Browsing articles tagged with " branding"
Oct
27

Stealth Branding, or: The Batman Approach

By The Dude  //  Big Branding  //  No Comments
Image by; dechobek
Image by; dechobek

For most of us, setting out to create and promote our own Brand Identities means at least temporarily having to work a day job for an employer who already has their own. Until you’re ready to end that relationship (preferably on good terms, no need to burn bridges when you’re trying to build a following), you’ll have two brands to maintain; your employer’s and your own.

Dan Schawbel over at Personal Branding Blog has weighed in on this issue, giving us 10 Ways to Get Fired For Building Your Personal Brand. Dan’s got some great advice, and several of his examples seem to have the same moral:
Your Personal Brand and Your Employer’s Brand Should Never Mix.
 
Whether it’s a difference in ideaology, or an issue of the amount of time you’re spending on your brand instead of your employer’s, or your Brand putting you in direct competition/opposition with your employer, there will always be a reason why it is not a good idea to invite your manager to be your Facebook Fan, or link back to your CEO’s blog from your own.
It becomes so much simpler (and I think, more fun), if you handle it this way… Are you ready for this? …. You. Are. Batman.
You heard me. Batman. You are mild-mannered Bruce Wayne by day, responsible head of Wayne Enterprises. You manage your employees, you return value to your stockholders. You are a model citizen of the corporate world. But at night, you strap on your cape and cowl, and you fight for your ideals and your morals, making Gotham City a better place to live.
Okay, so I’m a huge nerd. But, I’m also serious. Until you’re ready for your Brand to become your full-time job and source of income, keep it as a secret identity, at least from prying eyes at work who might not like those pictures you just posted to your branded Flickr account.
How do you keep your work and personal Brands separate?  Share in the comments.
Oct
26

Big Branding: My Starbucks Story

By The Dude  //  Big Branding  //  No Comments

stb

Global coffee powerhouse Starbucks has begun a new campaign, encouraging their “parners” (this is their word for “employees”) to upload video shorts about their day-to-day lives at  Starbucks. A cynical reader could think “sure, global conglomorate who provides my paycheck. I’m already your wage slave, why don’t I  film your next commercial for you., too?” But this really is, in no small way, brilliant.

Over time, Starbucks has lost some of its marketshare to smaller chains and local coffee houses because Starbucks has gotten a bad rap as a soulless corporation amongst a customer base that includes a ton of artists and entertainers who are not so much into that sort of thing. What a perfect way for Starbucks to strengthen their brand by saying, “look, we’re real people too.”

Starbucks  empoyees partners, especially the baristas, really are the front lines of the customer experience with the company and  the company’s entire Brand Identity. When we get to know and like them, we get to know and like Starbucks again. Even if they burn their poor little coffee beans far past the point where they are still recognizable as coffee.

So, what do we learn here? Well, if a multi-national, multi-million dollar (billion dollar?  Is it bad if I don’t go look it up?) corporation can do it, why not you? Show yourself to your potential customers! Not your slick, commercialized, ready-to-make-the-sale self, but you. Create a YouTube post, or podcast, or editorial blog post to really introduce yourself to your audience and let them know you’re just as likable as you are awesomely talented.

My Starbucks Story (via)

Oct
1

What’s Your Brand Identity?

By The Dude  //  Our Philosophy  //  No Comments
Image By: jkirkhart35

Image By: jkirkhart35

Okay, stop right there. Yeah. We know exactly what you’re thinking. “I am neither a soft drink, nor a cow. I’m just not feeling the whole branding thing..” Well, listen up, Spanky, because believe it or not, this is good stuff. When we find your brand identity and apply it to your online battle strategy, you’ll be turning the tide in your campaign for recognition. (Did that work? We’re not good at war analogies.)

What is a Personal Brand?

 

Everyone’s got a public face. No, really. Feel around right below your eyes. Feel that thing sticking out? And the thing below that? (Careful, it bites.)

