Are You a Brand or a Commodity?

It is widely known that a brand generates significantly more revenue than a commodity. What do you buy on price and what do you buy on value? When do you pay a higher price for a branded product?

For most people the answer is almost always.

Then why not have an active plan to build your personal brand? Why not do the research to really know what personal brand positioning will get you maximum return in the market?

Let’s measure whether you are applying the measurements you apply to a corporate brand to yourself?

Seven Leveraging Questions to Build Your Own Personal Brand

1. Define the essence of your brand. What is it?
2. What is the mission and values of your brand? Is this the same as the essence of your brand?
3. Do you have a written brand plan?
4. What is your investment in product improvement – what percentage of your revenue are you spending on your personal product development? Which of this spending is giving you the best return? How much should you be spending on development of your personal brand functionality?
   The average manufacturer spends more than 50 per cent of revenue on branding, the ingredients and on manufacturing process. What percent of your revenue do you spend on your product, on sustaining and growing your value?
5. What is your investment in marketing – what percentage of your revenue are you spending on your personal brand promotion? What spending is giving you the best return? What channels are you using to grow awareness of your brand?
   Social media has empowered individuals to build a direct audience through Twitter, Facebook, Google+, e-book self-publishing, and e-mail direct marketing. Your area of expertise has given you the channels of professional associations and conventions; your community has given you the opportunity to get involved in charities, politics and social clubs.
6. What are your personal KPIs? How will you measure your performance against your brand standards? How is your brand performing? What is its ROI?
7. What currency do you want for your brand – knowledge, experience, money, time, freedom, power, fame, or security? You can’t have it all, so you need to choose what you want most and where the less important will be as a result. Does the currency you choose enhance or detract from your brand?

The decision to ask you to measure these items as a percentage of revenue was not by accident. You could have just as easily measured time. However, time is the reward of a good brand. A strong personal brand allows for better time management and gives you freedom and leverage.

Taking a closer look, what are your ingredients versus your brand? Many of us would be horrified if we dwelled too long on the ingredients of our favourite brands.

Have you described your personal brand in terms of features or benefits?

Review what hopefully you scratched down as a reply to the above question – What is the essence of your brand? Did you describe ingredients, features or benefits?

Did you describe your brand in terms of what it gives your current employer today or in terms of what you will be able to give the world in five ten and fifteen years?

The goal is not to ponder on where you came from or where you happen to stand at this moment in your journey. The goal is to define your brand as it is today, but more importantly as you want it to be and to map out a plan to get there.

Every good brand evolves not by accident, but through a brand plan. Will your brand plan keep you ahead of the competition and give you a well protected niche sufficiently large to grow and prosper?

Will the world be bidding on what you offer in five or 10 years? Will it have the same or greater value?

In Summary

What is your brand?

What do you spend on your brand development?

What do you spend on your brand marketing?

What differentiates you from a commodity?

Is your brand investment giving you a solid return on your investment?

If it is, should you be increasing your investment?

Will your current brand serve you where you want to go?

What currency do you want for your brand?

Follow @SchulichExecEd or email your thoughts and questions to editor@community.seec.schulich.yorku.ca to continue the conversation!