A Bit About Branding

You’ve heard this before – as a job hunter and employee you are a ‘product’. You are your own business. An employer is your customer. It’s business. And part of the marketing of the product called ‘you’, is branding.

What’s that? Branding? Yeah, think Tiger Woods. Think Michael Schumacher. Think Oprah Winfrey.

These are names that represent something specific. They are more than just names of persons. Their name is a BRAND. It represents excellence in sport/golf/motor-racing/television. But don’t be fooled into thinking because of all the fame, money and glory that branding, having your own personal brand, lives only in that world.

It lives everywhere. YOU have a brand. You are a brand. Whoever you are. You may be conscious of it or not. But the big thing is … you can enhance and build that brand – making you more marketable – able to get better jobs quicker.

Your brand is about 2 questions:

What value do I represent to an employer/in the marketplace? In other words – how do I make a difference, how do I make things better for my employer? What problems do I solve? What challenges to I help them overcome? If business is all about making money and providing value to shareholders – what’s my role in getting that done?

And …

How can I communicate this message to an employer? In other words – how do I market myself? How do I get known for what I do? And then importantly, is the message I’m sending clear – is it worded correctly, do I have a crystal clear idea of what I do? Is the message selling me? Does it carry a sense of believability/credibility?

It’ll be a worthwhile couple of hours to spend some time reviewing those questions and coming up with answers.

Most people, in their CV at least, NEVER actually say what their value is. They seldom say what they stand for – what standard of work, what values, what level of excellence they aim for or aspire to. They provide lots of details about their previous duties but seldom a hint of whether they were any good at them. It’s like they’re trying as best they can to make themselves look average – “no name brand”. Certainly they never come out and actually say, “Hey, Mr Employer, here’s what I can do for you.”

It’s the streetwise job hunter who understands his own personal brand – he’s built a reputation for doing something really well, and he’s confident in that ability, he has examples of his work, he’s an expert problem solver in that field. And he’s not scared to tell people about it.

Think about it. Brainstorm how you can apply this info. It could make all the difference (ie. better, quicker job hunting results.) People with strong personal brands seldom have to go looking for jobs. Jobs come to them.