Recently I was reading an interview in the latest edition of Personal Branding Magazine by Dan Schawbel. The interview is centred on Monica Von Neumann giving initiative. Some of the points  I gained from the interview informed the creation of this piece.

A peculiar trait issue I have noticed  in many people is  that they want every situation to be suitable before they make a commitment to go ahead with their dreams. There is no such time when everything will be at that peak. Even when we think that exist, who says there is a guarantee that things will work out as planned. But some, in the midst of the uncertainties go ahead to try out the thoughts running on their minds.  Often such steps lead them to where they should be.

Many of us have identified several areas where our talents can be channelled. But we keep hoping that a magic will happen. We always hope such magic wand will compel us to move. Nothing moves until we move and all object remains in a static form until a force is applied still rule here.

We do not win by wishing, we win through a consistent action on our well- thought out plans.

So from the interview I mentioned earlier, here my take-outs on how to start acting towards the achievement of making a meaningful point with your personal brand.

 People are curious and want to learn about you. Use that to your advantage. It may also be true that attention is scarce but you may not know who want to learn more from your brand. So you need to work extra mile to give this selected audience what they need from you. When that is done well, you can be sure you will enjoy great word of mouth that can enhance your brand’s profile  

Work on your passions –get your brand “out there” and become viral. Start by working on the few audience that is willing to listen to you and as you make progress, your brand will start gaining the buzz.

You have to give something to get something: Do not forget that excellent life is about giving first. Have the mind of giving as much as you can and the ripple effect will surprise you.

Use life experiences and have a plan to make yourself known. Being honest helps you. People know you are not perfect neither are they. So show your humanity, use your daily experiences to make the right impact. With these I think an individual is on his/her way to stardom.

Let me hear from you. What has worked for you? Share it in the comment section.

Branding is no doubt an essential part in business growth and development in recent times. Many businesses have been able to surmount tough market challenges as a result of the application of branding concepts. Many are still in the process of creating valuable perception in the mind of their prospects and buyers with the use of branding. Nonetheless individuals and nations are not left out in this process.

Branding is as a concept is designed to differentiate your product from all the other products in the same market category with your product.

The differences created can be said to be:

• Tangible –this emanates from the functional value derived from products by consumers.
• Intangible –this emanates from the rational, symbolic or emotional values held in the mind of your consumers.

In recent times, it is assumed that most products and services are bought and not sold. The basic factor that greatly facilitates this process is Branding. Branding pre-sells the product or service to the user.

Singularity, identification and perception play vital roles in the process of branding. The singularity in identification creates a first-hand impression and perception in the mind of your buyers and prospects.

As the commercial markets for products and services are being saturated daily with new entries. Branding therefore calls for attention if you desire to stay in business or have a market share. It must be noted that branding is basically done to get your prospects to see your products or services as the only one that provides solution to their problems.

Benefits of Branding Your Business

Internal Benefits :It helps fine tune your business strategy and offerings as well as ensure adequate return on investments.

External Benefits: Branding help connect your customers and prospects to your offerings emotionally, increases customer loyalty and Improve your product perception and performances.

Power Points for Building Strong Brands

• Identify a need and create a market for that need.
• Create a strong brand identity
• Develop your offerings to become an essentially strong and highly demanded need.
• Define and focus your offerings on meeting that need you have identified, never fall into the gamut of being eager to branch off or extend your offerings so soon.
• Generate publicity through your brand offering. What people say about your brand is more powerful than what you say about it yourself.
• Be consistent and have a quality strategy for service credibility
• Keep re-enforcing the brand with advertisement
• Never stop researching for brand innovation and reinvention to fit with the market dynamics.
• Open a viable communication for resonance and feedback. Connect with your customers emotions. Online presence should not be left out in this process.
• Have a social investment initiative to re-inforce the brand positioning.
• Have a long term perspective and an effective management process for performance revaluation.

Author: Seun Adeogun is a brand specialist in Lagos Nigeria

We know most brands are yet to recover from the recession. Most brands’ corporate social responsibilities have suffered a lot of setback because of this. Not only in our climes but I do believe everywhere. The last two years has increased the level of financial stress for Nongovernmental organizations that rely on funding from donor organizations to continue their impacts. As an individual, I do not believe every philanthropic gesture must be in check. Checks are good but in the absence of check something else can still be offered to sincere organizations that are really doing the work.

In a conference we held in February 2010, A multinational (GSK PLC) could not offer money but gave product-drinks –that helped in no small way. MTN Nigeria was able to help out with a check that also helped. We salute these great organizations for being there.

 The essence of this article is based on my personal believe that everyone, brand can give something no matter how small to make a difference in a cause they believe in. Oprah Winfrey once said “I don’t think you ever stop giving. I really don’t. I think it’s an on-going process. And it’s not just about being able to write a check. It’s being able to touch somebody’s life.

In a recent edition of personal branding Magazine (that was just released), I am so happy that the issue of philanthropy is given a major story status. I have come to the conclusion (I stand to be corrected) that only brand that does not know its value will say it has nothing to offer. For instance it takes energy, commitment and dedication to give out free information. That is a form of giving. Many write and sell articles on the net .I am not condemning that act though.

So I strongly believe corporate brands can give through several means. Most corporate brands have experts who can coach, mentor the young ones in schools and colleges. Most can afford to print a few thousands of writing materials, text books and distribute them freely. Most corporate, personal brands can organize competitions among the youths that will project their strong believe in a cause. Most can have a library within their head office where external audience can read, borrow books from. It cost nothing or less to go to orphanage homes and give motivational lectures.

It also cost less to go to remands homes and give reconstructive lessons to some wayward children. What about the Managing Director of a great conglomerate who has sound integrity and can explain how he gets there organizes a three hour session for selected start up entrepreneurs twice or thrice a year in their corporate headquarters’ conference room to avoid incurring cost?

A major point that the Magazine above also stressed is the ability of individual, corporate brands to make their impacts viral through social media by asking your network to help promote the cause. I think most brands that do not do anything have nothing that ignites them. This may be as a result of lack of concern of someone up in the cadre. While we will allow our community to think about what ignites them, I love a quotation by Candance Cameron Bure (that the cover story centres on) when she said “I think that all of us have a responsibility and an obligation to be a voice for those that can’t be a voice for themselves.” If a brand cannot be anything for anybody, it means something is wrong somewhere. What is your brand doing to affect its community and what is the motive of such?

You do not need heavy checks to make impact even though that goes a long way to reach millions when judiciously used. When a brand makes impact with what it has, it can build trust, credibility, engagement, love, passion etc around its name. People watch what you are doing daily with what you have. Time to start with what you have.

We live in the age of information, connection and conversation. Any brand that will be successful today must understand generosity to thrive. To make impact you must go all out to help both established and upcoming brands. I am beginning to understand that you must be ready to give without a demand for returns immediately when you are pioneering a cause. I have made a commitment to help, affect as many people that need my professional advice. Each day I get called from students who are interested in brand community building, social media and how it relates to Public relations, marketing etc.

As tight as my schedules are, I have learnt to create time for them, took them one- on -one session and load them with enough materials they will need to stand alone. Sometimes that appears a mere waste of time but recently I was doing a study on social and cultural capital and this gave me a new perspective. While trying to help, I discovered my brand is becoming visible to future managers who will hold position of authority in the industry. As we know visibility and reputation affect the decision making process and at the end of the day they influence behaviours.

It is a privilege to have knowledge to share. I read recently also that ‘When an individual has a lot of people in his/her life who are willing to support him and his ideas, people who want to hear what he has to say and who are interested in talking to him and talking about him, such  an individual has an incredible gift that is called social capital’

Social capital also refers to both network of relationships, you have and have access to. French sociologist Pieitrre Bourdieu also defined social capital as ‘the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognitions’. Funding this account so that you can draw on it later means that you are making connection, building bridges, reaching out to people with aim of giving, staying in touch always with either your strong or weak ties.

Weak ties are those you meet in occasions, online but there is no such bond but you are willing to stretch yourself to those that matter. Technology, social software and networking sites can help us to do this well. You do not need to visit or having to call them every day. But we may need to acknowledge that it is not how many we have that count but how you make use of them.

As good as social capital is, it has limitations. So what takes your brand from here is cultural capital. Cultural capital rests on depth of influence. A great connection or network without strong influence will not help much. Cultural capital encompasses person’s knowledge, experience, connection to the extent, amount of influence a brand has in a society or tribe.

What this meant is that with all the social connection, if the brand has no expertise, experience, knowledge among other great features, it may not wield influence that will guarantee enough capital that it will need to exchange for other tangible or intangible values. The import of the above is while trying to build connection, network among other ingredients that will help build brand’s social capital, the depth of the value of such capital can be affected when the brand lacks expertise, experience and knowledge that will add up to brand’s depth of influence on the social network that produces the cultural capital.

In closing, every brand needs to start from somewhere. Start building your social capital while you are still building your cultural capital. If you have to wait until all the features of Cultural capital are in place before building social capital it may be late. Research has shown that Social capital plus Cultural capital will always guarantee heavy financial capital. Someone actually concluded that Social capital and Cultural capital are greater than financial capital. Whether that is true I cannot draw conclusion here. But what do you think?