Write out a mission statement. And stay true to it.
Outline the plan of how you want your brand to be viewed and by who.
Define your ideal brand image and your target customer.
Seek those people out for their feedback and advice.

Create a standard of quality that means something to you and matches your mission and stay true to it.

Yes, be professiona. Be respectful. Listen. Take criticism. Always smile.
Offer your brand at a reasonable price. Consider ways to stand out and be unique within your own category even if your category is full of brands.

Consider ways to give back to the user, to the planet, etc.

You could try reading "Raising the Bar" about the foundation of Clif Bar. It's an amazing insight into someone who made his brand have personal meaning for him and then shared that with the world.

posted May 16, 2007

Wayne,

I'm sure my approach may not recieve votes on most popular, but this is what has worked for me. I'm in sales and I love what I get to do. I've built a personal brand and it had nothing to do with me thinking out a mission statement, committing to goals or anything lofty. In fact it was rather simple for me. It came by way of a prayer. If you knew my story about how I got into sales this would make a bit more sense, but I'll give it a shot anyways.

Here goes;

God, if I can be myself, and still be good at sales, then I'll accept this job as an account manager.

The facts are that personal brand is about being comfortable with yourself. If you accept who you are, then who you want to be will ultimately align as you become more comfortable with that image.

People know me as, respectful, Godly, honorable, caring, open, big-hearted, interested in others, loving, charitable, intelligent, funny, leader, daring, electric personality, enthusiastic, ambitious...I'm not saying that...this is what others have commented about me - it took a long time for me to accept who others saw me as. In fact, it was the same day that I accepted who I was, that I could accept or credibly reject what others saw me as.

Truth be told, and I don't mean this to be sappy, but if you can't be comfortable that - who you are as a person will resonate with the people you're trying to impress with your brand; then I would suggest you pick a different profession. One where you don't have to adapt as much to feel comfortable. Just my two cents.

posted May 16, 2007

your band has to represent quality and values and should be positioned againist things that will maximize its value.

posted May 16, 2007

Integrity and consistency come to mine. If your personal brand is true to who you are, building and maintaining it will flow naturally. Otherwise it only takes one out-of-brand-character moment to damage that reputation.

posted May 16, 2007

Hi Wayne,
Thanks for your question, however, it is in the one area of Marketing that I am a little slack on, I have found Branding to be a topic of it's own and most Brandings are created for large corporations.
As a person who deals with SME's the branding we do is based on their image and colours for their business, they normally have a larger companies product which already has a Branding.
In the odd times that I have been involved with branding, it has been a team effort to look at the invention, create a name, deside a colour schem and create a design for the logo and packaging.
By doing this as a team, we tend to barin storm with me seeing that the marketing side of the branding is in place before we finalise the total package.
This is a little vague but the best I can offer.
Good luck for the future.

Brian Ballard

posted May 16, 2007

Wayne,

There are a lot of best practices when it comes to brand marketing and establishing and managing your brand, and some may or may not work for your business or industry. I would suggest that the best “best practice” of creating and managing your brand is by concentrating on the user on all aspects of business and brand development, as everything else, including the revenue, will come.

First, to create your brand, you'll need to know exactly what and who you're creating a brand for. Creating mission statements, implementing strategic developments, performing and analyzing customer and target market research are just some of the things you’ll have to do to outline and build a solid business and customer foundation.

Second, you'll need to know how to build and manage your brand. You will need to develop a contact strategy that provides value to your customers. This is done in a number of ways, and some include developing the right customer strategy, surrounding yourself with the right people to implement that strategy, and enhancing your strategy with the right technology and with the right people that know how to use the right technology.

Third, you’ll need to know how to proactively maintain your brand in the mediums that you are in. This means using methods, processes, metric analyses and such to find out more about how your customers view your brand, how you can proactively respond to their issues, concerns, and questions before it reaches a high issue level, and how you can attract more attention to your brand and your business through the way your customers see you.

On a side note, there are other non business-oriented ways to establish your brand, as Joshua explained. Faith, integrity, quality, honesty, compassion, humility and others are not just valuable in the development of your brand, but are also valuable in how your customers see you. As brands are, the business (and sometimes personal) values are often associated with your brand / brand name. So, the value of your brand is also associated by the value you place on yourself and your company, if that makes any sense :P

posted May 17, 2007

When you use the term "Personal Brand" you -- I believe -- are referring to yourself. Thus, I recommend the following: 1) Your own website. 2) Your own blog. 3) Business cards. 4) Communicating your "mission" and ideas. 5) Maintain a LONG list of contacts and make it longer. 6) Follow up, and say thanks at all times.

