The phenomenon of personal branding is the answer to an economy in which work is organized in market form. Employees sell their time, their skills and their energy on the labor market. So far, so obvious.
They are in competition with other, similarly qualified people for the best jobs. Which is not new either.
In this competitive situation, personal branding is supposed to help employees and freelancers assert themselves against their competitors. The phenomenon has - beside show business and high-level management - not yet really caught on in Germany. But like everything from the USA, it will certainly become more prevalent here too - with a certain time lag, though.
Since we at metru are experts in the field of applications, recruiting and talent management, it is only natural that we also explore the topic of self-marketing and personnel branding in a little more depth.
Branding has been around for quite some time now. "The idea of the consumer brand originated in the late 19th century, and consumer branding - the association of consumer goods with an easily identifiable brand name - flourished from around 1920 to 1970. (...)
However, the 1970s and 1980s saw increased competition in an expanding marketplace, both for the consumer products themselves and for the media through which they were marketed. In particular, the advent of cable television brought new challenges, but also opportunities for branding as a communication strategy, as television now appealed to broader target groups." (Lair, Sullivan, Cheney: Marketization and the Recasting of the Professional Self)
The concept of "personal branding", on the other hand, was first presented by Thomas J. Peters in 1997. He did not yet call it "personal branding", but "Brand You". He published an article and later a book entitled "The Brand Called You". In it, he popularized this special form of self-marketing, for which the term "personal branding" only became established somewhat later.
Quite simply put, personal branding is the creation of an individual's brand.
A brand is a unique sign, symbol, word or combination thereof that creates an image that identifies a product or company and makes it stand out from the competition. Over time, this image becomes associated with competence, credibility, quality and satisfaction in the perception of customers and employers. In this way, the brand establishes itself and focuses attention.
The personal brand is therefore a promise made to customers/employers. It tells them what level of added value they can expect from the person's products and services. It distinguishes the person's offering from that of competitors.
The respective value of the brand depends largely on the reach of the person. The larger the audience, the higher the value of the personal brand.
The personal brand is the sum of who a person is, who they want to be and who people perceive them to be. And this sum is what others think and say about us. Or as Jeff Bezos put it: "Your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room."
Building a personal brand requires a certain communicative openness and transparency on the part of the person in order to establish credibility.
It also requires a consistent, unmistakable point of view. Because this ensures distinctiveness. Anyone who has little to say apart from platitudes and tries to be everything to everyone will at best create a watered-down, ineffective brand. Franz Joseph Strauß, one of the most unmistakable personal brands in post-war German politics, summarized this as follows: "Everybody's darling is everybody's idiot."
On the one hand, a personal brand is deeply rooted in the respective individual person. On the other hand, the connection between brand and product/person is rather vague and unspoken. This has advantages. Because the product or personality has the opportunity to develop flexibly within this framework. One example of this is Madonna, who is repeatedly cited for her successful personal branding. On the one hand, she has continuously worked on her brand since her beginnings, but on the other, she has reinvented herself with every new album.
One thing is certain: the greater our ambitions and the greater the number of competitors we are up against, the more we are required to market our abilities in the same way as any other marketable product. This also includes personal branding. Because a brand makes us distinguishable from other offers on the market. It can also be loaded with complex meanings. It "condenses and symbolizes a message, it stands for certain values and arouses emotions."
However, there is one important distinction to be made.
Hans Domizlaff, who wrote a classic book on building and maintaining of brands, makes a strict distinction between a brand and advertising.
For him, a brand is something that stable, well-managed companies develop over the long term by reliably supplying products of consistently good quality at a good price.
He contrasts such established companies with puffery. The latter cannot build brands. This is because it is loud, garish, changeable and geared towards quick sales. If the product turns out to be garbage, the puffer has usually already left the scene. Self-marketing with these characteristics is therefore not suitable for building a long-term effective brand.
This has already been hinted at above in the history of personal branding - it is neither necessary nor possible without certain media prerequisites. First of all, you need the media in which the brand can (and must) be established.
This is why personal branding on the scale it is today has only been possible since the rise of the internet. The Internet and social media in particular have made it possible to achieve the reach required to establish a large number of brands. Only with the advent of todays internet has the threshold to access to the public become so low that it is possible for many people to present themselves publicly. And in order to stand out from the crowd, a brand needs to be recognizable. A good example of this is the German blogger Sascha Lobo, who without his bright red mohawk would perhaps still be little more than a competent, opinionated copywriter and author.
