted to expand and evolve their brand to help them switch career paths or do something different. They wanted to figure out how to do this in a way that made sense to other people, so those people would be willing to hire them and give them a shot. I think this comes down to two things. How narrowly do you define your brand? How well can you connect your brand essence to where you want to evolve?

I spoke to someone once who had a background as a scientist and was trying to establish themselves more as a marketer or market researcher. They were having trouble connecting their brand as a scientist to marketing. I explained that if they just saw themselves as a scientist, then there wasn’t much of a connection, because when people hear scientist they think of lab coats and experiments. If their brand is about being curious and about being intentional about testing hypotheses and leveraging data to make sound decisions (aka the scientific method) they start to sound like someone who works in market research or in marketing strategy. They had to step away from their initial narrow depiction of themselves, and then connect their essence to the problem needing to be solved.

The challenge- If you’re looking to evolve your brand, how do you define your brand? How do you connect your brand essence to where you’re going?

Bonus thought- During my Lilly career I’ve worked in sales, training, communications, market research, marketing, and my current market research innovation and capabilities role. On the surface, those things are very different from each other. On the surface, those brand extensions don’t make any sense. However, I don’t define my personal brand by a specific role. I’m a spark igniting storyteller. I tell stories that MOVE people. That’s what I do and enjoy doing and am good at doing. Using my energy and storytelling to move people is the golden thread that connects everything I do. When I’m on stage performing poetry, I move people to feel something. When I write blogs I move people to think differently. In sales I moved customers to try products. In training I moved learners to develop skills. In communications I moved people to think/feel/do certain things to accomplish organizational objectives. As a brand market researcher I moved people to make good business decisions, and there is something magic about this that brings me a lot of joy. In marketing I used tactics and channels to tell stories to move customers to do something. In my current role I try to lead people to take action to build a new future we are only beginning to imagine.

Bonus poem– I stumbled across a poem I performed about being in market research. It has some great tie ins to the essence of your brand and how it connects to opportunities. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrew-embry-979831b7_marketresearch-research-analytics-activity-7191644032991662080-QvGT?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Personal Branding: Image vs Brand (4-24-24)

Last week we explored how your brand may not be for everyone and that’s okay. This week we will look at image vs. brand.

Apple has been recognized as one of the most powerful brands in the world. When you hear Apple, what do you think of? One of the first things that comes to mind is the sleek design of their products. The things Apple does just look cool. Now, I want you to imagine a world where Apple products all continued to have the hip trendy designs, BUT none of them worked well. How do you think the world would feel about Apple? I’m assuming that Apple wouldn’t be appreciated, because that would not be a good value proposition. While it’s true that image and design is a component of the Apple brand, it’s NOT the entire brand. The Apple brand also stands for things like innovation, technology, challenging the status quo, simplicity, being intuitive, integration, genius bar, and customer wow moments. Their brand is more than just image and aesthetic, it’s a combination of other intangible promises that Apple makes to consumers.

What does this have to do with personal branding? It’s easy to confuse the concept of image with brand. Your image and the way you present yourself are just part of your broader brand package. While these things are important, staying so focused on surface level elements distracts us from focusing on the true substance. Yes, we appreciate Apple because their products look cool. However, if the products looked cool and didn’t offer the other things Apple offers, they wouldn’t be worth much.

I was talking to an individual once, and they brought up how cognizant they are about shaping their brand. They talked about how much time they invest cultivating the right image online on LinkedIn and other social media sites. They also talked about looking the part when they attended networking events. I didn’t hear them talk about their unique genius, strengths, what they do, or how they do it. I didn’t hear them talk about the problems they solve or the value they provide. They were so focused on creating an image that they weren’t creating a brand that provides real value.

The challenge: As you build your personal brand, will you think beyond just shaping an image? Will you think about the unique genius and strengths that you bring?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Personal Brands, Being You, and Owning Space in People’s Minds (4-3-24)

This week we are going to kick off a series on personal branding. This week is about brands, being you, and owning space in someone’s mind.

I can’t remember who told me this, but my favorite definition of what a brand is goes something like this, “A brand is the place something/someone owns in your mind that is uniquely theirs.” If I told you to think about Apple, I’m sure a few things would pop into your mind. If I told you to think of Android or Microsoft, I’m sure you’d think of different words, even though they are all in the tech sector they each own a different piece of real estate. Similarly, if I said Toyota or General Motors, you’d likely have different ideas instantly popping up into your brain. We could play this game over and over again with things like McDonald’s vs Panera, Nike vs. Under Armor, etc. Over time these brands have earned that space in your mind, by communicating AND fulfilling a promise to you. That promise consists of their mission, what they do, and how they do it. The more often they fulfill that promise, the stronger the brand becomes.

What does this have to do with personal branding? Similar to those other brands, I believe someone’s personal brand is the piece of real estate you own in someone’s mind when they hear your name. A person owns that spot in someone’s mind, because they have CONSISTENTLY lived and acted in accordance with their mission. They have demonstrated values and behaviors that align to that mission over and over and over again. When people hear my name, I hope they instantly think something like, “Spark igniting storyteller. He cares deeply for people, is a creative problem solver, keeps it real, brings the energy, and communicates in a way that moves people forward”. I hope at this point in my career I’ve delivered on that promise and those things enough times that I own that space in people’s brains. I didn’t get there overnight. I had to spend time to figuring out who I am, my mission, what I do, and how I do those things. From there, I had to consistently live those things over and over again and continually refine myself along the way.

The challenge: If someone hears your name, what space would you own in their mind? What is your mission? WHAT do you do? HOW do you do it? Do you live those in a way that other people feel them?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry