Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Ultimate co-branding in personal brands

We all heard of co-branding when we speak of commercial brands (products, services and companies). Co-branding means that two brands of similar power join forces in delivering more value to their customers.

When it comes to personal brands, co-branding is much more often used. We go to a party with someone, we spend time with friends, we team up with colleagues for projects at work or we buy presents in a group for a common friend.

The ultimate co-branding in personal brands is marriage when two brands join forces for a lifetime.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

About people

Man is the only creature on Earth smart enough to build the Empire State Building and dumb enough to jump of it.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Romania’s Crown of Steel

After the Independence War in 1877 – 1878 against the Ottoman Empire, in 1881 Romania became a kingdom and Carol I was crowned King Of Romania.

The Story says that the leaders of the political parties and other Romanian leaders of the time came to Carol I (who was of German origin) with a golden crown with precious stones. They offered him the crown saying that he should have this great symbol (the crown) of his power as the king of an independent country.

At that moment Carol I got really mad and said that the country needs money to recover from the war and continue its development as a modern European country. He didn’t accept the golden crown, told the political leaders to melt it, sell the gold and use the money for the country’s development.

Carol I told the political leaders that if they want to offer him a crown they should take one of the cannons captured during the war, melt it and make a crown out of it.

And so they did. Carol I, the first King of Romania as an independent country was crowned with a steel crown. And all of Romania’s kings that followed Carol I were crowned with the same steel crown.

This Steel Crown is exhibited at the Romanian National History Museum in Bucharest.

I believe that all political people, business people and social and religious leaders should learn from King Carol I.

Maybe this would be a solution to the economic difficulties…

Why it is so difficult to build a personal brand and still be authentic ?

According to Landor Lexicon a "Brand is The sum of all the characteristics, tangible and intangible, that make the offer unique".

This definition is accurate for brands of products, services or companies and for personal brands.

The main difference between a commercial brand (product, service or company) and a personal brand is that a personal brand is a human brand. A human is what he or she is and can’t be transformed in what the target group wants and expects and still be authentic.

If your target group for a cheap family car (product brand) wants a big trunk, a car manufacturer can produce that.

But if your target group for a personal brand wants something that the man or woman does not have it’s impossible to deliver it and still be authentic.

So for personal brands it is much more difficult to deliver something that the man or women does not have and still be authentic.

It’s not very difficult to know what your target group wants and expects from you as a brand.

It’s hard to deliver what they want when you don’t have that… so it means that your brand positioning is not the correct one.

In order to build a strong an authentic personal brand it’s very important to know yourself in depth, to understand who you are and what makes you special and desirable.

Many think that building a personal brand is about being known and having a nice blog and communicate on twitter about everything you do, being on Linked in and having as many connections as possible. Well that’s just the top of the iceberg of a personal brand. It’s similar to advertising and PR for a commercial brand.

Most important in a personal brand (and in a commercial brand) is the brand essence.

What is you personal brand’s brand essence?