That's the foundation for building your personal brand. After all, what's a brand if no one knows about it?

Links:

• http://www.sportsbusinesssims.com/paris.hilton.sports.marketing.paris.hilto...

posted May 17, 2007

In simple terms, if you're true to yourself and your own values they're likely to be reflected in your personal brand. Integrity, honesty and professionalism are important in any business.

When thinking about your personal brand - apply it to everything. Everything you produce as part of your business should reflect that brand and the message you want to portray. Be consistent.

I'm sure the brand experts will be able to provide the nuts and bolts.

Clare

posted May 17, 2007

1. Be honest and transparent in what you do.
2. Blog or otherwise participate in communities or in ways where you can share knowledge and experience (speaking engagements, professional groups, message boards, etc.).
3. Do what you say you will do. Do it well. Do it on time. Do it on budget.

posted May 17, 2007

Wayne:
I've been presenting a program on personal branding for the past couple of years to entrepreneurs, most of whom are in service industries where they have no physical product to brand and sell beyond themselves. There is a process in developing this kind of brand, but it would be too extensive to explain in this forum.

The most important thing to remember is that your personal brand is solely based upon you and your uniqueness. Once you've developed/discovered your personal brand from your own point of view, you need to test the waters with close friends, family members and colleagues to determine if you are 'perceived' to be the brand you think you are by those who know you best. Then, moving further out from your personal point of view, you need to survey the marketplace (customers, clients, people who work with you on projects, etc.) to see just what your image is already where you work or want to work.

We all have a personal brand, it's the developing it and detemining how to use it to the best effect that we need to work on.

posted May 17, 2007

Be professional at all times, manage perception and savagely blog...

Links:

• http://duckdown.blogspot.com/

posted May 18, 2007

Wayne Smallman Q: What are the best habits to have to help build and
maintain a personal brand?

1. Be intentional about your brand.

All of your communications, collectively, communicate your personal brand.

So the question you need to ask yourself is, what are the conclusions people will draw about me based on those collective communications?

If you are clear about what you want people to conclude, it will be easier to filter and package communications that will support those conclusions.

If you are not intentional about the conclusions you want drawn about your personal brand, then your communications are likely to be haphazard. Lack of intention means you give up a measure of control over your personal brand. It also means that you aren't providing much support to make it easier for people to reach beneficial conclusions.

2. There are seven key things that everyone should communicate about their brand.

While every business or person has unique expertise, capabilities or technologies at issue to communicate; when thinking about branding there
are seven core things that everyone should communicate.

1. Knowledge

We live in an age of specialization. When we've got a problem, we want an expert to help. Demonstrate your knowledge by giving a lot of it freely. It's an effective way to attract prospects. It also makes clear that you know your stuff.

2. Skill

Knowledge by itself is not enough. You've also got to demonstrate skill at applying that knowledge to reduce people's pains and help them make gains.

3. Performance

Knowledge and skill alone are still not enough if you aren’t there and responsive when people need you. Demonstrations of high performance levels are important to building both company and personal brands.

4. Credibility

While you are demonstrating knowledge, skill and performance you've also got to do it in a way that builds your credibility. Attention to detail, listening carefully before answering, under-promising and over-delivering are good ways to increase credibility.

5. Confidence

Knowledge, skill, performance and credibility are all great brand builders, but they still won't mean much without confidence. Sure, you may be great, but will you come through for me? That's a key question on people's minds.

Making many small promises, and keeping them is a great way to communicate and build confidence.

6. Trust

Trust is the coin of the relationship realm. It is the natural result of demonstrating knowledge, skill, performance, credibility and confidence.

The more expensive, complex and impactful the purchase of what you are trying to sell is; the more trust you're going to need to consummate the sale.

Intentionally designing all your communications to lead naturally to ever increasing trust is a big key to building your brand.

7. Commitment

Continually building trust in all your relationships is like putting money in the bank. The way to take the money out is through mutual commitments; as in, I'll do this for you in exchange for you doing this for me.

Commitments are the objects of all our relationships. It's only when commitments are made; that things can really happen.

So what are the best habits to have to help build and maintain a personal brand? Be intentional about demonstrating and communicating:

1. Knowledge
2. Skill
3. Performance
4. Credibility
5. Confidence
6. Trust
7. Commitment

Links:

• http://www.OptimizedAgent.com

posted May 18, 2007