Personal Brand Management (Management for Professionals) 3030437434, 9783030437435

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Management for Professionals

Talaya Waller

Personal Brand Management Marketing Human Value

Management for Professionals

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10101

Talaya Waller

Personal Brand Management Marketing Human Value

123

Talaya Waller Waller & Company Personal Branding Consulting Washington, DC, USA

ISSN 2192-8096 ISSN 2192-810X (electronic) Management for Professionals ISBN 978-3-030-43743-5 ISBN 978-3-030-43744-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43744-2 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Preface

This book is intended for anyone who considers themselves a marketer; and in this day and age, that is most of us. The demand for personal branding has grown dramatically in the past few decades and, with that increase in demand, the complexity, confusion, and flurry of information surrounding it has multiplied as well. I wrote this book because I realized both individuals and businesses need frameworks for understanding the phenomena and process of personal brand management. I have been a guest lecturer, not only at business schools and conferences, but also for psychology and economics departments because they too are affected by personal branding. Throughout my research and engagement with audiences and students, I have realized that properly understanding the concept of “personal branding” is the gap in marketing that is a pain point in nearly every field. There is substantial research on the topic but essentially few books that instructors use to teach students about it. Moreover, I realized that there needs to be a theoretical framework that looks at the phenomenon of personal branding as a whole, and a conceptual framework that is also applicable to individuals throughout the stages of development of their careers and businesses. The framework was developed through research, practice, and observation. For it to be a framework it has to be applicable across industries and disciplines. Many books on personal branding are “how-to” guides. This book is not an instruction manual on how to have a personal brand; rather, it is a comprehensive dissemination on how to think about the concept at any and all stages of a personal brand. For this reason, the book is divided into three sections to reflect the three phases of personal brand development—Strategy (creating the brand), Implementation (promoting and monetizing the brand), and Management (protecting and tracking brand equity). The framework in this book is intended to provide insight and perspective on all phases of a brand in its recursive life cycle through these stages. In my work as a consultant, I have built my career on helping clients find and focus on personal brand strategy and then connect them with partners for implementation and management. Personal brand development is not a linear process; at my company, people and companies come to us at different stages or with different needs within these stages of development. Even if a brand is highly developed, the managers of it still need to keep rethinking strategy as they hire and spend more to grow the brand. Or, if there is a shift in distribution channels, a person or company

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might have to revisit another phase in the brand. I have often found that people do not realize their brand’s value or existence until there is a crisis―and then it’s time to evaluate the brand across all three stages. For professionals already working in marketing, whether they are individuals or practitioners at large corporations, this book is intended to be used as a practical and professional framework. For students, this book is useful as they market themselves for careers within different fields. Personal branding is applicable across disciplines, whether these students choose to go into marketing or a career that requires them to manage some aspect of other people’s brand (i.e., politics, law, or digital technology). Finally, entrepreneurs should find this book especially helpful given the rapidity at which entrepreneurship has changed. Today, entrepreneurs are working from an inverted e-commerce model where they can monetize human personality and associations before attempting to monetize products and services. In all cases, people must start from their network to leverage their brand’s value. This is especially true for public figures (CEOs, politicians, talents, etc.) and the people who work for them, but also true for anyone seeking a competitive edge within their field (healthcare, finance, government, technology, etc.). When using this book, instructors, students, and practitioners should keep in mind that personal branding is an activity, not a checklist of tasks. With this in mind, I chose the exemplary cases for each chapter with the intention of providing the best context for the particular concept the chapter expounds upon. It is important to note that the cases are snapshots that highlight a specific moment or aspect about an individual’s brand management that aligns with the theoretical point. They are not a commentary or “biography” of an entire life or brand’s trajectory. The cases are chosen based on the idea that they were each a personal brand decision, which is ultimately a business decision. At its core, branding is economic and, with each case, there is an economic impact on the brand. The same idea also applies to the interview subjects, who were selected to show readers different professional opportunities and provide practitioners valuable insights within the field of personal branding. The people interviewed have been working in the field for a long time, and in some cases, before personal branding was even considered a field. Highlighting practitioner standpoints and career perspectives is particularly valuable to the expansion of the conceptual framework. Ultimately, this book attempts to distill the underlying concept of personal branding as it plays out in ever changing, more complex ways in our global economy. While the methods, platforms, distribution channels, etc. will continue to evolve, the stages of brand development have always been—and will remain—the same. This book provides an overall understanding of the concept of personal branding in order to give it clarity and structure in theory and in practice. Washington, USA

Talaya Waller

Acknowledgements

I would like to first thank my parents for their unwavering love and support. There are many people that contributed to this project but there was one person in particular that was there from the beginning to the end—my editor Daphne Muller. Her positive affirmations and publishing experience was invaluable. I also want to thank my publishing editor Nitza Jones-Sepulveda for believing that I could take on this project and following up with me to make sure that I did. Her excitement about the topic gave me the confidence to make the sacrifices necessary to see it through. There were also people who contributed their time to review chapters such as my long-time business mentor Willie Farrow and academic mentor Jason Newcomer. Thank you both for believing in me. Other professional colleagues that donated their time to provide general feedback include Aishia Gilliam and LaToya Gregory-Clark (University of South Florida). The framework, one of the most important aspects of this book, was peer-reviewed by Gratiana Pol, a consumer psychologist and seasoned quantitative researcher who has published several studies on branding. I would also like to thank my Brazil-based researcher Leila Maria Costa de Souza and Westminster College summer intern Cailey Edwards for sourcing various examples. I would also like to thank the many students, conference participants, and marketing professionals who have attended my classes, panel talks, and speeches around the world. Their participation in and enthusiasm for the subject of personal branding is largely the reason why I was inspired to write this book; I consider this work as an extension of the many thoughtful conversations and questions I’ve encountered in my fieldwork. Lastly, I would like to thank the expert practitioners―David Falk, Laura Ries, Moraima Ivory, and Steven Fink―that allowed me to interview them for this book. I believe that their invaluable insight will help to educate and inspire professionals and students around the world.

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2 What Is a Personal Brand? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Learning Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . What Is a Personal Brand? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Impact of Personal Brands Identity on Corporate Brand Identity . Establishing Core Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Identity Versus Brand Image–What Is the Difference? . . . . . . Personal Brand Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Name and Visual Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Importance of Brand Names with Marketing Expert Laura Ries . Making the “Personal” Visible with the Brand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frida Kahlo and Her “Selfie” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Personality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Coco Chanel’s “Practical” Luxury Personality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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1 An Introduction to Personal Branding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Personal Branding: Why All the Buzz? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Personal Branding Is Different . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Personal Branding Defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Personal Branding Is Everywhere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A Brief History of Personal Branding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Practical Applications of Personal Branding for Individuals and Corporations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Personal Brand Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Theory Versus Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A Personal Brand as a Financial Asset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Part I

Personal Brand Development & Positioning Strategy: Defining, Discovering, and Delivering a Brand

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Personal Brand Associations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Victoria Beckham and the Posh Association . Brand Mantra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Heritage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barack Obama’s Brand Heritage . . . . . . . . . Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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3 Discovering Your Target Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Learning Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Power of Consumer Data and Analytics . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Research and Targeting, Donald Trump and Cambridge Analytica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Finding the Best Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oprah Winfrey—Developing a Cult Brand . . . . . . . . . . Market Segmentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Elon Musk Versus Stakeholders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creating Audience Personas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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4 Positioning for a Competitive Advantage . . . . . . . . . Learning Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Positioning Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thought-Leaders Positioning Themselves . . . . . . . . . . . Why Does First Matter? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Employee Branding and Internal Brand Positioning at Southwest Airlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Positioning Within an Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Professional Brand Positioning with Résumés . . . . . . . Positioning for Profit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CEO Positioning and Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Competing Computers: Bill Gates Versus Steve Jobs

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“SWOT”-ing the Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Repositioning the Image of Robyn “Rihanna” Fenty . . . . . . Differentiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Points of Differentiation (POD) Versus Points of Parity (POP) Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Political Branding, Bush Versus Dukakis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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5 Marketing Personal Brands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Learning Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marketing Personal Brands and Building Consumer Relationships . Making an Impression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Competing for Visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Likeability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hillary Clinton and the Likeability Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Content Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Storytelling Through Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Rise of Social Media Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . From Zucknet to Facebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Owning the Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Choosing the Right Marketing Mix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Integrated Marketing System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kevin Hart: Funny Man and Marketing Mogul . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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6 The Monetization of Personal Brands . Learning Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Monetization in a Global Economy . . . . Monetizing a Personal Brand . . . . . . . . . Brand Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Traditional Celebrity Endorsements . . . .

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Part II

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Strategic Implementation & Personal Brand Growth: Marketing and Monetizing a Brand in the New Economy

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Attention Pays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Paris Hilton, Heritage Meets Selfies as an Influencer Brand . The Value of Personal Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cristiano Ronaldo, Top Athlete Influencer . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tiers of Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thought-Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. Oz, Healthcare Thought-Leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Part III

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Personal Brand Protection & Equity Management: Legally Protecting, Managing, and Growing a Brand’s Economic Value

7 Legally Protecting Personal Brand Equity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Learning Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Maintaining Ownership of a Personal Brand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . KFC Colonel Sanders the Face of the Brand . . . . . . . . . . . . Personality and Publicity Rights Meets Reality TV . . . . . . . . . . Intellectual Property Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Importance of Intellectual Property Law with Legal Expert Moraima Ivory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Trademarking a Personal Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . What’s in a Name? Case of Babe Ruth Versus Baby Ruth . . Brand Attributions on Social Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Protecting Brand Ownership of Digital Property . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beyoncé the Queen Bee of Her Intellectual Property . . . . . . . Brands Under Contract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Prince Versus Warner Bros from Person to Symbol . . . . . . . Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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9 Strategies for Managing Personal Brand Equity . . Learning Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Authenticity Versus Branding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Authenticity Within Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Authenticity Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ellen Degeneres, Bravery, and Authenticity . . . . . Rebranding and Repositioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rebranding from “The Rock” to Dwayne Johnson What Is Personal Brand Equity? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Translating Brand Identity into Brand Equity . . . . . . Measuring Personal Brand Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Measuring the Value of Air Jordan . . . . . . . . . . . David Falk on Determining Brand Value . . . . . . . . . Tracking Personal Brand Equity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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8 Personal Brand Reputation Management . . . . . . Learning Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Risk of Visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Impression Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Reputation and Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Executive Reputation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gig Economy and Reputation Scores . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Threats and Online Reputation Management . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Comedians and Cancel Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . Crisis Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Steven Fink on Crisis Management . . . . . . . . . . . . Preparing for a Crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Judy Smith, the Real Olivia Pope . . . . . . . . . . . Digital Crisis Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Building Trust Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CEOs and Crisis Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jeff Bezos Versus the National Enquirer . . . . . . . Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Brand Audit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brand Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ruhnn Holdings: Scaling a Company on a Brand . Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Afterword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

About the Author

Talaya Waller, M.B.A., D.B.A. is an international personal branding consultant and professor. In 2014, she founded Waller & Company (https:// wallerandcompany.com) to provide research-based, data-driven personal brand strategies for CEOs, top-level executives, and industry leaders looking to position their expertise and increase business revenue. From Fortune 500 companies to royal dignitaries, she’s had the privilege to work with a diverse range of clients to develop personal brands that target the audiences they want to reach. Dr. Waller also leads the business development of a patent-pending software that integrates data and personal brand management within universities and corporations. As an adjunct professor at Maryland Institute College of Art and a guest professor at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, Dr. Waller has taught Personal Brand Management around the world. She has been a visiting professor at several leading universities and has delivered personal branding lectures to Business Marketing students in the United States, Poland, Australia, Switzerland, Chile, South Korea, and South Africa. She is passionate about her qualitative approach to personal branding research and, in 2017, was awarded the Presidential Alumni Research Dissemination Award for publishing a study about mobile game technology, marketing, and entrepreneurship. In addition to her academic and consulting work, Dr. Waller is an in-demand public speaker. She has delivered personal branding workshops for several

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organizations including the Federal Reserve Board, House Democratic Caucus, and the Chicago Association of Realtors. Notably, in 2018, Dr. Waller was invited to present a viral TEDx titled The Future of Branding is Personal. Dr. Waller’s work has been featured in Refinery29, TV news outlets and in publications such as New York Magazine, Forbes, Fast Company, Business Insider, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

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An Introduction to Personal Branding

Personal Branding: Why All the Buzz? Branding adds spirit and a soul to what would otherwise be a robotic, automated, generic price-value proposition. If branding is ultimately about the creation of human meaning, it follows logically that it is the humans who must ultimately provide it. —David Aaker, American organizational theorist

Powered by break-speed innovation, revolutionary social change, and rapid growth, the global economy is more energized with ideas and imagination than ever before. Widespread Internet use has given rise to a global technology economy, which in turn, has driven nearly all industries to make themselves visible on rapidly new and diverse platforms. The traditional approach of building a brand based on consistency and familiarity, with little transformation, is no longer the working-model for today’s most successful individuals and companies. In the past, corporate marketing professionals studied brand personality theory, which applied human characteristics to products and services. Now, humans are marketing themselves and monetizing through products and services after they build their brand. According to CBNData, a commercial data company affiliated with Alibaba, the “Internet celebrity economy” was worth approximately 58 billion yuan or $8.2 billion dollars in 2016. Today’s economy requires individuals, entrepreneurs, and companies to be creative and innovative with their public image in order to compete. Brands can no longer remain fixed in their message, image, and platforms if they want to stay relevant—they must be dynamic as people. This sea of change in branding is happening with manifold rapidity. Until recently, a company assessed its value evaluating its tangible assets (e.g., real estate, land, livestock, commodities), while intangible assets (e.g., branding) accounted for only a small component of a corporation’s stock market valuation. Now, in the twenty-first century of widespread Internet use, intangible assets have dramatically increased in value. A 2016 Sustainability Accounting Standards Board report noted, intangibles have grown from filling a quarter of corporate revenues to © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 T. Waller, Personal Brand Management, Management for Professionals, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43744-2_1

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An Introduction to Personal Branding

the vast majority of them. This phenomenon can be largely attributed to the escalating value of intangible assets, specifically as represented by intellectual capital and brands (SASB, 2016). Scholars such as Dr. Bilal Mustafa Khan, a Business Administration scholar at Aligarh Muslim University in India, surmise that brand equity is “the single most powerful asset of an organization” (Khan, 2009). Brand valuations now account for nearly a third of the market capitalization of the S&P 500 (Gerzema & Lebar, 2016). There is an inextricable link between brand equity and wealth, economic growth, and overall health of the company or individual to which it is attached. Since industrialization, large companies have typically scaled brands in correlation with a target market. At this time, companies did so with enormous resources that were unavailable to individuals. Today, similar competitive barriers to technology and marketing no longer exist. With access to online data analytics and social media, individuals can scale their brand with the same effectiveness that a corporation could just a decade ago. YouTube stars gross millions of dollars along with millions of views (Lynch, 2017); billionaire dollar brands, such as Kylie Cosmetics, are born from reality television and social media (Greenspan, 2018), and already famous and recognizable talents, such as Michael Jordan, can leverage and extend their brand value beyond their initial careers (Badenhausen, 2018). This individualization of branding has given rise to the personal brand—a brand that is uniquely attached and identifiable with a person or personality. With new and ever-evolving Internet tools, individuals and entrepreneurs can develop profitable personal brands; moreover, as the value of human-driven branding alters the economic market, corporations must reevaluate their brand identities.

Personal Branding Is Different Personal branding requires an intersection of knowledge of business, technology, and communications. Personal branding has traditionally been the domain of celebrities, politicians, or professionals who strive to succeed in their careers (Tarnovskaya, 2017a). Today we are living in a time where personal branding tools are available to everyone, and apparent all around us. Personal branding has been commonly regarded as a means to achieve professional advancement or sustain popularity. Personal branding is also commonly referred to as professional development. However, professional development is the process of learning skills that will help one become successful at their job. It plays a very important role in one’s career and stems from people’s natural need to improve and develop. Professional development is a long-lasting process that could potentially cover the entire length of one’s career. Although it is an individualized process and progresses differently for every person, professional development is connected with the advancement of knowledge, skills, abilities as well as personal characteristics that relate to one’s professional work.

Personal Branding Is Different

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Career coaching is another tool that individuals use to navigate through their professional careers. Career coaching is similar to professional development in its goal, however professional development typically takes place within the organization. To the contrary, career coaching is a method of using external assistance for developing personal branding activities (i.e., helping applicants embark on a career that suits their interests, aptitudes, personalities, and areas of expertise). Whether this method is an absolute necessity to market a personal brand depends on the nature of an individual’s skill-set, position, and industry. Schlosser, McPhee, and Forsyth (2017) defined career coaching as a collective work-oriented process through which individuals make career decisions based either on previous experiences or future prospects and expectations. Similar to personal branding, the process of career coaching allows individuals to dynamically take part in their own self-construction (Manai & Holmlund, 2015). Unlike career coaching and professional development, branding presents an added advantage for an individual competing for a position in an organization where the established personal brand aligns with the organization’s brand. Many people also confuse the term personal branding with public relations. Public relations is a communications management process in which an entity or person seeks to create and maintain a positive, hospitable environment in order to achieve its mission (Shamsan & Otieno, 2015). In public relations, impression management activities are utilized by companies seeking to achieve positive influences over others, especially potential investors. A personal brand is also created based on the public perception of the personality and the abilities of the branded individual to build up relationships with the audience. Although professional development, career coaching, and public relations can help individuals develop a brand, the concept of personal branding is most similar to the concept of corporate branding. Corporate brands are “fundamentally different from product brands in terms of disciplinary scope and management, […] have a multi-stakeholder rather than customer orientation and [for them] the traditional marketing framework is inadequate and requires a radical reappraisal” (Balmer & Gray, 2003). Thus, personal branding would be defined in a manner similar—it is the conscious decision to make known attributes of a person’s identity in the form of a clearly defined branding proposition.

Personal Branding Defined A definition was given to the term personal branding by Lair, Sullivan, and Cheney (2005, p. 309) who described it as involving the concepts of product development and promotion when used to market persons for entry into or transition within the labor market. Indeed they define branding to be (at 309): A programmatic approach to the selling of a product, service, organization, cause, or person that is fashioned as a proactive response to the emerging desires of a target audience or market (Shyle, 2015). Based on recent personal branding literature, the inclusion of the term “personal” offers a plausible explanation of the differences between the activities considered to be personal branding and traditional branding activities.

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Generally, personal branding involves all self-promotion activities through which people take part to communicate their distinct values and resources based on their personal strength(s) as they seek to gain visibility and profits in an industry or job market. Consumers, constituents, fans, and employers don’t choose people based on talent alone but based on other factors such as familiarity, liking, and trust. When someone or something is marketable, that means it will reach more consumers in a market, which increases the opportunity to make more profit. The key premise of personal branding is that everyone has a personal brand but not everyone manages their brand strategically, effectively, and consistently. Nevertheless, personal branding has grown in popularity and the concept is widely known to make an individual more noteworthy and profitable. Strategic personal brand management not only creates value for the individual, but also their organization. Personal branding did not derive from narcissism, maintaining a “perfect” image, having followers on social media, etc. Similar to corporate or product branding, personal branding stems from an economic need in a valuable market. This book looks at branding as it applies to people and economics, and intends to analyze personal branding as the strategic process of developing and managing the value of an individual’s brand. A personal brand cannot be financially successful without a brand strategy that results in economic returns. In addition to an economic impact, it is recommended to evaluate a personal brand from an ethical lens because, in this new age of transparency, few brands can sustain profitability without values that reflect their audience’s moral principles.

Personal Branding Is Everywhere Personal branding has been around as long as people have marked their livestock, products, and objects with their identity. Long before people started using their names for limited liability companies, they operated as individual brands. Before the agricultural revolution and the commoditization of goods, people needed to convince their respective tribes how valuable they were to the group. From birth, human beings have been deliberately managing how they are perceived to acquire an adequate amount of resources for their survival. Such signs contribute to the individual’s “look” like insignia and rank (Goffman, 1959). The habit of managing perception of value, or personal branding, has been around since humans have depended on each other for resources. Today, awareness of personal branding has become ubiquitous. People have become more strategic in how they manage the perception of themselves, by using branding to thrive as well as survive. In most instances, anyone who has ever made a name for themselves did so by strategically managing their personal brand. People skilled at crafting narratives and presentations, not only convey more information but also “position teller and listener in social spaces, forge bonds and uphold the values and order of communities” (Kvale, 1995).

Personal Branding Is Everywhere

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In the past, personal branding appeared to be a service only subscribed by individuals of certain positions like politicians, athletes, and other professions that require highly visible performances. Currently, thanks to the proliferation of technology, specifically the ever-growing access to the Internet, everyone can be highly visible and, therefore, exposed to higher risk or gain by how they manage their personal brand. Personal branding is relevant to every industry of business, at every level within a company; thereby affecting everyone from cashiers to CEOs. Religion, art, philosophy, science, and journalism have been pioneered by individuals who have managed their personal brand. History’s leaders have consistently used storytelling to market themselves and manage how people view the world. Many of these leaders make decisions that impact millions of people on a daily basis. The impact of personal brands in corporate leadership is evident in findings that evaluate organizational brands by human personality traits and personas, such as strength, intelligence, or charm (Aaker, 1995; Aaker & Fournier, 1995; Herskovitz & Crystal, 2010). In the age of the Internet, brand awareness has become a currency with both significance and consequence. Managing a reputation is a full-scale operation, spanning the far corners of the virtual world. Even though social media is technically online, its effects in the real world are both practical and far-reaching. Social media allows individuals to curate and market an online identity; this isn’t just a tool, it has become an expectation. Employers are increasingly aware of social media as a way to vet applicants before offering the first round of interviews. The brand audit of a prospective employee may involve everything from scanning the applicant’s Twitter or Facebook feed to finding their blog or profile on LinkedIn, or conducting a more extensive background check using search engines and other tools. Job seekers now know that in order to be competitive, they must foster a strong online identity, build influence, and cultivate a following. They also must provide potential employers with access to their personal brand assets. Such efforts have helped applicants create a perception of their personality, influence, and capabilities that have distinguished them from the competition. Whether someone is considered a professional, subject-matter expert, or someone who is just passionate about a particular topic, they can strategically build a personal brand that creates economic opportunities (Figurska, 2016). In today’s iteration, brands constitute promises that peers, consumers, and potential employers believe; thereby, making a personal brand equivalent to reputation capital. People aren’t selling just goods or services, they are selling themselves.

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A Brief History of Personal Branding There is a noticeable gap in the literature on personal branding, which may be attributed to the lack of established operationalized concepts to define the human brand. Nevertheless, the idea of branding as it more closely relates to industry arose in the 1800 s when manufacturers, who had been personally selling goods within their own communities, began shipping products to sell elsewhere. The products had to compete on their own without the manufacturer there to explain or promote it. Nineteenth-century manufacturers developed the ideas of publicity and advertising in their efforts to build name consciousness and product loyalty. The concept of self-positioning, now referred to as “personal branding”, was introduced in 1937 in a book by Napoleon Hill called Think and Grow Rich. In 1959, Erving Goffman coined the term “impression management” in his book Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Thompson-Whiteside, Turnbull, and Howe-Walsh (2018) described impression management as the process through which people attempt to influence the views that others form about them. Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, speaks about the way humans have on stage and off stage, presences. And today, with the transparency of the Internet, it’s imperative that individuals merge these two existences. When people believe a personal brand doesn’t align with the one that they bought into, they may get upset and stop investing in that brand. A consistent misalignment could develop into a brand crisis. The idea of personal branding was further developed by Jack Trout and Al Ries (1981) in their book Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. However, it was not until the late 1990 s, that the term “personal branding” gained traction when it was popularized by Tom Peters when he wrote on the subject in Fast Company magazine: To be in business today, our most important job is to be the head marketer for the brand called‘You’. Being CEO of Me Inc. requires you to grow yourself, to promote yourself, to get the market to reward yourself (Peters, 1997).

A personal brand produces something of value to a buyer and delivers it in a manner that creates an emotional connection with the consumer (Thomas, 2007). Given the constant change in the labor force, many figured that it would be “impossible” or “unstainable” for individuals to access the marketing research necessary to make strategic marketing decisions. Some researchers have even argued that a product branding methodology cannot be applied to humans (Conley, 2008; Lair et al. 2005). However, with the exponential increases in technology, this assessment is no longer true. With access to personal data online, the Internet allows the average person to gain a better understanding of their competitive standing in their industry.

Practical Applications of Personal Branding for Individuals …

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Practical Applications of Personal Branding for Individuals and Corporations Today, these measurable factors that influence brand image are more valuable than ever, particularly to millennials. Millennials (people born between 1980 through the turn of the century) have been described as the “lost generation” in terms of both retirement savings and access to financial services. According to a 2015 report from Bank of New York Mellon and the Cambridge Judge Business School, millennials are saving for retirement in the face of high student debt and low job security, which is all overshadowed by stagnant global growth (The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, 2015). This report also found more than 40% of United Kingdom (UK) participants admitted they are relying on a “blind guess” to estimate their required retirement fund as well as some 70% of UK millennials stating that they would save more if their pension allowed multiple lifetime withdrawals for life events, such as buying a house. With constricted finances, this population is imperiled by debt, unprepared for financial emergencies, and thus restricted by limited economic mobility (West & Friedline, 2016). The most efficient (and least expensive way) for millennials to establish value for themselves and their future is through personal branding. When an individual’s online presence is cultivated and managed with specific intent, he or she can create and build “wealth” from the career opportunities, visibility, and perceived influence. Personal branding is particularly relevant in the emerging gig economy. As a result of global competition, the gig economy has given rise to virtual employment, which requires one to be versatile and think like an entrepreneur. As workplaces move more online and out of a physical office, personal branding becomes essential to anyone participating in this economy. “With the rise of websites and apps such as Uber, TaskRabbit and Upwork,” more people than ever are selling short-term services to a lot of their clients rather than having a single full-time job (Kwok, 2017). Independent contractors, freelancers, on-call workers, temporary help agency workers or people who are contracted out in their main job, make up about 16% of the U.S. workforce—from around 10% a decade ago (Kwok, 2017). Even if a person does not participate in the gig economy, developing a personal brand is an asset to his or her employer. A company’s workforce is one of the most critical factors in helping their customers to experience the company’s brand. The “moments of truth” when customers interact with the brand often determine the brand’s fortunes and future. Thus it needs to be stressed that it is critical for employees to continually reinforce the brand for the company’s health (Khan, 2009). Most companies do not include human capital strategies when they are developing their brand strategy. However, researchers suggest that businesses that incorporate both their employees and branding into a company’s overall business strategy are more profitable. As Khan notes, when employees internalize the brand values, they will consistently “deliver on the brand promise across all contact points between the company and its stakeholders” (Khan, 2009).

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Finally, as artificial intelligence (AI) continues to develop and integrate with businesses, workers—self-employed or not—need to be able to distinguish themselves. The Economist reports that, “AI is barging its way into business” and that human capital will have to provide more distinctively human assets that AI cannot (Economist, 2018). As University of California Los Angeles Computer Engineering scholar Mona Jarrahi points out: With greater computational capacity and analytical approach, AI can extend a human’ s cognition when addressing more complicated situations. Whereas humans offer a more intuitive approach when dealing with uncertainty and adaptive situations, AI systems should be designed with the intention of augmenting human contributions, not replacing them (Jarrahi, 2018).

With a growing number of jobs being outsourced to AI, individuals must shift their focus from their functional value to an experiential one. One must identify and communicate his or her value while building relationships that will ensure access to resources in the future. Knowing how to stand out (strategic differentiation), remain visible (marketing), and protect future earnings (business and legal management) is a particularly valuable skill set.

Personal Brand Management There is an argument between brand researchers and brand practitioners on whether or not everyone has a personal brand. Many researchers argue that everyone has a personality, image, and reputation, so therefore everyone has a brand. Practitioners, particularly those who manage celebrities’ and athletes’ personal brands, argue that a brand is something that is a household name. If you can put a person’s name on a product and sell it for more than a competitor, then it’s a personal brand. According to my theory, they are both right. Research shows that the purpose of personal branding is to build brand equity. The theory of Personal Brand Equity is built on the heavily documented observation that humans have been building their personal brands since the beginning of trade and commerce, long before the notion of branding and brand management was introduced to the public. From an economic viewpoint, the purpose of developing a personal brand is for people to scale their value. In the beginning, an individual starts with the capacity to share value or create brand equity. However, as in business, there is a large spectrum between an entrepreneur launching their first pop-up store and a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. The difference between the two is their level of visibility and scale. Most small businesses strive to become big businesses or to achieve economies of scale —that is, producing more value for lower costs. However, without a proper strategy, management, access to resources, and a myriad of other factors, a business may or may not be successful. Today, the same can be said for personal brands.

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Fig. 1.1 Personal brand equity phenomenon

Every Industrial Revolution, radically new technology or law disrupts the way humans create value, but communications technology also removes barriers to how people can scale the value they create. Historically, people scaled through producing and selling products, services, and ideas. Intellectual property laws, such as trademark and copyright law removed barriers to how people can maintain ownership of the value they create with their identity and image. With communications technology, from the discovery of papyrus paper in 3,000 B.C.E. to digital media and AI today, these inventions reduce barriers and increase competition for people and businesses seeking to develop brand awareness. Prior to these inventions of communications technology, only a selection of people could scale their individual image, personality, and talent. These individuals, many of them widely referred to as celebrities, became so profitable that their image, careers, and reputation required management. Today, mobile phones provide this access to share the brand with millions of people around the world, often at no to little cost. I argue that personal branding is not a trend, but a phenomenon that is increasing over time. Figure 1.1 illustrates the phenomenon that occurs when individuals build their personal brand equity.

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Theory Versus Practice This book covers the various subject matters necessary to manage a personal brand and how they come together to build equity. In order to manage a personal brand well, theory (i.e., the fundamental assumptions underlying the brand and branding strategy) and practice (i.e., how to systematically implement those assumptions into an effective branding program) should be planned jointly. Brand theory and practice should build on each other because the theory dictates the bounds of the practical implementation. In other words, practitioners should only go as far as the theory allows, and, when necessary, revise the theory (i.e., rebrand) to accommodate for new branding developments that stretch the brand too far away from its original concept. Symbolically, in today’s society, everyone can be considered an entrepreneur in charge of their own brand. When they are starting out, the brand is simple and focused on the fundamentals. Over time, the brand expands and gains more richness and complexity. Because many individuals start off managing their personal brands themselves, there is a tendency to believe that personal branding activities should just arise organically, with little forethought or effort. In reality, highly profitable personal brands require a much more complex process, with careful planning and managing involved. As co-founder of LinkedIn Ried Hoffman stated, “No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you are playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” There are very few examples of prominent personal brands where individuals have been able to manage all aspects of their personal brand on their own and did so in a highly effective manner. When an individual transitions to starting and building a business, the brand takes on a completely new meaning and demands a higher level of management. Figure 1.2 above is the conceptual framework for personal brand management which is based on several decades of insights from published scientific research in the area of branding, as well as my professional experience working with various personal brands. This framework leverages David Aaker’s (1995) model for creating an effective brand identity that helps build strong brand equity. Aaker, who is widely known as the “father of modern branding” among marketing academics and professionals, introduced this model in his global bestselling and copiously referenced book Building Strong Brands. The Aaker model describes how to strategically build brand equity in three major phases that involve analyzing, positioning, and implementing a brand’s identity. It is based on the theory that a brand consists of a core and an extended identity, which should be considered in at least one of four ways (product, organization, person, and symbol). The core identity represents the “timeless essence” of the brand, which is central to its message, meaning, and success. The extended identity is indicative of a brand’s impact, reach, and effectiveness.

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Fig. 1.2 Conceptual framework for personal brand management

Aaker’s model conceptualized brand equity as a valuable asset for a company. In Building Strong Brands, Aaker uses corporate brand cases to demonstrate how successful brands are built and managed as a means for creating a sustainable competitive advantage. The Aaker model has been instrumental as a foundation of

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knowledge for brand strategists working for businesses all across the board, from small startups to large corporations. Because personal and corporate brands share a lot of commonalities in terms of how to build and manage them, Aaker’s time-tested model serves as a solid basis from which to derive a framework for personal brand management. The Personal Brand Management framework described in Fig. 1.2 is hence inspired by Aaker’s work, and laid out in similar sections—albeit adapted to the needs and requirements of managing a human brand. There are four different aspects of a personal brand management system (strategy, implementation, management, and audit) that lead to building an economically scalable personal brand. The first section of the Personal Brand Management framework takes an analytical approach to a positioning strategy (personal analysis, audience analysis, and competitor analysis) that should be explored and addressed before launching the positioning of the personal brand in a market. First, a personal audit must be conducted to discover the marketable assets and goals of a personal brand. Although the core essence and personality are innate within every individual, an economically strong personal brand markets its personality, associations, and other valuable attributes to a market that finds it valuable. It is important to note that a personal brand does not need a product, service, or new idea to create value or be perceived as valuable. In addition, there are successful personal brands that exist without possessing a high supply of talent, skill, or knowledge. Personal brands can either create or find a profitable market that is best suited for their core essence and identity. Consequently, the next phase of the strategy involves identifying the target audience and competition. Personal brand strategy is the positioning of a brand’s identity by analyzing it within the context of a valuable goal or market opportunity. A personal brand’s level of opportunity is dictated by the brand’s relationships with a particular audience or consumers and its ability to compete against other personal brands within the market. Although not all effective personal branding efforts start with a well-defined positioning strategy, the most successful brands will revisit (and, if necessary, define, refine, or recalibrate) their strategy at some point within the personal brand management process. Once a personal brand establishes its assets and its image has been aligned with a certain market positioning (i.e., how it wishes to be positioned in the audiences’ mind, vis-à-vis other personal brands on the market), it enters the implementation phase. During this phase, personal brand equity is derived from the reach and effectiveness of the brand’s marketing activities (i.e., making impressions, establishing likeability, creating content, and distributing it across various channels and platforms). These marketing activities subsequently enable the brand to monetize its positioning in the market. In other words, any person can establish personal brand equity if they implement a positioning strategy that is inherently valuable to their audience. The visibility and image of a personal brand help to establish valuable relationships that can be monetized as information, products, services, or scaled as an organization.

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Unlike Aaker’s model, the Personal Brand Management framework places an emphasis on protecting the brand’s value and trust from internal and external threats, as well as considers that human dynamics are constantly evolving and changing. In order for a personal brand to protect its market value, it must manage the relationship that it has built with its audience. Legal protections are key at every stage of a brand’s development. As a personal brand’s image becomes more visible and profitable, it may encounter individuals and organizations that seek to compete for their stake in the market. Since the personal brand also functions as an entity, it can use intellectual property laws to legally protect its value. Legal protections can be explored at any point in brand management, but a proactive approach could prevent brand threats later in the process. Crisis communications is a budding field of study that uses various forms of public relations to manage brand threats and protect brand reputation. It is particularly relevant in the context of human brands, where unexpected personal or professional events can quickly take over a brand’s narrative and subvert is positioning. A crisis usually occurs unexpectedly, and therefore presents practitioners with the difficult task of preparation and management. Research shows that a lack of crisis control can lead to significant financial loss for personal brands across all industries. A personal brand must also be tracked for its consistency to foster long-term sustainability and financial growth. If the image is not consistent with expectations or the audience that’s been developed is not profitable, then one needs to revisit the personal brand strategy. The decision to rebrand can also be based on the strategy’s profitability. A personal brand manager can track multiple data points (brand sentiment, brand visibility/awareness, and audience engagement) which are indicators of the brand’s strength and future profitability. Conducting a brand valuation allows the manager to estimate the financial value of a brand. Brand valuation is also used to determine pricing during the monetization of a personal brand.

A Personal Brand as a Financial Asset More often than not, high profile people hire experts to help build and manage their personal brands. A personal brand manager supervises part or all the process with clear target goals and parameters. Generally, to ensure an effective brand management process, the brand manager may oversee a team of other professionals, with specialized skills and knowledge. In addition to marketing professionals, experts across numerous disciplines (i.e., stylists, attorneys, agents, graphic designers, photographers, writers) come together throughout the personal branding process, to help bring the brand to life and systematically reinforce and protect its distinct value.

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From the Kardashians to Richard Branson, successful personal brands have been imagined and executed as experiences, services, products, etc. That being said, personal branding has been criticized on ethical grounds because it can be perceived as an activity of insidious commercialism that compares “complex human beings” (Conley, 2008) with products (Zarkada, 2012). The personal branding movement has also been dismissed for its overly individualized and hyper-image conscious orientation, causing some researchers to attest that it lacks self-awareness and substance. Despite this criticism (which is, perhaps, a post-capitalist reservation), personal branding is becoming the currency of the Internet age. Today, individuals operate as businesses, where a person must fulfill the role of both CEO and Chief Marketing Officer. While one may need help in building and managing a personal brand, just like his or her finances, ultimately, one also should be able to manage and control the overall message. “Individuals involved in personal branding develop their human capital by investing in continuous learning; enhance their social capital through visibility and notoriety and access to financial success and economic profitability” (Khedher, 2014). This book will explore the history, the potentialities, liabilities, and necessities of personal branding. While the concept may have been considered a choice or even a privilege just a decade ago, this book argues that its relevance to business success, financial security, and career longevity is vital. With jobs, markets, retirement, and security all in jeopardy, workers should address their career and financial security at an individual level. Learning how to monetize and scale by multiple streams of income is imperative. Moreover, as companies’ brand visibility becomes more fluid between online and physical worlds, they must take into consideration the value of their public-facing employees’ personal brands as well as those of their customers. Therefore, when creating, managing, and sustaining their brands, corporate marketing must have a human social approach. Ultimately, brands are financial assets, and for anyone working or building a career, as well as any business that wants to be competitive, it is one of their potentially strongest. Note on the text: This book uses the non-binary pronouns throughout its discussion on theory and practical applications. Case studies reflect the subject’s gender identity as best to the author’s knowledge.

References Aaker, D. A. (1995). Building strong brands. Free Press. Aaker, J., & Fournier, S. (1995). A brand as a character, a partner and a person: Three perspectives on the question of brand personality. In ACR North American Advances. Badenhausen, K. (2018). Michael Jordan’s Net Worth Jumps $350 Million To $1.65 Billion Forbes. Retrived November 15, 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/ 2018/03/28/michael-jordan-adds-350-million-to-fortune-net-worth-now-1-65-billion/ #2626ad802848. Balmer, J. M., & Gray, E. R. (2003). Corporate brands: What are they? What of them? European Journal of Marketing, 37(7/8), 972–997.

References

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Chicotsky, B. (2017). The brand persona: Operationalizing a synthesis of brand equity and social capital dissertation. University of Alabama. Conley, L. (2008). OBD: Obsessive branding disorder. Public Affairs. Figurska, I. (2016). Personal branding as an element of employees’ professional development. Human Resources Management and Ergonomics, 33–47. Gerzema, J., & Lebar, E. (2008). The brand bubble: The looming crisis in brand value and how to avoid it. John Wiley & Sons. Goffman, E. (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday and Company. Greenspan, R. E. (2018). Why Kylie Jenner’s nearly $1 billion net worth is a big deal | money time. Retrieved November 15, 2018, http://time.com/money/5335584/kylie-jenner-net-worth/. Herskovitz, S., & Crystal, M. (2010). The essential brand persona: storytelling and branding. Journal of business strategy, 31(3), 21–28. Hill, N. (1937). Think and grow rich. Jarrahi, M. (2018). Artificial intelligence and the future of work: human-ai symbiosis in organizational decision making. ResearchGate. Retrieved November 17, 2018, from http://dx. doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2018.03.007. Khedher, M. (2014). Personal branding phenomenon. International Journal of Information, Business and Management, 6(2), 29–40. Kvale, S. (1995). Themes of postmodernity. The Truth about the Truth: De-confusing and Re-constructing the Postmodern World (pp. 18–25). W. T. Anderson. New York. Kwok, R. (2017). Flexible working: Science in the Gig economy. Nature 550 (7676): 419–21. https://doi.org/10.1038/nj7676-419. Lair, D., Sullivan, K., & Cheney, G. (2005). Marketization and the recasting of the professional self the rhetoric and ethics of personal branding. Management Communication Quarterly, 18, 307–343. Lynch, J. (2017) YouTube stars who made the most money in 2017: list of highest-paid. Business Insider. Retrieved November 15, 2018, from https://www.businessinsider.com/highest-paidyoutube-stars-2017-12. Manai, A., & Holmlund, M. (2015). Self -marketing brand skills for business students. Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 33(5), 749–762. Peters, T. (1997). The Brand Called You. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/28905/ brand-called-you. Thompson-Whiteside, H., Turnbull, S., & Howe-Walsh, L. (2018) Developing an authentic personal brand using impression management behaviours: Exploring female entrepreneurs’ experiences. Qualitative Market Research. Schlosser, F., McPhee, D. M., & Forsyth, J. (2017). Chance events and executive career rebranding: Implications for career coaches and nonprofit HRM. Human Resource Management, 56, 571–591. Shyle, I. (2015). The importance and the process of personal branding in nowadays. International Journal of Education, Science, Technology, Innovation, Health and Environment, 1(3), 64–70. Shamsan, R., & Otieno, M. (2015). Effects of strategic public relations on organization performance: a case study of kenya red cross society. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 5(9), 1–12. Tarnovskaya, V. (2017). Reinventing personal branding building a personal brand through content on YouTube. Journal of International Business Research and Marketing, 3(1), 29–35. The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation. (2015). Lost Generation: Engaging Millennials with retirement saving. Retrieved from https://www.bnymellon.com/emea/en/_locale-assets/pdf/ our-thinking/generation-lost.pdf. The workplace of the future. (2018, March). The Economist. Retrieved from https://www. economist.com/leaders/2018/03/28/the-workplace-of-the-future. Thomas, S. (2007). Career smart: Five steps to a powerful personal brand. Career Coaching 360. Trout, J., & Ries, A. (1981) Positioning: The battle for your mind.

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USB Q4 Report. (2016). From theory to practice: How SASB standards and tools inform UBS Asset Management’s fundamental equity valuation. U.S. Bankcorp. Retrieved from https:// www.sasb.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ESG-Integration-Insights-Q416-UBS.pdf. West, S., & Friedline, T. (2016). Coming of age on a shoestring budget: financial capability and financial behaviors of lower-income millennials. Center for Social Development Research. Retrieved September 6, 2016 from https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/csd_research/630. Zakarda, A. (2012). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/253235975_Concepts_and_ Constructs_for_Personal_Branding_An_Exploratory_Literature_Review_Approach.

Part I

Personal Brand Development & Positioning Strategy: Defining, Discovering, and Delivering a Brand

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What Is a Personal Brand?

Learning Objectives After reading this chapter, you should be able to 1. Understand the difference between personal brand identity and image. 2. Identify the attributes that build a strong personal brand.

Introduction To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person. —Bruce Lee

According to historian Yuval Harari, we are living in the 4th Industrial Revolution, in which individuals compete for resources in new ways (Harari, 2015). Those who best know how to define themselves and promote their identity can better adapt and capitalize on economic opportunities. Harari emphasizes that the ability to improve emotional intelligence and personality will become a more valuable skill-set than computer coding (Capehart, 2018). Personal brand management starts with a person’s identity. The concept of a personal brand identity is one that allows an individual to analyze and define themselves by using their unique personalities, associations, and traits to construct an idealized self. A well-constructed personal brand will answer the questions: what makes an individual different from others? How can an individual stir the interest of others? How should a person position their personality, unique value, and strengths (Vitberg, 2010)? Of course, professionals have always used a kind of personal branding in the various ways they present themselves, from their resumes and attire to how they design and present a sales pitch. Today, however, the identity that we construct © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 T. Waller, Personal Brand Management, Management for Professionals, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43744-2_2

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creates an image that does not just live on paper or in someone’s memory, but online as well. Digital media creates a personal brand image that is more difficult and tedious to control for the everyday person (Elikan & Person 2018). Personal branding online has caused many professionals, specifically the generation that came into the workforce during the 2008 recession and after, to experience burnout from using their image as a mechanism for financial security and empowerment (Duffy & Hund 2015). From paying for professional headshots for LinkedIn to creating signature logos and designing personal landing pages and websites, more and more professionals are constructing their brand identity online. Online platforms and tools have opened doors for professional advancement because they allow people to create a more human and continual image in the mind of their target audience. As a result, personal branding has become a crucial tool for creating new professional opportunities. Personal brand image—or the perception of the communication and distribution of one’s brand identity—has never been more critical or less understood. As more professionals are tasked with creating, marketing, and managing their own or other personal brands, it is becoming overwhelmingly clear that there are conflicts of interest that come along with increased visibility. For example, many professionals face the challenge of aligning their brand with their company’s brand. Entrepreneurs in the traditional sense, have been able to leverage employees, products, and services to scale their impact and multiply their earnings. With the Internet, humans can scale their identity by using it to create more images and therefore distributing their brand to more stakeholders. With this new platform comes a new mindset for the professional looking to monetize their expertise. The question for many professionals is changing from “How much money is my hour worth?” to “What is the value of my personal brand equity?” Knowing a personal brand’s value can help leverage it for future earning potential.

What Is a Personal Brand? A personal brand is the public-facing nexus of a person’s core identity, projected image, and value proposition. Alessandro Gandini (2016) described the concept of a personal brand as both what we intend to project to the target audience (desired identity), and the audience’s reaction to it (perceived image). Only once a brand identity has been established and recognized by the audience, can the brand image be constructed and managed. Therefore, personal branding is the act of merging these components. The desired self and perceived self innately have all the brand features included in marketing science: attributes, attitudes, benefits, associations (Keller, 1993; Wijaya, 2013), and personality (Aaker, 1997). According to Manai and Holmlund (2015), personal brands are comprised of a core identity (personality, values, experience, education), extended identity (level of ability, attitudes, and cultural aspects), and value proposition (functional, emotional, self-expressive, and

What Is a Personal Brand?

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relationship benefits). In other words, a personal brand is composed of both an identity and its image, and positioning its value must be thought about strategically if it is to be productive and profitable.

The Impact of Personal Brands Identity on Corporate Brand Identity Every person and entity has an identity—the question is not whether it exists, but if it is expressed intentionally (Vetter, Leuenberger, & Sprüngli, 2016). In most cases, a corporate brand identity is constructed by its founder(s) or marketing experts, whereby other stakeholders, individually and collectively, implement, discuss, and construct brand identity while enacting their own identities (Von Wallpach, Hemetsberger, & Espersen, 2017). Tangible elements such as brand color and logo design, as well as intangible elements such as core values, are all determined based on a collective interpretation of a corporation’s identity. During this process, multiple meanings are simultaneously ascribed by stakeholders to the intended brand identity, which resonates not only with them but also potentially with a multitude of internal and external stakeholders. A company’s brand might start with the founder’s personality, but the personality of the people working for the brand ultimately shapes a company’s identity. In 1987, University of Maryland professor Benjamin Schneider (1987) proposed a model of organizational behavior, the attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) model, that rests on the fundamental assumption that people in any organization are unique in that they are the ones attracted to, chosen by, and who choose to remain with an organization. Further, the ASA model posits that the key factor influencing the relationship between the person and the organization is the fit of the individual’s personality with that of the modal personality of the organization. Today, executives, marketers, employees, and consumers all have personal identities that affect the brand image of an organization. Therefore, it’s essential for everyone to know the intent of the corporate brand and how their personality aligns. In organizational behavior, scholars tend to look at brand identity to understand the relations between internal and external stakeholders in organizations. Nevertheless, in different disciplines, the authors seem to agree that the brand era has shifted. Marketers have transitioned from a “relationship-focus” era, where only external and internal customers were taken into account, to a “stakeholder-focus” era, where all stakeholders (investors, partners, employees, and customers) are considered (Elikan & Pigneur, 2018). What does this mean for companies and organizations? Consumers and clients are relating to brands in the way they would to people and vice versa.

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Establishing Core Values In order to build a long-lasting personal brand, an individual should establish core values for his or her brand. Core values create an ideology that reinforces the mission of one’s brand (Keller & Richey, 2006). Core values can also mitigate risk by outlining what the brand stands for and, therefore, what the brand does not represent. Core values are communicated best through storytelling. As Emma Ford, Frida Jacobsson, and Lisa Marie Bauer point out in their research on the topic, audiences “can identify the brand values communicated in the story” although often brands do not communicate their stories effectively (Ford, Jacobsson, & Bauer, 2016). In the particular case of Howard Schulz, the CEO of Starbucks, he brought the company back from the brink of bankruptcy after an 8-year hiatus. Schulz realized that the brand’s strengths lie in the core values that built its corporate culture just as much as its coffee (Gallo, 2013). Openly passionate about both the product and the people that serve it, Schultz’s narrative turned the company around and into a multi-billion dollar leader in national cafe chains (Groth, 2011).

Brand Identity Versus Brand Image–What Is the Difference? For individuals, brand identity is the outward-facing representation and manifestation of a person’s persona. Imagine all the things professionals do as they get ready for work. That is an individual using their identity to construct an image for particular stakeholders (boss, coworkers, or clients). No matter how much effort an individual contributes to creating their image, ultimately, the audience’s analysis of these efforts determines a brand image. Personal branding is both a process and an outcome. The construction of the personal brand identity is a process; the creation and positioning of the personal brand image is the outcome. In a commercial scenario, once a consumer becomes familiar with a brand identity, the perception that the consumer has of the product becomes the brand image. With all subjects, the goal of branding is to align brand identity and brand image, whether referencing one attribute or the overall brand. A personal brand identity can be communicated in many different forms, not only internal characteristics but also external elements. Before marketers create a personal brand identity, it is essential to identify its values and goals from the inside out. Erikson theorized that to develop an identity, one must learn to be most themselves where they mean the most to others—those others, to be sure, are those who have come to mean the most to them. Thus, the culmination of a person’s identity development is both how that individual conceives her or himself and the community’s recognition of the individual (Erikson, 1956). These are the intangible constructs of a brand’s identity—how a person sees themselves in the world and the promise they make to the people in their life.

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Personal Brand Image A person’s image is a theory or an opinion that another person constructs in their mind due to objective or subjective impressions. In general, brand image is “everything people think, feel, believe, or sense about an organization, a product, a brand, or a person” (Ghodeswar, 2008). The creation of a person’s brand image is formed during a series of phases: the planned image, the transmitted image, and the formed image. These phases constitute what will become the elements of the self-brand (Makkai & Anna, 2016). Individuals can craft individual brand identities specifically designed to reach and attract the audience necessary to help them reach their professional or personal goals. Psychologist Erik Erikson suggested that one’s identity does not exist until others have recognized it. Without an audience, there is no need for performance and no need to create an identity. More broadly, we can think of a brand image as the perceptual beliefs surrounding a brand’s associations, attitudes, and benefits (Faircloth, Capella, & Alford, 2001). Together these qualities construct an audience’s evaluation of a brand. A far-reaching and favorable brand image can help raise the return on investment from professional or business endeavors. The only way to alter or change this perception is by managing the constructs of the individual’s brand identity. As marketing expert Kevin Lane Keller notes, “brand meaning can be broadly distinguished in terms of functional, performance-related considerations versus abstract, imagery-related considerations.” Brand images epitomize the tangible things a person can do over more vague skills and qualities. Thus, it is crucial to correctly design and deploy the desired image to highlight what a brand is capable of in specific terms.

Brand Name and Visual Identity Psychologists and sociologists have long studied the inextricable link between names and identity. The topic of personal names is widely viewed as a social and cultural study; however, there are also economic impacts tied to personal names. Although first names and surnames are given at birth, the law dictating whether or not an individual can change their name varies around the world. In Europe, during the rule of the Roman Empire, surnames became popular mainly due to the increase of communication and commerce (Arnold, 1905). Today, in many countries, a person can elect to change their name or use an alias. Some individuals choose to change their names because their given name does not reflect the brand image that they wish to construct. There are numerous examples of personal brands that have changed their names, use aliases, or pseudonyms (i.e., Elton John, Ralph Lauren, and Stephen King). Researchers have found that many people who elect to change their names, do so for professional advancement and economic gain (Arai & Skogman Thoursie, 2009; Twenge, 1997). A ubiquitous example of this is the growing number of married women who elect to

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keep their surname instead of their husbands (Shin, 2008). This trend began to snowball after more women started to enter the workforce building professional careers and personal brand equity on their own without the surname association to their husband.

The Importance of Brand Names with Marketing Expert Laura Ries In an interview with leading marketing strategist, bestselling author, and television personality Laura Ries, she explains the strategy, associations, and the importance of getting brand names right.

“The thing about brands—and you think about this going along with personal brands—is that names matter. For many companies, they think, “Hey if we just have a good product and a good service and a good price, it doesn’t matter what the brand name is.” Well, that’s not true. It is going to make the work a lot harder if you don’t have a good brand name that’s easy to say, spell, remember, and that distinguishes yourself to lock in some idea about your brand. Names are often overlooked because your parents give you them and you think that you don’t have a choice in them when actually you do. So, if you think about brands, it’s incredibly important that you know what a brand’s name is and, for yourself, that’s incredibly important as well. It’s difficult, it’s actually very emotional to think about changing your name, but we’ve worked with many companies to get websites and other things or to make their name easier. It is the same for a personal brand. If you have a difficult or challenging name, and that is to say something hard to remember, hard to say, or hard to spell, it is going to make it a lot more complicated. We worked with a guy Bomgaar; it was his given name. It was spelled with two AAs and difficult because it was not the traditional spelling an English speaker would use. So, we simplified it for the company to Bomgar. His name is now Joel Bomgar, and now he’s a politician holding office in the state of Mississippi. The other thing in Joel’s case (and this worked particularly well) is the use of a single color [to make his company] much more memorable and powerful. It’s more attractive to have multiple colors, but it’s more memorable to have a single color. For him, that color was orange for the tech industry, and, again, he’s carried that color over into his political campaign. So, he’s making the connection that he was very successful in business with the company, and this color is recognizable for him and his political campaign. So, if your name is difficult, it is super easy to change it. You don’t even have to change it on your passport or your driver’s license; you can just use an alias, if you will, in your business life. Many people do that. The other thing, particularly for women when they think about their business brand, is whether or not they change their name when they get married. I think it is a really important decision when you think about your brand. People are getting married later [in life], which could make it difficult or confusing. In my personal life, I was born with the name Laura Ries.

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Ries is a very powerful name in the world of branding and positioning. I chose not to change my name. I could have been Laura Brown, but it would be a much harder connection to say that my father is Al Ries. So, Ries and Brown versus Ries and Ries. I went with the branding impact of my name. Then, personally, when I make reservations with my husband [my name] might be “Laura Brown”, but for business, I am “Laura Ries.”

Making the “Personal” Visible with the Brand Identity can also be reflected in a mark or logo. From age three, we start to recognize, remember, and make connections with brand logos. Even our fictional superheroes, such as Superman, have capitalized on trademarking personal logos that reflect their brand promise. The importance of brand recognition is especially evident when trying to sell and scale a tangible product. Having a design or mark allows one to track brand value for individual economic opportunity. The tangible aspects of a personal brand identity help others recognize “you” in a crowd. The Parliament of England under King Henry III created the first trademark legislation in 1266. At that time, the government and citizens needed a way to track the best quality bread back to its merchant. King Henry III required all bakers to create a personal mark and use it to brand their bread. From the point-of-view of the baker, it was a way to track their value and to know how well they were doing. How much bread they sold would have a direct correlation on their reputation (Fellenstein, Vassallo, & Ralston 2004). The economic importance of legally protecting a personal name will be addressed further in Chap. 7, where the book covers copyrights and trademarks. Personal branding entails strategically packaging a person’s identity to produce the most valuable image for the audience. For example, if marketers discover that their audience visually prefers the color red, the profitable decision would be to incorporate red into the product design and packaging so that more consumers would be attracted to their brand. In Labrecque and Milne (2012), Labrecque and Milne conducted a study where they demonstrated the link between color hue and saturation to brand personality; they also showed “that color induced brand personality can affect purchase intent” concerning package design. They confirmed the value of color in logo design, explaining that “color is an important driver of brand personality, and demonstrates that the combination of logo shape and color influences likability and familiarity” (Labrecque & Milne, 2012). Unlike products, humans do not require logo designs to serve as a distinct mark for their brand. The human face is a unique, recognizable feature that can represent brand associations and identity. Also, people are wired to be attracted to faces. As early as one month after birth, babies begin to recognize and track human faces. Each human face is so distinct that even mobile phones have evolved from using human fingerprints to now scanning human faces as a measure of identity, security, and privacy.

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The Internet has amplified the relevancy of a person’s visual persona by mass-producing it in a digital realm. Social media has created a digital economy. Today, most professionals have headshots that they use as social media and website profile photos to establish their online identity. According to Linkedin, professionals are more likely to connect with users that have a profile picture. Adding a face to a name provides the audience with an additional level of trust and authenticity. Leveraging personal images to add trust, also has a financial impact on corporations. For CEOs in particular, they are often referred to as the “face of the company” because people want to be able to hold a person accountable and not a corporate identity. In addition to human faces, all physical attributes are used to distinctly identify one individual from the next to create and define a personal brand. These attributes include natural elements such as the face, voice, and body, as well as non-natural additions that enhance the style of a personal brand such as fashion, accessories, and hairstyling. Some individuals aim to package and align their image with a company’s brand. For example, if a prospective employee knows that a potential employer prefers that employees wear a button-down shirt and tie, it is in the interviewee’s best interest to wear that outfit to the interview. These visual aspects of brand identity convey a message about the personal brand that can be positioned and monetized in a market by an individual or a company. The visual identity of a personal brand has been used to represent brands for a variety of consumer products, services, and organizations. This concept manifests itself in influencer marketing, sponsorships, celebrity endorsements, and the growing number of executives and thought-leaders that are becoming public figures, all of which will be covered more extensively in Chap. 6.

Brand Snapshot Frida Kahlo and Her “Selfie” The personal brand image is like a picture painted in someone’s mind. If an artist is successful, the picture creates an emotional experience that consumers demand. Successful artists understand the value of brand images and are highly skilled at managing them for economic opportunity (Schroeder, 2005). Before there were selfies in the twenty-first century, artists were self-branding themselves through their art, with one of the most famous of all being Mexican artist Frida Khalo. Prompted by chronic pain and disability, Frida Kahlo reconstructed her reality through her art. She became one of the most celebrated artists of the twentieth century for painting colorful self-portraits that depicted her likeness and personality. Kahlo’s portraits reference her identity and heritage and sell for up to $15 million (Simon, 2016). “Fridamania”, as some cultural historians have called it, took off in 1981 after the release of her popular biography by Hayden Herrera (Bahler, 2018). Since then

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—and especially in the years following the release of the 2002 film based on Herrara’s best-selling book—Frida Kahlo’s image and art have been proliferated on consumer products. Her mass appeal stems from the authenticity of her unique femininity and suffering that she represented in her self-portraits, which translates to brand authenticity when associated with products. As Marta Zarzycka (2006) attests, Kahlo’s image exhibits the status of a celebrity and a well-promoted artist, serving as a fashion muse for designers like Jean-Paul Gaultier, an influencer for brand’s like Volvo, and a role-model for the feminist movement. Individuals and companies continue to manufacture articles, books, and movies about her life. In 2002, the second biographical film Frida grossed over $US 50 million dollars and won two Academy Awards. Although she was anti-capitalist, ironically her image has been commoditized and licensed as make-up, clothing, stationery makers, candles, giftware, electronic accessories, and currency. There is even a Barbie doll made in Kahlo’s likeness by Mattel (Bahler, 2018; Valentish, 2018). Through her work, Kahlo created a personal relationship with her audience, but it was the mass distribution of her image through commercialization that transformed her into a brand (Kavky, 2008).

Brand Personality Brand personality can be defined as a particular “set of human characteristics associated with a brand” (Aaker, 1997, 347). In other words, consumers associate particular character traits with a brand, in effect, anthropomorphizing inanimate objects. Aaker’s early research on product brand personality illustrates how we can consolidate human personality traits into five different dimensions: sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness (Aaker, 247, cited in Heine, 2009). For ruggedness, Aaker cites Nike as the prototypical brand, clearly evoking how the “just do it” sensibility illustrates the tough stick-it-to-it-ness attitude that the Nike brand attempts to convey. While explorations of brand personality suggest that human personality characteristics can determine a brand, the idea that a brand can define a person is more slippery (Takács, Takács, & Kondor, 2018). Factors such as background, education, experience, or communication skills are the foundation of a person’s existence and way of being. However, marketing researcher Ifan H. Shepherd (2005) argues that in self-marketing, individuals are often encouraged to reskill and shape themselves in order to meet market circumstances. We first see the impact of brand personality at the inception of a business or in start-up companies. Young organizations often mirror the qualities of their founders, providing a built-in and distinctive brand personality (Shi, 2019). Those traits become a founding part of the organization and continue to have a strong attachment to those traits (i.e., Steve Jobs, Apple, and radical creativity). After a product brand is established, companies look for people to be their brand’s ambassadors. In the past, these were often celebrities, public figures, and practitioners.

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Today, people use their personalities to build brands on social media. For example, Twitter and Facebook are social media platforms that were built for people to share their opinion and other personal aspects of their life. Photo and video-based platforms, e.g., Youtube and Instagram, allow personal brands to showcase tangible attributes of an individual’s personality through their visual identity. The profitability of a brand personality is determined by how well it translates as authentic, likable, and trusted by the audience. Researchers have found that individual personalities can garner more visibility on these platforms. For example, researchers Quercia, Lambiotte, Stillwell, Kosinski, & Crowcroft, (2012) were able to predict the number of social contacts on Facebook based on the three variables “extroversion, age, and neuroticism.” By offering a stronger, more favorable personality than competitors or other users on social media, individuals can differentiate their brand and garner more of a following. Consumers also prefer brands in which the brand personality is in some way compatible with their self-imagination. As such, many brands aim to emphasize and share personal traits that both match and appeal to potential users. Thus, brand creators need to find a target audience that is in line with their brand personality (Maehle & Shneor, 2010). Moreover, culture plays a distinct role in brand perception. Highly individualistic cultures tend to gravitate toward brands with hedonistic variation and experience, while highly collective cultures lean toward group conformity. Profitable brand personalities, then, use cultural sensitivity, cultural knowledge, and endemic skills to connect with and augment those cultural traits native to their particular target audience (Frendika, Sule, & Kusman, 2018, 2).

Brand Snapshot Coco Chanel’s “Practical” Luxury Personality Personal style has always been a valuable asset. Today, personal style is advertised and sold online by millions of fashion bloggers and influencers around the world (Kapferer, 2008). Fashion designers have long used their brand’s personality to create fashion styles for consumers. Coco Chanel is an exemplary case of a designer that used her skills and personality to influence consumer decisions and one of the most valued brands in the world. Following the First World War, fashion was being redefined. Women were adopting a more androgynous style as a result of having to go to work and become head of household while their husbands were away (George, 2011). Chanel saw this as an opportunity to position her brand identity to create a fashion product that valued an embellished form of practicality. Her brand aligned itself with the idea of postwar simplicity and introduced women to functional fashions like pants and belts (Tungate, 2008, 14). Eventually, Chanel became an influencer herself, meaning that oftentimes if she wore a particular style it would sell out the next day (TIME 1960). One of Chanel’s

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most innovative and famous products came from her personal experiences. The introduction of the Chanel 2.55 bag was revolutionary because it was the first designer bag with a functional strap. This allowed women to free up their hands by adding a shoulder strap, but the idea originated from Chanel’s struggles with losing her purse while out socializing (Clinton, 2014). Today, the average Chanel 2.55 sells for approximately $5,000, mainly because Chanel positioned it to be the first of its kind and this positioning justifies the price tag because of the legacy of her brand. Whereas most designers were concerned with the growing number of counterfeits, Chanel was actually amused and flattered. She didn’t view them as competition because her brand was worth more than the product itself. In 2018 Chanel released its first revenue report, stating that in the year of 2017 their revenue was $9.62 billion (2018). This takes into account sales of the brand’s ready-to-wear business, accessories, and cosmetics, including its world-famous Chanel No. 5 fragrance. Chanel “is likely the largest single fashion brand by sales” in the world, which according to the New York Times, outpaced “rivals like Louis Vuitton and Gucci.” (Paton, 2018).

Personal Brand Associations A brand association is, in its broadest sense, the ideas, traits, perceptions, or anything else that is an integral contribution to how the consumer sees that brand. When a brand name comes to mind, these are the attributes that are associated with it. For example, when a person hears “McDonald’s” they may automatically think of a burger restaurant that has fast service for a low price. In other words, the first few things that come to mind are: what the brand offers, how they offer it, and how many resources a person needs to experience it. Brand associations can help produce long-term brand loyalty and these associations are particularly valuable when personalities have high visibility and strong personalities. For example, if an individual was first to position particular associations in the audience’s mind, people will remember that individual with this association more frequently over time. Studies have shown that personal brand associations are crucial for a brand’s market strength and consequently a brand’s equity (Severi & Ling, 2013). The more a brand can control the associations with it, the more control it will have over the brand’s image. Personal, highly crafted brand associations have been crucial parts of political campaigns, Academy Award campaigns, product launches, and any other events that have a central figure as part of the brand being sold. Once established, brand associations are challenging to change. For this reason, brand associations are critical to maintaining and transforming a brand. If a brand is attempting to update or change, it usually attempts to create a strong sense of continuity between its old associations and any new ones in order to maintain brand value. For this reason, brand associations can be critical to transforming a brand and

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are often best achieved when transferred to a new alliance or brand partner (James, 2005). As such, brands must be careful when picking alliances or partners. While Delta may be associated with reliability and safety, a partnership with a less-reputable airline may cause shifts in its brand associations and brand reputation.

Brand Snapshot Victoria Beckham and the Posh Association Victoria Beckham’s name is most associated with being “posh”, which implies she is fancy and rich. In the late 90 s, Beckham made her debut as a member of the Spice Girls, a group formed by famed music manager and American Idol creator Simon Fuller. In 1996, their nicknames were inspired during an interview with Top of the Pops editor Peter Loraine who suggested the names as a joke. Beckham’s name was the first one they came up with because her style stood out as visibly elegant (Heath, 1997; McQuade, 2013). Together, their names—Posh, Scary, Baby, Ginger, and Sporty—became an integral element to the success of the group’s package. The Spice Girls are one of the most successful all-female pop groups, selling over 85 million records worldwide (Horner, 2016). Each member of the group had different brand associations and an audience of fans that connected with their image through video, concerts, the Internet, and in print. However, no member of the group has been as successful as Beckham at leveraging the brand identity she forged with the band into a powerful personal brand. After the group dismantled, Victoria Beckham held on to her fame as one of the most photographed women in the world. Her consistent visibility in the tabloids and press continued due to her marriage with Manchester United football star David Beckham (Meyers, 2010). David Beckham established a strong brand association with football and athletic excellence. Together, their union created more visibility and opportunities for their brands (Cashmore & Parker, 2003; Vincent, Hill, & Lee 2009). In 2008, Victoria Beckham officially transitioned her brand offering from music to fashion with the launch of the Victoria Beckham fashion line, which caters to the posh businesswoman. Over time, Victoria and David Beckham continue to leverage their associations for their family brand—Beckham Brand Holdings (BBH)—using branding practices that increase their distinctiveness and visibility (Parmetier, 2011). According to researcher Marie-Agnès Parmentier, the Beckham’s family brand strength comes from creating an engaging family narrative, sharing persona cues based on their consumers’ interests, and taking opportunities to increase the awareness of their family’s brand. The Beckham Brand continues to manage multiple streams of revenue from its football business dealings, fashion and makeup lines, endorsement deals, and music performances and royalties (Gallagher, 2019). As of March 2019, the Beckham Brand value was estimated at $1 billion dollars.

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Brand Mantra Creating a brand mantra will help one think about the terms that they want to be associated with (Bankov, 2019). In his research on branding, Kevin Keller (1999) describes “brand mantra”, or the short phrases that economically illustrate the significant aspect of a brand. The brand mantra is a simple way to think about the associations that an organization wants people to make when they think of their brand. Whether it is just one individual or an entire team, the brand mantra helps everyone involved in the brand’s creation to stay consistent—on-brand. A brand mantra has three components: emotional modifier, descriptive modifier, and brand functions (Keller, p. 48). In one example, Disney could be described as fun (emotional), family (descriptive), entertainment (functional). Such mantras efficiently and effectively denote what the brand does (it entertains), further clarifies who or what the product is intended for (families), and the desired emotional reaction (fun). These statements both isolate essential function and create (or validate) emotional associations. Brand mantras are effective only when they communicate the brand’s intentions. Brand mantras are only effective when they stand out and position the brand against competitors.

Brand Heritage Marketing research has shown that “history” is a crucial element of corporate identity and branding. Researchers have specifically revealed how constructions of history have been used to build corporate brands and to construct a corporate identity that can be communicated to external stakeholders (Urde, Greyser, & Balmer, 2007). Even if a brand has a long history, it does not mean that it has a brand heritage. Heritage brands emphasize history as a key component of brand identity. For example, Levi’s continues to promote its history as a long time, established brand that continues to create a trusted, quality product. Heritage represents not only the past but also the present and future. Heritage informs the consumer about how the brand identity will carry on throughout time. The idea is to create the experience that the brand identity has always existed: “Heritage can add to the brand’s value proposition with depth, authenticity, and credibility for the customer/consumer” (Urde et al., 2007). Brands in the current market need to be recognized and recognizable, and brand longevity can be a key resource for a brand in competitive markets. A long-lived brand’s symbols and values retain a kind of caché that cannot be created by newer brands (Barney, 1991). Brands that make the past relevant and integral to the present feel long lived even when they aren’t, which makes heritage crucial for brand authenticity (Urde et al., 2007). Long-lasting family brands often benefit from

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heritage branding. However, for people to benefit from this kind of heritage branding, that past brand must be continuously reevaluated so that it makes sense in the present moment (Blomback & Brunninge, 2013)

Brand Snapshot Barack Obama’s Brand Heritage In 1995, during the beginning of his political campaign for Illinois Senate, Barack Obama published a memoir, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. The book reflected on race and race relations in the United States and his personal story about identity and family heritage. It was a story that many people could relate to because of his struggles with multiculturalism, race, and belonging. Not surprisingly, the Obama Era was a period of history defined by demographic changes made possible by his election. His diverse heritage represented the melting pot that is America, and also reflected the impacts of globalization in the twenty-first century. It is important to note that as the president, Obama’s face became a modern logo for the country. The American brand before and after Barack Obama is an example of how a personal brand and a country’s brand can benefit or hurt each other’s brand equity (Lagon & McKeon 2017). During his presidency, Obama’s brand was associated with the “America” brand, and this connection temporarily changed the way the world perceived America. Obama campaigned on a vision of a post-baby boomer society and attracted the admiration of millennials through their connection to new media and online social networks. With a significant success rate among millennials, the Obama brand shows potential for future consistent earnings by remaining relevant and valuable among the up-and-coming generations. His openness to multi-generational forms of communication, and their values, kept the momentum of the Obama brand (Vincent, 2018). The Obamas have continued to build on their brand created by personal stories and Barack’s political career. In early 2018, the Obamas signed a deal with Netflix to produce a creative production of a diverse mix of content. The Obamas secured a $65 million advance for both of their autobiographies in addition to their $50 million deal with Netflix (Grady, 2017).

Conclusion Knowing an individual’s brand identity is the foundation that all other strategy is built on throughout this text. It is also the first step in managing the brand image. Constructing a personal brand is a strategic process that involves many steps and

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iterations, but everything starts with and is built upon the individual. Before studying the external factors, experts consider internal factors when it comes to creating a personal brand strategy. Knowing the brand allows it to grow and transcend its place of origin, most commonly rooted in the functional value. The more a person understands the brand, the more they can control its image, positioning, and future growth opportunities. Creating a scalable brand is an art and production that must be managed by the individual and their team. Ultimately, a personal brand creates a sentiment of its image each time it is exposed to stakeholders. Therefore, personal branding is something that one must be aware of throughout their professional life cycle because it is a strong asset against industry competition.

Discussion Questions 1. What is the difference between brand identity and brand image? 2. How does a CEO’s personality affect the brand of their organization in the short run and long run? 3. How do people build associations with other brands (people, products, organizations, and governments)? 4. Who is your favorite personal brand, and what should be their brand mantra? 5. What are some examples of famous family brands, and how do they market their brand heritage?

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Discovering Your Target Audience

Learning Objectives After reading this chapter, you should be able to 1. 2. 3. 4.

Explain why personal brands should discover their target audience. Understand the advantages of market segmentation. Learn how to differentiate between stakeholder and shareholder audiences. Understand the importance of creating personas.

Introduction You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. —Dale Carnegie, American writer

In the 1950s, corporations realized that branding was a tool that could help them build loyal relationships with consumers. The more a brand knows about its target audience, the easier it will be to communicate with that audience. Without consumer loyalty, brands will spend more money raising brand awareness through advertising to attract new customers. Understanding how consumers make decisions can also prevent brands from wasting resources on fruitless marketing tactics. Today corporations spend a significant amount of money and resources on marketing research and implementation (Moorman, 2017). In 2019, U.S. businesses led the world in marketing spending at almost $200 billion, and China was in second place at close to $80 billion. Marketing is a constant expense because it must evolve. Marketing methods are always changing because the consumer market

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and businesses are always changing. Brands cannot create a strategy and let it remain stagnant; their marketing teams must work to compete for awareness (Guttman, 2019). Because marketing boils down to relationships, every marketing campaign should start with a knowledge of the target audience. If you don’t know your audience, how can you have a relationship with them? If you don’t have a relationship with your audience, how can you build brand loyalty? Knowing how the consumer makes decisions can help the brand offer more value, equating to more sales dollars, and increasing the bottom line. Understanding consumer preferences is key to forming, building, and growing long-lasting, profitable relationships. Technological advancements also impact marketing effectiveness, access, and cost. By reducing barriers to entry, technology increases competition. Reports indicate that the percentage of marketing budgets dedicated to digital marketing is growing, but this could change in the future depending on market opportunities (Busvine, 2018). Digital marketing has served as a highly accessible tool for consumer research used by businesses and individuals alike. Consumer knowledge is not only advantageous for corporate brands but personal brands as well. It is helpful to understand an audience’s perspective of a brand’s identity, i.e., how others perceive one’s brand. Many brand practitioners see this as the most important part of personal brand strategy, as the perception of others determine how they act toward a brand. One drawback is that when a brand is a person, it is difficult for an individual to simultaneously achieve authenticity while balancing the brand expectations of their consumers. A personal brand is a human, not a product: therefore, it is not as easy to change its identity for an audience. However, the remedy to this problem is to find the audience that best fits the brand’s existing personality and values its desired positioning.

The Power of Consumer Data and Analytics There is a popular phrase that says, “marketing is a battle for the mind.” In other words, all brand experiences—whether employer, country, or more tangible brands like people and products—live in the audience’s mind. The brain regulates consumer spending, which is why companies invest so much money into marketing research and positioning strategy. Knowing what the consumer wants allows marketers to align a brand with something that brings value to the consumer’s life. In exchange for value, consumers will pay. Until recently, mainstream business news has not discussed the amount of in-depth marketing research that goes into marketing campaigns. Companies with powerful brands invest in extensive research to learn about and then forge a relationship with their customers (Pemberton, 2018). Marketing research helps companies identify who the customer is, what the customer wants when the customer wants it, and where the customer is. Customer preference data is based on

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always-changing information; continuous research and analysis are required to support business decisions. Traditional methods of conducting qualitative marketing research include qualitative interviews with potential consumers to study customer preference and then survey creation and distribution to a larger sample size (Carson, Gilmore, Perry & Gronhaug, 2001). This process is expensive. However, the Internet has made analyzing customer data easier, cheaper, and more accessible, making this data easier to obtain by the everyday individual (Kozinets, 2002). Brands use data about customers’ online behavior to develop marketing campaigns and service offers that are personalized to the individual’s needs. Behavioral data helps brands offer products and services that are more relevant to the consumer. However, it also may be a turnoff to the customer when they realize that their data has been shared or compromised to sell to them. Researchers found that Facebook and other ad-based websites allowing brands to use secondary data to create advertising campaigns have caused a decline in click-through rates when customers realize their personal information has been collected without their consent (Aguirre, Mahr, Grewal, de Ruyter, & Wetzels, 2015). It is unethical to collect and use this information without the consumer’s or research participant’s consent. However, often social media users consent unknowingly to make their information public or accessible. Information that is shared on a user’s public profile can be analyzed for various research and commercial purposes by individuals and organizations around the world. For example, tweets (from Twitter) are stored and saved in the Library of Congress. Some researchers have even concluded that Twitter may be able to predict micro and macro events—everything from stock price fluctuations to a flu outbreak (Weber, 2016).

Brand Snapshot Research and Targeting, Donald Trump and Cambridge Analytica On June 16, 2015, Donald J. Trump formally announced that he was running for President of the United States of America. Although political experience is not a requirement to run for President, there was much criticism of Trump’s lack of experience in government and policy when he announced his bid for the presidency. Only five other individuals became U.S. presidents without political experience; moreover, only two U.S. presidents, Trump and Hoover, would eventually win despite having neither military or political experience. While it may have seemed like a long shot at the time, Trump leveraged his existing brand awareness and personal brand equity to propel his campaign. It is important to note that while his brand was not associated with politics, it had been saturated throughout American culture via media and business since the 1980s.

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Trump himself estimated his personal brand to be valued at $4 billion dollars. Political analysts Justin Rohrlich and Heather Timmons state that this could be accurate considering: “Trump’s name and reputation do have value, and Trump has made most of his money over the years by licensing his name: Trump wines, Trump deodorant, and of course, Trump-branded buildings” (Rohrlich & Timmons, 2019). Before entering politics, Trump was a commercial real estate mogul, businessman, and television personality. In his now-famous interview with Oprah Winfrey on the “Oprah” show in 1988, he stated he probably would not run for President, but if he did, “he would win” (Winfrey, 1988). For most of his career, he was known to support Democrats and even donated money to former Secretary of State and U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton, who later became his opponent in the 2016 presidential race. After Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States, Trump changed his public political stance to support the Republican party. By branding himself as a conservative, he strategically positioned himself to gain political support from a more receptive voter base. Campaign fundraising strategy shifted during and after the Obama presidential race to allocate considerable resources to digital marketing. Since then, candidates in both the Democratic and Republican parties have approached campaigning with digital marketing as the key strategy, and Trump’s campaign was no exception. According to Borrell Associates, a data tracking firm, more than $1.4 billion dollars were spent on online campaign advertising during the 2016 U.S. presidential election (Pierson, 2017). Political brand marketing strategy is now built on big data based on a voter’s profile and used to distribute political messaging online. Trump’s campaign team used very targeted messaging to create points-of-parity (POP) with voters. As a result, his rhetoric built POP that positioned his brand in congruence with the values of the far-right Republican party. It is important to note that since 2000, voter turnout in the United States has ranged between 50 and 58% according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. Trump’s campaign team did not focus on the market that usually voted, but instead set out to activate a target audience of voters that other candidates were not attempting to reach with their message—otherwise referred to as the “silent majority”. The data that informed his campaign staff about his audience’s pain points came from a UK-based data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica. Cambridge Analytica was later forced to shut down because they illicitly obtained the psychoanalytic data of 87 million Facebook users. Cambridge Analytica collected and stored this data through an app called “thisisyourdigitallife,” which presented users with a 120-question personality test. The survey never disclosed its intended use, and the data was sold by Cambridge Analytica for multiple purposes, including political campaigns (Suárez-Gonzalo, 2018). The Cambridge Analytica data was used by the Trump campaign for multiple political brand marketing tactics across various platforms, including a “micro-targeting campaign based on military information warfare techniques” (Suárez-Gonzalo, 2018). For example, it was used to craft messaging for Twitter that went viral among social media users and the media. Trump’s messaging was simple, spoken repetitively in sound bites, and directly addressed his target

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audience’s pain point: jobs. He then created a perceived pain point: undocumented immigrants are taking Americans’ jobs (Bonikowski, 2019). Whether journalists realized it or not, the emotional “triggers” that Trump was igniting was a political communications strategy based on marketing research. Journalists amplified his brand awareness by publishing their reactions to his social media commentary in various media and across numerous mediums—which ultimately helped him reach his goal of being the 45th President of the United States (Confessore & Yourish, 2016).

Finding the Best Audience A common saying in the world of marketing goes something like this: “If you try to sell to everyone, then you’ll end up selling to no-one.” If a person is targeting the wrong audience, they will waste money on marketing to the wrong people (i.e., people who do not want their talent, skills, products, or services). The target audience is not the same as the target market. As marketing experts, Al Ries and Jack Trout explain, the audience watching your marketing may differ from the consumers purchasing your product. “Even though Pepsi-Cola’s target was the teenager, the market was everybody who drank soda. The 50-year-old guy who wants to think he’s 19 will drink the Pepsi” (Ries & Trout, 2001). Targeting a specific audience does not mean excluding people who do not meet specific criteria. Instead, targeted marketing allows a brand to focus its message on the right market —and the people who are most likely to buy-in. In the beginning, most brands looking to market themselves don’t have the resources to push out and manage multiple messages to multiple audiences. Some of the largest companies in the world marketed themselves to the smallest, niche target audience. Facebook, for example, did not start with all colleges—it started with Harvard students (Fiegerman, 2013). Amazon did not launch its brand by selling every product imaginable; instead, it started as an online book store. Uber didn’t just start with fleets of limousines everywhere in the country, but it was marketed specifically to affluent young professionals living in large, metropolitan cities (Tsotsis, 2012; Mannes, 2017). Even brands with resources should define, target, and build a relationship with a very specific audience. Experts in media theory state that the audience is not a fixed entity but rather “a socially constructed category that is based upon the perceptions of media creators, executives, advertisers, and more” (e.g., Ettema & Whitney, 1994; Turow, 1997). When it comes to successful brand personalities, they intuitively understand their audience as they create content. In other words, savvy personal brands routinely invoke the perceptions of their online audience into their marketing and unique value offering.

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Brand Snapshot Oprah Winfrey—Developing a Cult Brand Oprah Winfrey’s early years were painfully difficult—but despite these hardships, she envisioned a dream for herself that guided her whole brand as a principle —“Using television as a service to God” (Rampersad, 2009). This philosophy has led her to connect emotionally with her audience, using her personal brand to create a media empire built on empathy. As a talk show host, Winfrey was able to access a resource that many professionals outside of her industry didn’t have—wide visibility. Winfrey began her television career in 1976 in Baltimore co-hosting the show People Are Talking. She was on the show for 8 years but eventually left because she was only making half of what her male co-host was getting paid. Winfrey and Richard Sher, her male counterpart, were delivering essentially the same functional value because they were both speaking to the same audience. However, the news station refused to pay Winfrey what Sher was making when she tried to negotiate her salary (Montag, 2018; Locker, 2019). After leaving the Baltimore show, she moved to Chicago to host the local morning show. AM Chicago was so successful that eventually, she launched The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1986. During this time, many talk shows were competing for ratings and viewership. Unlike its competitors, The Oprah Winfrey Show started with a limited budget that prevented them from booking celebrities (WBEZ Chicago, 2016). Rather than focus on famous people, Winfrey and her team decided to build a talk show that addressed topics that were pain points to a very specific audience. Winfrey and her team identified a TV target audience that other TV personalities were not targeting at the time—homemakers. The Oprah Winfrey Show not only identified who its TV audience would be but also knew who would be watching live in the audience. Because the show took place in Chicago and not New York, it was much easier to find a live audience of women (WBEZ Chicago, 2016). The show had approximately 1.3 million audience members throughout 25 seasons. According to Sally Lou Loveman, a Senior Audience Producer for the show, “The trick was getting the right audience for a given topic. Back in the day, we’d put voice-overs at the end of soap operas: ‘If you’re cheating on your husband, call this number.’ Then we’d spend all afternoon answering the phones: ‘Oprahpleasehold. Oprahpleasehold. Oprahpleasehold…’” (Arnold-Ratliff, 2011)

Since the 1950s, families have changed how they make purchasing decisions within their households. The female role has steadily become more relevant, especially as women become better educated and employed (Belch & Willis, 2002). Winfrey started each show with a pain point that spoke to that audience and then moved directly into a commercial. Commercials and on-air product giveaways

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generated tremendous revenues for the show. Big brands soon realized that Winfrey had unlocked the key to an audience that held the majority of decision-making power over household purchases. Researchers have studied Winfrey’s personal brand phenomenon (also known as the “Oprah Effect”). They found that her charisma and the connection that she generates with her audience is so strong that her followers develop an “intense emotional attachment” (Loroz & Braig, 2015). Another study carried out by Peck shows how the “Oprah Effect” was possible thanks to political, economic, and socio-historical processes in the U.S., and how those conditions made it possible for her to become “a cultural icon, spiritual guru, and media mogul” (Peck, 2010). In the U.S. and 145 countries around the world, Oprah Winfrey became a cult brand because followers regard her brand to be highly authentic, competent, caring, and trustworthy. After the show ended in 2012, Winfrey continued to leverage her brand in other media, including O Magazine and multiple films which she produced and starred in (Haughney, 2012). She purchased her OWN network, became a brand ambassador for products like Weight Watchers, and even built 55 schools in 12 countries. She stated, “ultimately, you have to make money because you are a business. I let other people worry about that. I worry about the message. I am always, always, always about holding true to the vision and the message, and when you are true to that, then people respond” (Haughney, 2012). Cultural historians say that Oprah’s transformation into a billion dollar brand was by strategy, not by accident (Larson, 2018).

Market Segmentation The proliferation of online presence has caused professionals to strategically analyze how they present themselves online and offline to make decisions on what brand image they put forward and cultivate. If such images are not consistent with their brand identity, there is a chance that their potential audience or existing stakeholders will lose trust. Sometimes a brand must serve multiple audiences, and sometimes the interests of those audiences will clash. Historically, this has been more of an issue for CEOs and public figures; today, it is an issue for everyone, because these are times of continuous online engagement. Today, personal brand images are omnipresent, and once a brand message is online, it is there for all audiences to see. Today’s connected world forces people who want to build a stable career to think about how they present themselves online. Today, employers will find professionals online in a room called Facebook, and another room called LinkedIn. They can compare the two profiles simultaneously on two separate browser tabs. These companies have their own social media profiles (Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter are the most popular among recruiters), which they leverage to enhance recruitment efforts. Employers also use social media platforms to screen candidates before inviting them to interview, provide advice about careers at their company, and share insights with applicants about their

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corporate culture. As human resources departments increase social media recruiting, professionals are expected to present themselves through online profiles built to impress. As a result, professionals are increasingly curating the content they post and share, using better communication skills (such as formality and grammar checking), and paying more attention to protection parameters and privacy policies from platforms. Successful brands understand that they need to offer and deliver their brand promise consistently. The most profitable people and companies do not try to be everything to everyone; instead, they try to deliver distinctly valuable experiences for a specific audience. However, as the brand grows, it might choose to widen its market, prompting them to require a different content strategy for each audience type. In this instance, marketers must separate and target their brand’s communications in order to create and maintain consumer relations among various audience segments. Brands that have difficulties implementing a segmented communications strategy may choose to simply keep a consistent brand message for all audiences. In the contemporary world, the construction of personal identity (in relation to specific groups) is present in the digital realm as well, carving out unique spaces to produce distinct identities. However, when a brand’s identity takes on a virtual element, the images that it produces could be tedious to manage. Users may have different audiences on Facebook (in which they are friends with coworkers or other professional contacts) and Twitter and thus create different personas for each platform. As a result, social media creates a market segmentation issue for the average person whose social network audiences are not homogenous. Before a person can effectively market their value, they have to familiarize themselves with all audiences and decide on their communication strategy for each. Although a person’s brand promise and mission need to be consistent, analyzing an audience’s needs will help them tailor a targeted message. The differences in a person’s audiences’ interests can help determine how to manage and prioritize communications. A simple way to start segmenting an audience is into two categories: stakeholders and shareholders. The terms shareholders and stakeholders are often used synonymously in corporate settings; however, they do have their differences. A stakeholder is someone who has a vested interest in a brand, but not ownership. A shareholder, on the contrary, has invested resources into a brand and expects a return on investment. A shareholder is always a stakeholder, but a stakeholder is not necessarily a shareholder. People who are not contributing resources to a brand, like followers and conference attendees, are stakeholders. In general, shareholders can be clients, a boss, or constituents. Beyond their titles, these stakeholders have values, interests, and pain points that need to be understood. Knowing these details can help determine which audience is best for the goals that a person is trying to achieve. By segmenting the market, one can talk directly to different target audiences.

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Brand Snapshot Elon Musk Versus Stakeholders As a prominent billionaire inventor and entrepreneur, Elon Musk rose from the Internet business (Zip2 Corporation, PayPal) and moved into the high-tech transportation industry (SpaceX, Tesla). Musk’s ascent can largely be attributed to his very prominent, distinctive personal brand. With nearly 27 million Twitter followers, his personal Twitter account garners six times the amount of followers as his company Tesla (Twitter, 2019). It comes as no surprise then that while Tesla claims it has virtually no advertising budget, it still leads the automotive industry in organic engagement because of its founder’s high visibility and social media engagement (Griner, 2018). In 2018, Musk tweeted that he was considering taking Tesla private for $420 with secured funding, which triggered a federal lawsuit by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Not surprisingly, Tesla shareholders (and potential ones) became nervous about the company’s stock market performance. After Musk’s initial tweet about taking the company private, Tesla’s stock spiked 11%, but days later dropped 13% after investors filed lawsuits and the SEC filed securities fraud charges against Musk. A final agreement settled the matter with a $20 million fine, two new independent directors to its board, and restrictions to Musk`s future statements on Twitter and other public media about the company. Most industry analysis points to the polarizing brand of the company being at odds with its performance and its founder (Lahiff, 2019). Musk has multiple stakeholders: his audience and fans on Twitter, the shareholders of his company, any potential investors for future projects and initiatives, and any sort of government regulatory body. He has fans that follow him and love his innovative ideas, but also value his authenticity. They aspire to be like him and loved having direct access to him through social media platforms like Twitter. Musk has also stated that he is not willing to give up using Twitter even if shareholders believe that it risks the company’s value. He also has to communicate to his shareholders that their investments are safe and the future of the company is not at risk (Barkho, 2019). In order for the stock price of the company to trend positive in the future, he has to show that he has a sustainable strategy for managing the brand. The government has to believe that he is using ethical and best practices to maintain leadership of a publicly held corporation (Frazee, 2019). In order for his brands to continue to be successful, he must have a strategy for managing all of these audiences because they are all stakeholders of his brands—both company and personal. There is no longer a separation between the two.

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Creating Audience Personas In the field of User Interface Design (UX), practitioners have developed a mechanism for characterizing their audience into personas. UX professionals then use these personas to guide their design strategy for software programs and online applications. Personas are a powerful way to synthesize information about a target audience and transform this data into an easy-to-remember and empathetic character (Harley, 2015). Proto-personas can also work as a stand-in for real people and help the designers to imagine potential users in terms of their human characteristics, emotions, and qualities. Proto-personas are a low-cost way for designers to understand how real people will use and interact with the brand (Chang, Lim, & Stolterman, 2008). The concept of “personas” was first proposed in 1999 by Alan Cooper “as a way to focus the design process” and it included fictional data such as a portrait, background information, and other details in order to make a “persona” as close as possible to a real person (Blomkvist, 2002). This process can be used when multiple stakeholders are involved in constructing a brand. Sometimes when a sizeable group of people are working on a brand, they disagree on who their target audience is and what that audience wants. This disagreement is a result of people projecting their own biases onto the user of the product, service, or brand. Coming together to analyze the characteristics of the target audience allows management and the brand team to discuss and validate their assumptions. Individuals can create personas for their brand as well. A CEO, for example, has to analyze the persona of different internal and external stakeholders. The audience for the business’s products and services may be different from the audience reading a CEO’s memos, speeches, and other communication. A simple persona can determine whether or not the target audience aligns with the brand’s goals and offerings. Personas can be used by various professionals, not just designers, marketers, and CEOs. Attorneys develop personas for their jury; record labels create personas for their artists’ fans; human resources may develop personas of the ideal job candidate.

Conclusion Finding a target audience is the foundation of building a personal brand—it is creating the atmosphere and the groundwork for a relationship to grow and prosper. In-depth knowledge of the primary consumer will reduce a brand’s cost for marketing efforts. Learning information about an audience such as demographics, psychographics, and pain points can lead to the creation of a successful personal marketing strategy. Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey, and Elon Musk all have very different audiences and brands, but the one thing they have in common is a strong ability to determine and connect with their target audiences. It could also be assumed that, to varying

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degrees, as these public figures discovered and connected with their target audiences, they also were able to develop content that resonated with their audience’s personas. The next chapter will discuss positioning, which is essential for a brand to maintain its competitive edge once it has found its target audience.

Discussion Questions 1. What are the offline and online tools that can help you learn more about a personal brand’s audience? 2. How could a personal brand leverage their audience to create sponsorship opportunities? 3. How should a personal brand manage conflicting interests of multiple stakeholders? 4. How can a personal brand use psychographics to connect with their audience? 5. How do brand managers distinguish stakeholders from shareholders?

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Busvine, D. (2018, September 23). Global spending on digital marketing nears $100 billion study. Reuters. Retrieved from: https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-advertising-digital/global-spendingon-digital-marketing-nears-100-billion-study-idUKKCN1M30XN. Carson, D., Gilmore, A., Perry, C., & Gronhaug, K. (2001) Qualitative marketing research. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=L8nSK5QEeGEC&oi= fnd&pg=PP1&ots=I0jnkudqsL&sig=bmOAXvNsm4VKz5Q7f3nGut7qUJo#v= onepage&q&f=false. Chang, Y. N., Lim, Y. K., & Stolterman, E. (2008, October). Personas: From theory to practices. In Proceedings of the 5th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Building Bridges (pp. 439–442). ACM. Confessore, N., & Yourish, K. (2016, March 15). $2 Billion worth of free media for Donald trump. The New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/upshot/ measuring-donald-trumps-mammoth-advantage-in-free-media.html. Ettema, J. S., & Whitney, D. C. (1994). The money arrow: An introduction to audiencemaking (pp. 1–18). Audiencemaking: How the media create the audience. Fiegerman, S. (2013, August 15). This is what Facebook’s first ads looked like. Mashable. Retrieved from: https://mashable.com/2013/08/15/facebook-first-ad/. Frazee, G. (2019, March 11). Why Elon Musk’s tweets matter to the SEC. PBS News Hour. Retrieved November 1, 2019, from https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-sense/ why-elon-musks-tweets-matter-to-the-sec. Griner, D. (2018, February 7). With a $0 ad budget, tesla just pulled off one of the greatest marketing stunts ever. Adweek. Retrieved from: https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/ with-a-0-ad-budget-tesla-just-pulled-off-one-of-the-greatest-marketing-stunts-ever/. Guttman, A. (2019, Mar 28). Media advertising spending in the United States from 2015 to 2022 (in billion U.S. dollars). Statista. Retrieved from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/272314/ advertising-spending-in-the-us/. Harley, A. (2015). Personas make user memorable for product team members. Retrieved from: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/persona/. Haughney, C. (2012, November 25) Oprah at a Crossroads. The New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/26/business/media/oprah-winfrey-seeks-to-bolster-aagging-empire.html. Kozinets, R. (2002). The Field behind the screen: Using Netnography for marketing research in online communities. Journal of Marketing Research, 39(1), 61–72. Retrieved from: https:// journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1509/jmkr.39.1.61.18935. Lahiff, K. (2019, June 7). Tesla is having its best week since October, but investor says bear case is still strong. CNBC. Retrieved from: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/07/tesla-is-having-its-bestweek-since-october-but-bear-case-is-strong.html. Larson, S. (2018, January 12). “Making Oprah” illuminates the oprah phenomenon, and more. The New Yorker. Retrieved from: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/podcast-dept/making-oprahilluminates-the-oprah-phenomenon-and-more. Locker, M. (2019, May 1). Here’s how Oprah Winfrey negotiates raises. Fast Company. Retrieved from: https://www.fastcompany.com/90342502/heres-how-oprah-winfrey-negotiates-raises. Loroz, P., & Braig, B. (2015). Consumer attachments to human brands: The “Oprah Effect”. Psychology & Marketing, 32(7), 751–763. Mannes, J. (2017). Here is Uber’s first pitch deck. Techcrunch. Retrieved from: https://techcrunch. com/gallery/here-is-ubers-first-pitch-deck/. Montag, A. (2018, June 1). Here’s what Oprah did when she found out her male co-worker was making more money than her. CNBC—Make it. Retrieved from: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/ 06/01/what-oprah-winfrey-did-when-her-male-co-worker-was-making-more-money.html. Moorman, C. (2017, January 24). Marketing budgets vary by industry. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from: https://deloitte.wsj.com/cmo/2017/01/24/who-has-the-biggest-marketingbudgets/.

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Learning Objectives After reading this chapter, you should be able to 1. Learn the importance of positioning a personal brand. 2. Understand the various ways that people position themselves in a market, organization, or industry. 3. Conduct a SWOT analysis for a personal brand. 4. Analyze the impact of brand competition on market share. 5. Determine the positioning or rank of brand competitors. 6. Understand the difference between points of differentiation (POD) and points of parity (POP).

Introduction In our over communicated society, the name of the game today is positioning. —Al Ries and Jack Trout, American marketing professionals and authors

Strategic personal brand management is a heuristic process that analyzes internal and external market factors to determine the best positioning for a brand. Brand management takes into account the current brand identity and determines the most desirable category or associations in the audience’s mind to increase equity for the personal brand. Like the several possibilities in a game of chess, a brand can be positioned in infinite ways. In all instances, positioning occurs only when there is an audience to judge a brand’s performance and competition with which to compare it. Once a position has been determined as most profitable, an individual’s brand must cater to the desires of the target audience and compete for that audience’s attention. In order to increase personal brand equity, a personal brand must win the © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 T. Waller, Personal Brand Management, Management for Professionals, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43744-2_4

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top position in the audience’s mind or be regarded as the most valuable. Competing in a crowded marketplace can be costly, which is why knowing what makes a personal brand different can potentially save money on marketing efforts in the long run. The optimal position for a brand would be one with a large audience or a lucrative market with minimal competition. If a brand is first in its distribution channel or sector, then that minimizes the likelihood of their audience choosing another option. However, this is seldom the case in today’s marketplace, which is often crowded with competition. Think of the positioning analogy of a grocery store aisle—most people gravitate to what is at eye level even though many products are displayed above and below eye level. Companies know this fact and pay more to optimally position their product brands to gain that visibility. Moreover, companies know that beyond the packaging or the description of their product, the benefits of their offerings are more or less the same as their competitors. By positioning their brand with optimal visibility, they can gain a competitive edge against similar product brands because their positioning entices the customer to select their products. Personal brands must stand out by differentiating themselves in their target audience’s minds using tangible and intangible assets of their brand identity such as image, personality, and strengths. However, in a largely competitive marketplace, these assets are often not enough to differentiate a brand. Beyond the initial benefits of someone’s work, the audience will make decisions, not based on an assessment of functional value offered, but instead based on brand awareness and positioning.

Positioning Theory Previous sections explored the psychology behind a personal brand and its audience. Next comes the concept of positioning and the psychology that underlies it. Positioning is a theory that was popular during World War II (Ogilvy, 1985) and it started to spread throughout the advertising world around the 1950s. David Ogilvy, founder of the world-renowned advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather, built a career and legacy on the concept of branding and positioning products. He states in his book Ogilvy on Advertising (1983), “I could have positioned Dove as a detergent bar for men with dirty hands, but chose instead to position it as a toilet bar for women with dry skin. This is still working 25 years later.” Ogilvy’s positioning started as a decision based on the product being sold and the market of people most likely to buy the product. This positioning also required the marketer to advertise it in a way that spoke directly to the selected target market. The decision-making process that marketers use to package the brand’s unique offering for a very selective audience is what is known as “positioning strategy.” As noted branding expert Laura Ries points out, The idea of positioning is about looking for an open hole that you can occupy and there’s a couple of things that allow you to do that –the most important being narrowing the focus [of the brand]. Most brands think about trying to be all things to everybody and there’s just no

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way of getting in the customer’s mind with that [strategy]. Narrowing your focus and ideally being the first in a new category is the greatest way to build a brand. When it comes to personal brands you know, they are people who have the same [strategy] as companies.1

Thought-Leaders Positioning Themselves Al Ries and Jack Trout are two of the most notable researchers on brand positioning. Although David Olgivy, among others, was positioning products in advertising, together Ries and Trout became the experts of “positioning theory” with their numerous articles on the topic. In 1969, they coined the term “positioning” in a paper for Industrial Marketing titled “Positioning is a game people play in today’s me-too market place.” Due to consumers being bombarded with advertising, Trout and Ries (1972a, b, c) indicated that marketing was entering a new era that transcended mere competition; instead, marketing transitioned to be more about who could produce the most creative promotional strategies. Ries and Trout defined positioning as a mental process buyers used to simplify and store new information in a logical location within their minds (Ries, 2017). The ability to classify, rank, and position a product as quickly as possible helps consumers identify what products are of most value to them and which ones can be ignored. While this theory was important then, it is even more important now because people are exposed to more brand messages than ever before. In the 1970s, people came across approximately 500 brand messages a day, and by 2006 that number had grown to over 5,000 (Johnson, 2006). Today, the consumer’s brain has evolved to ignore advertising and brand messages. Also, advancements in technology like “ad-avoidance technologies” (AATs), which allow individuals to enable settings to avoid viewing advertisements, have made advertisers’ jobs even more difficult (Anderson & Gans, 2011). A good example of this technology is a prompt on YouTube that allows the viewer to avoid viewing an advertisement after five seconds when watching a video. As a result, a brand without an effective positioning strategy will get lost in a sea of other brands.

Why Does First Matter? Research on positioning theory has evolved over the years from positioning products to more abstract concepts like missions, values, and the way a brand is experienced by customers and potential customers (Yohn, 2014). Today, people think of positioning as what makes people perceive a brand as valuable. Positioning defines a brand’s ranking compared to other brands offering a similar experience in a category. Coca-Cola versus Pepsi is one of the most famous examples of how 1

Unpublished interview with Laura Ries conducted by Dr. Talaya Waller. 4 December 2019. Washington D.C.

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audience’s rank brands. The ability of Pepsi to reposition its cola during the 1980s was attributed to its “New Generation” marketing campaign which attracted a newer and younger audience than Coke. Pepsi’s celebrity endorsement of popular music icon Michael Jackson when his career was at the peak also helped them become the preferred choice for “young and energetic persons” (Fripp, 2013). Once a brand is first in someone’s mind, it’s hard to change the positioning in that category. A strategy in positioning is, if possible, to be the first name associated with a set of attributes that an audience wants to experience. As a result, the audience will think of their brand name first versus a competitor’s brand. This strategy doesn’t just work for products, but for people as well. A personal brand can gain a profitable positioning if it becomes known for being the first to define a category in a market. In other words, a personal brand does not necessarily have to be the first to accomplish, make, or do something, but it does have to be the first at positioning itself as doing insomuch in people’s minds. When people think of inexpensive food from a fast restaurant, unsurprisingly McDonald’s is often the first brand name that comes to consumers’ minds. This is not an accident: since its inception, McDonald’s has positioned itself as a fast-food restaurant that is associated with quick customer service at a low cost (Dudovskiy, 2016). Another example of how positioning comes into play is in the highly competitive airline industry. If an airline isn’t positioned well, the result can be very costly for shareholders. For example, when JetBlue launched its brand, it competed with numerous airlines (e.g., Delta, American Airlines, and US Airways). Delta’s focus was on business travelers and building brand loyalty through points and American Airlines was the leading operator in five of the ten biggest metropolitan areas in the U.S. (Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, New York, and Miami). US Airways had positioned itself as an international airline with direct routes to major cities like London, Frankfurt, and Paris (Karp, 2015). In order to position itself competitively against these major players, JetBlue introduced itself as the airline with the most amenities and perks for the average traveler. In other words, JetBlue’s core competencies are its differentiated products and services. It believes that competitive fares and quality air travel need not be mutually exclusive. For this reason, JetBlue is perceived to offer better and more variety of snacks for economy class travelers (Dodds, 2007).

Brand Snapshot Employee Branding and Internal Brand Positioning at Southwest Airlines Southwest Airlines has been one of the most successful airlines in the United States because the company positioned its brand using employees to gain a competitive advantage. Marketing scholars Miles and Mangold (2005) define employee

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branding as “the process by which employees internalize the desired brand image and are motivated to project that image to customers and other organizational constituents” (p. 68). Many corporations conduct customer service training when they hire new employees, particularly those in the hospitality industry. However, Southwest goes a step further by training each employee on its brand promise and not just the service they provide. The Southwest mission focuses on employee satisfaction first and customers second, thus creating a psychological commitment from its employees to uphold the brand’s promise. Employees are taught the organization’s mission and core values and are trained on how to reinforce those values through the delivery of their own professional brand identity. As an organizational strategy, this incentivizes its employees to internalize Southwest’s desired brand image. This strategy also enables Southwest to leverage their employees as a positioning tool for their corporate brand. As a result, employees become brand ambassadors for Southwest by projecting the company’s brand as they interact with customers (Miles & Mangold, 2005). In other words, each employee helps to position Southwest’s brand in each customer’s mind.

Positioning Within an Organization In the example above, Southwest positioned its brand via its employees’ brands. However, there are numerous factors that airlines and other brands can use to successfully position themselves in a market category. Entrepreneurs and professionals in various industries have positioned themselves as well. Before a professional can get hired for a “position” they must position themselves for the job. If a person interviews for a job, they want the hiring official to think of them as first for the job position. After an individual is hired for the position and works for a period of time, he or she may ask management for a higher position or promotion within a company (or look for promotional opportunities externally). It is estimated that 80% of employees seek promotions after achieving set career goals and objectives. Some people seek promotions because they have demonstrated good leadership skills; others seek promotions because they are more likely to take initiative (Noor, & Khan, 2015). For most organizations with a bureaucratic structure, the higher an individual’s rank in the organization, the more visibility they have in their career. Better positioning means more visibility or access to a market category with less competition. Marketing comes down to positioning no matter what industry an individual works in, but there are multiple strategies depending on ability, capacity, circumstance, and competition. Therefore, it is difficult to know what decisions catapult a brand to dominate a market. Professionals can position their careers by salary, price, presentation, performance, service delivery, audience segmentation, or geographic location. All of these factors affect how the audience experiences their brand.

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Professional Brand Positioning with Résumés A lot of research has been conducted on employer branding and how it helps companies attract and retain valuable employees (Banta & Watras, 2019, Küpper, Klein, & Völckner, 2019, Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004). However, there is little research conducted on the effects of an employer’s brand on their employees’ careers within and outside of their organization. When professionals start working for a corporation they build brand equity by creating brand assets that are associated with their employer’s brand. In a sense, they are aligning their personal brand to the brand of the organization. At this stage, the professional may not be looking to position themselves against competition. When a professional leaves an organization to go to another company, it might require them to compete and position themselves for a new job. Several professionals use the brand of their current or previous employer to position themselves for their next job or startup. For career professionals seeking employment, each company brand that they list on their resume creates an impression on their brand. The employer or client reviewing the resume will associate the previous employer’s brand with the professional’s brand. It is important to note that corporate brands are not equal in value. When an employee puts an employer’s name on a resume it can carry positive, neutral, or negative brand sentiments. DelVecchio, Jarvis, Klink, & Dineen, (2007) found that professionals seek to build a competitive resume by working for companies with high brand equity. Job seekers believed that companies with strong brands would “allow them to advance to better positions internally, provide them job-related training and skills, and demonstrate their willingness to work hard” (DelVecchio et al., 2007).

Positioning for Profit A brand, whether personal or business, can be used as an economic tool. Managerial economic research states that the price of a brand could be elastic or static depending on supply and demand. Price elasticity refers to changes in demand due to an increase or decrease in general prices. Economist Daniel Hamermesh (1986) explains the mechanism of this phenomenon, “As in the market for a commodity, similarly in the market for labor, the demand is an integral determinant of the price of what is exchanged”. In other words, the price or wage consumers and businesses are willing to pay for a personal brand could vary depending on the circumstances both in and out of the brand’s control. The more a marketer knows about the consumer’s budget, the more information they will have when negotiating or setting a price for the talent, service, or experience that they are offering. A marketer sets the price that a brand charges per hour, project, units produced, etc. Knowing the average for the market or industry gives a personal brand a range of fees to negotiate within, otherwise a personal brand may underprice for its value. Porter, Cordon, and Barber (2004) also note that if a potential employee feels that

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there is an oversupply of their expertise or talent in their industry, they are likely to be reluctant to negotiate for more pay within their organization. If the market has high elasticity, then brands can charge a lot more or a lot less, causing confusion over what is considered as an average price for a skill, talent, or experience. For example, someone may be willing to pay an exorbitant fee for a famous speaker and almost nothing for an unknown speaker even though both offer the same functional value of speaking. The same could be said for other professionals. Positioning strategy, as it pertains to compensation, may be one of the reasons that one person is paid significantly more than the other. When professionals depend on their organization to determine the best way for them to be positioned, they ultimately end up like everyone else in the company, organization, or field. However, since the goal of a brand is to gain more economic value, the brand should position itself in the most financially beneficial way. Positioning requires a strong awareness of what management can bring to the table versus other people in the field or industry. A professional that discovers a more specialized niche within a field of expertise that has high demand and scarce talent has a higher probability of successful positioning. From a managerial economics view, supply and demand suggest that a personal brand will be more profitable by positioning the individual to fulfill a highly sought after need.

CEO Positioning and Competition It has been noted that in recent times, corporations are at the forefront of positioning their CEOs and top executives even though most decisions are not made by those individuals (Bendisch, Larsen, & Trueman, 2013). The success of a corporation can be determined by the perception that the employees and the public have about the CEO. CEO positioning is a strategy that organizations use to promote their CEO’s as industry-leaders in the minds of the public (Zerfass, Verčič, & Wiesenberg, 2016). It is prudent for a firm to take the necessary steps to ensure that the CEO is properly positioned. A CEO marketing strategy may entail promoting the CEO’s values, characteristics, and a history of past achievements. However, an ideal CEO positioning strategy would derive from knowing the competition and discovering where the CEO’s brand is most visible and competitive.

Brand Snapshot Competing Computers: Bill Gates Versus Steve Jobs In 1977, Apple introduced its first personal computer and, at that time, IBM was the only competitor in the technology hardware space (Weinberger, 2017). In fact, Microsoft was both IBM and Apple’s critical software partner during the early years

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of both company’s personal computer development. At a tech event in 1983, Gates stated that he predicted that Microsoft’s relationship with Apple would account for nearly half of all revenues (Kapko, 2015). However, that all changed with the release of Microsoft Windows in 1985—Microsoft left the role of Apple’s collaborator to become officially its main competition. According to Jobs’ biographer Walter Isaacson, the Apple founder saw Microsoft’s entrance in the consumer market as an affront to their working relationship (Isaacson, 2011). In response to its newfound competition, Apple invested a considerable amount in advertising their comparative advantages against Microsoft’s graphical interface software (Clifford, 2017). Most notably, was the now infamous 1984 Super Bowl ad where Apple contextualizes Microsoft’s technology within the draconian narrative of Orwell’s science fiction novel. In their advertising, Apple branded itself as having the personality of a cool, efficient, and smart young man and Microsoft was portrayed as ridiculously difficult and inefficient (Melancon & Dalakas, 2014). After becoming bitter enemies in public, Jobs and Gates would challenge each other in so many ways that their competitive relationship would drive the evolution of computer technology throughout the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. While Gates was concerned with protecting his Windows operating system, Jobs was heavily invested in reinventing the computer hardware industry. Jobs understood that Apple could not beat Microsoft on the desktop, so he changed the landscape of the tech world battlefield to mobile. With the launch of the iPhone, Jobs set in motion a new era in the computing industry, which led Apple to officially overtake Microsoft as the world’s most valuable company in 2010 (Helft & Vance, 2010). Both Apple and Microsoft would not be where they are today if it not for the rivalry of their founders (Shah & Mulla, 2013). Bill Gates and Steve Jobs developed a competitive relationship that led to better positioning for their personal and company brands. Similar to many other founders, their personality and entrepreneurial approach were aligned with the way they positioned their companies. Both founders were competing for the same category within an industry, yet with different positioning strategies. They realized that they were each others’ competition, which intentionally or not, led to better positioning for both competitors (Mayo & Mark, 2010). Over the course of their career rivalry, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs knew each other well enough to deliberately make public statements about each other that would position their CEO brands and their companies’ brands (Russell & Gülnur, 2005). Ironically, they actually helped each other differentiate themselves in the market. This proves that strategic positioning helps each competitor win in the end and is more effective than wasting marketing resources competing for the same position.

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“SWOT”-ing the Competition Competition refers to the number of people that are offering the same skill, talent, expertise, or experience in a given industry. In order to assess where to position a personal brand, a marketer might conduct a competitive analysis of their industry. For brands, differentiation is not only about being different, but also about demonstrating those differences on a consistent basis (Wheeler, 2009). Each brand has to establish the mechanism by which they set themselves apart. No matter what industry a professional is in, management and other shareholders will evaluate their SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) before making the decision to invest in their brand. A SWOT analysis is a strategic management tool that helps entrepreneurs and teams within an organization evaluate their effectiveness and determine a positioning statement (Gürel, 2017; Thompson Strickland, & Gamble, 2007). SWOT analysis has evolved into something that individuals can use for their career as well. The tool benefits personal brands looking for optimal positioning within a particular field, industry, or market. By identifying core strengths or comparative advantages, individuals can position themselves using the attributes that fit into their desired position or industry. It would not be advantageous for a personal brand to position themselves in an area or performing a skill that they would classify as a weakness. A weakness is a task, skill-set, or activity that an individual or team lacks competency in or that could make a negative impression on a customer or coworker. Both strengths and weaknesses are internal assessments that need to be assessed by the person or organization. Opportunities and threats are external factors that can affect a personal brand’s positioning. Although marketers do not have control over external factors, acknowledging these factors can help managers plan a strategy to mitigate risk. Opportunities are beneficial occurrences, timing, or situations that happen, which make it possible for an individual or organization to accomplish its goals (Gürel & Tat, 2017). Threats are the exact opposite of opportunities because they present barriers for a person to achieve their goals. After the SWOT is analyzed in its entirety, marketers can create a positioning strategy based on the brand’s internal and external market factors.

Brand Snapshot Repositioning the Image of Robyn “Rihanna” Fenty Robyn “Rihanna” Fenty is a renowned musician from Barbados. In 2005, she signed a contract with DefJam Recordings and, over the years, has produced numerous albums and singles. This American hip-hop label wanted to brand Rihanna as one of the best female artists in the world. Yet, Rihanna knew intuitively after the release of her second album that her singing career had risen to a

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point where there was a need to reposition her brand from a “girl from the islands” to the international mogul that she has become now (Smith, 2019). In the beginning of her singing career, DefJam Recordings wanted to position her like the other big pop star icons at that time. At the time the market was full of female pop singers who were great at delivering sultry performances. Her competitors, among others, included Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Christina Aguilera, and Britney Spears. The personal brand image that the music label wanted Rihanna to evoke looked very similar to her competition. For instance, the record label preferred her to have long straight blonde hair similar to those hairstyles of other top female performers at the time (Smith, 2017). Rihanna pushed back on her label’s strategy for her image because she wanted to go for an edgier look, something that was totally different from her competitors. Rihanna and her stylist Ursula Stephens defied her record label by cutting her hair the night before her Good Girl Gone Bad album cover photoshoot (Smith, 2019). Following the release of the hit song “Good Girl Gone Bad” in 2007, Rihanna felt like her album was more authentic to who she was and the message that she wanted to communicate. Contrary to the outcome that the record label management brand predicted, there was a profitable market of fans that could relate to her style. Looking back, critics say that by repositioning her personal brand’s image, she completely changed the trajectory of her career. In 2019, she was listed as Forbes’ third highest-paid woman in the music industry, earning over $62 million a year (Greenberg, 2019). According to Business Insider, she has the highest number of digital music sales of any artist (2016). The decision to differentiate Rihanna’s brand from the competition helped her position herself as a pop icon not only in music, but also in fashion and makeup (Segran, 2019). Her cosmetics line, Fenty, disrupted the industry with the brand’s focus on diversity and inclusion and upon its release made $100 million in just 40 days (Nnadi, 2018). In 2019, Rihanna became the richest female artist in the world with a net worth of $600 million. Ironically, Madonna—her idol that inspired her as she was repositioning her brand—is the second richest female music artist at $570 million (Robehmed, 2019).

Differentiation The concept of a unique value proposition (UVP) was first coined by Mckinsey & Company consultants Michael Lanning and Edward Michaels in 1988. UVP is also referred to as a unique selling point (USP) because it seeks to inform the customer of the benefit of using certain products and services. Ideally, UVP explains how a product or service satisfies customer needs in a unique way. There should be clear communication of a brand’s abilities in the marketing and advertising campaigns. If the audience thinks that all of the competitors offer the same thing, everyone is a commodity and no one is a brand.

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The importance of having a UVP is that it highlights a brand’s strengths and helps identify the needs of the market. The firm should concentrate on those strengths to make goods that uniquely satisfy the needs of the customer. A UVP also provides an opportunity for analysis of the level of competition within a particular industry, helping marketers create effective positioning strategies for the brand.

Points of Differentiation (POD) Versus Points of Parity (POP) Kapferer (1992) notes that positioning is a two-step process: first, identifying other brands in the category that a brand is associated with and, then, identifying what makes the brand stand out from its competitors. “Points of Parity” (POP) are the attributes, benefits, presentation, or performance that associate a brand with a particular category. For example, for a public speaker, POPs might be communication skills, poise, and engagement (Keller & Tybout, 2002). Points of differentiation are the attributes, benefits, presentation, or performance that make a person different from the other individuals competing for that category or positioning. For example, a public speaker can distinguish themselves by their style (e.g., inspirational or informative), their subject matter, and level of expertise. For personal brands, the conceptual analog of establishing points of differentiation stems from these practices that allow the person to “stand out” from other competitors in terms of the amount and the quality of their field-specific cultural and social capital. The conceptual analog to establishing points of parity is visibly “fitting in” with the expectations of the field, which requires both learning about and complying with the field’s values and its expectations related to the occupation being pursued (Parmentier, Fischer, & Reuber, 2013). Researchers Parmentier, Fischer, and Reuber argue that a person can position their brand within established industries by implementing processes that help to portray them as having industry-specific social and cultural capital. Social and cultural capital differentiates them from their competition while maintaining habits that allow them to assimilate with job and position-specific expectations (Parmentier, Fischer & Reuber, 2013). Arguably, this is attributed to the fact that nonadherence to certain expectations may not be in line with customer needs.

Brand Snapshot Political Branding, Bush Versus Dukakis Personal brands not only use associations to position themselves, but also their competition. Since the 1980s, people have seen a surge of politicians master the skill of repositioning their opponents’ brand in voters’ minds. This strategy gains so

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much traction, that in the 1990s, the terminology “political branding” was published in research (Decker, 1988). During the 1988 election between George H. W. Bush and Michael S. Dukakis, Bush repositioned Dukakis’ image during a major debate in front of millions of American viewers. Dukakis at the time was a third term Governor for the state of Massechuetts but was still unknown to most Americans. Bush’s campaign team decided to tell Dukakis’ narrative for him, before he got the opportunity to do it for himself (CNN, 2019). Bush’s campaign team’s strategy was to make American voters believe that Bush leaned a little more left to capture moderate democrats. At the same time, Bush’s campaign team wanted to move Dukakis to the left so that he came off as too liberal. According to Kevin Lane Keller, “specific goals were to create a point-of-difference on traditional Republican issues such as defense, the economy (and taxes), and crime and to create a point-of-parity—thus negating the opponent’s point-of-difference—on traditional Democratic issues such as the environment, education, and abortion rights” (Keller, Parameswaran, & Jacob, 2011, p. 89) One of Bush’s first attacks toward Dukakis’ brand happened in June 1988 during the campaign. Bush mentioned a criminal incident that occurred during Massachusetts’s weekend furlough program for prisoners. One of the inmates didn’t return to the prison, and was captured after attacking a couple from Maryland. Bush’s intent was to position the Governor as soft on crime. Later in the fall of 1988, during the second presidential debate, the moderator asked Dukakis if he would prefer the death penalty if someone sexually assaulted and murdered his wife, Kitty (YouTube). His lack of emotion and stance against the death penalty left many viewers believing that he was a heartless technocrat. Although Bush was the candidate that supported the death penalty, he used Dukakis’ perceived indifference, or lacking of need for vengeance, to position himself as the more “human” leader. Numerous political journalists, as well as Dukakis’ wife, said that Dukakis was asked an unfair question, which many political analysts believe inevitably ruined Dukakis’ chances at the presidency (McNulty, 1988). He was also delayed in responding to many other negative attacks from the Bush campaign team over the course of the campaign. A month after the debate, Dukakis lost the election to Bush by approximately seven million votes.

Conclusion There are numerous positioning strategies that a personal brand can choose to implement. When a brand is being developed or making a change, it needs to consider its position relative to its competition. Positioning a personal brand requires an internal assessment of the brand’s goals and an external analysis of the brand’s market. Industries become more competitive as knowledge and technology

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increase to reach people on a global scale. Therefore, positioning strategies should change and adapt as an individual matures and navigates their professional lifecycle.

Discussion Questions

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Why How How How How

is it profitable for personal brands to differentiate themselves? do you determine the positioning goals for a personal brand? do internal employees position themselves within an organization? can a personal brand’s competitors affect their positioning in a market? do personal brands discover their competition?

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Isaacson, W. (2011). Steve Jobs. Simon & Schuster: New York, NY. Johnson, C. (2006). Cutting through advertising clutter.CBC News. Retrieved from https://www. cbsnews.com/news/cutting-through-advertising-clutter/. Kapferer, J. N. (1992). Strategic brand management. New York, NY: The Free Press. Kapko, M. (2015). History of Apple and Microsoft: 4 decades of peaks and valleys. 7 October 2015. CIO. Retrieved November 1, 2019. Karp, G. (2015). American Airlines, US Airways get FAA approval to fly as one carrier. Chicago Tribune. Keller, K. L., & Tybout, A. (2002). The principle of positioning. Market Leader, 19, 65. Keller, K. L., Parameswaran, M. G., & Jacob, I. (2011). Strategic brand management: Building, measuring, and managing brand equity. Pearson Education India. Küpper, D. M., Klein, K., & Völckner, F. (2019). Gamifying employer branding: An integrating framework and research propositions for a new HRM approach in the digitized economy. Human Resource Management Review. Mayo, A., & Mark, B. (2010). Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Harvard Business School Case 407-028. Retrieved from https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=33893 . McNulty, T. J. (1988, October 15). Outrageous debate question angers Kitty Dukakis. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1988-10-158802070550-story.html. Melancon, P. & Dalakas, J. V. (2014). Brand rivalry and consumers’ Schadenfreude: The case of Apple. Services Marketing Quarterly. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/262270316_Brand_Rivalry_and_Consumers’_Schadenfreude_The_Case_of_ Apple. Miles, J.S. & Mangold, G., W. (2005). Positioning Southwest Airlines through employee branding. Business Horizons, 48, 535–545. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2005.04.010. Nnadi, C. (2018). Rihanna on body image, turning 30, and staying real—No matter what. 3 May 2018. Vogue. Retrieved October 15, 2019. Noor, Z. & Khan, A, U. (2015). Impact of job promotion and job advancement on job satisfaction in universities of KPK Province of Pakistan. 27, 1499–1505. Ogilvy, D. (1985). Ogilvy on advertising. New York: Vintage Books. Parmentier, M. A., Fischer, E. & Reuber, A. R. (2013). Positioning person brands in established organizational fields. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 41, 373. https://doi.org/10. 1007/s11747-012-0309-2. Porter, C., Cordon, D., & Barber, A. (2004). The dynamics of salary negotiations: Effects on applicants’ justice perceptions and recruitment decisions. International Journal of Conflict Management, 15(3), 273–303. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb022915. Ries, A. (2017) A few words about jack trout and positioning. Advertising Age. Retrieved from https://adage.com/article/al-ries/a-words-jack-trout-positioning/309341. Russell, B., & Gülnur, T. (2005). The Cult of Macintosh. Consumption Markets & Culture, 8(3), 205–217. https://doi.org/10.1080/10253860500160403. Robehmed, N. (2019). How Rihanna created a $600 Million fortune—And became the world’s richest female musician. 4 June 2019. Forbes. Retrieved October 29 2019. Segran, E. (2019, July 31). It’s official: Celebrities are the new designers. Fast Company. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/90383804/its-official-celebrities-are-the-newdesigners. Shah, T., & Mulla, Z. R. (2013). Leader motives, impression management, and charisma: A comparison of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Management and Labour Studies, 38(3), 155–184. https://doi.org/10.1177/0258042X13509736. Smith, D. (2017). Rihanna’s game-changing bob: Hairstylist Ursula Stephen remembers the haircut ten years later. Billboard. Retrieved from https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/ lifestyle/7816586/rihanna-good-girl-gone-bad-haircut-bob-hairstylist-interview. Smith, D. (2019). Good Girl Gone Bad’: Charting Rihanna’s daring transformation. Discovermusic. Retrieved from https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/rihanna-good-girl-gone-bad/.

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Part II

Strategic Implementation & Personal Brand Growth: Marketing and Monetizing a Brand in the New Economy

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Learning Objectives After reading this chapter, you should be able to 1. Understand how personal brands create marketing impressions. 2. Understand the relationship between the message and medium that conveys it. 3. Assess the effectiveness of a brand’s growth and strategy implementation by the platforms and channels on which it promotes itself.

Introduction I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. —Maya Angelou, American poet

From language to algorithms, throughout history people and businesses are able to expand their reach with the use of communications technology. With modern communications technology, natural brand attributes can be transformed into photos, messages, videos, and other tools for communicating brand value. For the brands that do not have access to (or the wherewithal to “keep up with”) communications technology, many are left struggling to communicate their value in the future. In the implementation phase of brand management, marketers are challenged with creating opportunities to monetize the brand. A positioning strategy serves as the foundation to achieve this goal. The goal of a brand is to position itself as first of mind when the consumer or business is making a decision. Marketing is the method by which a brand increases its awareness with the goal of converting visibility into economic returns. The more consumers are aware of a brand’s value, the more opportunities a brand has to increase its value. In the past, this awareness was built © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 T. Waller, Personal Brand Management, Management for Professionals, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43744-2_5

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from outbound, one-way communications. Today, this awareness is built from having a loyal, two-way relationship where both parties value each other. This chapter is an overview of the various marketing activities that personal brands must use to deliver value and build relationships with their audience. Before a personal brand can be marketed it must use mediums, channels, and platforms to promote the brand’s credibility and expertise. For personal brands specifically, it is crucial to capture the physical image, voice, knowledge, or skills as a media to be shared. For a personal brand to build equity, it must develop relationships built on its brand’s promise.

Marketing Personal Brands and Building Consumer Relationships In the beginning, marketers only thought to use marketing for branding products, but later decided to broaden its scope and applicability. In 1969, Phillip Kotler and Susan Levy proposed to broaden the concept of marketing beyond products and extend it to services, organizations, and people. They defined “personal marketing” as [A}n endemic human activity, from the employee trying to impress his boss to the statesman trying to win the support of the public. With the advent of mass communications, the marketing of persons has been turned over to professionals.

The addition of people marketing themselves meant that people were becoming more educated about marketing tactics in general, which has made traditional marketing tactics less effective for all brands. The American Marketing Association gives a broad definition of marketing as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” Marketing continues to evolve in many ways over the years, to include several definitions, tactics, and concepts. Personal marketing may be new in theory, but individuals have been using it in practice since the beginnings of commerce. When someone is promoting their expertise or talent for a salary, contract, or income they are marketing themselves. Similarly, entrepreneurs have long used self-promotion to influence others and get buy-in from consumers, investors, and other stakeholders (Ward & Yates, 2013). For example, one of the hardest tasks of an entrepreneur is marketing their startup because entrepreneurs do not have as many resources as a large company. For this reason, in the beginning, entrepreneurs are often left using their personal brand to promote the activities of their business. One advantage of personal marketing is that it’s easier for humans to engage with other humans versus humans engaging with something nonhuman. In a 2018 study held by the Harvard Business Review Analytic Services about automated marketing and human-driven marketing, the results were clear: human interaction is

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more competitive than technologically marketing strategies, such as website pop-up ads. The study showed how 80% of the marketers that participated agreed that the human element in their marketing was paramount to their organization’s competitiveness, and 60% said that it’s difficult to replicate the human experience using their digital technology interfaces. In order for a brand’s marketing strategy to be successful, it has to determine how to create a valuable relationship with the audience. The connection that an individual hopes to have with a brand is the same as the connection that they desire from another human. Feels like acceptance, trust, loyalty, and even brand love or passion, which can even act similarly as a human–human love relationship. New media platforms and communication channels also drive access to personal marketing by creating more opportunities for individuals to express, present, and promote the value that they are offering to the market (Thompson-Whiteside, Turnball, & Walsh, 2018).

Making an Impression Every time a potential or existing stakeholder views a personal brand it is referred to as an “impression”. Impressions in marketing are defined as a view or touchpoint with the target audience or consumer. An impression can be made either indirectly or directly but always places a brand image in the minds of the audience. If the audience views a person’s brand and decides to react to the impression, this interaction is referred to as engagement. Brand engagements are opportunities to create memories about a brand’s unique value proposition and associations. This strategy helps brands to position themselves in the category that they want to lead. Every time a brand reminds the audience of its value, it increases the chances that the brand will be top of mind to the audience. In general, after a certain amount of impressions have been made, the audience is more inclined to think of a person’s brand when they have to choose between their brand and the brand of their competitor. This phenomenon is also known as the mere exposure effect (MEE), which purports that people are inclined to prefer something in the future if they have already encountered it in the past (Stafford & Grimes, 2012). There are also cases where exclusivity builds brand value. For instance, personal brands are not infinite in nature, and therefore too much accessibility could dilute the brand’s authenticity. Exclusivity can make real-life engagement with a personal brand valued more than offline media or digital engagement with a personal brand. For example, typically it costs more to attend a concert than it does to download a song and it costs more to attend an NBA game than it does to watch that same game at home. If an individual attends an NBA game and pays to sit courtside, close to the athletes playing the game, then that will cost even more.

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All of these various factors make it important for marketers to diversify the communications channels that they use to promote a personal brand. Throughout the branding process (strategy, marketing, and management), a brand manager must analyze the effectiveness of marketing campaign channels and adjust as necessary.

Competing for Visibility Not only has personal marketing become a more competitive activity, but more of a nuisance as well. As marketing expert Ifan Shepherd states, personal marketing territory is some kind of “wild place” where many people are struggling to get attention; and in this kind of place, Darwin’s selection of the strongest and fittest principles predominate. Moreover, the author emphasized the struggle for this prized attention, stating that “the distribution of awareness corresponds to the famous Zipf curve, in which a tiny fraction of the population (the so-called ‘celebrities’) benefit from a majority of public awareness, and everyone else has to live on scraps” (Shepherd, 2005). Beyond the competition for visibility, one of the toughest challenges of marketing is the act itself. In a saturated market place, consumers are oversoliticed, and consequently tired of being sold. Therefore, if a brand is not willing to build a relationship with its audience, marketing to this audience would not make a meaningful impact and the brand might fail to reach its target market. Human brands require strategic planning and execution to communicate their value in a way that is authentic and relevant to their target audience. In the past, traditional outbound marketing and communications like this were the norm. Traditional outbound marketing activities would include magazine advertisements, where consumers could not publicly voice their feedback to corporate advertisers or celebrities in magazines. However, today, technology allows the consumer to voice their opinions and have a conversation with brands (i.e., magazines and celebrities). As a result, brands are continually updating their user experience to promote a better relationship with consumers.

Likeability Humans are social creatures. Likeability is not something that people strive for, for cultural reasons, but innate within our psychic as a survival mechanism. Psychologists have also concluded that when understood as “popularity”, likeability can be consistently measured from the age of three into adulthood and can even predict someone’s mortality (Yang & Boen, 2016; Prinstein, 2017). Likeability refers to a cognitive process by which one is perceived as likeable through the gathering of attributes such as friendliness, approachability, relevance, empathy, agreeableness, and similarity to oneself. From close friends and family

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members to co-workers, humans are influenced by the social group and environment they were born in (Greenwood, 2018). This quality extends to brands who also have to be “likeable” in order to connect with their target audiences. Nguyen, Ekinci, Simkin, & Melewar (2015) found that for firm-level brands, “likeability is positively associated with satisfaction and positive word-of-mouth.” Likeability builds positive brand associations, increases brand engagement, makes a brand more personable, and increases satisfaction (Nguyen et al., 2015). “Likeability” is probably most familiar as a litmus test term applied in politics to gauge a politician’s popularity or likelihood of winning an election. Today, it is most relevant to social media. Likeability, in the personal sense, can be observed through the lens of popularity, where the research shows its clear benefits (Prinstein, 2017). Popularity is likeability’s ultimate realization because its prosocial positioning establishes the subject as a leader in and beyond its networks and platforms. For brands, popularity is critical to achieving long-lasting credibility and maintaining positive impressions. There is limited scholarly research on the term “likeability” at the firm level and the individual levels of a brand. Yet, with the introduction of social media platforms, marketers can now measure how much consumers like every type of brand imaginable, including people brands. Online environments enable quantitative communication. As a result, both marketers and stakeholders of the brand can view and track the analytics of likeability.

Brand Snapshot Hillary Clinton and the Likeability Factor Likeability has been a major factor in politics since the nineteenth century when middle-class men began to closely correlate likeability with business and financial success (Potter, 2019). Constituents vote for people who they know, like, and trust. For campaigning candidates, their constituents must like them in order to vote for them. In fact, it has been argued that likability might be the only deciding factor in voters’ minds. Take, for example, the 2016 presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Two-thirds of people in polls believed that Clinton had the professional qualifications and experience to do the job; however, only half of Americans found her personally relatable (Cilliza, 2016). Trump won: “I bring it down to one thing and one thing only, and that is likeability,” said Peter Hart, a Democratic pollster who has conducted a series of focus groups during the election for the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Likeability and relatability, in most cases, comes down to the audiences’ belief that the personal brand could or does care about someone like themselves. In the case of Clinton, she underestimated her opponent’s charisma that resonated with his base. While both Clinton and Trump have been household names for quite some

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time, Trump had the distinct advantage of being a self-made celebrity, and his savvy for understanding how to be “likeable” to audiences paid off. Keeping in mind that success as an entertainer already presumes a threshold of likeability, it should come as no surprise that the likeability factor has risen to great importance since the introduction of televised debates. For instance, Nixon suffered a “likeability deficit” after a disastrous televised debate with John F. Kennedy in 1960. When he ran for president in 1968, he hired a young Roger Ailes to create scripted television conversations to increase his appeal. Ultimately, likability has nothing to do with who the person is, but rather who people perceive them to be. For example, George W. Bush, vocally sober since 1986, was nevertheless deemed “The Beer President” because many voters envisioned him an affable drinking companion (Mounk, 2020). The implication here is that sober or not, Bush is likable because he seems down to earth and fun, despite the fact that he is extremely wealthy and the President. Clinton’s likability issues, it seems, stem from the public’s inability to discern any distinctive qualities that define who she really is. According to Washington Post journalist Chris Cillizza, a lot of people can’t seem to understand figure out who Clinton is. “Where does “Hillary Clinton, public figure” stop and “Hillary Clinton regular person” start? Or are they the same thing?” (2016). In the case of Michelle Obama, who has never held political office but is highly regarded as a political thought leader, her likeability is derived from her value in her self-worth. This dovetails with her image-making as a woman who is her own person distinctive of her famous husband and their marriage (Grady, 2018). Both Obama and Clinton are successful women; but where Clinton rejects being called “bossy”, Obama embraces the term and is celebrated for it (Chasmar, 2019; Umoh, 2017). It could also be argued that perhaps Obama’s likability can also be attributed to her repeated denial that she will ever seek public office (Harvard, 2018). Her unwillingness to seek power may allow for people to see her, unlike Clinton, as strong and not threatening. However, while Obama may rank higher in likability than Clinton, Obama’s influence cannot compare to Clinton’s, and it is important to note that likeability and influence are not always correlated. Although many political analysts focus on Clinton’s lack of likeability, her historic loss in 2016 has influenced more women to run for political office—529 alone in 2018 (Waller, 2019; Mahdawi, 2019). Her influence serves as inspiration for these women who identify as part of a “Pantsuit Nation”, a movement named for Clinton’s emblematic wardrobe (Schnell, 2019).

Content Marketing Traditionally, society has supported opinion leaders in positions of journalism and literature. However, the Internet economy is based on the concept that online information is abundant and largely free. The Internet has brought fundamental shifts to news distribution and has extended the lifespan of a story. Snapshots of

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people’s lives are published forever online (Perell, 2016). In the analog world, for instance, consumers had to buy an entire newspaper to read a specific story or certain topic; stories lasted a short time period before newspapers were thrown away: In the digital world, there are an unlimited number of pages that can be published and an infinite number of advertisements to be sold. The marginal cost of publishing and ad sales is close to zero (Perell, 2016).

Content marketing is information that consumers can share with their peers causing a “viral effect”. The main goals of content marketing are to educate, entertain, and instruct the consumer and subsequently build a trustworthy, loyal relationship that pushes them toward purchasing the brand (Murthy, 2011). Social media platforms are the most popular platforms to share content because it’s free to join and they can connect individuals with millions of potential consumers. However, due to the low barriers of entry to the platform, there are millions of other content sharers that someone must compete with to be seen. Therefore, in order for a personal brand to establish a successful marketing strategy on social media, it must first understand the motivations of the consumers using the platform. More specifically, why consumers are active and what kind of content do they choose to share. Bergman (2013) noted that there are six key things that cause people to discuss, imitate, or share information. The six things are as follows: • Social Currency: Individuals share information that they think will make them appear smarter, cooler, or just better to their peers. • Triggers: Stimuli-like music, food, or other experiential marketing that will make people want to buy something or think about something. • Emotion: The sharing of information that triggers the audience to develop feelings or emotions such as happiness or anger. • Public: Sharing for the possibility of being seen or visible to a wider audience. • Practical Value: Sharing information that is useful or of economic value. • Stories: The personal narratives that are shared about a product or service, told in a unique manner that may influence the word-of-mouth sharing effect.

Storytelling Through Media In the beginning, most civilizations communicated through oral tradition. Individuals build successful relationships through communication, but the best way to influence someone is through storytelling. Historically, it was narratives about people, like Homer’s Iliad and The Odyssey, that withstood the test of time. Research in the twentieth century revealed that Homer’s Iliad and The Odyssey originated as part of an ancient Greek oral tradition where word-of-mouth stories where shared over generations of oral poets before and for sometime after the alphabet creation.

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Technology in the form of media can affect how we share stories; however, human stories can be shared on any medium. According to Schank (1999), the first element of storytelling is that the human brain’s memory is story-based: Information is categorized, recorded, and recovered as stories. A story is helpful because it arrives with many clues (i.e., touchpoints to the life of listeners/viewers or others that trigger implicit and/or direct consciousness and emotional connection/understanding in the minds of listeners/viewers). In 2010, Arch Woodside stated that brand and human stories alike are products of a human tendency to the following: • See causal relationships in the world, • experience time as a chance for transition and challenge, • project human-like characteristics on objects, and • project onto ourselves those traits. Also, his research on the brand-consumer storytelling and result of enjoyment builds on the concept of Bagozzi and Natarajan (1999). Bagozzi and Natarajan argued that individuals need assistance in discovering what makes them happy, and that’s where marketing comes in. The opinion that happiness can be the result through brands allowing customers to create narratives with particular archetypal plots is a micro-complement to Nataraajan and Bagozzi (1999) more macro-explaining the role of marketing in helping the deliberate search for happiness of customers. Product brands and personal brands have human archetypes. Human archetypes are used in everything from movies to video games and these storylines are often internationally accepted. For instance, in the nineteenth century, Napoleon rebranded France in his image through the proliferation of artwork that portrayed him as its “savior” (Melville, 2018). Proliferating a strong human narrative is also how Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto changed the economic future for the company by making Nintendo’s landlord Mario Segale the gaming icon “Mario”.

The Rise of Social Media Platforms Marketing opportunities increase exponentially when a person creates a platform to market their brand. A platform is an environment that allows a personal brand to be elevated and visible. A person may have a platform to speak, entertain, educate, perform, inform, etc. Platforms give people an opportunity for more exposure for their brand. This is important for a marketer because a platform allows a brand to promote its value. Individuals can create their own platforms with minimal resources with or without the Internet. Whether someone is hosting a dinner party to sell an idea to friends who may invest in their company or speaking at the local church to influence the congregation to vote for their political campaigns, offline platforms are still

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an important way for brands to market themselves. These activities are amplified by sharing content such as cards, books, flyers, posters, T-shirts, and anything that can have text or a picture. In order for a brand to be successful on a platform, the platform must have a network. The most powerful personal brands typically start building their brand equity on another entity or corporate brand’s platform, because those platforms have a larger, more substantial network. In the 1990s, one of the first signs of people’s interest in sharing information about brands on online platforms came from the bulletin boards of Yahoo! and AOL. Consumers would use these websites to share their feedback about products (Kozinets, 2001). With a steady increase of activity in chat rooms and newsgroups, the Internet gave rise to the term “social media”. Social media refers to any form of online publication that allows for the creation and exchange of user generated content including text, images, video, and/or audio materials (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Social media are online activities and programs designed to engage customers or prospects and directly or indirectly raise awareness, improve the image or elicit sales of products and services. What has made social media unique compared to other online communications, is that users were prompted and sometimes required to create their own online representations of their real-life selves (Bedijs, Held, & Maaß, 2014). Other participants on social platforms can craft an image based on their profile identity, share comments, and post content on the platform. As a result, social media has transformed the way individuals communicate with brands. In 2019, almost half of the world’s people and organizations maintain between four and ten social media profiles. The average American is said to use over seven social media platforms; 95% of businesses use Facebook, while 84% use Instagram and Twitter. When using social media on a continuous basis, people are engaging with personal brands by writing, reading, watching, liking, commenting, and sharing (Schivinski, Christodoulides, & Dabrowski, 2016). These actions represent three different levels of brand engagement including observing, interacting, and content creation. Social media has been a topic of researchers for its wide range of use and interaction among people and organizations. From an academic context, social media can best be learned from sociology literature. Many individuals use social media to boost self-esteem through building relationships with peers; research also found that the amount of likes people obtained on their Facebook profile photos was favorably correlated with self-esteem (Burrow & Rainone, 2017). The “self-brand” is not unique, but part of a large social media setting spanning Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and more (Scolere, Pruchniewska, & Duff, 2018). Studies indicate that there is a positive and significant correlation between brand equity and brand attitudes with individual brand-related operations in social media (Schivinski et al., 2016). Individuals with digital skills who can create an authentic personal brand both on and offline can widen their audiences and career opportunities (Thompson-Whiteside et al., 2018). By utilizing the building blocks established in previous chapters, individuals can fully leverage the power of social media

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across industries (Kalsnes, 2016). Personal brands can promote their knowledge, opinions, services, and products across various social platforms. Measuring the effectiveness of campaigns and the return on investment in the social media environment has not been easy for marketers. Many social media experts are focused on developing better ways to evaluate the results of consumer interactions to content such as likes, shares, clicks, and comments. Researchers underline the importance of new perspectives developed by platforms such as Facebook and found that Facebook “reactions” allow marketers to gain deep insights into individuals’ emotional engagement with brands (Turnbull & Jenkins, 2016); Oh, Roumani, Nwankpa, & Han-Fen, 2017).

Brand Snapshot From Zucknet to Facebook At an early age, Mark Zuckerberg was on his way to creating one of the most successful personal branding platforms—Facebook. His father, Edward Zuckerburg, understood that learning code would be the future of business and technology, so he taught him Atari BASIC computer programming. Soon after, his parents hired a software developer named David Newman to tutor him. Newman would later call his student a “prodigy” for his ability to learn and innovate. Edward ran a dentistry practice out of their home which lacked a practical way for the receptionist to reach him without “shouting”. To address his father’s pain point, Mark Zuckerburg created ZuckNet for the practice, which worked like an internal instant messaging system (Boyd, 2019). Remarkably, Mark Zuckerberg created this system prior to AOL messenger, which gave him a lot of buzz among technology executives. Subsequently, Zuckerberg was offered major engineering jobs at top technology companies but turned them down to go to Harvard in 2002 (Vogelstein, 2017). Although he took many computer science courses, he chose a major in Psychology. It is possible that Zuckerberg intuitively understood the future of the Internet since Facebook’s platform is designed for users to create personas of who they “are” in conversation with their friends’ personas. Facebook is now a massive company ranked number 57 on the Fortune 500 list and worth $593 billion dollars (2019). Facebook makes money by selling people and businesses advertising. A social media platform of this size and nature requires a deep understanding of human behavior. As a company, it is crucial that it motivates people to not only join the platform but also stay on the platform and engage with the platform’s content. To keep engagement high, Facebook developers and designers work to make the platform “addictive” with things such as likes, comments, gaming, groups, marketplace, and pokes (Cuthbertson, 2019). The more people are on the platform, the more Facebook becomes an indispensable platform for advertisers.

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Owning the Platform In this highly fragmented digital environment, maintaining a social media presence is often a central element of marketing communications for human brands; however, marketing personal brands go beyond social media. Before people started to market their expertise as influencers on social media platforms like Facebook, they wrote and published content on their own platform. The most common online platform for personal brands is personal web pages. When individuals create personal websites, they have more control over how they express their identity and personal brand (Vazire & Gosling, 2004). When individuals own the platform, they have more autonomy and creative freedom with their website design and content. Depending on the brand’s industry, the content could matter more than the design or vice versa (Sinha, Hearst, & Ivory, 2001). Bloggers use their platform to create and publish content. In general terms, bloggers are people who publish their opinion about an array of topics online. Researchers agree that blogs are an effective communication channel that highly influences the decision-making process of consumers. In a research study on fashion blogs, for example, it stands out that content creators are seen as experts and gurus on their subject and the information they provide is highly appreciated for its value as a source for inspiration, verification, and guidance. Also, researchers found that consumers rely on the credibility of the bloggers to guide their decisions (Esteban-Santos, García, Carey, & Bellido-Pérez, 2018). It requires minimal resources to purchase a domain name and most personal brands use their name for the URL. Personal websites can be found on the Internet through search engines attracting traffic from people all over the world. Search engines like Google give web-owners free and low-cost website analytics (Pakkala, Preston, & Cristensen, 2012). Many individuals ask site visitors to subscribe to their website to ensure that they continue to develop their relationship with the consumer. The subscriptions, contact forms, and other digital engagement link start the process of converting a website visitor to a brand consumer.

Choosing the Right Marketing Mix Online or digital marketing includes several channels including email, website, social media, search engine optimization, and paid display advertisements. Within less than a decade, marketers adopted digital marketing and incorporated it into their branding, marketing research, customer relationship management systems, services and promotions (Ashley & Tuten, 2015). Multimedia and multichannel marketing helps a personal brand communicate its brand promise and message in multiple ways. Selecting the most applicable, effective, and efficient media type to communicate a brand depends on the brand’s identity and target audience.

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The best way to differentiate a platform from a channel is to think of platforms as “networks” and channels as “roadways”. To deliver value, brands must simultaneously use platforms and channels to establish a dialogue and build relationships with consumers. When initially marketing the brand, the media type is based on what will best communicate the individual’s value offering. For example, if someone is an artist or a model, then a photo-based platform like Instagram may be best to highlight their brand’s strengths and communicate its promise. Contrarily, if they are a journalist, a platform or channel that focuses on text (Twitter or blogs) may be best to articulate their brand’s strengths and promise. Most personal brands start with one media type and platform, then expand to others after they have more resources (time, money, and staff). Traditional marketing and digital marketing can work together to complement each other in a marketing campaign (Dutta-Bergman, 2004). It is important to develop a combination of these activities that work best for the expertise and personality of the person being branded, and the consumers being targeted for marketing efforts. Building on Keller’s (2009) eight major types of communications of marketing strategy, there are nine marketing communications types presented below. Seldomly do individuals only deploy one at a time; these types are usually implemented and communicated in a mix of two or more. (1) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of web traffic to increase brand exposure through paid and non-paid search engine results. SEO is essential to build awareness for human brands. Independent of the platform, brands should have an understanding of their target audience’s online behavior to craft an effective SEO strategy. Search engines like Google give web-owners free and low-cost analytical tools that can be used to get a deeper understanding of a brand’s website performance and the user’s behaviors (Pakkala, Preston, & Cristensen, 2012). SEO experts, such as Neil Patel, have even built personal brands on their intimate knowledge of this space. (2) Advertising Advertising is any paid form of presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor. In the case of personal branding, a sponsor is a person and not a company. When people think of advertising they typically think of businesses; however, entrepreneurs and practitioners pay to advertise themselves as a service as well. For instance, in the United States, it is very popular for personal injury attorneys to pay for TV commercials advertising their expertise and legal services.

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(3) Experiential Marketing Experiential marketing creates brand-sponsored activities and programs designed to create daily or special brand-related interactions. This type of marketing innately provides a mix of media experiences to market a person’s brand. If a person is a book author, they may combine public relations, experiential marketing, and personal selling (i.e., hosting a book signing) to promote their brand and increase book sales. (4) Public Relations Public relations involve a variety of programs designed to promote or protect a brand’s image or its individual products. Public relations professionals communicate with the media on behalf of the personal brand. Typically, public relations is an outbound activity whether it is proactive (securing speaking events) or reactive (mitigating a crisis with the media). Over the past decade, we have seen a steady increase in executives and celebrities communicating their personal brands online. As a result, many personal brands are conducting their own publicity on social media and offline events such as speaking engagements. We see this most often with CEOs, public figures, and politicians. (5) Direct Marketing or Peer to Peer Direct marketing or peer to peer is the use of mail, telephone, fax, email, or Internet to communicate directly with or solicit response or dialogue from specific customers and prospects. For example, real estate agents use direct marketing by sending postcards via mail and promotions on billboards. This has evolved to include email in addition to slower, one-way communication. People market their blogs through newsletter management systems like MailChimp and Constant contact. One of the most recent successful examples of direct marketing is Craigslist, which was created by Craig Newmark in 1995 as an email distribution list to friends. The site began a listing of local events in the San Francisco Bay Area and quickly grew into a year of services and providing other classified categories a year later. The classified categories were peer-to-peer cutting out the need for a middle-person or distributor to connect them with a larger network. This helped Craigslist distrupt the newspaper industry and caused a negative impact on its ad sales. Today, Craigslist is a billion-dollar company (Perino, 2019) with online communities in over 70 countries.

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(6) Word-of-mouth Marketing Word-of-mouth marketing is people-to-people oral, written, or electronic communications that relate to the merits or experiences of purchasing or using products or services. “Word-of-mouth is the primary factor behind 20–50% of all purchasing decisions,” (Bergman, 2013, p. 7). Many researchers at first hypothesized that social media platforms were essential to personal branding, but their findings indicate that face-to-face communication had more weight (Rangarajan, Gelb, & Vandaveer, 2018). People would rather hear what another person has to say whether they know them or not versus the entity that is trying to sell a product or service. The majority of consumers trust a recommendation from a person over a company. Word of mouth is the most influential form of marketing whether the sentiment is shared face to face, through an online testimonial or shared social media post. (7) Viral Marketing Viral marketing is like word-of-mouth, except exponential and fast. Viral marketing is evident when people share marketing messages with other people and the messages are presented in a manner that may influence the possibility for further influence, exposure, and impact. An example of a viral marketing strategy is creating a real-life and/or digital challenges of some sort where one individual completes the challenge and encourages others to do it. For example, in 2014, Pat Quinn helped start the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a deadly degenerative disease (CBS New York, 2019). The goal of this challenge was to raise money for a charitable cause. The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was a filmed “incident” of a person or someone else dumping a container of ice and water over a person’s head. The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge became a viral fundraising campaign that captured the awareness of millions of people, including some of the world’s wealthiest and philanthropic to include Mark Zuckerburg, Oprah Winfrey, and Bill Gates. The campaign raised awareness an $115 million dollars for the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association and their research on the disease.

Integrated Marketing System Traditional media that rely on outbound sales tactics is often frustrating and operates as a disruption for the consumer’s everyday life. People prefer socially engaging and educational content that they can find on their own or through their

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network. “Consumers are taking a more active role in deciding what communications they want to receive as well as how they want to communicate with others about the products and services they use and people they follow” (Kotler & Keller, 2012). Therefore, marketers must be strategic about which platforms they choose because the competition for brand awareness increases as time goes by. The increase in competition for visibility is largely due to low barriers of entry. Over time, competitors can also become more knowledgeable about marketing strategy specific to a new marketing channel or platform. There is now an exponential amount of channels to host and share brand content and media messages. Marketers are using an integrated marketing communication (IMC) system to reach and influence target markets (Kotler & Keller, 2012). The Integrated Marketing Community of the Association of National Advertisers—ANA defines an integrated marketing system as a strategic approach to merging communications and interactive experiences targeting defined audiences. IMC arranges all aspects of marketing a brand including mass communications (advertising, sales promotion, events, experiences, public relations, and publicity) and personal communications (direct and interactive marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, and personal selling) in order to achieve consistent and unified messaging to ensure a seamless experience for consumers to interact with the brand on their preferred channel for engagement. The impact of digital technology requires less financial resources to scale, causing there to be an oversaturation of brands trying to stand out on the same channels. One of the reasons for overcrowded channels is that organizations and individuals often jump to a platform just because it’s the current trending marketing channel. However, not all brands fit the same type of media this is why a lot of brands fail to reach their target market. The integration of marketing communications is a crucial strategy used by marketers to break through this noise, stand out in the most important channels, and ultimately build brand and customer equity.

Brand Snapshot Kevin Hart: Funny Man and Marketing Mogul Comedian Kevin Hart has capitalized on using multiple platforms and channels to launch his career and control ownership of his ensuing stardom (his net worth is estimated to be in the ballpark of $200 million dollars). While he started out in stand up, he was quickly able to scale and diversify his career through the platforms and channels that he used to build a comedy following. He is one of the most

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sought-after endorsements from advertisers and takes his brand partnerships seriously because his fame and success are largely built on the fans who follow him online. As he explained to Forbes in 2018, upon announcing a deal with both the NBA and Mountain Dew, “I’m more about the partnership—a brand that I can grow, evolve and do something special with. [W]hat if this brand becomes the biggest ever, what if the campaign becomes the most talked about thing ever—my name and my brand would be attached to that” (Berg, 2018). Hart is in the position to grow a corporate brand because he was strategic about choosing the platforms to build his own. He saw that many of his fellow comedians were financially subject to the decisions of clubs, promoters, and handlers and, at the end of the day, they ended up walking away with very little to show for their work. In a time before social media was ubiquitous, Hart made the effort to gather his audience members’ emails and then contact them about upcoming shows. He created a network of fans who he then drove to MySpace, the most popular social media platform at the time, where he could consolidate and control his message. As the crowds got bigger, Hart was able to demand more money to perform (Frieswick, 2018). In 2009, Hart decided that he wanted to record a standup special where he owned all the rights. He formed HartBeat Productions, spent $700,000 of his own money to produce the special, and shopped the film around to distributors. When none picked it up, he went directly to AMC Theaters, which agreed to show it. Hart did all the marketing for the film as well. To date, Laugh at My Pain has grossed $18 million dollars. With over 144 million followers across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, Hart has continued to experiment with different social media channels to drive his fans to content he stars in, produces, and collaborates with major advertisers on (Johnson, 2018). In 2017, he launched the Laugh Out Loud network in partnership with Lionsgate Films. The content on the network is sponsored by big brands such as Old Spice and Bengay and garners over 50 million views. His “hands-on” approach to cross-promotional marketing, which he calls “fun advertising,” has given brands that he has partnered with major “bumps” in engagement and sales (Pearl, 2018; Monllos, 2018). Hart has also struck deals with Universal Studios as well as other major players in entertainment to extend his brand through multiple channels with the ultimate goal of removing his person from the day-to-day of the brand. As he told Entrepreneur Magazine in 2018, “When it’s all said and done, if the world ever decides to say, ‘We’re done with Kevin Hart,’ well, my brand and my business are still going to work” (Frieswick, 2018).

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Conclusion Personal brand management has become a job for an organized professional team and an important part of a company’s efforts (Karaduman, 2013). In the battle for attention, positioning is the foundation by which marketers build the brand’s marketing initiatives. From there, they create impressions, which are the starting point of engagement. Through engagement, a brand can form an emotional or rational bond with consumers. Brand engagement is important because it helps brands to position themselves in the category that they want to lead. In order to raise awareness and loyalty among stakeholders, marketers need to interact with them sincerely and show their investment in their attitudes, concerns, and ideas. Ultimately, a brand must be likeable in order to be effective. To be likeable it must gather attributes such as friendliness, approachability, relevance, empathy, agreeableness, and similarity to oneself. Marketing channels and platforms offer different opportunities for engagement and scalability. While there is no formula for getting this mix “right”, understanding the target audience in connection to the positioning of the brand allows the managers of it to connect with this audience through the most effective channels and platforms. Gone are the days where marketers could ad hoc proliferate a brand without a clear strategy simply because they had a budget. Brands, like people, must come off as authentic and engaging. With personal brands, there are only a few opportunities to make a so-called “first impression”–and that impression should snowball digitally into many impressions. This chapter discusses numerous approaches to marketing that can be applied in various ways to the brand. That being said, the likeability factor underlies every strategy, recommendation, and analysis in this chapter. Kevin Hart realized very early on in his career that leveraging his likeability would engender loyalty from fans; conversely, Hillary Clinton and her brand managers underestimated that concept in her 2016 campaign, which ultimately led to her historic loss. To bring the argument full circle, a brand can only be likeable if its awareness and loyalty campaigns are built upon the foundation of its authenticity. As the brand discovers its strengths and weaknesses, it can adjust accordingly, but only within the context of what resonates with the audience. Brands should always be experimenting and challenging themselves with new channels, platforms, audiences, and markets; but ultimately, successful brands know which marketing approaches work and why. Therefore, informed strategy in this area prepares a personal brand to grow and scale exponentially, as later chapters will explain.

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Discussion Questions 1. What are the three most popular platforms to communicate personal brand value and why? 2. Cite three professional situations where likeability could be a determining factor for success? 3. How do you select the best social media platforms for a personal brand? 4. How does storytelling help you connect with your audience?

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The Monetization of Personal Brands

Learning Objectives After reading this chapter, you should be able to 1. 2. 3. 4.

Understand the economic effects of scaling personal brands. Identify the many ways a personal brand can be monetized by a marketer. Understand the different levels of celebrity. Identify the different tiers of influencer marketing.

Introduction The phenomenon of Superstars, wherein relatively small numbers of people earn enormous amounts of money and dominate the activities in which they engage, seems to be increasingly important in the modern world. —Sherwin Rosen, American labor economist

A personal brand stays relevant as long as it has an up-to-date marketing strategy. However, personal brands cannot be a successful and thriving entity without generating profits. Digital technology advances have disrupted and enhanced means for personal brands to make revenue. Where resources were once limited to material products and performed services, the digital world has universalized in-depth information, customer experiences, and market results (McDonald, 2015). Building a profitable personal brand is just not about followers and channels. Rather, it is related to the ability to convert brand authority into profit. For a personal brand to transcend its initial state as a human skill or opinion, it must project its value in the form of information, commercial products and services, and/or an organization. As a personal brand continues building its platform, it can further monetize its brand’s value proposition by endorsing other brands through appearances and partnerships. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 T. Waller, Personal Brand Management, Management for Professionals, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43744-2_6

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A personal brand’s skills, data, resources, and online presence can be most effective as progressive assets that unleash new opportunities for monetization. Formulating a monetization strategy should start with defining the value of strengths or brand assets. It is crucial to identify what benefits and value a personal brand offers, and the reasons people would choose it in a world of homogeneous competitors and free content.

Monetization in a Global Economy The benefits of products and services usually require more explanation to convince the mass market. Not only do personal brands help simplify consumers’ choices, but they also play an educational role in helping overcome uncertainty in shopping. Personal brands are changing the thinking of established corporate brand marketers who are shifting advertising spending to individuals who have an online presence with authority, innovation, and passion about products and services (Joffe, 2018). Scaling a personal brand can have exponential effects on the global economy. Personal brands help businesses cross geographic, demographic, generational, and cultural boundaries, help export products and services to foreign markets, support the trade, and provide stability to the economy. In the past, foreign and developing markets were attracted by the country of origin. Today, consumers make decisions based on personal brands because they symbolize the self-image the individual wants to adopt and express. For example, a travel influencer’s reviews of travel locations, recommendations on hotels, and advice on things to do may carry more power and results than legacy advertising options.

Monetizing a Personal Brand Most literature on personal brand monetization is found in online articles and blogs. There are few academic studies on personal brand monetization specifically, most likely because the proliferation and saturation of personal branding has recently increased with global-wide Internet use. However, the academic literature that does exist on the topic concentrates on the framework of product and data monetization. Although there is a lack of research for the term specifically, the concept of monetizing a human brand is not new; it precedes the era of digital disruption. For example, Michael Jordan monetized his personal brand when he was endorsed by Nike to create the Air Jordan in 1984, over 35 years before the current universal reach of the Internet and social media. Monetizing a personal brand is like scaling a business. Growing a business focuses on increasing operations by offering additional lines of products and services. Before the Internet, entrepreneurs are known to create a product or service to sell first and then think about marketing it later. Today, entrepreneurs can also be

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personal brands that create market opportunities from their visibility and later release a product or service to that market. Scaling a personal brand means monetizing the brand’s marketability, by offering that value to consumers in various forms. Today, some of the most popular means of personal brand monetization are through influencer marketing, thought-leadership, and internal brand ambassadors. Personal brands can choose to charge a fee for endorsing other brand’s products, but the most powerful personal brands typically have a business model where they market their own brand’s products, services, and experiences. Simply put, monetization is any process in which an asset is made profitable. With the rise of the influencer economy, “monetization” became a buzzword describing the ability to turn resources, knowledge, and skills into money. Today the number of people who follow, like, or add a person as a friend on Facebook, Instagram, or other social media channels can be a form of currency for celebrities, entrepreneurs, and everyday people with an engaged audience. Anyone with even a modest platform can now monetize their assets. But it takes some new thinking to establish original ways for turning resources into revenue (McDonald, 2015). Exploiting and monetizing a personal brand requires the strategic coordination of one’s authority, target audience, and delivery channels.

Brand Architecture Marketers must think of more than promotions and advertising because they also determine pricing and operational decisions for the brand portfolio. Opinion leaders and media influencers endorse company and product brands for multiple reasons including attention, positive interest in the product, compensation, and the social status that comes with brand association. In order to build a strong personal brand as an influencer, key opinion leader, or thought-leader, a personal brand must develop a portfolio of strategic brand campaigns. However, in order to build a sustainable demand, an individual or their brand manager must uphold and grow the value of the brand without undercutting the economic market. To avoid confusing markets and missing opportunities, marketers need an established brand strategy and architecture (Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 2000). Brand architecture is a structure that an entity creates to determine brand functions and the nature of the relationships between brands. Brand architecture for a company like Coca-Cola might include the decision to include the DASANI water, Powerade, or Minute Maid within its portfolio. A personal brand can act as an individual entity launching its own products or act as an ambassador for a brand (e.g., influencer). Therefore, brand architecture for a human brand must be more dynamic and complex. Brand architecture helps a personal brand monetize into various industries while considering the perception and economic effects that it will have on the likability of the core brand as a whole. Personal brand managers determine what type of products or services a brand

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should promote to their audience of consumers based on what aligns with the brand’s personality.

Traditional Celebrity Endorsements The phenomenon of the celebrity has been studied and debated by scholars from numerous disciplines throughout the years. Although many have considered this as a modern concept driven by media and marketing, cultural historian Barry (2008) makes a strong argument through historical research, that the concept of celebrity has existed in society for centuries. Traditional literature discusses the fame and fortune of celebrity, yet rarely the business model. There was seldom a need to discuss this because there was not an abundance of “celebrities“. In order to be considered a celebrity, a person has to be well known and have a narrative that people want to share. Gabler (2001), Senior Fellow of the Norman Lear Center has worked toward establishing a new definition of celebrity. Gabler stated that “conventional entertainers are the likeliest candidates for celebrity. They come equipped with publicity and a narrative.” However, with every revolutionary disruption of communications technology, there is an increase in access to fame. As a result, there are changes to how we define the term “celebrity” and the number of people that profit from it. The literature on brand ambassadors primarily focuses on celebrity endorsement of a brand. That is, an organization hires a celebrity to endorse its brand through the use of a product (e.g., a superstar athlete wears a particular item of clothing). The process is associative. Marketers hope their target audience’s positive feelings toward a chosen celebrity will transfer to the endorsed brand or will otherwise enhance the brand’s standing (Till & Shimp, 1998). Celebrity endorsements can influence consumer habits, how people perceive their physical image, professional aspirations, and public policy (Barry, 2008). Advertising has long used celebrities to catch an audience’s attention. The consumers identify with and aspire to the celebrities’ glamor, fame, or prosperity. It strengthens their memory of and desire for the actual product and perceived alliance. For example, when a renowned celebrity from any field promotes a grill, blender, or tool, people are more likely to remember the endorsement because they enjoy, envy, or want to share the “stardom” as if they knew the celebrity personally (Johns & English, 2016). This association between celebrated personality and the quality or relevance of a product is primarily irrational. This is a logical fallacy called “the transference of authority”. The power of celebrity also relates to the “legitimacy” of the association as it triangulates from product through celebrity to the audience. For example, the audience may age beyond the association or the endorsers might lose their broader appeal. Nonetheless, Paul Newman, Gloria Vanderbilt, and others still succeed as brands after their passing (Seal 2015; Bellafante 2019).

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Key components in establishing effective branding through celebrity endorsements include certain characteristics, for example, the celebrity should seem confident and approachable (Erdogan, Tagg, & Baker, 2001). Attributes like voice, image, and presentation should align and promote a brand’s credibility. Contrarily, using celebrities to endorse a brand could also pose risks. The celebrity’s fame may prove fleeting, or the public may turn away from the celebrity’s reputation once it is overturned by negative behavior.

Attention Pays Now, more than ever before people are learning what it feels like to be a celebrity. With the help of smartphones and social media platforms, there are millions of people around the world trying to develop and monetize their personalities and influence. Celebrities are better known to wider populations; however, their endorsements cost more than an everyday person and yet still don’t necessarily guarantee a return on investment. Corporations are starting to include influencers into their marketing strategies as a way to cut costs. Influencer marketing is the process of influential individuals endorsing other brands. Influencers have evolved into professional content marketers, with enough brand power to attract the sponsorship of large corporate brands. Today, major brands are willing to negotiate with influencers over the cost of a social media post endorsement (Wissman, 2019). This phenomenon has made the market for monetizing personal brands through brand endorsements extremely lucrative. Influencers are individuals who possess an authority level of knowledge and/or social influence in their field. After bloggers, vloggers, and other social media users began expressing their interests and opinions, these influencers have shown staying power to impact people’s decisions. In addition to the Internet, influencers use television, radio, and social media (Facebook, Instagram, Medium, and other channels) to establish, build, and augment their reach an audience. Influencer marketing, thereby, is the art and science of integrating and maximizing media tools to reach, engage, and monetize a sponsored content (Bognar, Puljic, & Kadezabek, 2019). The majority of online influencers follow a content monetization business model which calls for them to produce and deliver free content upfront before they ask for money. Influencers just starting out might promote a company’s offering for free to build their brand equity through brand associations or to leverage the platform of a larger, stronger brand. The size of this economy and its potential demand attention. Alice Audrezet and Korine Charry reported that almost 20% of U.S. shoppers bought items or services because of the advice of media influencers. And, marketers have taken notice, moving more of their advertising spending from traditional modes to influencer marketing (Audrezet & Charry, 2019).

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The influencer economy is still in its beginning stages. Therefore, the opportunity for an influencer to partner or work for corporate brands vary by demand and price. It is also difficult to determine each company’s procedure for selecting and paying influencers. However, the most profitable influencers follow a strategic model and approach the work as a full-time job and career. It’s becoming a way of life, a career choice with the potential for significant compensation for work shaped around a passionate interest.

Brand Snapshot Paris Hilton, Heritage Meets Selfies as an Influencer Brand Paris Hilton is the great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton, the founder of Hilton Hotels and heiress of his fortune, as well as her family’s real estate properties and investments. Her image, beyond her family’s surname, is notable because she is one of the first heiresses to leverage her family brand name and turn it into an influencer business model. “The heiress turned the stuffy New York social scene upside-down in the early 2000s, setting not only every fashion and lifestyle trend at the time, but also defining what it meant to be an ‘influencer’ before we even had a word for it. ‘We started a whole new genre of celebrity that no one had ever seen before,’ said Hilton” (Petrarca, 2017). Paris became a profitable brand by leveraging her visibility as a Hilton, model, reality TV star, and more into business deals just like her great-grandfather father who would pose with celebrities to promote his hotels, resorts, and restaurants. This was a business savvy decision considering that in 2007 her grandfather decided to donate 97% of his $2.3 billion dollar fortune to charity (Nichols, 2007). By branding and promoting her personality as the “rich heiress”, Hilton’s famous last name and family fortune helped to make her notable and interesting to watch on reality TV. Paris Hilton’s personal brand began its ascent by dominating the tabloids and television in the early 2000s as a presence on TV, music videos, magazines, and fashion runways. When she was done with scandals and realities, Hilton took her influence and built a personal brand before influencer marketers were commonplace. She slowly distanced herself from the image of the tabloid queen and quietly shifted toward “Paris Hilton, a business mogul’’, branding herself and her name. Paris Hilton promoted, licensed, and monetized her personal brand into over 19 different offerings including a successful perfume line, a franchise of stores in over 40 countries, beach resorts, children’s clothing lines, and cosmetic lines. In fact, Kim Kardashian, who has largely copied Hilton’s business acumen, was an assistant to Hilton where she learned the blueprint to becoming an influencer marketer: “Kim Kardashian admits Paris Hilton ‘gave me a career’” (Baumgartner, 2019). Unlike the most powerful people in business, Paris Hilton does not report to owners, shareholders, or market volatility. She only has to optimize the public

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image she has shrewdly developed beholden to her own celebrity as a trendsetter. “You could say she’s a little bit content creator, trend whisperer, social media maven, brand ambassador, advertising eye candy, and self-confidence guru all rolled up in one” (Bahler, 2018). But at 37, she is a constantly changing brand image. She may have begun as a socialite followed by the paparazzi, but she soon turned the tables taking the first “selfie” to capitalize on her name and fame. Her personal net worth stands at $300 million—a far cry from the $69 million that she shares with her fellow heir of her grandfather’s fortune (Jackson, 2018).

The Value of Personal Influence The influence of personal human-to-human communication is more engaging and trustworthy than when business entities, organizations, and governments communicate with humans. As early as 1955, Elihu Katz and Paul F. Lazarsfeld analyzed the power of personal influence. They based their findings on social learning theory; that is, people learn how to adopt and adapt behaviors by modeling themselves after other people (Bandura, 1971). People want to emulate and imitate others because they are role models and quite different from others. Anyone has the potential of being an influencer because there are multiple categories that an individual can influence. In addition to human personality, two key factors—awareness and credibility—are vital to gaining consumer influence. The unique contribution of social media influencers turns “nobodies” into “somebodies” mimicking the patented success of celebrity endorsements (Booth & Matic, 2011). For example, moms have long been some of the most influential people in a person’s life, but it wasn’t until the advantages of online technology that moms could become influencers, also known as “mompreneurs”, and attract consumers. They are otherwise ordinary people with personalities, images, expertise, or talents that stand out. In recent years, moms have taken to promoting toys, baby clothing, and more with lucrative results (Becker, 2019). They present their reviews as advertorials (Abidin, 2015). They are strongly self-branded everywhere to advise on pregnancy, delivery, infant care, and child-rearing. Mompreneurs can also specialize in a certain sector of this market (i.e., maternity wear, nursing, diet, etc.).

Brand Snapshot Cristiano Ronaldo, Top Athlete Influencer As of 2019 Cristiano Ronaldo, a professional European football player is one of the top three Instagram influencers in the world with 192 million followers (Instagram, December 2019). As the phrase goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words” and

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that is essentially the premise that created Instagram’s platform. Instagram was founded in 2010 and is one of the most popular mobile social media networks, where users can share videos and photos of their social life. Ronaldo is one of the top earners on the platform making an estimated $47.8 million from paid Instagram advertisements. In fact, he makes more money as an Instagram influencer than he gets from playing professional football for Juventus (approximately $35 million per year). Companies pay Ronaldo almost $1 million per Instagram post. According to CNN news “He’s been arguably his sport’s single best player for years, with five Ballon d’Or awards—given annually to football’s top individual performer—and multiple league titles across the international stage, and holds global appeal as a sex symbol, routinely appearing in glossy underwear ads for his personal line of clothing and cologne, CR7.” Instagram is not the only social media platform that Ronaldo uses to create brand awareness. In fact, he has 240 million followers across all social media platforms. Ronaldo’s athletic dominance in football and social media popularity also helped him signed a $1 billion dollar deal with Nike. Ronaldo’s success has inspired an online university eCampus, to create a 3-year Influencer Marketing degree program for students that want to learn how to monetize their personal brand (Bertacche & Remondini, 2019).

Tiers of Influence There are numerous ways for influencers to monetize their platform. Influencers can monetize their platform through brand endorsements, product placements, or even through private social media pages where they share original content available exclusively to paying subscribers. Lately, influencers have been seeking means to reduce their dependence on brand partnership revenue. For example, many use their platforms to create a demand for their content subscriptions, digital products, and physical merchandise to a fan base they have engaged, secured, and broadened (Wissman, 2019). Influencer marketing is fast becoming the lower cost and more ubiquitous form of advertising, a distinctly new business model seeing “society itself as a system of communication” (Katz & Lazarsfeld, 2017). In 2018, the World Federation of Advertisers conducted a survey of 24 major advertisers which showed some 65% will increase their spending on influencer marketing. Of those responding, 71% considered influencers as ‘absolutely essential’ or ‘very important’ to their marketing strategy (Farey-Jones, 2018). Influencer marketing has grown into a billion-dollar commercial industry where consumers buy things based on the consumption habits of people that they follow, trust, and admire with statisticians conservatively predicting advertisers will increase spending on influencer marketing by $5 to $10 billion dollars in the next 5 years (Mediakix, 2019). Influencers not only have a huge following but also possess established credibility and a loyal audience (Maheshwari, 2018). 90% of marketing

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professionals consider influencer marketing effective at brand awareness as well as 75% who believe it generates revenue and leads (Morrison, 2015). Although this is a young economic phenomenon, there are tiers of individuals making a career in influencer marketing. Influencers typically have tens of thousands of followers and receive thousands of likes and comments per post: 1. Nano-influencers have relatively few followers (±1,000) and advertise products on their social media channels. Brands like to deal with them and work to connect early with the nano-influencers they expect to gain appeal. 2. Micro-influencers lead ±50,000 followers in an already established niche market. The followers regard the micro-influencer as a topic expert and specialist. This narrows the focus yet strengthens the customer relationship. Micro-influencers tend to reach a customer base with a consistent profile and demographic. 3. Mid-tier influencers reach upward of 500,000 followers. Their audience puts great demand on their time and attention pushing their influencer role toward a full-time job. As marketers weigh the costs and ROI on various approaches, they focus more on mid-tier influencers and emerging talent to balance marketing options to drive sales through trust and engagement (Sweeney, 2018). 4. Macro-influencers become media “stars” in their own right with an appeal to a million-plus followers. With massive markets at their command, they can demand larger payments by sponsors. They may have been celebrities in their own right and have transitioned or resigned to making a living on the Internet, and if they are really big, they may employ others to manage their media presence. 5. Mega-influencers are the “superstars” of this evolving industry. They might be well-recognized film stars, professional athletes, or popular singers. The name secures interest from more than a million fans committed to the influencer’s charisma and mystique. They expect and secure huge fees for their endorsement or product placement at some risk to the marketing because the followers tend to be passive watchers. Data gathered and reported by Klear, Search Engine Journal, Ignite Visibility, and other sources give some insight into the varying rates that influencers charge and make in the economy generated by influencer marketing. For instance, for a social media post, a nano-influencer may make a double-digit rate while a celebrity influencer earns thousands of dollars for the same post or similar. With the exception of top-tier influencers that have business teams, most influencers operate independently, often without contracts or accounting software. “It’s becoming a serious business. The question is how they get paid in this business” (Duong, 2016). “Unless you’re a top-tier influencer, you’ll almost never get paid before actually delivering work. Most influencers submit an invoice after the post goes up, and are theoretically paid soon after” (Lorenz, 2016). Recently, Speaker, an established influencer management platform, has allegedly failed to pay an increasing number of client influencers, a behavior requiring influencers to spend

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more time and effort vetting their providers and resources, a time-intensive effort for micro- to mega-influencers everywhere. In addition to influencers losing money, the companies that pay influencers have been losing money as well. The influencer economy lacks systematic regulation making it difficult for companies to measure authentic influence. A number of companies do not use or have access to the tools to track and measure authentic followings and engagement. According to CNBC (2019), businesses lost $1.3 billion dollars from using influencers with fake followers. As social media platforms continue to expand, this market discrepancy will have to resolve itself as future markets emerge and evolve with personal branding front-and-center in overall branding strategies.

Thought-Leadership Limited attention has followed the positioning of an expert as a brand itself. Some experts, like scientists, philosophers, and historians, have achieved celebrity through their specialized knowledge. Thought-leaders are well-known “go-to” influential spokespersons with specialty experience, knowledge, and expertise. They stand out in their field or represent a position on current issues. These authoritative voices have something to say, content that is sought and compensated. Thought-leadership is a function of being an “Influencer” where the personal brand influences by teaching the consumer about the benefits of choosing one brand offering over another. Thought-leaders are professionals who communicate their expertise and share knowledge content with internal and external stakeholders. The focus is less about the individual’s image, lifestyle, or talent, and more about the knowledge they share. As recognized doctors, lawyers, scientists, political leaders, or more, they exert an influence on other individuals offering influential advice for many consumers. They are distinguished and credentialed in their field and may hold awards and honors. There is a connection between the type of expertise and a product endorsement category. A show-business celebrity, for example, carries little influence when endorsing tech products (Biswas, Biwas, & Das, 2006). The financial management thought-leader advises on investments, estate planning, retirement strategy, but the ones who stand out can look at their audience through the camera to establish a rapport unavailable to print journalists (Boyle & Kelly, 2016). Thus, the value of a personal brand built through expertise attaches to a person with expert opinion. While anyone with certain skills and talents can become a leader, this does not make them “thought-leaders”. Where all organizations require leadership, they may not require thought-leadership to manage people and meet stakeholder goals (Hee & Vimalathithan, 2019). Leaders in business, economics, politics, and more are not necessarily “thought-leaders”. Organizations are still figuring out how to leverage high performing and influential talent. As a result, many thought-leaders invest their own resources into creating content for external stakeholders. A professional can

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build a brand image as a thought-leader by leveraging online visibility to build personal and authentic relationships. Research shows that thought-leaders benefit the individual and their organization; however, many companies invest in education or training for operational skills but not thought-leadership and personal branding (Hall, 2017). Many organizations still fear if their best talent has visibility, they may lose them to competitors. However, institutions that are knowledge-based seem to support thought-leadership within their organizations. For example, the government provides its leaders with public speaking training, media companies, and news outlets expect their journalists to have a public-facing persona, pharmaceutical researchers must publish research, and higher education expects their professors to publish books. Most thought-leaders launch their influence in real life during their professional work inside of an organization. However, thought-leaders’ monetization mechanisms do not rely solely on corporate brand sponsorship. Thought-leaders can use their own platforms to make money, usually, through holding online seminars, public speaking engagements, writing books, creating podcasts, and/or delivering online courses on the subject of their expertise (Polychronopoulos, 2019). The thought-leader engages consumers online by deploying an inbound marketing strategy. Creating value on social media is a “reciprocal act” where, to gain brand awareness and loyalty, leaders must implement authentic engagement by sincerely communicating the concern. This rapport between the consumer and thought-leader builds trust, and most consumers rely on figures of authority to access the quality and accuracy of the sea of information online. Of course, these tools are available to Influencer marketers, but these extensions need funding and management.

Brand Snapshot Dr. Oz, Healthcare Thought-Leader In most traditional corporate business models, strategic thought-leadership is reserved for senior management—if anyone. Across many industries, investment in thought-leadership is usually made at the individual practitioner level; for example, Mehmet Oz, also known as Dr. Oz, is considered to be a thought-leader by some and, a key opinion leader by others, in health matters. Dr. Oz is positioned as a general healthcare professional promoting preparations, drugs, and home-remedies to solve health problems by the common patient and medical consumer. This formula of thought-leadership and key opinion leaders has helped Dr. Mehmet Oz to become the most successful virtual physician in the world. In real-world healthcare experiences, patient experience, economic status, and education level all factor in attribution of trust and credit to medical practitioners. In the world of healthcare, the human voice, with or without a personal brand, is an asset. Patients and someday patients, confused by medical news and overwhelmed

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by advancing medical technology, are drawn to knowledgeable and likable advisers (Luca, Ioan, & Sasu, 2013). Dr. Oz, for one, is an on-air personality effectively created (like Dr. Phil, Nate Berkus, and Suzie Orman) by Oprah Winfrey as she powered up her own brand as part of “The Oprah Effect”. They share a broadcasting style offering tips, introducing new products, and advising on lifestyle needs (Dsis, 2018). Before he became a mega brand, Dr. Oz was a respected physician, cardiac surgeon, and award-winning specialist. He built his following on his daytime show with the intention of educating the nation about alternative and holistic medicine. In addition to his television show, Dr. Oz has authored six books, but also started his own medical journal, which certainly helped him rise to prominence. He regularly appears on television wearing “scrubs” because it gives him authority in what he does and this aspect of appearance is very important to his influence. While some medical experts and practitioners may consider him as dubious when it comes to medicine, he is a master in marketing, promotion, and sales. With reports of $4 million annual earnings and a net worth estimated at $30-million, Dr. Oz. He has been named among Time’s 100 Most Influential People of the Year, Esquire’s 100 Most Influential People of the Century, and Healthy Living’s Greatest Healers of the Millennium (Schein, 2018). However, his success has not been without criticism. In 2014, a team of researchers issued a report proving 60% of advice given on Dr. Oz’s TV show lacked a scientific basis. Another 1,300 doctors signed an open letter calling him a “quack” giving medically dangerous advice (Schein, 2018). The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) also confirmed payment of more than $1.2 million in 2014 by Covidien Sales LLC in compensation for his personal stake in HET Systems, a hemorrhoid therapy system (Frieman & Lorea, 2015). Such controversies have not seemed to affect his success largely because of the paradox of his celebrity status as a doctor. In other words, the combination of his strategic personal branding—his visibility, brand authority, and public trust—overrides the negative press. Ultimately, his likeability as a thought-leader insulates him from scandal because it gives him brand credibility above his peers and news journalists.

Conclusion Monetizing a brand is an iterative process that requires a clear strategy, evolving business goals, and the adoption of new and existing platforms. Traditional ideas and approaches to marketing have been inverted. Personal brands and their teams are investing resources into marketing the individual first and later selling the brand as products, services, experiences, or information. Established corporations must think of their product or service as inextricably linked to the personal brands that promote them. Personal brands must also consider their brand associations to said products and services as they continue to scale and diversify. As a personal brand monetizes, its ultimate business goal is to create an

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entity that generates revenue independent of the person attached to it. As the economy shifts more and more online, scaling this brand digitally is the only way to achieve this level of growth, especially in highly competitive markets.

Discussion Questions 1. What is the difference between celebrity endorsements and influencer marketing? 2. What type of products are offered by personal brands? 3. How do personal brands monetize information? 4. What are the most popular industries for influencer marketing?

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paper/The-differential-effects-of-celebrity-and-expert-on-Biswas-Biswas/ 4757cb0692120e47b5dc2edc6976eafbaa22eb15. Bognar, Z., Puljic, N., & Kadezabek, D. (2019, June 12–13). Impact of influencer marketing on consumer behaviour. In G. Dukic, J. Clifford, & D. Atkinson (Eds.), 42nd International Scientific Conference on Economic and Social Development. Book of Proceedings. pp. 301– 309. Retrieved from https://www.esd-conference.com/upload/book_of_proceedings/Book_of_ Proceedings_esdLondon2019_Online.pdf. Booth, N. & Matic, J. (2011, Aug. 9). Mapping and leveraging influencers in social media to shape corporate brand perceptions. Corporate Communications: An International Journal. Retrieved from https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/13563281111156853/full/html. Boyle, R., & Kelly, L. (2016). The television entrepreneurs: Social change and public understanding of business. New York: Routledge Press. Dsis, J. (2018, Jan. 15). If you count on Dr. Phil’s folksy advice on daytime TV. The Oprah effect: The many careers she helped launch. Retrieved from https://money.cnn.com/2018/01/15/ media/oprah-effect-careers/index.html. Duong, C. (2016, April 26). To pay or not to pay: The thorny issue of influencers. Retrieved from https://www.prweek.com/article/1463082/pay-not-pay-thorny-issue-in uencers. Erdogan, B., Baker, M., & Tagg, S. (2001, May). Selecting celebrity endorsers: The Practitioner’s perspective. Journal of Advertising Research, 41(3), 39–48. Farley-Jones, D. (2018, July 20). Multinational brands predict higher spend on influencer marketing. Campaign. Retrieved from https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/multinationalbrands-predict-higher-spend-in uencer-marketing/1488364. Friedman, L. & Loria, K. (2015, Aug. 7). Drug companies have paid Dr. Oz more than $1.5 million since 2013. Business Insider. Retrieved from https://mediakix.com/blog/kols-keyopinion-leaders-definition-in uencers/. Gabler, N. (2001). Towards a new definition of celebrity. USC Annenberg: Retrieved from Toward a New Definition of Celebrity. Hall, J. (2017). The Value of capitalizing on a company of thought leaders. Inc. Retrieved December 24 2019. https://www.inc.com/john-hall/the-value-of-capitalizing-on-a-company-ofthought-leaders.html. Hee, O. C., & Vimalathithan, K. (2019). Thought leadership in the education industry: A review. International Journal of Academic Research Business and Social Sciences, 9(4), 1–7. Retrieved from http://hrmars.com/hrmars_papers/Thought_Leadership_in_the_Education_ Industry.pdf. How Much Does Social Media Influencer Marketing Cost? (2019). Retrieved from https:// ignitevisibility.com/much-social-media-in uencer-marketing-cost/. Jackson, D. (2018, August 3). Paris Hilton says she’s “obviously” a self-made billionaire like Kylie Jenner. Retrieved from https://www.newsweek.com/paris-hilton-self-made-billionairekylie-jenner-1026455. Johns, R., & English, R. (2016, January). Transition of self: Repositioning the celebrity brand through social media—The case of Elizabeth Gilbert. Journal of Business Research, 69(1), 65– 72. Joffe, J. (2018, May 5). How Coca-Cola and OshKosh B’gosh activate influencers for maximum effect. PR News. Retrieve from https://www.prnewsonline.com/how-coca-cola-and-oshkoshbgosh-activate-in uencers-for-maximum-effect/. Katz, E., & Lazersfeld, P. (2017). Personal Influence: The part played by people in mass communication. New York: Routledge. Lorenz, T. (2016, Dec. 28). When a sponsored facebook post doesn’t pay off. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/12/massive-in uencer-managementplatform-has-been-stiffing-people-payments/578767/. Luca, F., Ioan C., & Sasu, C. (2013). The importance of the professional personal brand. The doctors’ personal brand. 7th International Conference on Globalization and Higher Education

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in Economics and Business Administration, GEBA 2013. Retrieved from https://core.ac.uk/ download/pdf/82165076.pdf. Maheshwari, S. (2018, Nov. 11), Are you ready for the nanoinfluencers? The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/11/business/media/nanoin uencersinstagram-in uencers.html. McDonald, M. (2015, June 15). Three building blocks for effective digital monetization. Retrieved from https://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/blogs-three-building-blocks-digital-monetization. Morrison, K. (2015, Oct.13). Report: 75% of marketers are using influencer marketing. Adweek. Retrieved from https://www.adweek.com/digital/report-75-of-marketers-areusing-in uencermarketing/. Nichols, M. (2007, Dec. 29). Paris loses out: Hilton fortune pledged to charity. Reuters. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-hilton-charity/paris-loses-out-hilton-fortune-pledgedto-charity-idUKN2636653220071226. Petrarca, E. (2017, May 10). Paris Hilton invented everything you’re doing in 2017, and She Knows It. W Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.wmagazine.com/story/paris-hiltoninterview. Polychronopoulos, G. (2019, Sept. 8). Developing thought leadership. The case of Polypan Group. Retrieved from https://apothesis.eap.gr/handle/repo/41764. Schein, M. (2018, May 25). Dr. Oz makes millions even though he’s been called A ‘Charlatan’ (And You Should Follow His Lead). Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/ michaelschein/2018/05/25/dr-oz-makes-millions-even-though-hes-a-total-fraud-and-otherreasons-you-should-follow-his-lead/#6c529ea95fe1. Seal, M. (2015). Inside the Family Battle for the Newman’s Own Brand Name. Retrieved from https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/07/paul-newmans-own-family-feud-susan-newman. Sweeney, E. (2018, March 27). Study: Mid-tier creators prove more engaging, trustworthy than both celebs and microinfluencers. Retrieved from https://www.marketingdive.com/news/studymid-tier-creators-prove-more-engaging-trustworthy-than-both-celebs/520009/. The Klear Influencer Rate Card. (2019). Retrieved from https://klear.com/KlearRateCard.pdf. Till, B. & Shimp, T. (1998). Endorsers in advertising: The case of negative celebrity information. Journal of Advertising. 28(1). Retrieved from http://www.psych.ualberta.ca/*msnyder/p486/ read/files/Till%26Shimp1998.pdf. What are KOLs? Key Opinion leader definition, examples, and more: Why the influencer marketing industry will be a $5-$10 billion dollar market in the next five years. (2019). Mediakix. Retrieved from https://mediakix.com/blog/in uencer-marketing-industry-ad-spendchart/. Wissman, B. (2019, February 13). How micro influencers will fuel monetization in the future. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/.

Part III

Personal Brand Protection & Equity Management: Legally Protecting, Managing, and Growing a Brand’s Economic Value

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Legally Protecting Personal Brand Equity

Learning Objectives After reading this chapter, you should be able to 1. Understand the economic basis for legal protections of a personal brand. 2. Identify the legal protections available for personal brands.

Introduction If I lost control of the business, I’d lose myself–or at least the ability to be myself. Owning myself is a way to be myself. —Oprah Winfrey, American media executive

The Internet and social media have facilitated the self-branding of individuals, causing more people to monetize their physical identity and name. Brand names generate their value in practice and accounting. Therefore, personal brands come with a financial impact on sponsoring organizations and the consumer communities that they address. In other words, personal brands become an intangible asset when their equity accumulates financial value. How does an individual protect their brand’s value? Legal ownership is key. Although people want to create a public-facing image, they also want the right to own, manage, and protect those images. Personal brands can create a variety of tangible and intangible assets that need legal protection, from images to music to knowledge. Anything that helps the brand build a relationship with a consumer is an asset worth protecting. In addition to a legal professional, marketing professionals should have a general idea of the legal protections available for every brand asset they seek to monetize.

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 T. Waller, Personal Brand Management, Management for Professionals, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43744-2_7

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Personal brands that do not have legal protections risk losing their brand equity to other individuals and companies. Subsequently, in order to protect brand equity, every personal brand should retain legal counsel from the moment they begin to create brand value. This chapter explores personal brand management in relation to intellectual property law, and it provides an overview of existing entertainment laws and by no means inclusive of them. It is intended to be a primer for any marketing practitioner who is serious about the management of personal brands to take into consideration as they build and strengthen a brand. It is advised that the reader seek professional legal advice from appropriate counsel.

Maintaining Ownership of a Personal Brand Maintaining ownership of a personal brand means that the individual maintains a majority stake and control of their brand equity. This is a significant deviation from what we see with entrepreneurs in business. For example, if a founder leaves their company, in most instances, the company can grow and thrive without her or him. This is not the case with personal brands because most personal brands are complicit in branding themselves for ownership of the equity that is tied to their name and identity. Unfortunately, when a brand has equity, in most cases derived from talent and visibility, it increases the risk of someone trying to take a piece of equity. Olympic figure skaters, for example, may have prominent personal brands but that they have little control over, much less ability to monetize themselves because of their existing contract arrangements and related copyright laws (Foley, 2016). Although legal protection is a topic that is addressed late in the framework, it is of immediate importance. Typically people don’t think to get legal protection if they don’t see or plan for the future value of the brand. Investors and businesses alike have made this mistake of underestimating a brand’s future value or the future net worth that a company will make from a brand. In fact, this happens with personal brands more than businesses. Many individuals believe that contracts are not necessary until the money is involved. However, if there is any chance for a brand to accrue equity, then there is a need for legal protections to be put in place to keep the individual from losing future profits.

Brand Snapshot KFC Colonel Sanders the Face of the Brand During the Great Depression, Harland Sanders turned a rural fried chicken stand in Corbin, KY into Kentucky Fried Chicken, now a global fast-food franchise. Harlan branded himself as “Colonel Sanders”, an easily recognized icon of American

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commercial history, despite the fact that he was not a Confederate colonel. He was not even a chef until his forties. However, when Sanders did franchise KFC in his sixties, it was the first fried chicken franchise in America. In 1964, when he eventually sold his company at age 75 for $2 million, he agreed to stay on as the face of the company and leverage his image for some compensatory adjustment from Yum! Brands, the current owner (Feloni, 2015; Taylor, 2015). Given that Colonel Sanders’ image is inextricably tied to the popularity of KFC’s brand, it can be argued that his $2 million sale price was largely undervalued (according to Forbes, in 2019 the company’s brand was valued at $8.5 billion). Sanders later understood this business error on his part and, shortly after the company went public, took the stage at a convention and railed against company executives for taking advantage of him (Taylor, 2015). His grievances are not hard to understand. Sanders died 40 years ago, and KFC continues to rely on his image and likeness in order to sell chicken in over 135 countries. Colonel Sanders’s brand is so resonant with consumers of the KFC brand that the parent company must rely on actors, animations, and cross-promotional campaigns with his image and likeness. Following commercial campaigns featuring comedians Darrell Hammond and Norm McDonald, KFC now relies on the Colonel as its virtual leader construct (VLC), a nonhuman illustration, or animation (Boje & Rhodes, 2005).

Personality and Publicity Rights Meets Reality TV Starting in the late 1800s and early 1900s, there was an unprecedented amount of court cases that involved individuals suing newspapers for violating their rights. These individuals were suing for the right to protect their image, personality, and reputation at a time when newspapers were gossiping about personal affairs. In her legal scholarship on personality torts, Samantha Barbas (2015) reasons that the rise of Industrial labor, globalization, and metropolitan areas in the United States led to more people having to worry about managing their first impressions with strangers in order to build wealth. As a result, it has created an image-conscious society with legal ramifications. The increase of media and communications technology, such as photojournalism, also contributed to the need to create and protect a personal brand. As legal scholar Michael Madow points out, “American courts have recognized fame as a commodity since 1953 when the right to publicity law was first introduced. The law recognizes the fact that a celebrity image can ‘enhance the commercial value of commodities or services with which they are associated’” (Madow, 1993: 128). Today this concept of celebrity has a more vast range. When individuals consent to film their lives in a reality television show, it can lead to other financial opportunities, such as promotional appearances, product placements, and even brand extensions beyond the show they represent. In the reality television sphere, the saleability of everyday people’s personas leads to brands independent of the networks and shows that made them famous (Real Housewives of New York

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alum Bethenny Frankel and her $100 Skinny Girl brand being the preeminent example). Reality television continues to serve as a space for rapid, lucrative personal brand development and the need for legal protections. It is both fascinating and important to note that reality television personal brands occupy a particularly ambiguous legal space. Given that reality television stars begin as “real” people who then are cast in shows with varying degrees of “reality”, their personas are as much their own as they are created by writers and producers that launch them. In many cases, participants in these shows are asked to sign away many of their rights before filming. For example, a clause in the American Idol contract reads: “other parties … may reveal and relate information about me of a personal, private, intimate, surprising, defamatory, disparaging, embarrassing or unfavorable nature, that may be factual or fictional” (Olsen, 2002). Nevertheless, these “highly structured shows” demonstrate the act of branding—and its pitfalls— in “real” time for viewers (Hearn, 2008). For example, in the 10 years since the Kardashians first went on air, they have faced compounding lawsuits over copyright and trademark infringement, licensing disputes, and intellectual property theft (Siegal, 2019).

Intellectual Property Rights Intellectual property and personality rights are not the same. Intellectual property is when a person uses their intelligence to create something that exists separately from their personality and “forms a separate category of objects, namely, immaterial or intellectual property” (Damich, 1988). Copyright law, specifically, is rather intricate in its nature, protecting the “artistic, cultural, and moral sensibilities” of humanity (Joyce, 2016). From autobiographies to fictional tales to academic works storytellers and writers offer immense value to the world. Whether a personal brand is a scholar, public figure, or literary genius, in marketing, it’s not only important to tell and share a story, “you” must also protect ownership of it. For centuries there have been monopolies and suppression over the way people express themselves through writing and publishing literature. Modern copyright law is less about morals and more about economics. Prior to 1710, publishers, printers, and booksellers in Europe held a monopoly over the publishing industry and, thereby, the amount of money that one can make from documenting their thoughts. The British Parliament passed The Statute of Anne, the first modern copyright law in 1710. The statute recognized the copyright as the author’s right, not the printer’s, for a renewable 14 years. Today, core copyright industries are one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy, growing “three times as fast as the economy as a whole” (Yu, 2018). Put simply, copyright law seeks to protect the copyright holder and “the fruits of a person’s industry” (Yu, 2018). However, given the intangible nature of copyright, circuits disagree on a legal definition of “one’s work”. This lack of legal consensus allows for untold lawsuits concerning statutory damages; and in conjunction with

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the equally intangible nature of personality rights, as they pertain to brands, their confluence can prove disastrous for personal brands with little to no preemptive legal protections in place.

The Importance of Intellectual Property Law with Legal Expert Moraima Ivory Moraima “Mo” Ivory is an Attorney, Professor of Law and Director of the Entertainment, Sports and Media Law Initiative at Georgia State University College of Law. Since 2011, she has led Ivory Consulting, LLC, a consulting firm offering specialized legal services in the areas of entertainment, marketing, and special event representation. Here, she discusses the legalities involved in protecting a brand from the beginning. “People need to consider getting a lawyer. The biggest reason why people [get in legal disputes] is because they don’t do the work that is needed prior to the argument happening. A perfect example is when you see two people arguing over who owns a song like the recent Lizzo situation [where she was accused of plagiarism] when she insists she was in the studio and she wrote the song [“Truth Hurts”] herself. You know the proper thing would have been, at the time of that recording, to actually fill out a split sheet. That would have come from the guidance of having the proper lawyers or the lawyers saying that, “Before we leave this studio, we need to accurately write down the split [of the song]; who wrote the lyrics; who wrote the music; who produced the beats. That way, when an artist becomes widely famous or the success of a single record or an album happens, there’s no argument of what happened five years ago or what happened ten years ago. The reason you don’t really see that happen is because when people are in the very early stages of their careers, they don’t seek that guidance to have an attorney say, “You know you should do a split sheet.” Or they’re thinking, “I’m just the creative person. I don’t really need that. I don’t want to pay for somebody to give me this advice right now.” Are you going to decide to protect yourself from the very beginning or are you going to wait until you are well known and you have the money? Or when you believe that the money is worth spending at that point on having legal counsel to tell you what to do? I understand the inherent pull in that. I know a lot of new artists don’t think they need lawyers. And when people are collaborating, they don’t think that they need to do certain things because it might mess up the vibe of what’s happening or whatever. But the “vibe” gets really messed up later on when you find yourself in court or in front of a mediator or any kind of adjudicator trying to decide what monies you’re going to have to split with somebody [in a legal dispute].

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The very first and most important thing to do when you create something from an idea is to seek legal counsel. You cannot protect ideas. You can only protect the tangible outcome of an idea. If I have an idea to start a babysitting service and I call it “Babysitting.com” I don’t have [legal grounds] based on this conversation because I said I want to start a babysitting business called “Babysitting.com.” I have to actually create the business and put it in a tangible form so that it can actually have copyright protection or a trademarked approval from the trademark office. Being legally proactive distinctly goes with my business. I can never say this enough, but the ultimate responsibility in protecting your personal brand is to get the legal protections [at the very beginning] that you need through intellectual property law, which includes copyrights and trademarks.”

Trademarking a Personal Name Name recognition is the cornerstone of every personal brand and, therefore, their name is the most valuable asset of every personal brand. The best way to protect a brand’s name is with a trademark. The concept of the trademark is an independent global phenomenon around since people started trading goods. One of the earliest examples is from 5000 B.C. when the Chinese made pottery branded with the name of the current emperor, the location where it was created, and the name of the individual that created each piece. Trademarks have been used for anything that could possibly be bought and consumed. Marking a product with a name not only benefits the owner but also ensures the consumer of the quality of the goods. For example, in 1266 King Henry III of England made it law for bakers to create unique marks for their bread to track who made the best bread. The trademark assists in branding the business, but it is not the same thing as the brand itself. The brand mark establishes ownership, but branding is a strategic process to make a consumer link the mark with making a purchase. Branding also helps organizations present several different offerings that are related to the initial (Resai, 2012). For example, Nike’s “swoosh” was created to mark its shoes, but is now omnipresent on all its merchandise (tee-shirts, underwear, outerwear, active gear, etc.). From the consumer’s view, the swoosh indicates trend and quality that override the price. A trademark aims to differentiate a product or service from the competition. It is registered with the government to protect the business name, logo, packaging, and motto establishing the company’s unique sales position. When others use the personal brand’s name in the same industry for a similar value proposition, it not only dilutes a personal brand’s brand market share but also threatens the brand’s equity (Ertekin, Sorescu, & Houston, 2018).

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Brand Snapshot What’s in a Name? Case of Babe Ruth Versus Baby Ruth George Herman “Babe” Ruth was a celebrity sports personality without peer in the heyday of professional baseball’s fame. In over a century, “America’s pastime” has generated players with incredible incomes and product endorsement deals. But adjusted for inflation, Ruth’s financial success in the 1930s was comparable to modern-day sports stars. None of his contemporaries had the commercial value of Babe Ruth. He would not be surpassed until Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Pele, and very few others many years later (Smelser, 1975). Ruth was a sportscaster, film star, and radio celebrity. He spent a copious amount of time signing autographs and he accepted money for appearances at restaurants, nightclubs, horse tracks, and more. Most of Ruth’s earnings were paid on the spot without long-term contracts or loyalty commitments. But as he moved on, he would solidify his position trying to protect the interests attached to his fame. In 1921, to deal with a struggling candy company, the Curtiss Candy Company owner, Otto Schnering, created and marketed a Baby Ruth candy bar. Schnering would insist the candy was named for Ruth Cleveland, daughter of President Grover Cleveland—to keep from having to pay Babe Ruth any money in royalties. The candy bar was a huge success, and within 5 years it generated $1 million a month in sales and scaled to become the largest candy-making facilities in the world. In 1931 when Babe Ruth tried to introduce a candy bar under the “Babe Ruth” label, the Curtiss Candy Company sued him for copyright infringement. The court ruled in favor of the Curtiss Candy company indicating that Babe Ruth was trying to profit off the brand of the Baby Ruth candy. In 1964, after Schnering’s passing, his two sons sold Curtiss Candy to Standard Brands for $7.5 million (approximately $102 million today). Babe Ruth’s estate eventually worked out a licensing agreement with Baby Ruth’s owners to use Ruth’s image (Klein, 2014). In 2018, Nestle sold Baby Ruth and Butterfinger brands to Italian candy maker Ferrero International SA for $2.8 billion in cash (Sylvers, 2018).

Brand Attributions on Social Media Trademarking continues to be an issue for personal brands and the same is true online with domain names. In the twenty-first century, trademarks wars have gone digital (Litman, 2000). Many companies are fighting individuals who have registered their trademark names as domain names online (Lipton, 2010). Personal brands should know that their website is their property and their domain name is the address to that place online. However, a social media handle is owned by the platform where it exists. Therefore, social media names and profiles are for rent, compared to a personal website that can be purchased and owned (Cardon, 2018).

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Digital property is an intangible asset made up of data by which individuals can claim ownership, which is kept and distributed by information processing machines or computers. This includes pictures, video, audio, emails, and documents. These files do not exist until someone comprehends their existence and, therefore, it lives in the minds of the creators and consumers. Due to the Internet, social media, and the sheer intangibility of the data, many consumers unintentionally infringe on the ownership of this property. The economic implications of a loss of attribution can be devastating for a personal brand. Typically we find this the case for the artist, but now we include thought-leaders and influencers as well. Josh Ostrovsky is one of the most followed accounts on Instagram—an account he arguably built by reposting the unattributed memes and jokes of other Internet users. His account @TheFatJewish does not make money from these posts directly; however, these posts help to build his following, which in turn helps to increase his value to advertisers and corporate brands (Blumenfeld, 2018). In addition to getting paid for promotional posts, Ostrovsky creates products such as wine, which he also promotes on his account. In 2019, he sold his rosé company, Wine Babe, to Anheuser-Busch for an undisclosed sum in the millions of dollars (Giammona, 2019). Many online creators who have alleged to have their work “stolen” by Ostrovsky have complained of plagiarism but to no avail. That is largely because there is little legal precedent for this type of complaint, and the Lanham Act, which is intended to protect registered trademarks of brands, does not include the protection of content creation outside of that jurisprudence. The rise of social media platforms and other digital spaces have recontextualized the legal interpretations of protecting attribution rights. Nevertheless, there is more judicial opportunity than there is case law available on the matter (Blumenfeld, 2018). Regulating copyright then largely falls on the shoulders of the owners of the platforms and not the courts, which is why Ostrovsky was most likely savvy about choosing to post on Instagram instead of Twitter, which does regulate and remove allegedly stolen material (D’orazio, 2015). Twitter, like other social media platforms, is considered a “safe harbor” under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1998), so enacting this measure was driven mainly within the company purview over the issue of copyright infringement. American courts have yet to acknowledge the fact that the secondary purpose of digital media (art, data, photos, music, etc.) is to promote the brand attached and build brand equity. This protection is the only way to safeguard the economic interests of the creator in a society where visibility is currency. In the case of Ostrovsky and other social media so-called “content thieves”, said victims of the content theft would have to push platforms for changes in their policies as well as for new laws and changes to existing statutes on digital spaces.

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Protecting Brand Ownership of Digital Property Personal brands have a challenging time maintaining ownership of their digital property. Many personal brands have taken steps to protect the distribution of their content by monitoring and managing from the inception or creation phase. For example, there have been cases where people might pay to get into an event to see someone speak and then record the performance with their phone. For several reasons, this can hurt the brand: 1. Economically, the sharing and sending of free content will reduce earning potential. 2. For target audiences, the brand’s content may be shared with audiences for which it is unintended. 3. From a value proposition perspective, the brand’s value is diluted by reduced exclusivity. In terms of quality control, the brand may receive negativity due to video quality, sound, appearance, etc.

Brand Snapshot Beyoncé the Queen Bee of Her Intellectual Property More established brands know to stay ahead of potential threats to their brand’s value. For instance, Beyoncé Knowles Carter is one of the best managed personal brands because her team does an excellent job of proactively protecting her brand’s value. She was not always this way but learned and developed this strategy through the various encounters that her brand endured. After the 2013 Super Bowl, when a photographer published an unflattering photo of her performance that went viral, Beyoncé banned professional photographers from her events (Michaels, 2013). Instead, her team provides a link to news outlets with a curated gallery of images. In 2018, Beyoncé’s publicist was clear with media outlets covering Coachella that they were not to publish any “unflattering” photos of the star and could only publish “approved” images (Lewis, 2018). Her management strategy, which seeks to control all aspects of the “Beyoncé” brand, has also been involved in a trademark battle to protect the future value of her daughter’s name, “Blue Ivy”. The owner of a small established event planner named “Blue Ivy Events” has argued that her business was founded before the star’s daughter was born (Slater, 2019). Other celebrities and influencers alike are starting to follow suit buying several varieties of their names as trademarks for products that they have not even created yet.

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Brands Under Contract There are an entire profession and industry dedicated to protecting the talent of musicians and other entertainers. This topic is covered primarily by entertainment law because talent as a value-making asset should be protected by a thoroughly vetted contract. Entertainment law covers more than music, art, film, television, and performances, it also covers multimedia and the Internet. Numerous personal brands have been duped into agreeing to predatory terms that help others make more profit from their brand then they do. Now that the emerging influencer market is dovetailing with the entertainment industry, setting up these legal protections is more critical than ever before. While well-known influencers who were celebrities first (such as Beyonce) have teams of people to manage their brands in conjunction with the cross-promotional advertising of their choosing, most influencers do not have that business support. In fact, it can be quite daunting for a personal brand with influencer status to be approached by a large company or brand for an advertising partnership. A corporation has a comprehensive and powerful infrastructure that most influencers do not. For this reason, digital marketing experts recommend that personal brands get insurance coverage to protect against “claims of defamation, breach of advertising laws, intellectual property infringement, negligence and violation of others’ privacy rights” (Wong-Ward, 2016). Moreover, influencers need these protections in the event that the business relationship sours—their personal brand needs to be protected so that it is not at the expense of the larger, more powerful party. When it comes to influence, personal brands often forget how powerful they are in comparison to a nonhuman brand. For this reason, many personal brands do not initiate legal protections and this way of thinking can be both costly and dangerous to the health of the brand. Therefore, any personal brand seeking to extend itself through partnerships, advertising opportunities, and cross-promotional marketing should have legal protections in place before doing so.

Brand Snapshot Prince Versus Warner Bros from Person to Symbol Prince Rogers Nelson was a musical and production genius. His talents extended to his unique personal style, presentation, and performances. His brand’s image has been successfully imitated by numerous artists, including Liberace, Cher, Madonna, Elton John, and others. Over his 40 year career, he sold more than 100 million records and produced 39 studio albums. In 1977, when Prince was recording his first album, creative differences with his label (Warner Bros.) cause him to remove them from the studio. From then on, he spent much of his life battling with the music industry. Prince was business savvy

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securing the rights to his music and image until he sold his book of music to Warner Bros., necessitating a rebranding effort. Irked by the politics of industry titans earning money from his and others’ music, Prince announced that he was retiring in 1993. He then changed his name to the unpronounceable, eponymous love symbol, as a protest against his label, Warner Bros. Unfortunately, he opted to invent a unique symbol, interpreted as “The Love Symbol”. Unfortunately, the symbol design presented problems for his brand (Matheson, 2016): 1. The symbol was not easily articulated. Because people could not pronounce it, it blocked communication. 2. The symbol could not be typed, preventing media searches. 3. It offered no continuity or easily perceived connection with Prince’s legacy. Now going by the title “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince,” he fought to own his master tapes to release his material more often. Since Prince’s power-move, other acts such as Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and Chance the Rapper have released albums directly to their fans as an affront to—traditional distribution routes. “He drew attention to the issue of -artists -controlling their destiny,” says Gary Stiffelman, Prince’s attorney from 1988 to 1994, “and he furthered the message as much or more than anyone.” (Newman, 2016) Prince’s 1992 contract, which included Warner/Chappell Music Publishing, covered six albums and allowed him to release up to one new album a year, a $10 million advance per album, and a 25 percent royalty rate. Paisley Park Records was now a viable joint venture with one of the largest music labels in the world. Without consulting Warner Bros., Prince’s publicist estimated the venture was $100 million in value in a press release. In the early 2000s, he returned to his name and severed his ties with Warner Bros. He started to work with other labels, turned to form his label, and promoted his music through live shows and the Internet. These were not lucrative ventures because Prince attempted to make his concerts affordable for all. Charging £31.21 a ticket and including a free copy of his new album Planet Earth) left him barely seeking out any profits. In 2014, Prince regained control of his musical catalog in a licensing deal with Warner Bros. because of the 35-year termination statute of limitations permitted in the 1976 Copyright Revision Act. In a move to owning his shares in music-streaming royalties, Prince joined Jay-Z’s consortium of artists in the ownership of the music-streaming company Tidal. He did this in 2015, shortly before his death. By banning his music from other services (Spotify, iTunes, etc.), he sent the message that contracts could be a liability to artists and musicians.

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Conclusion Steps to legally protect a personal brand must be taken early on in its development. As monetization opportunities arise, so do the legal ramifications that go along with them. While the jurisprudence of certain branding content online remains dark, other areas of branding, such as early trademarking, offer opportunities for protections later on as the brand develops and matures. The brand, its medium, its audience, and its earning potential must all be taken into consideration while anticipating the future of the industry (or industries) wherein it lies. While there is no “perfect” way to protect a brand legally, there are clear ramifications for not attempting to do so from the beginning and at every stage. In the case of Harland Sanders, the brand did not anticipate its value until it was too late; in the case of Prince, he clearly understood its value but failed to find ways to monetize it effectively outside of his existing contracts. Moreover, as shown with the example of Beyoncé, the person attached to the brand needs to be proactive and not reactive in order to control the image and the message surrounding it. While there may be legal precedents for intellectual property law, there is no precedent for the rapidity and complexity by which people can create and scale brands in the digital age. For this reason, brand managers need to consistently seek legal counsel during every stage of the brand’s development to both safeguards it and protect its future value.

Discussion Questions 1. How does business law protect the value of a brand? 2. How can copyright and trademark laws better protect brands online? 3. What monetization opportunities should be taken into consideration when negotiating contracts?

References Barbas, S. (2015). The social origins of the personality torts. Rutgers Law Review, 67, 393–440. ISSN: 0036-0465. Retrieved from http://www.rutgerslawreview.com/wp-content/uploads/ 2015/09/2.-Barbas_Article_4.26-Final.pdf. Blumenfeld, Z. (2018). Selling the artist, not the art: Using personal brand concepts to reform copyright law for the social media age. Columbia Journal of Law and the Arts, 42, 241. Retrieved from https://journals.cdrs.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2019/02/04.Blumenfeld_Final-2.7.2019.pdf. Boje, D. M., & Rhodes, C. (2005). The Virtual Leader Construct: The Mass Mediatization and Simulation of Transformational Leadership. Leadership, 1(4), 407–428. https://doi.org/10. 1177/1742715005057232. Damich, E. J. (1988). The right of personality: A common-law basis for the protection of the moral rights of authors. Georgia Law Review, 23, 1.

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D’Orazio, D. (2015). Twitter is deleting stolen jokes on copyright grounds. The Verge. Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com/2015/7/25/9039127/twitter-deletes-stolen-joke-dmca-takedown. Cardon, J. (2018). Co-branding with influencers is in fashion and no longer a trademark Faux Pas. The Trademark Reporter, 108(5), 1057. Retrieved from https://heinonline.org/HOL/ LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/thetmr108&div=42&id=&page=. Ertekin, L., Sorescu, A., & Houston, M. B. (2018). Hands off my brand! the financial consequences of protecting brands through trademark infringement lawsuits. Journal of Marketing, 82(5), 45. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1509/jm.17. 0328. Feloni, R. (2015, June 25). KFC founder Colonel Sanders didn’t achieve his remarkable rise to success until his 60s. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/how-kfc-foundercolonel-sanders-achieved-success-in-his-60s-2015-6. Foley, C. (2016). Do you own your personal brand? In figure skating, the answer is not too clear. Landslide, 9(2). Retrieved from https://www.americanbar.org/groups/intellectual_property_ law/publcation/landslide/2016-17/november-december/do-you-own-your-personal-brandfigure-skating-answer-not-too-clear/. Forbes. (2019, May 19). KFC Brand Value. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/companies/ kfc/#5ac2fdf244ee. Garon, J. M. (2003, July). Normative copyright: A conceptual framework for copyright philosophy and ethics. Cornell Law Review, 88(5). Retrieved from http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/clr/ vol88/iss5/2. Giammona, C. (2019). Anheuser-Bush buys ‘the Fat Jewish’ wine brand. Bloomberg. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-28/in uencer-the-fat-jewish-sellswine-brand-to-beer-giant-inbev. Hearn, A. (2008). Meat, mask, burden: Probing the contours of the branded self. Journal of Consumer Culture, 8(2), 197–217. Joyce, C., Ochoa, T. T., Carroll, M. W., Leaffer, M. A., & Jaszi, P. (2016). Copyright Law (Vol. 85). Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. Klein, C. (2014, September 25). Babe Ruth versus baby Ruth. History. Retrieved from https:// www.history.com/news/babe-ruth-v-baby-ruth. Lewis, A. (2018). Has Beyonce banned media outlets from posting ‘unflattering’ photos of her at Coachella? Cosmopolitan. Retrieved from https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/entertainment/ a19825790/beyonce-coachella-banned-un attering-photos/. Lipton, J. (2010). Bad faith in cyberspace: Grounding domain name theory in trademark, property, and restitution. Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, 23(2), 447. Retrieved from https:// heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/hjlt23&div=15&id=&page. Litman, J. (2000). The DNS wars: Trademarks and the Internet domain name system. Journal of Small & Emerging Business Law, 149. Retrieved from https://heinonline.org/HOL/ LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/jsebl4&div=12&id=&page=. Madow, M. (1993). Private ownership of public image: Popular culture and publicity rights. California Law Review, 81(1), 127–240. Matheson, J., & Wright, D. (2016, May 2). What Prince can teach all companies about rebranding. Entrepreneur. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/274866. Michaels, S. (2013, April 24). “Beyoncé bans press photographers from Mrs Carter world tour”. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/apr/24/beyonce-bansphotographers-mrs-carter. Newman, M. (2016, April 28). Prince’s Battle to Control His Music. Retrieved from https://www. billboard.com/articles/news/cover-story/7348551/prince-battle-to-control-career-artist-rights. Olsen, E. (2002). Slaves of celebrity. Salon. http://salon.com/ent/feature/2002/09/18/idol_contract/ index.html. Patrick, D., & Morrison, B. (2018). The Prince estate: How intestacy works, how it could work, and how it fails as an estate plan. Mitchell Hamline Law Review, 43(6, Article 3). Retrieved from https://open.mitchellhamline.edu/mhlr/vol43/iss6/3.

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Resai, D. (2012). From trademarks to brands. Florida Law Review, 64, 981. Retrieved from http:// scholarship.law.u.edu/r/vol64/iss4/5. Siegal, R. (2019, February 19). Emoji wars: Kim Kardashian west sued for $300 million over the use of popular Kimoji. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost. com/business/2019/02/13/emoji-wars-kim-kardashian-west-sued-million-over-use-iconickimojis/. Smelser, M. (1975). PORTRAIT: The babe on balance. The American Scholar, 44(2), 299–304. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/41207301. Slater, G. (2019, September 25). Beyoncé Says Blue Ivy Is a ‘Cultural Icon’ in Dispute Over Trademarking Daughter’s Name. Retrieved from https://people.com/music/beyonce-blue-ivycultural-icon-dispute-trademarking-daughters-name/. Sylvers, E., Chaudhuri, S., &Gasparro, A. (2018, January 16). Nestlé sells butterfinger and babyRuth unit to Italian candy maker. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from https://www. wsj.com/articles/ferrero-purchases-nestles-u-s-chocolate-business-1516125150. Taylor, K. (2015, September 4). 7 things you didn’t know about the real Colonel Sanders. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/250300. Wong-Ward, K. (2016, March 17). In defense of influencers: The importance of protecting your personal brand. Entrepreneur. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/272542. Yu, V. (2018). Calculating statutory damages in copyright infringement cases: What constitutes “one work”? Santa Clara Law Review, 58(2), 375 Retrieved from https://heinonline.org/HOL/ LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/saclr58&div=17&id=&page=.

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Personal Brand Reputation Management

Learning Objectives After reading this chapter, you should be able to 1. Recognize the risk of visibility. 2. Understand the benefits and costs of reputation management. 3. Understand the process of managing a brand crisis and protecting brand equity.

Introduction Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly. —Plutarch, Greek philosopher

A personal brand’s equity increases as it grows an audience and continues to offer positive experiences. However, public awareness of negative experiences can pose several possibilities of risk. Unlike a product or corporate brand, personal brands are judged on more than the value that they offer. Consumers expect a personal brand to consistently be “on brand” and a step out of character could cause a brand crisis. Ultimately, brand threats can come from one of two sources—the brand itself or other people. There used to be a time when personal brand reputation was established by people who knew the brand personally and whether they shared these perceptions about the brand’s actions with others. An individual may never know what people said about them if they didn’t say it in their presence or if no one bothered to tell them. And as long as they weren’t a public figure, this information would rarely make it to the news. Therefore, an individual could move to another geographic location, get a new job, or a new set of friends and start to rebuild a tarnished brand.

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During this time personal opinions about your character or expertise were things that spread by word-of-mouth. If you were a public figure, negative news might travel to the newspaper, tabloids or television news, only to be seen briefly. This negative news was only kept by human memory and then fade would away. Traditional media afforded personal brands the opportunity to prepare for negative publicity as well as time for people to forget and forgive. The Internet has drastically changed how brands manage their reputation. Today, a crisis is not something that personal brands and their teams can react to, but rather an event that brands must prepare for. Social media is virtually a 24/7 cycle with billions of everyday people as reporters with a myriad of views and audiences. There are people who vet their sources and others who don’t care about whether they are sharing the truth at all. Social media has created the opportunity for anyone to become just as vicious as the tabloids and camera phones have transformed everyday bystanders into the paparazzi. In addition to social media, search engines have become the new white pages, but instead of listing your contact information they give the world wide web a glimpse into an individual’s personal and professional history. Individuals have limited control over what others may publish about them. As a result, array of businesses have been created to manage the everyday person’s online reputation. From high school students applying to college to CEOs of Fortune 10 companies, personal brand reputation management has become more important than ever. While the task may seem daunting, it is less so if brands and brand managers are proactive instead of reactive. If a brand can anticipate a crisis, it can better resolve it or even prevent it altogether.

The Risk of Visibility Social media platforms can be powerful tools for strategically marketing and monetizing a person’s value. Unfortunately, despite their usefulness, there is a correlation between brand visibility and brand risk. When people become more visible and accessible online, their personal and professional lives begin to merge together. As discussed in the previous chapters, the personal brand manager begins to develop a coherent interpretation that ties elements of the individuals past, present, and future together into a compelling narrative (Brooks & Anumudu, 2016). But this also means that personal branders have to handle every possible thing that can emerge for public consumption. Managers must also consider how they will control the interpretation of the personal brand’s weaknesses, public-facing mistakes, and any other negative implications that may come to light around that individual. It is no longer possible to deal with a crisis by trying to keep it a secret or by covering it up. This reality means that the brand manager needs to do more than just intentionally market the positive attributes and benefits of an individual’s value. Brand managers must also measure any risk that may arise from what the personal brand shares via social

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media and on the Internet. As the personal brand examples will show toward the end of the chapter, at times, crisis management can mean taking control of a narrative by owning the interpretation of negative actions or experiences. Scaling a personal brand’s reach exposes individuals to a larger audience and subsequently, there is always some inherent risk involved in becoming overexposed or having negative factors come to light. In the past, the image was more tangible in the sense that people needed material evidence to expose a controversy or scandal. People needed to possess hard copy photos and pitch to a traditional media newspaper that the scandal would sell more copies of their publication. Today, an individual’s image is much more easy to compromise. Now, a vast quantity of tiny bits of personal information is available for anyone to repost or retweet, and the story can grow bit by bit in the way it is commented on. Other protagonists and antagonists to the brand’s story—such as old friends, coworkers, rivals, ex-lovers, etc.—can post information and opinions that may undermine the identity narratives of the personal brand (Brooks & Anumudu, 2016). Furthermore, as Boffa and Castriota (2019) explain in The Oxford Handbook of Gossip and Reputation, in online reviews people do not usually provide hard evidence for their claims. Therefore, the comments they make can be biased or based on misperceptions. It is important to consider that negative or potentially risky interpretations on the part of the public can come from many different sources, that is, why learning crisis management is an integral part of effective personal brand management. For example, a person may also be in a situation where stakeholder interests contradict each other and they are faced with choosing between competing stakeholders. Friends can also publicize or post things that might harm a person’s reputation or their personal brand even innocently and without wanting to cause harm, but not considering the consequences of how a little piece of information can later balloon out of control (Holmes, Hahn, & Perry, 2017).

Impression Management It’s long been said that people only get one chance to make a first impression. First impressions are important because once the brand image is positioned in the audience’s mind, it’s all the more difficult to reposition or change it. The better someone is at monitoring their behavior, the better they are at managing the impressions of their brand image and reputation (Turnley & Bolino, 2001). People manage their impressions all the time whether they realize it or not. They may manage impressions to protect their current image or use them to influence others. Everyone who exists in a society of people has a reputation both with the people who they are closest to and to a wider public or cohort, while social media has added yet another dimension. It is now easier for people to use the Internet to

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help build a public persona that is curated and managed. However, maintaining a reputation for a brand is different from maintaining it for an individual without high visibility, a platform, and numerous stakeholders.

Reputation and Trust Researchers have long studied impression management within an organizational context (Gardner, 1992). In general, reputation can be defined as the public perception of an entity (Horn et al., 2015). More specifically, reputation is the perception individuals have about a person’s future actions based on the perception of their actions from the past (Hiles, 2011). Everyone has a personal reputation but not everyone has a personal brand. This is a very important distinction to make in literature because there has been a lot of confusion between the terms in popular media, within corporations and even institutes of higher learning. Reputation is a lot like financial credit scores in the U.S. Even when a person doesn’t have any income or revenue, if they have good credit it proves that they could potentially be worth much more. Moreover, if an individual has bad credit, it can be hard to overcome. The implication is that individuals and institutions are willing to invest in someone with a high credit score (or a great reputation) because their score indicates their ability to be trusted. In building successful personal brands, one of the most important elements is to first build a sense of trust. Before people invest in a brand, they must trust it. Brand managers establish trust at the beginning of the personal branding process at the point when core values are agreed upon. Reputation and trust are not a given in society, and therefore it must be built over time through positive brand engagements or goodwill. In order to trust an individual or entity, the audience has to believe their motives are genuine and that there is little risk in placing faith or having expectations of that someone. According to the characterization of Mayer and Davis (1999), the integrants of any given relationship or transaction are believed to be trustworthy if (i) they are viewed as having the necessary skills to perform in ways that are expected of them, (ii) they are thoughtful and considerate of others and set aside their own egocentric interests, and (iii) the integrants adhere to values and criteria that are considered important to those placing their trust in them. Reputation represents “trust” in the popular adage “know, like, and trust”. The literature on trust notes that trust is a vague notion and there are many different connotations to what trust means (McKnight & Chervany, 2001). Trust has been defined by numerous constructs including economics, psychology, sociology, and other disciplines. The virtual, overloaded, and sometimes ephemeral nature of postmodern societies today makes it more difficult to discern the core essence of people and to trust their motivations or intentions (Ternès, Rostomyan, Gursch, & Gursch, 2014).

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Executive Reputation Today’s CEO needs to connect with a whole range of different stakeholders in deeper ways. CEO’s must build a positive rapport with colleagues and coworkers at the company, but also with customers, clients, and competitors who are located beyond just the company itself. Even a competitor may be a potential stakeholder someday. It is important for CEOs to build positive relationships with the people they come in contact with outside of their professional position as well. An executive retains their own identity but their public persona does reflect on the organization’s reputation. The impressions that consumers and the wider public build of a CEO are an integral part of corporate identity. Therefore, a CEO’s stakeholders could potentially threaten the brand equity that she or he contributes to their organization. In a recent Weber Shandwick report, it was noted that a CEO’s reputation represents 45% of a company’s market value (2015). Millennial audiences are less interested in organizations, they connect better with individuals they can get to know by researching their work and in whom they can trust. A large part of a company’s market value is tied to the reputation of its CEO in this very publicly engaged way as never before. This research, along with other studies, suggests that there is now a more symbiotic relationship between personal and work identities.

Gig Economy and Reputation Scores Another important factor in reputation management is that our thinking and assumptions about consumption have changed (Pera, Vigilia, & Furlan, 2006). One large indication of such a shift is the rising popularity of what has been called the sharing economy, where companies like Airbnb and TaskRabbit help connect consumers directly to people who can help them with daily tasks or share their home for short term stays, for example (2016). Everyone has a reputation in the sharing economy because every participant is the CEO of their own freelance agency. Reputation is a key factor in how sharing economy companies grow their success (Pera et al., 2016). Consumers now work to co-create the reputations of people and the services that they provide. The virtual realm also adds a further dimension to this dynamic. Freelancer platforms like Upwork enable professionals to create an online profile where they sell their services to consumers online. Instead of having a manager to please, these freelancers provide services to strangers, which are to a certain extent, customers. The algorithmic management of the reputations that both parties must consider indicates a shift in the dynamic of the “workplace” (Wood, Graham, Lehdonvirta, & Hjorth, 2019). Hiring entities have always had the upper hand in working

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relationships; now, for-hire freelancers have the opportunity to view the profile of the person hiring and decide whether or not they want to work with them on a project. The difference is the freelancer feels more pressure under this system of reputation management. As the saying goes, “the customer is always right” because the customer is the one paying for the service. Nevertheless, the “customer” can and will be reviewed by the freelancer who collaborates with them on this public platform, which creates a feedback loop that also requires the hiring party to think more collaboratively and “personally” from a branding perspective.

Brand Threats and Online Reputation Management A brand threat is an internal or external situation or incident that can diminish the future value of a brand. These threats can involve other individuals or no one at all. They can be personal or professional. They can come from strangers or family members. Word-of-mouth ignites a brand threat and helps it spread like fire. Nowadays there are many online review systems and ways that people can publicly publish their discontent with a brand. Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher Chrysanthos Dellarocas (2003) has said that this way of sharing feedback is like the “digitization of word-of-mouth.” This notion can also be extended to online comments as a potential risk to people’s reputations. Monitoring the media and its criticism can help brand managers control these opinions and items of feedback that are biased or based on inaccuracies and misperceptions. Search engines such as Google have now become a resource to audit an individual’s personal and professional reputation. Search results can be a mix of information published by the brand and information posted by the public. Since anyone can publish information about an individual online, this makes it harder to control the online narrative. Unfortunately for the brand and the potential consumer of the brand, there can be instances where some of the information published online is not true. Cyberbullies can purposely plant inaccurate and negative information online to tarnish a person’s brand reputation (Oravec, 2013). Google has made personal online reputation management a highly lucrative industry. Many people have turned to reputation management companies that claim to remove negative listings about their reputation on Google. A person’s online search results can impact their social and economic future and one bad search result can create a crisis for someone’s personal brand. Whether or not the information listed on search engines is true, the perception that it is true will affect a brand’s value.

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Brand Snapshot Comedians and Cancel Culture As of late, the comedy industry has struggled with snowballing negative public opinion and backlash. From Roseanne Barr to Dave Chappelle, there has been a surge in the number of controversies surrounding comedians in recent years (Carras, 2019). What is so remarkable about this phenomenon is that comedy has always been a refuge and a safe place for people to openly talk about issues that people would otherwise feel uncomfortable speaking about publically. Historically, comedians had the privilege to speak about controversial issues and few would challenge their remarks. But lately, audiences are speaking out when a joke is taken too far and this has been damaging to the reputation and careers of some of the most prominent comedians. A number of such comedians are trying to fight what they refer to as “cancel culture” by defending their reputations and the nature of comedic performance (Olheiser and Izad 2019). Comedians like David Chapelle and Sarah Silverman have complained that the new critiques of comedic material and defending the people who are the brunt of comedic jokes affect their craft. One draw of a good comedian is they can speak about controversial topics, but in a way that shocks people or makes them laugh about uncomfortable topics. However, within today’s cancel culture, comedians are receiving backlash from the public for things they have said during their stand-up routines, jokes they have tweeted, or things they have said or done in their personal lives. One recent example of cancel culture in action involves a comedian who was slated to become a regular cast member of saturday night live (SNL) in September 2019. Washington Post columnist Christine Emba reports how SNL retracted its offer to comedian Shane Gillis after some allegedly racist and offensive jokes he used in his podcasts came to light (Abad-Santos, 2019). Gillis and others, who came to his defense after SNL’s retraction, say that the political correctness of current public opinion is unfairly censoring many comedians. Emba makes an interesting point that these critiqued comedians have not completely lost their careers at the first sign of controversy. While losing an opportunity to join the cast of a famous comedy program is a setback, Emba points to other “canceled” comedians who have continued to work despite being called out and “canceled”. This shows a degree of personal brand management, perhaps a level of “infamy” that the shunned comedians can eventually use. These “canceled” comedians still continue to perform and find a space in the aftermath of their respective controversies. Kevin Hart, for example, produced an entire Netflix docuseries about the Oscars canceling his hosting gig in 2019, while Louis C. K. announced a world tour with the stipulation that no photos, videos, etc. can be shared by the audience (Daw, 2019; Salam, 2019). Interestingly, in both cases, the comedians attempt to control their brand narratives post-fallout within the same mediums that instigated controversy.

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Crisis Communications The way that most people deal with a crisis is to try to avoid it in the first place. This has become increasingly difficult, as the Internet accelerates how people share and access information. As a result, it is nearly impossible to avoid a crisis by covering it up and keeping it a secret, as was often done in the past. Today, everyday people face constant surveillance not only from employers, but from their professional peers. It is not a matter of whether a crisis will happen or not; some level of personal or professional crisis is practically inevitable now in the span of a brand’s career. At an organizational level, a crisis is usually brought on by a major revelation of wrongdoing that affects consumer safety, or that presents fraudulent behaviors (König, Graf-Vlachy, Bundy, & Little, 2018). Usually, a crisis will snowball into a bigger problem as the situation unfolds. The Weber Shandwick report cited earlier states that a crisis should be followed up with action, and the CEO and upper-level representatives should show they are thoughtful and empathetic in how they manage the crisis. As Brown (2019) explains, this is difficult because while in crisis mode the company can be under intense scrutiny from others. But there are also good and bad ways of handling a crisis and if handled well. For example, showing they have competence and integrity crisis situation can lead to positive results for both the organization and the people at the center of the controversy.

Steven Fink on Crisis Management Steven Fink is one of the nation’s leading crisis management experts. As President of Lexicon Communications, the nation’s oldest crisis management firm, he has counseled some of the world’s most prestigious companies in strategic public relations, crisis management, crisis communications, and corporate communications. He is the author of the widely-read “Crisis Management: Planning for the Inevitable.” Here, he discusses how brands should build reservoirs of goodwill. “I tell companies to build reservoirs of goodwill. You can’t go wrong by adding to reservoirs of goodwill. Now, what do I mean by that? It means take a survey [to determine] what is the company’s reputation in the community in which they operate. Does the community have a good image of them, a good impression of them or a poor impression of them? If you are a company that does business in a small community for example and you’re active, the company is active in the community. If they sponsor the Little League team, if they sponsor a Girl Scout troop, if they sponsor a soccer team, if they contribute to the local police and fire association of activities, they have a reputation for being a good community member. Then when the untoward happens, people might give them more of the benefit of the doubt because they know them. They have a reputation. [The community member thinks] ‘I know the company, are

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good guys [because] look at all the stuff they do for the community. You know let’s hear what they have to say and give them the benefit of the doubt.’ I’ve been in that situation a number of times. However, if you are a company that operates in a vacuum you might be very successful, you might make a lot of money, but nobody knows who you are, nobody knows really what you do, and you’re not visible in the community. Then a crisis occurs for some reason. And when you make a statement. People might say, ‘Well I don’t really know who these people are. I don’t know whether I should believe them or not.’ So, my first advice–and it’s always first advice when you’re putting together a crisis management plan–is to find out what people think about you in the community and start building reservoirs with the goodwill. [The same philosophy] applies to people. Say, I don’t know you from Adam but let’s just say that you have a reputation for double-dealing that people don’t believe what you say. I mean people notice these things and then something happens where your reputation is on the line you and you have to make a statement, you have to defend yourself. [If your reputation is poor], people are going to look at you and say, ‘You know, I don’t think I really believe this person–I mean look at her history look at what she’s done in the past.’ Now on the other side of that coin, let’s say you have a good reputation in the community. You serve on various civic organizations, you’re active the community, you have a good business, you have a good consulting practice, and people think very highly of you. When people think of you it’s positive, positive, positive. Now something negative happens and people say, ‘Hmm, this doesn’t sound like her. I think I give her the benefit of the doubt unless I’m proven otherwise.’ So, building a reservoir of goodwill is important not just for companies but also for individuals.”

Preparing for a Crisis The same philosophy of crisis management for a business extends into crisis management for a person. To manage the effects of a crisis with a personal brand, an effective crisis management team has to quickly take control and tell the brand’s version of the dilemma. Ideally, a personal brand will have a crisis communications plan to help mitigate a scandal or crisis. A crisis management plan requires the foresight to prevent the crisis from happening in the first place, but not all crises can be avoided. The crisis manager must imagine the most likely or most-damaging crises that could occur to the brand in their personal and professional life (Brown, 2019). When brand managers plan for the worst-case scenario they are better prepared to weather the minor and midscale problems that are more likely to arise. However, a lack of sufficient communication can seem like recalcitrance on the part of the personal brand that is being criticized. On the other hand, a well-planned and authentic apology can show a commitment to change and that the person carefully

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considered what happened. These are positive attributes that can be used to rebuild trust and reputation after a crisis occurs. Recently, another dimension of crisis management is that there is a definitive echo effect. Issues will often linger, resurface, and combine in ways that may be hard to disassociate with or undo if not managed properly. For example, Todd Harcek analyzed media coverage of three major oil spills in the United States: the Exxon Valdez, the American Trader, and the BP Gulf oil spill (Harcek 2018). He emphasizes the unscripted comments on the part of CEOs and high-level executives that undermined intentional communication strategies. Key executives made certain rhetorical mistakes that cost them in terms of public perceptions, just as Tony Hayward, then CEO of BP saying “I’d like my life back” in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This was a terrible PR blunder both for the CEO and the organization as people were understandably upset at the disruption and damage the accident caused to the entire economy and ecosystem in the Gulf Coast region of the United States.

Brand Snapshot Judy Smith, the Real Olivia Pope Judy Smith is a highly successful crisis expert who has worked with high-profile clients to coach them through different personal and professional crises in a way that helps them smooth over the potential damage they might experience to their reputations. Smith is also the inspiration for the character at the center of the ABC hit series Scandal. For several decades, she’s handled very public scandals—such as Monica Lewinsky’s and Michael Vick’s—all while staying off the public’s radar until Shonda Rhimes created a show about her (Tucker, 2012). As the former counsel to George H. W. Bush, she is the real-life Olivia Pope who helped the President of the United States to navigate a series of serious public dilemmas (Karlin 2012). In her book Good Self, Bad Self: How to Bounce Back from a Personal Crisis (2013), Smith describes a significant paradox faced by many successful executives, politicians, and public figures that face a personal brand crisis. She explains that the same characteristics of an individual’s personality that make them successful are often the same characteristics that undermine their own success and threaten to damage their reputations. For example, Uber’s founding CEO Travis Kalanick was considered a maverick at first. He aggressively built his start-up company into a billion-dollar enterprise in the space of just a few short years. He did this by going against the taxi cab lobbyist, paving the way for other shared-car platforms. He gained a dubious reputation because of questionable practices that were said to negatively impact the work culture at the company. He was eventually forced to step down as CEO because of pressure from shareholders (Isaac 2017).

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Kalanick serves as an example of the paradox that Judy Smith describes where the traits that make someone highly successful are often the same traits that lead to their downfall if not directed and managed properly (Weber & Wiserma, 2017). This behavior often leads to scandal and crisis. Those same personality traits that make someone successful can also have negative consequences in terms of building their reputation. Leaders who work long careers, do so by managing the elements of their personalities that make them successful. Over the years, Smith has spoken to some of her core tenets in crisis communications. Smith emphasizes that the brand must meet people where they are and taking them to where you need them to be. Smith asserts that if the brand is rationalizing a situation with facts, but the audience is analyzing the situation with emotions, then the crisis manager’s job is to close that gap (Smith, 2012). While it’s often standard practice in public relations, she insists that the offending party should avoid retracting statements or actions, as credibility can be lost that way. Finally, seriously consider the platforms and channels that communicate the brand message in a crisis (i.e., “tweeting” during a crisis may convey a lack of awareness about its severity).

Digital Crisis Communications Unlike the time when Judy Smith was working at the White House, today the crisis war room has to be active around the clock. Social media allows the crisis to spread wider, farther, and faster than ever. A crisis on social media not only affects public figures and executives but employees as well. In their article on employee management and social media, Rokka, Karlsson, and Tienari (2014) describe a situation where an employee had to confront some angry customers and the situation became unsettling to them. The irate customer started to attack the employee in a very personal way on social media, and not just as a representative of the food company that employed them. The employee was being held personally accountable by name and had to manage the heated situation. As Rokka, Karlsson, and Tienari explain, there is a personal element to social media where “people talk with people” and not really just the company (2014). This is a case where the employee felt they were personally being held accountable for company policies and it surprised them how difficult that was to navigate. It created a situation that needed to be discussed a lot internally at the company in terms of using social media as employees and how to manage their behavior online and their responses. But the unsettled employee said they also felt supported in the social media context because others came to their defense in the comment exchange. Rokka, Karlsson, and Tienari (2014) refer to this as a duality in a social media management approach. Users need to balance between being creative and open, with a controlled and stylized approach that is well-planned.

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Building Trust Online There seems to be less trust in our modern society, the bar has also been raised on accountability in recent years. There is much more scrutiny of honest and ethical behavior on the part of organizations and their representatives and even everyday people than there was in the past. As a result, competence and trustworthiness are something individuals who seek employment make a conscious effort to control as well in terms of ethical behavior and integrity (Rosenfeld, Edwards, & Thomas, 2015). One important element of everyday forms of trust is feeling like “you” know someone. Researchers Harris and Rae (2011) argued that people more often feel they trust someone if they feel they know them. They are more likely to trust someone they know rather than a total stranger. Harris and Rae interviewed a LinkedIn user who successfully used the testimonial system in securing jobs via the social media platform (2011). The interviewee felt that testimonials from previous clients and colleagues are a part of what has brought his success and developed the trust of clients and potential clients. Testimonials helped reduce the risk associated with recruiting unknown candidates with very little background information (Harris & Rae, 2011). Their study shows that social media helps build a feeling of knowing someone despite not really knowing them, at least in the traditional way. But it still raises questions about how lasting or deep this kind of social media trust is and how best to foster and improve it. These are questions about the nature of trust and new self-branding practices that could be the subject of future research. This also points to the duality in a social media management approach. The openness of social media is one of its benefits but there also needs to be control, planning, and preparation for negative feedback if relationships go wrong. Now people at all levels are held to fairly rigorous standards because of the abundance of information sharing. However, trust is easily is compromised where there is little control of communication and flows of information. There is still very little research on how to make social media more effective and how to use it to help build relationships and increase trust more efficiently. For example, social scientist Mats Eriksson published a review of existing research about social media and effective crisis communication in the United States, with a large focus on the use of Twitter. He found five basic lessons that emerged out of the existing research on the use of social media which included over 100 articles and conference papers: (1) Social media creates dialogue and helps practitioners to choose the right message and the right timing; (2) crisis work preparation should include an assessment of how people are using social media; (3) social media should be monitored for information and to help anticipate problems;

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(4) traditional media still plays a role and needs adequate attention as well; and (5) social media should be used thoughtfully and strategically in crisis communication. Researchers argue that the existing research on the use of social media is still weak in the sense that any best practices for crisis communication via social media were based on research studies that were less systematic, sometimes based on just single cases (Veil, Buehner, & Palenchar, 2011).

CEOs and Crisis Management Unlike other employees in an organization, CEOs have a higher level of autonomy, control over resources, and personal opportunities in their position (Van Scotter & Roglio, 2018). CEOs that face a widely spread scandal have to deal with stakeholder scrutiny of the overall operations of the business. As a result, a CEO scandal can affect immediate and long-term investment in the organization. According to Van Scooter and Rogolio (2018) CEO crisis includes ethical misconduct, risky decision making, fraud, and sexual misconduct in the workplace. The scandals of CEOs can happen outside the boardroom and still affect their company’s image and reputation. Take, for example, Desmond “Des” Hague, the former CEO of Centerplate, a large foodservice conglomerate. When an elevator surveillance camera caught him kicking a dog and subsequently went viral in 2014, he and his business had to react quickly and strategically in order to contain the fallout. As the former executive at Taco Bell, Safeway, and IHOP, his actions seemed uncharacteristic to those who knew him. Nevertheless, in a few short days the video was shared countless times on social media, then major news outlets, until finally, a Change.org petition garnered nearly 200,000 to remove him from his executive role. While he apologized numerous times for an incident that happened outside of work, Hague was placed on indefinite probation because the board realized the company’s association with him was suddenly and irrevocably bad for business (O’Connor, Phipps, & Blasdel, 2016).

Brand Snapshot Jeff Bezos Versus the National Enquirer Crisis management can be particularly fraught for well-known CEOs (Scotter & Roglio, 2018). This was certainly the case for Jeff Bezos, who is the founder of Amazon.com, the owner of The Washington Post, and currently the richest man in the world (CBS NEWS, 2019). He was also known to be fiercely protective of his

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private life in the past. However, in 2017 the National Enquirer acquired compromising photos of Bezos that revealed he was having an extramarital affair. Despite his tendency to be private and guarded in the past, Bezos was very quick to adopt a vocal defensive strategy against the tabloid magazine that was threatening to release the photographs (Timberg, Whoriskey, Davenport, & Dwoskin, 2019). Bezos responded by writing a blog post accusing the National Enquirer of trying to blackmail him, and he also released photos with his girlfriend when he made the post, effectively diminishing the power and ownership rights the tabloid magazine would have over the pictures (Rutenberg, Weise, & Rashbaum, 2019). What is remarkable about this case is that Jeff Bezos was very astute at making use of a textbook crisis communications strategy to mitigate his personal “scandal” and run a great defense. His strategy, which is a primary rule of crisis communications, was to tell the truth and never negotiate with a bully, because the offended party beats the bully with the truth (Temin, 2019). Often a person’s first instinct, when they face a crisis, is to try to cover up the truth. Lying in order to try to hide the truth is one of the biggest recurring themes in crisis management, yet this strategy is rarely successful. The analysis of real cases reveals that the people who fair best in public scandals are those who face the people who threaten their brand. This enables them to wrestle control of the narrative and takes ownership of the situation as Bezos did by admitting the affair and publicly sharing pictures himself. When Bezos and his wife announced their divorce shortly thereafter, the couple did so strategically on Twitter, which preemptively reduced media speculation.

