After the umpteenth blogpost on personal branding I realized that all this talk of personal brands make my skin crawl. First I have to admit though that about 9 years ago for a writing class, I for the first time used the word personal branding. (And my classmates ate it up.) So I am not without sin. It seemed logical to me to speak of personal brands as we all were trying to put personal traits to brands and the similarities were obvious. After 20 years in branding, the omnipresent use of the word "brand" is starting to bug me. It has bugged me before but with the use of the word brand for people I think we have gone too far.
Don't get me wrong. All the things that are being said about being authentic, consistent and working from your values etc. etc. ring true to me. And I am fine with taking a professional approach to developing once career or once one (wo)man show. Apply the business principles that are useful and valuable and help you become more successful. Use the tools that are available to do your thing and be the best at whatever you want to be.
There are two major problems I have with using the word brand for a person. First of all it seems to be directly and solely related to the use of social networks. The blogpost I refered to at the beginning even states: "If you are an individual or business that has not started to use Social Media, you will not be successful." Really? Four questions play through my head:
- Can a brand only become successful through social networking?
- Can a professional only become successful through social networking?
- Of all the millions of people who are using social networks how many are truly successful?
- Of all of the successful people how many owe their succes to social networks? Think Madonna, think athletes, think of some successful corporate hotshot who doesn't even know how to use his email.
So even if a person is a (successful) brand, social networking is not the only contributing factor to that success. Of that I am pretty sure. Social networking is a tool. It is a tool I like but I think every individual or organization has to find and use tools that work for them.
The second and biggest problem I have with using the word brand for a person is that it depersonalizes or dehumanizes you. In a worst case scenario you may become invisible.
Definitions of “brand” state that the brand exists in the mind of the consumer or any other member of the target group for that matter.
- Does that mean that you are what someone else thinks you are? Is their perception your personal reality? I should hope not with all the misconceptions people tend to have about one another.
- Does it mean that you may be nothing because you as a brand do not exist in other people's minds?
I think a person is a person and should be called a person; or by his or her name. Not a brand. Calling ourselves brands shortchanges our identity. Because if the brand is the driving concept, will you let your personal and professional life be driven by your brand? I don't think anyone would want to have his or her private life dominated by their brand. Not the employee, but also not the one (wo)man business that works 24/7.
But that are just my thoughts on this topic. What do you think?
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