Everything Concerning Design: Personal Branding

The art of personal branding has seen a sharp rise within the last few years, partly because of the overwhelming popularity of social networks which have made branding more personal and within reach for a lot of people. Personal branding is defined as the act of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands. The theory of personal branding suggests that a person can market themselves as a package. The idea of personal branding was first introduced in the 1937 book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

For celebrities it involves applying one’s name or image to a product e.g. international footballer’s name Messi being applied to a branded pair of Adidas soccer boots sold worldwide and South African media personality Minenhle Dlamini being the face of the new range of Motions’ line of hair products.

If you want to find clues as to what your personal brand might be just recall key words (humorous, well spoken, intelligent) that your fellow peers have used to describe you. How people perceive you can be the strongest indication of where your brand strength lies. Another point worth mention is for a brand to be distinguishable it has to possess a niche whereby it can stand alone, in other words it has to be authentic.

A commonly shared misconception amongst people, me included before I read up on the topic, is that personal branding is a self centred act when in fact it is about sharing yourself with an audience. You are basically attempting to fill a need your audience has.

A personal brand is also faced with the task of having to prove it can deliver what it promised, which is why a personal brand should be aligned with your strengths. And last, but not least it is important for a personal brand to avoid negative behaviour, as seen with Oscar Pistorius after murder charges were brought against him sponsors and the public were quick to turn against him. His personal brand went from him being the man who proved anything is possible by competing in the Olympics even with his disability, to him being labelled a murderer and woman abuser. On the same day of the incident prominent sponsors such as Nike and Oakley, pulled out all campaigns featuring the athlete in fear of being associated with a murderer, guilty or not. So the question I have to ask you is; Do you have a personal brand that you are pushing and what do you think of the idea of personal branding?