Okay, seriously. Here’s the deal. Every time you send out your resume, or put up a personal website, or present a demo reel, or hand out a business card, you’re telling people who you are. It’s not just the content, but the presentation, the mode of delivery, the message you are sending to all five senses (well, hopefully your clients aren’t touching you too much), and the general impression you leave long after the content is put aside.

This may be something you are completely unaware of, but whether or not you believe in your Brand Identity, your Brand Identity believes in you.

Why Should I Care?

If you’re going to live in a cave, you shouldn’t. If you’re going to snatch up a corporate job and stay there for the next thirty years you’ll (probably) be okay without giving this much thought. But if you’re out there looking for a potential audience, a future boss, a new client, a ton of customers… here’s the thing no artist or entertainer should ever forget: You’re not just selling your product, or your services; you’re selling yourself, baby.

There’s two things that can go wrong with your Brand Identity, and either path leads to heartache:

1) Your Brand ≠ you: Take control of that Brand Identity, Chief, or it’s gonna take control of you.

This problem emerges when you do the legwork to get your Brand out there, but never really build a cohesive Brand in the first place

Symptoms: default templates, mismatched color schemes, unnecessary social networking, audience left unsure who you are.

Prognosis: Fair for an artist with very strongly displayed work. Not so great for an entertainer looking to build an online following and find employment.

2) Your Brand is nowhere to be found: Is that the sound of crickets?

This problem is a doozy: not only are you unsure what exactly your Brand Identity is, but you don’t even have a Brand to speak of.

Symptoms: You don’t appear in the Google results for your own name. Little to no online presence. A phone that doesn’t ring.

Prognosis: Plenty of time to pound the pavement, but patient may completely cease to exist online.

How Do I Find My Brand Identity?

This is the fun stuff. We’re no mathematicians here at Fat Dude, but we have found a very simple equation to identify a successful Brand Identity. It breaks down like this:

Your Self Image + Your Goals – Your Drunken Spring Break Photos = How Others View You x All The Time

Think about the celebrities who must successfully manage their Brands. People like Donald Trump, Paris Hilton, Ozzy Osbourne, Kim Kardashian, Ryan Seacrest. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, these are people who totally manage the public face they put forward. Here at Fat Dude, we do not suggest that you try to be anyone you are not (you perfect little snowflake, you), but we do suggest that you think long and hard about who you are and how you can apply that scintillating little personality of yours towards your career.

Once that self-image is defined, it’s a matter of making choices that give everything you touch a little of that same personality.

How Do I Get My Brand Identity Out There?

Okay, kids. We live in a world where Web 2.0 has been fully adopted (and co-opted?) by the corporate world. It’s the suit-and-tie types who we have to thank for terms like “Online Identity Management,” “Online Reputation Management,” and “Social Media Optimization.” We’re not really fans of the long, complicated language here at Fat Dude, so we simply call the process “Selling your Brand.”

If you pack up your Brand in your spiffy little Brand-mobile, and head out into the big, digital world, there are endless places to hawk your wares. Should you spend all your marketing time on Facebook? Twitter? YouTube? A blog? A podcast? A Flickr account? And how much time should you spend, anyway? And how often?

That’s where your favorite uncle, Fat Dude, comes into play. We believe everyone has a unique Brand Identity that can ultimately lead to success, without leading to loss of sleep and an empty wallet. We’d love to find the solution that’s right for you. Drop us a line.

(Reposted from the original here)

Sep
21

Cookie Cutters Suck

By The Dude  //  Our Philosophy  //  No Comments
Image by: rogerimp

Image by: rogerimp

Listen, we’re hardly snobs at Fat Dude. We love junk food. We’ve never owned a piece of designer clothing. We are even known to watch a bit of reality television (Every network TV show should include a Wade Robson dance routine… just sayin’). But there’s one thing we don’t get; the cookie-cutter, mass-produced, couldn’t-have-less-freaking-personality website template. read more