1. Branding “You” as a Career Strategy
Presented by: Bill Tompkins
Tuesday, October 1, 2002

2. Agenda
Why Branding?
What Branding Is
Benefits of Branding
Extending the Brand Concept to Personalities
Creating Your Own Brand
What’s in a Name
Your Mission Statement
Creating Your Plan of Action
Maintaining Your Brand as You Move Forward

3. The Power of Brands
Nike

5. Branding: Why It’s Hot
Differentiation in an environment of declining profits
and increasing competition/product proliferation
Example: grocery products
Fewer barriers to entry
Difficulty of maintaining customer loyalty
In the world of employment:
Less loyalty to firms
Rise in entrepreneurship
The whole purpose of branding yourself is to differentiate
yourself from the masses, to leverage your position.

6. Branding: What It Is
An image or identity with emotional overtones
A positioning in the mind of customers and
prospects that helps to differentiate a product,
store or organization
A personality
A connection between the consumer and the
product
A perception of the differences between your
product and other similar products

7. Branding: What It Is
Branding is the sensory, emotive and cultural image
that is uniquely associated with a company and/or its
products that distinguishes it from its competitors.
A brand is the distinctive activity that differentiates a
relevant, enduring, and credible promise of value
associated with a product, service, or organization,
and indicates the source of that promise.

8. Branding: What It Is
A product is different from a brand.
Products are what companies make and brands are
what customers buy.
Products are the tangible assets that the brand
delivers as part of the experience.

9. Key Attributes of A Great Brand
It tends to be first.
It gets into the mind.
It owns a word.
It stays focused.
It avoids line extension.
It doesn’t change.
It’s very competitive.
It has a good name.
It’s careful about “tomorrow.”
It keeps going and going.
SOURCE: Jack Trout, “Ten Attributes of a Great Brand.”

10. What Brands Deliver to the Customer
Reliability
Value
Customer satisfaction (a
promise)

11. What Brands Deliver to the Company
Higher margins
High market share
Consumer loyalty
Marketplace longevity

12. Branding: Core Elements
Know what the brand
represents
Long term approach
Consistency
Emotional
connection
Relevant
Define the category

13. Extending the Brand Concept to
Personalities

14. Extending the Brand Concept to
Personalities
You are an asset that can be leveraged to
serve your customer base whether it be your
boss, your clients, your friends, or your soul
mates.

15. Martha Stewart
Category: Home
decorating/
entertaining
Brand Essence: “How
to” information to
raise the quality of life
at home

16. Artist Formerly Known as Prince
Category: Singer/artist
(a.k.a. Roger Nelson)
Brand Essence:
Unconventional;
Eccentric
His confidence in his
uniqueness is captured
in a symbol.

17. Bryant Gumbel
Category:
Television journalist;
Close association with
NBC’s Today Morning
Show;
Next The Early Show
(CBS)
Now What?
Brand Essence:
Relentless, tough
interviewer

18. George W. Bush and Albert Gore, Jr.
Category: Politicians
Brand Essence: Mr. Alluring vs. Mr. Boring?

19. Creating Your Own Brand

20. Creating Your Own Brand
“Ultimately, we are all free agents in an economy of free agents, and we
are best to put ourselves in a good bargaining position for next year’s
free-agency market.” -- Tom Peters
For many companies the key assets they are
leveraging to their customers are their
employees.
The demand for broad experience keeps
growing.
There are lots of smart people just like you.
You need to be different.
You need to be a brand – but how?

21. Creating Your Own Brand
“Your personal brand identity is created by finding
the intersection of who you are, who you want to
become and what your organization and customers
want from you-all relative to any competitors.”
“Your personal identity is the sensory, rational,
emotional and cultural image that surrounds you.”
“Personal branding, then is about finding your own
personal essence that, at the same time, is valued
by people in your organization.” --Chuck Pettis

22. Creating Your Own Brand
How do people perceive and experience you?
THIS IS YOUR BRAND.
Your skills, abilities and experiences are the product.

23. Creating Your Own Brand
Your Value: Figure out what value you offer your customer,
your employer.
Message: Hone your message through networking
opportunities.
Strategy: Develop a strategy for getting your message out.
This can be through presentations, public speaking, freelance
projects or involvement in professional organizations.
Sounding Board: Have a sounding board for your brand; get
feedback from your boss and mentors.
Check with yourself: Review your mission statement every six
months.
SOURCE: Adapted from Tom Peters.

24. Creating Your Own Brand
Where do you want to be in 2005?

25. What’s in a Name?
William G. Tompkins, Jr.
Bill Tompkins

26. Mission Statement for the Brand
“You”
What would you want said in your obituary?
How would your best friends describe you?
What do you list as your objective on top of
your resume?
How do people introduce you?
What are you known for?

27. Creating Your Own Plan
What motivates you?
What are the benefits and rewards you seek?
Your What are examples of how you have been
Value successful?
Where are you relative to your competition?
Message
Does your resume reflect your core value?
Is your message consistent throughout all your communications?
Strateg
y
Do you make the most of networking and volunteer opportunities?
Are you a member of boards, community and professional
organizations?
Are you constantly updating your skills to keep abreast of the
market?

28. Creating Your Own Plan
Network Map
Within the Within the
Outside of the Organization
Organization Organization
AND Your OUTSIDE of
Department Your Department
Senior
s
Peers
Subordinate
s
Types of Contacts=Breadth Types of Relationships=Depth Types of Networks=Leverage

29. Maintaining Your Brand Going
Forward
Where do you want to go
from here?
Are you on track?
Are you satisfied with
your career
development?
If so, what are you
doing to enhance it?
If not, what are you
doing to change it?

30. Maintaining Your Brand Going
Forward
Now the clock is ticking-
Start tonight!
Leave an impression
Reintroduce your
brand to the person
next to you - - and
who is that?

31. YOU,
INC.