Some people might object: But hasn’t Madonna managed to become a brand - fifteen years before the internet even became a medium suitable for the masses? And it's true, she did it without the internet and its reach. But she didn't need the internet either. She was under contract to a subsidiary of Time Warner, one of the world's largest media groups. Time Warner was able to give her the reach she needed without the Internet.
So, personal branding is something that was once reserved for pop stars and similarly prominent people. But now the star system has expanded from entertainment to the rest of the working world. Like Steve Jobs in the past and Richard Branson and Elon Musk today, the central personal brands of the business world act like rock or movie stars - including fans such as Frank Thelen, who thinks everything Elon Musk does is good.
So personal branding is something that was once reserved for pop stars and similarly prominent people. But now the star system has expanded from entertainment to the rest of the world of employment. Like Steve Jobs in the past and Richard Branson and Elon Musk today, the central personal brands of the business world act like rock or movie stars - including fans such as Frank Thelen, who indiscriminately loves everything Elon Musk does.
Experts agree that image alone is not a brand. Unlike a brand, an image can easily change. A personal brand, on the other hand, is deeply anchored in the individual person. It has a close relationship with the personality and encompasses their skills, experience, values, authenticity, vision, goals and how they are perceived by others.
This is why strong personal brands are value-oriented, distinctive, relevant, consistent and authentic.
This brings us to the point where personal branding is important for companies.
In short, companies benefit when people with a strong and intact personal brand work for them. Not only are they competent in what they do and make valuable contributions to the company's value creation. This is because their public image and their reputation rub off positively on the company.
As a result, people with a well-known personal brand are able to multiply the success of their companies in a way that can hardly be achieved with innovation and sound business management alone.
Steve Jobs is a good example. His personal brand made it possible for Apple to be celebrated even for products that were not exactly sensational compared to those of its competitors. But the reputation of the company and the almost messianic image of Steve Jobs effortlessly overshadowed this fact. This is how Apple became one of the most valuable brands in the global economy.
One way to shape your own brand is, of course, to cultivate a specific, personal aesthetic. Sascha Lobo with his bright red mohawk is another example of this, contributing to his recognizability in a way that is hard to beat.
Elton John's penchant for eccentric glasses falls into the same category.
Steve Jobs' appearances in jeans, sweaters and sneakers were also relevant to his personal branding. His departure from the standard CEO practice of wearing high-priced, custom-made suits, shirts and shoes was also a form of personal branding. In this case, it consists of understatement, which does not need to appear through status symbols.
Ultimately, however, only those who have something to show below the visible surface that defines their brand should start modifying such outward appearances. Otherwise, it's just another dazzle.
The aesthetics and tonality should of course also be adapted to the respective career phase and position in the company. After all, many a boss could take umbrage at the personal brand of one of his employees that is beginning to outshine his own.
This brings us to the point where personal branding is important for companies.
To summarize: originally, personal branding was something that was mainly relevant for executives, freelancers and scientists after film and pop stars. On the other hand, as an employed civil engineer, electrician, domestic engineer or cleaner, you probably don't need to think too much about this topic. However, there are many intermediate levels between these two ends of the job spectrum. For many employees within this spectrum, good personal branding (to an appropriate extent) can be very effective and useful.
The only thing that remains to be said is that personal branding is not particularly distinct from neighboring subject areas. It can also be effective in these areas - if it is successful.
Under favorable circumstances, good personal branding can be turned into a career as a (corporate) influencer. Such an influencer can put their personal brand at the service of a brand and thus benefit the branding of companies.
Or the personal brand can be linked to a company's employer branding/personnel marketing and promote it. One example of this is Cawa Younosi, Head of HR at SAP Germany and one of the LinkedIn Top Voices. He not only posts on LinkedIn as an authority in his field. Together with his personal branding, he also operates the employer branding of his employer. SAP is also one of the top employers on LinkedIn.
Then there is the concept of so-called social CEOs such as Tina Müller (Douglas) or Richard Branson (Virgin). Their personal branding and the brand communication of their companies also flow together and reinforce each other. Their presence promotes awareness of their respective company's brand.
Short and sweet, companies benefit from hiring people with a strong personal brand.
This post was first published in October 2022 in our old Recruiter Blog.
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