Conclusion Brand reputation management goes hand-in-hand with personal brand strategy. Like people, brands are dynamic and are not insulated from a crisis. When managing a personal brand, the question of a crisis should not be an “if” but “when”. And when a crisis strikes, brand managers who are prepared can better handle the narrative and messaging that follows, in order to mitigate it. Tracking impressions is the first step in surveying the level of trust and credibility attached to the brand. Social media tools provide key insights into brand reputation but can also undermine them. If a particularly acute crisis happens, skilled brand managers should assess the emotional response and try to reconnect to the audience through it, as Judy Smith suggests. In the case of Centerplate CEO Hauge, both he and his company navigated their response to the escalating fallout by reacting in real time; yet in Bezos’s case, he seemed prepared for such a crisis and met it head-on. The key difference between the two CEOs is that the former tried to avoid the crisis, while the latter seemed to expect it. Personal brand management has entered the workforce in a disruptive way. The top-down hierarchical model of work is quickly being replaced with the collaborative gig economy. As knowledge work continues to grow, the reputations of

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freelancers and their clients are dependent on publicly shared feedback. So too, as the role of CEO and other top executive posts becomes more public-facing, corporate leaders and the institutions to which they are attached must rethink the synergistic relationship of their brand identities.

Discussion Questions 1. 2. 3. 4.

When is the best time to create a crisis management plan for a personal brand? How does crisis communications protect the value of a brand? What is the best way to minimize the impact of a brand crisis before it happens? What are some ways that social media affects crisis communications?

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oil spills. Retrieved from https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Apology-Not-Accepted%3AThe-Impact-of-Executive-Media-Harcek/493771fbe6b5841c70b9ddd7a8a056202fdecf6d. Harris, L., & Rae, A. (2011). Building a personal brand through social networking. Journal of Business Strategy, 32(5), 14–21. https://doi.org/10.1108/02756661111165435. Hiles, A. (Ed.). (2011). Reputation management: Building and protecting your company’s profile in a digital world. A&C Black. Holmes, B., Hahn, C., & Perry, C. (2017). Building the organizational leader brand: Change agent, scholar, thought leader. Horn, I., Taros, T., Dirkes, S., Hüer, L., Rose, M., Tietmeyer, R., Constantinides, E. (2015, January). Business reputation and social media: A primer on threats and responses. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 16(3), 193–208. Retrieved from https://doi.org/ 10.1057/dddmp.2015.1. Isaac, M. (2017, June 21) Uber founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/technology/uber-ceo-travis-kalanick. html. Karlin, S. (2012, April 5) How to turn a crisis Into an opportunity: Insight from Judy Smith, the woman who inspired ABC’s “Scandal”. Fast Company. Retrieved from https://www. fastcompany.com/1680448/how-to-turn-a-crisis-into-an-opportunity-insight-from-judy-smiththe-woman-who-inspired-abcs. König, Andreas, Graf-Vlachy, Lorenz, Bundy, Jonathan, & Little, Laura. (2018). A blessing and a curse: How CEOs’ empathy affects their management of organizational crises. Academy of Management Review. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2017.0387. Mayer, Roger C., & Davis, James H. (1999). The effect of the performance appraisal system on trust for management: A field quasi-experiment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84(1), 123. McKnight, D. H., & Chervany, N. L. (2001). What trust means in e-commerce customer relationships: An interdisciplinary conceptual typology. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 6(2), 35–59. O’Connor, J. J., Phipps, K. A., & Blasdel, T. R. (2016). The kick seen’round the world: A case study in crisis management and corporate governance. Journal of Case Studies, 34(2), 102– 110. Olheiser, A., & Izad, E. (2019, September 18). A step-by-step guide to why people can’t stop arguing about ‘cancel culture’. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www. washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2019/09/18/step-by-step-guide-why-people-cant-stoparguing-about-cancel-culture/. Oravec, J. A. (2013). Gaming Google: Some ethical issues involving online reputation management. Journal of Business Ethics Education, 10, 61–81. Pera, R., Viglia, G., & Furlan, R. (2016). Who am I? How compelling self-storytelling builds digital personal reputation. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 35, 44. Retrieved from https:// www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1094996815000614. Rokka, J., Karlsson, K., & Tienari, J. (2014). Balancing acts: Managing employees and reputation in social media. Journal of Marketing Management, 30(7–8), 802. Retrieved from http:// ezproxy.unal.edu.co/docview/1544408363?accountid=1502923. Rosenfeld, P., Edwards, J. E., & Thomas, M. D. (2015). Impression management. In Wiley Encyclopedia of Management (pp. 1–2). Rutenberg, J., Weise, K., & Rashbaum, W. (2019, February 8) Jeff Bezos’ extortion claim said to be under review by prosecutors. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes. com/2019/02/08/business/media/jeff-bezos-ami-national-enquirer-fight.html. Salam, M. (2019, November 2). Louis C. K. back on tour, looks to accelerate his comeback. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/02/arts/louis-ck-tourrules.html. Smith, J. (2012). Good self, bad self. New York: Simon & Schuster. Temin, D. (2019, February 11) How to bring down a bully or extortionist—Lessons from Jeff Bezos, Nancy Pelosi and more. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/

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Learning Objectives After reading this chapter, you should be able to 1. 2. 3. 4.

Understand why sustaining and managing personal brand is important. Learn the economic importance of authenticity. Learn how individuals rebrand without losing credibility. Understand the process of tracking and measuring brand equity.

Introduction Branding demands commitment; commitment to continual re-invention; striking chords with people to stir their emotions; and commitment to imagination. It is easy to be cynical about such things, much harder to be successful. —Sir Richard Branson, British business magnate

Once a brand has been established, it must be maintained like a business with the charisma of a person. People reach the pinnacle of their success when they are known outside of the circles in which they operate. Corporations are at the top of their game when they can find ways to continually grow. A personal brand is successful when it is able to achieve both. Ultimately, the brand is successful and sustainable when it lives outside of its origin of creation and has the potential to infinitely scale. As a brand grows and matures, it accrues increasingly more stakeholders while accumulating shareholders along the way. Many brands have come and gone, largely because their managers did not understand the authenticity and adaptiveness required to stay valuable. At every brand’s core, there must be an authentic, identifying factor that connects it to its consumer and audience; moreover, if that authenticity is communicated, the brand can grow and even rebrand with success. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 T. Waller, Personal Brand Management, Management for Professionals, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43744-2_9

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As mentioned in the introduction of the book, brand valuations account for nearly a third of the S&P 500 and it has been argued that intellectual property and brand capital will drive markets in the twenty-first century (Gerzema & Lebar, 2008). This economic potentiality is so new, its influence on other markets is just as great as its own burgeoning value within and of itself. Determining a brand’s value and tracking it with data and metrics allows managers to make informed decisions about the brand’s future. What began as an intangible asset attached to a “person” begins to extend into tangible assets attached to the personal brand.

Authenticity Versus Branding Researchers Grayson and Martinec (2004) argued that authenticity has been valuable for the past century, with the demand for authenticity in America becoming even more relevant after the Industrial Revolution. Today, consumer demand for authenticity is at an all-time high. Marketers are increasingly tasked with managing the perceived authenticity of a brand. Brand authenticity has a direct correlation with positive consumer-brand relationships, specifically emotional attachment with a brand and word-of-mouth (Fritz, Schoenmueller, & Bruhn, 2017; Morhart, Malär, Guèvremont, Girardin, & Grohmann, 2015). Within this text, brand authenticity is based on the perception of a person and not a product. The common person can now achieve a larger audience and this gives the capacity to spread a characterization of themselves to a larger audience. Today, an audience not only expects a brand to consistently deliver value but also expects a brand’s image and character to remain consistent. However, a character can never be an authentic personal brand because its characterization is constructed from the imagination. Personal brands are dynamic and their environments require them to evolve over time. Personal brands have to adapt to their circumstances, and free will allows them to do that. Therefore, authenticity is rooted in brands performing as dynamically as people by being adaptable and not predictable. An individual or brand that is authentic will continually represent itself by its true nature or essence. The term “authentic self” has become synonymous with the word “genuine”, however, it is commonly confused with the moral concept of the word “sincerity”. In 2017, Kristine Fritz, Verena Schoenmueller, and Manfred Bruhn researched the concept of authenticity in brands; and they defined authenticity “as the quality of perceived identity with oneself that is experienced as subjective consistency.” Their research also indicates that there are attributes within a brand that point to brand authenticity such as the willingness to prioritize a brand’s core values over profit. Avolio and Gardner (2005) conducted a comprehensive analysis of authentic leadership and defined it as an individual acting in alignment with their own internal thoughts, opinions, and emotions.

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The perception of authenticity within branding creates a paradox for a personal brand. If branding is a strategic and commercial concept, then how can an individual both strategically and authentically market their personal brand? There are researchers like Hearn (2008) who communicate their distaste for personal branding and view it as a self-conscious process that detaches the image of the self for market consumption, while researchers like Gehl (2011) argue that those seeking to build a personal brand must “expose” their private lives as a way of conveying authenticity. Regardless, the level of personal exposure or public consumption is moderated by the individual or marketer.

Authenticity Within Organizations “Authentic leadership” is another buzzword that causes a paradox within organizations. For instance, a professional’s definition of authenticity can prevent them from promotion within an organization. If an executive is stringent about professional values, they could prevent themselves from making smarter, situationally based choices that have outgrown those values. Ultimately, authenticity in leadership positions has little to do with public-facing truth and consistency and more to do with ever-evolving adaptiveness and flexibility (Ibarra, 2015). Nevertheless, it is a new topic for employees and executives to manage their brand within an organization. This experience is unlike personal brands that are leveraging a talent, because this type of personal brand has more freedom to be their authentic selves, stand out, and be different. Talent brands can build an audience based on their personality because they don’t exist within the constructs of an organizational brand with a predetermined personality. Therefore, building a personal brand with authenticity is not a skill that is easily mastered in the workplace. Countless studies show that a brand has to stand out. A brand is an economic tool that, without differentiation can not sustain its competitive advantage (Gupta, Czinkota, & Melewar, 2013). However, many executives and professionals have to adhere to social, cultural, and professional norms that may or may not reflect who they really are or how they see themselves in the world. Professional blowbacks can have detrimental effects on how an individual is valued within an organization. Employer brands and employee personal brands are constantly negotiating with each other on a myriad of issues related to authenticity, from communications to grooming standards. As previously mentioned in Chap. 2, many organizations are built with one brand personality that starts with the founder’s brand and is disseminated through all departments of the organization to build one corporate brand. Goffman’s face to face theory research found that executives believe that they were in good-face when their personal values aligned with the values of their organization (Goffman, 1967; Nolan, 2015). Personal and corporate brand alignment helps executives create and deliver more strategic and effective communications. Nevertheless, this alignment inevitably evolves as an organization grows and industries change. Therefore, even

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organizations led by strong brand personalities must continue to adapt over time in order to maintain a competitive edge in the market.

Authenticity Online Although human digital identity may be fragmented, it seems clear that various online personas are all digital breadcrumbs of the same persona; different elements of its core self. Indeed, online activities cannot be separated from an individual’s real life, and if anything they are an integral part of it. According to Ofcom (2015) adults in the UK are now spending over twenty hours a week online, which is twice as much time as 10 years ago. Research on the U.S reports similar findings, with as much as 30% of online time devoted to social networking. Across all studies, the theme is that the Internet is hardly an escape from everyday life; in fact, it can be argued that online activity merely mimics real-life encounters and interactions. Individuals create online personas in multiple ways. From social media to blogging to online reviews, a person’s Internet activity across channels and platforms reveals insights into their beliefs, interests, passions and other aspects of their personal life. Much like the roles, one plays in real life, people engage, and perform somewhat differently given the platforms and channels they use. This is especially true of the entertainment industry, where celebrities like Chrissy Teigan and the Kardashians are followed and celebrated for the “authentic” convergence of their real and digital lives. Nevertheless, when there are noticeable brand inconsistencies, the effects can be damaging, particularly for high-profile individuals. One reason the #MeToo movement snowballed is that its most high-profile scandals (Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, R. Kelly, etc.) experience this crisis of authenticity. In the cases of these three men, Internet transparency provided platforms for their accusers to be authentic for the first time. Their authenticity exposed the misalignment of these very powerful men’s public-facing brands with their alleged crimes.

Brand Snapshot Ellen Degeneres, Bravery, and Authenticity Ellen DeGeneres’ brand is one of the most successful celebrity brands in modern history because it is perceived as authentic and relatable across demographics. Degeneres has earned numerous accolades for her television and film as well as the 2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom. As evidence of her widespread popularity, at the 2014 Oscars, she took a star-studded selfie that was shared more than 37 million times and is considered to be one of the most lucrative selfies of all time with an estimated billion dollars in potential advertising revenue (Richford, 2014)

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How did Ellen become so universally popular? She began her career as a comedian and then became a household name with her eponymous hit show Ellen, in 1994. A lesbian in real life, she pushed the ABC network to allow her character to come out on television to align with her own public coming out as gay—and she was the first female entertainer to do so. While her show was canceled not long after her character’s dramatic reveal, subsequent programming began to feature many more queer characters and themes as a result of Degeneres’ brave choice (Mettler, 2017). The Ellen Degeneres Show has enjoyed continued success because Degeneres’ program celebrates the bravery, kindness, and humanity of all her guests—famous or not—which aligns with her public persona that resonates as having all the same qualities. As President Obama noted at the 2016 medal ceremony in her honor, “It’s easy to forget now just how much courage was required for Ellen to come out on the most public of stages 20 years ago.” He emphasized that her very public coming out as gay helped “push our country in the direction of justice” (Palazzo, 2016). Today, Ellen is worth over $400 million and is listed by Forbes as the 12th richest celebrity in the world (Woods, 2018). She has built an empire that includes her own YouTube channel (Ellentube), an impressive real estate portfolio, and her own line of interiors and fashion (ED), as well as successful runs as the spokeswoman for Covergirl, American Express, and JC Penney (Woods, 2018). Her success is largely built on the authenticity that connects her to her audience. As she told The Daily Mail in 2016, “I know that I’m strong enough to come back” (Carpenter, 2016). It’s that attitude that underlies the power of her brand.

Rebranding and Repositioning In order to build a brand, one must be consistent; otherwise, it’s hard to build saturation in the mind of the audience. However, sometimes the decision to be more authentic requires marketers to change their personal brand strategy, and this change is referred to as rebranding. According to scholars Goi and Goi (2011) “rebranding is a continuing action and involves steps that can be referred to as the process of changing a brand identity and image.” Personal branding involves controlling the alignment between identity and image, and rebranding means changing the identity to reposition the image in the consumer’s mind. A personal brand can also choose to change its positioning based on market factors. For example, an entrepreneur or executive may choose to change their position to a more lucrative industry because their current industry is on an economic decline. Numerous factors can prompt the need for repositioning or rebranding. Theoretically, the difference between repositioning and rebranding is rebranding causes marketers to recreate their brand image and repositioning changes where the image is located.

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For everyday professionals, personal reinvention is necessary for many reasons. An individual may be looking to take on new professional challenges or find more meaningful work. Perhaps they hope to shake limiting perceptions that hinder their career growth. Rebranding can be a significant shift, such as a retail manager transitioning into a marketing analyst role, or it can be a subtle repositioning from a manager role to an executive leadership position within the same industry. In order for an individual to rebrand and reposition they must manage the quality and delivery of their core value while changing audiences, markets, or industries. One of the trickiest steps in this path is persuading others to embrace their rebranding efforts. Many executives contact career coaches when they are looking to rebrand and make a transition. Some transitions require more than a career coach because in many cases these positions are extremely competitive. Top executive board positions may require a personal brand manager to increase the executive’s visibility, reposition their image, or manage their reputation.

Brand Snapshot Rebranding from “The Rock” to Dwayne Johnson Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood. But just like the many roles he’s played on-screen, he’s also had many different careers over the years that he’s been able to synergistically manage under his personal brand “The Rock”. Before he was Luke Hobbs in the billion-dollar The Fast & The Furious franchise or the voice of Maui in the Disney hit Moana, Johnson aspired to be a football star as a defensive lineman for the University of Miami and later for the Canadian Football League. Cut from the professional team after two seasons, he joined the World Wrestling Federation in 1996 and adopted the ring name “The Rock” shortly thereafter. His popularity as the trash-talking, antic-loving wrestler made him a household name in the 1990s. His ring nickname “The Rock”—which he still goes by for special WWE appearances—has been parlayed into endorsement and merchandising deals that he still capitalizes on to this day. One of his recent partnerships with Under Armour releases products under the name “Project Rock”, and in 2020 NBC ordered the scripted show “Young Rock” based on his early life (Dosh, 2016; White, 2020). Instead of leaving his pro-wrestler brand “The Rock” behind when he went to Hollywood, Johnson leveraged it as part of the transition. Since he made his name as an entertainer in the ring, he strategically took roles that featured him as strong, determined, and funny much like his wrestling persona. Understanding the importance of engaging with his audience, he’s continued to speak directly with

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fans much like he did in his wrestling days (his Twitter account alone has over 14 million followers who he tweets to daily). As culture scholar Dan Ward notes, Johnson’s “grounding in the unique wrestling practice of kayfabe has informed his engagement with the malleable public–private terrain of social media” (Ward, 2019). Because of his continued engagement with fans as “The Rock”, Johnson’s transition to actor-turned Hollywood power player is rooted in his rebranding of “The Rock” as valuable in and of itself, untethered to the wrestling industry that created that brand.

What Is Personal Brand Equity? Personal branding is “directly intended to create an asset and brand equity that pertains to a particular person or individual” (Karaduman, 2013). According to Alison Hearn’s research, there is a “rhetorical” function to the branded self and its goal is to produce “cultural value and, potentially, material profit” (Hearn, 2008). Personal brand equity is measured by the amount of current and future revenue someone can make from their personal brand. The ROI from building personal brand equity comes from the relationships that the brand creates with its audience. Brand equity is calculated by accounting for future profits from the brand name (Simon and Sullivan, 1993). This is different from how much a person can make per hour or their salary providing a skill, talent, or function. Personal brand equity impacts how many future opportunities are available for the brand to monetize compared to non-branded individuals. When someone has personal brand equity, their name has more influence compared to a lesser recognized individual.

Translating Brand Identity into Brand Equity The largest, most successful brands in history established their value early in their brand creating process. Launching a brand is different from launching a product, service, or experience. A strong brand is strategically identified and positioned. Whereas products and services can be copied, a brand cannot be duplicated by competition because it has built a valuable relationship with its audience. Strong consumer relationships are built on a set of core values that go beyond the initial benefit of an individual. Strong, profitable brands make people feel inspired and compelled to buy into that value across products or services. There are numerous strategies for establishing brand values, but essentially they are all roadmaps for creating and maintaining a relationship with consumers and stakeholders. They create a set of associations with the brand that essentially becomes a profitable brand platform.

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Measuring Personal Brand Value Since the 1970s there has been an unstoppable economic rise in the value of intangible consumption. The value of intangible assets such as data, intellectual property, and the brand has been difficult for corporate finance to define and measure. Many accountants choose to calculate the value of intangibles by assuming that it is the profit or value that cannot be seen. In other words, “intangibles” are the gaps between quantifiable values (such as material assets) and unpredictable valuations (such as a company’s stock market price) (Scammell, 2007). Today consumers are looking for intangible value by analyzing things that can’t always be quantified like (taste, sound, and other experiential elements). Brand strength is derived from strong brand experiences. These are qualitative experiences and the value is harder to measure. A brand’s value is not something that’s listed in most accounting documents nor is a brand easy to be counted. Even with a basic valuation mechanism, it is difficult to measure the value of a personal brand because it could appreciate exponentially in value over time. Why do we need to measure brand value? Knowing how a brand is being perceived by stakeholders can ultimately help its manager to improve the brand. Brands can not be measured by dollars alone because brand value depends on the perception of the person experiencing the brand. Brand experiences are more valuable because they exceed the basic, functional, and operational expectations. When a consumer develops a preference for a brand versus a competitor brand, it reveals where the brand is positioned. Because a brand’s value is intangible and positioned in the minds of the consumer, it is not until the point of purchase that managers see how much a brand is worth. A very popular method for measuring brand value is to take two products, services, people, or cities and calculate which one cost more for offering the same functional value. If people are willing to pay more for the same functional value, that difference is in the brand’s value. Personal branding scholar Wioleta Kucharska (2018) conducted a study that developed a valuation tool to test the personal brands of football players in relation to their market value. This was the first study to use sentiment analysis to find that there was a positive correlation between a football player’s brand performance and market opportunities. The author claims that “social media is a perfect modern tool for sustaining personal brand equity and creating a final value through the relational capital creation” (Kucharska, 2018).

Brand Snapshot Measuring the Value of Air Jordan Michael Jordan was the first athlete and personal brand to have a shoe created for him and sold by Nike. Nike branded the shoes under the name “Air Jordan” and started producing them exclusively for Micheal Jordan. In fact, for over 30 years,

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Jordan has perpetuated the story that the red and black shoe was initially banned by the NBA and that he was fined $5,000 every time he wore them. While this story may be apocryphal, it helped draw attention to the shoe (Ponsford, 2019; Smith, 2014). The same year Air Jordans were introduced, Jordan went on to win Rookie of the Year, sparking even more Interest in his career and his shoes. The very first pair of Air Jordans were priced at $65 in 1985 (Nike). Today, a pair of the Air Jordan Retro Fragments can sell for up to $2,000. The Air Jordan brand continues to be one of the top-selling basketball shoes of all time and also one of the most expensive ($145) compared to the average basketball shoe ($110). Michael Jordan retired in 2003, but his shoe remains one of the most popular on the market. How is the Jordan brand able to charge and sell more shoes than its competitors? Jordan has capitalized on his personal brand’s ability to spark an emotional reaction in aspiring players around the globe. The logo of Jordan in the air with his legs spread and one arm holding the ball soaring toward the basket is one of the most recognizable in the world (Meyersohn, 2019). By creating a distinct and globally recognized logo to represent Michael Jordan, the Jordan brand has the ability to track its brand value and observe its growth.

David Falk on Determining Brand Value The following is an interview with Jordan’s long-time agent David Falk, who brokered the Air Jordan Deal. Here, he discusses how he determined a player’s brand value using analytics. I created my own value system, if you will, because I came into this business as a sports junkie like a lot of fans. And have a meeting with the two probably the two most successful GM’s in the history of basketball Jerry West, who was my idol growing up, and Red Auerbach who’s from Washington DC and ran the Celtics. I realized that they probably forgot more about basketball than I would ever know. So, if I said to him, I think that so-and-so is worth X because it’s a great shooter he’s like “What do you know about great shooters? Nothing. You know nothing”.

So, I had no standing to make a cogent argument for value so someone who had an economics background I developed what I would call “rudimentary economic indicators” that would allow me to understand the growth of the market. [Here’s an] example of rudimentary analytics: The salary cap came into the NBA in 1982, I already been business now 8 years, and most people were moaning and groaning about the salary cap because there’s a limitation. For me, it was like the inflation rate was at 3.2, 5 points—and so I used to look at the growth of the salary cap. And say if it went up 20% does that mean that every rookie is going to have a 20% increase in his contract? Of course not, because they’re not all equal. The number one pick is worth fifty times with the number thirty pick is worth and is way rarer— so I would put my own sort of asset allocation, my own weighting system on what was established as the growth of the cap.

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I distinctly remember this 1 year when we had the sixth pick of the draft in 1989, his name was Stacey King, a power forward from Oklahoma. We asked the Bulls to pay him 67% more money than the player who was number six the year before. Then general manager Jerry Krause went crazy, thought that was outrageous. In the meantime, they had two other first-round picks 18 and 20, Jeff Sanders who went 20 and BJ Armstrong went 18. And they gave BJ a 67% increase over the player of the year before. So, I said well if you think the player at 18 is worth that the player at 6 is worth 200% more. It was my way of trying to have a nonemotional, as cogent argument as I could. I’m not saying it was always right, but I would challenge the person I was dealing with to say tell me why what I’m proposing does not make sense. Do you think everyone’s worth exactly the same? Of course not and so I had to develop my own methodology of sitting down with someone and asking for oftentimes things that were unprecedented in sports.

Tracking Personal Brand Equity Managing a personal brand appears to have at least two dimensions: (1) keeping it up to date given changing circumstances and (2) measuring its effectiveness (Keller, 2009). It takes resources to manage a brand and investors want to know that brand equity is increasing. At each phase of the personal branding process, the personal brand manager tracks the efficacy of their marketing efforts. Tracking branding effectiveness has become easier because of the Internet, technology, and data analytics. Today people can track their marketing impact and the value of their brand by analyzing its engagement on social media channels. Brand channels were also covered in Chap. 5, Marketing Personal Brands, which covers YouTubers and Instagramers alike, and how they can track their impressions online. Social media allows marketers to take a straightforward measure of an audience’s approval; therefore, “Likes” can act as a quantifiable social endorsement (Sherman, Payton, Hernandez, Greenfield, & Dapretto, 2016). In terms of awareness and growth, “likes” can also help measure brand growth and brand sentiments. From another perspective “likes” reveal other social functions. In a survey conducted by a social media specialist, data such as the following stand out: 78% of respondents deliberately didn’t “like” a post because didn’t like the person who posted it, 51% “liked” something to stop a conversation, and 39% “liked” a post to remind someone else they exist (Tait, 2017). Even with the overwhelming amount of insights and data available to the common person, these metrics do not tell the full story. With each data point, the marketer has to analyze it within the context of the market and the brand. It is the qualitative qualities of a brand that gives it value, and therefore the quantitative measurement of impressions won’t always translate into engagement. To add to the obscurity, digital engagement doesn’t always translate into profit.

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Brand Audit There are many ways to build a brand depending on the industry and its position. The most important thing to note is the fact that a manager should be tracking consumer loyalty and the return on marketing investment in a personal brand. A brand audit is the first step of brand measurement activities that help assess the strength of a brand and uncover its source of brand equity. For a personal brand, the sources of brand equity are connected to their personality, distinct abilities, and emotional connections. The personal brand is strong if it’s perceived positively by consumers and this perception is helping achieve its goal of bringing in new sources of revenue. Assessing brand equity helps managers determine which metrics are important to track. Brand tracking is related to the evaluation of brand performance with the goal to assess: where, how much, and in what ways brand value is being created. The metrics will vary according to what marketers perceive as valuable data to collect from consumers. Researchers (e.g., Rajagopal, 2008; Shanker, Azar, & Fuller, 2008) outline various qualitative metrics to look for in a brand audit including: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

Brand associations. The loyalty that an audience demonstrate toward the brand. The brand’s associations. The uniqueness of the brand’s identity. The goodwill that the brand generates. Positive brand sentiments. The brand’s ability to create meaning that extends beyond one product category allowing for the brand extension.

Data collection can reveal the short-term and long-term effects of marketing programs and activities. They can provide insights into a brand’s “now” status and whether it aligns with marketing strategies. Today there are many digital tracking tools at the disposal of personal brand managers, but most focus on quantitative metrics, e.g., brand awareness and reach, and market share. A simple tool that turns qualitative data into a quantitative metric is the social media sentiment analysis. This tool uses social media sentiments to help uncover the positive or negative consumer feelings associated with a personal brand as well as help monitor social engagement with that customer. Engagement, which is the underlying metric to quantify varying and seemingly competing metrics, allows marketers to assess the Four I’s—interaction, intimacy, involvement, and influence (Haven, 2007). Once the underlying drivers of engagement can be quantified, brand power grows immensely. Marketers should develop different metrics for online and offline marketing strategies when tracking brand performance. Building on a decade’s worth of research, MIT researchers used four key metrics—volume, sentiment, sharing, and influence—to study the potential for correlations between online and offline conversations about brands. There were, in fact, almost no correlations, which suggests

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the need for marketers to develop separate digital and offline social influence strategies (Fay & Larkin, 2017). This is not to say that tracking is ambiguous; if anything, these potentialities point to an opportunity for marketers to explore them to their advantage.

Brand Snapshot Ruhnn Holdings: Scaling a Company on a Brand A personal brand transcends its point of origin when it becomes scalable. For example, Ruhnn Holdings in China created an influencer business model that starts with a human brand and later extends into various products under the same brand name. In 2001, Ruhnn was an e-commerce fashion retail company better known as LiBeilin (莉贝琳). By 2014, LiBeilin had grown to be one of the top 10 women’s fashion brands on Taobao.com. In that same year, Ruhan CEO Feng Min made the decision to explore a new growth opportunity by partnering with influencer Zhang Dayi. Min wanted to test out the emerging influencer business model and as a result, flipped the e-commerce business model “on its head” (Hallanan, 2018). The company created a customer base, cornered a distribution channel, and created products all around Dayi’s brand. They helped her grow a massive, loyal following on one of China’s top social media platforms. With her base secured, they then marketed to these followers who became recurring customers. Throughout the process, they significantly reduced marketing costs while increasing brand loyalty through this influencer-based model. Dayi’s brand had millions in sales. During Alibaba’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival in 2017, her store had $24.6 million in sales (Hallahan, 2018). Ruhnn’s value has quickly grown as well and raised $125 million dollars for its 2019 IPO on the NASDAQ (Liao, 2019).

Conclusion A brand’s equity is built on its authenticity. No brand, no matter how successful in the beginning, can sustain its growth if its authenticity is not well established. Developing that authenticity over time and staying true to its tenets is how personal brands like Degeneres and Johnson are able to endure and expand. This is not to say that brands must hold fast to rigid values—if anything, a brand’s offering should evolve over time—but it is crucial for a brand’s core value and personality to permeate as they saturate their markets. Ultimately, this task is not as hard as it seems if a brand is measured and tracked accordingly. Brands like Jordan’s can compare revenue reports to measure current and past performance. For more intangible assets, as Falk described in his interview, determining expected value is critical to establishing a viable brand from the

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start. As the future of branding turns from marketing to investing, the worlds of people and businesses will merge like never before. As evidenced by the recent success of companies like Ruhnn Holdings, those who establish and manage brands will have to treat personal brands as start-ups with big enterprise potential.

Discussion Questions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

What does it mean to have an authentic personal brand? How can a personal brand consistently engage in authentic communication? How do you know when it is time for a brand to rebrand? What aspects of a personal brand should remain consistent? How do you measure the value of a personal brand on the market?

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Afterword

Personal Branding and Its Implications in the New Economy I’ve spent years researching and writing this book and, as I was finalizing my manuscript, the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe. Just as the virus decimated societies around the world, it unpenned the global economy as no event has ever done in human history. On my 14th day of self-quarantine—a day that happened to bring the record-breaking 3.3 million unemployment filings in the United States—I knew that when the economy returned, it would be changed forever. With nationwide shelter-in-place orders forcing a $2 trillion bailout and counting, the American workforce had never seen such a disruption happen so sweepingly or so quickly. Literally overnight, the entire U.S. economy was forced online in order to stave off extinction. Companies that normally do business face-to-face had to find ways to virtually reach out to their teams and their clients. Restaurants that wanted to keep their staff employed and pay the rent rushed to find new and innovative ways to make enough deliveries to stay afloat. Only storefronts with social media sales or e-commerce sites could survive with no foot traffic. Even schools—many of which had never implemented e-learning in the past—scrambled to create online curriculums to justify tuition or taxpayer dollar. What does this stark economic reality have to do with personal branding? Quite frankly, everything. As this book has outlined, personal branding is an economic tool that can be built and leveraged for financial gain. In the new economy, where unpredictable disruptors such as contagion and climate change can bring down world markets, knowing how to monetize personal value may be the only reliable means one can depend on given the economic fragility brought on by globalization. Now more than ever, marketing is in an arms race to create proprietary information technology, build network effect, and scale brands. The economic impact of being able to accomplish all three is exponential. The internet has provided unprecedented access for individuals to grow their level of influence. This influence is at the core of what drives monetization in the twenty-first century because it is the only truly personal asset that is both intangible and infinitely scalable. The ROI now lies in the individual’s ability to monetize their brand’s value across industries, roles, and even space-time. Just as the store that would have © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 T. Waller, Personal Brand Management, Management for Professionals, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43744-2

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gone under just 10 years ago under a COVID stay home order now stays in business with online orders, the person who has built a brand, a network effect, and economies of scale is able to find work and opportunities in any crisis.

The New Economy is Built on Intangible Assets Back in 2008, when the last financial crisis hit because of the overloaded mortgage-backed securities market, many economists lamented that they failed to predict the downturn. In a now infamous paper authored by several leading experts entitled “ The Financial Crisis and the Systemic Failure of Academic Economists ,” eight American and European scholars lambasted the field of economics (of which they were key players in) because they realized the limitations of their modeling relied on only accounting for tangible assets in increasingly intangible asset-backed economies. They wrote, “In our view, this lack of understanding is due to a misallocation of research efforts in economics. We trace the deeper roots of this failure to the profession’s insistence on constructing models that, by design, disregard the key elements driving outcomes in real world markets.” In other words, what these economists realized was that the traditional way of thinking about balance sheet economic drivers was swiftly shifting to revenue streams that could not be accounted for in a linear way. Just as housing derivatives bundled both good and bad home loans with the intangible promise of infinite housing market growth, dozens of other industries were creating intangible assets built on influence and trust not tied to market indicators. It is no accident that the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis gave rise to cryptocurrency and the IPO of Facebook, the largest personal networking platform in the world. Money not tethered to a central bank that nevertheless possesses value and a person who can monetize their worth and infinitely grow their network outside of any organization speak to how rapidly the intangible has come into the play in the global economy. In the new economy of the twenty-first century, knowing how to harness one’s intangible assets to build a brand may be the only way to navigate emerging markets and weather the inevitable instability of the economy at the same time.

The Importance of Applying a Framework to Personal Branding Personal branding is a dynamic process that requires its architects to understand the basic principles outlined in this book in order to execute it effectively. In order of effectiveness, a brand must first build awareness to then gain influence to then eventually gain the trust that feeds into this life cycle that allows it to flourish and adapt. For this reason, the book is organized into nine chapters under the three stages of development:

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1) “Personal Brand Development & Positioning Strategy: Defining, Discover, and Delivering on Your Brand” is the largest section of this book because it lays the foundation for ensuing growth, management, and diversified monetization strategies on which it must later rely. When developing any brand, it is essential that this stage is met with a robust understanding of the initial target audience and positioned accordingly. In this stage, building trust is key to any and all future success the brand experiences. 2) “Strategic Implementation & Personal Brand Growth: Marketing and Monetizing Your Brand in the New Economy” could be argued to be the most difficult stage in personal branding but also the most critical for its ability to have a return on investment on the development and positioning stage. It is in this stage that brand managers see the influence and possibilities of the brand that allow them to leverage it beyond its origination point. 3) “Personal Brand Protection & Equity Management: Legally Protecting, Managing, and Growing a Brand’s Economic Value” should be thought of not as a final stage but the continual process of evaluating a brand’s assets. When a brand reaches a certain maturation and saturation point, it has the respect of its followers that extends beyond its day-to-day interactions with them. When a brand has reached this point of authenticity it has the ability to extend itself into new opportunities, affiliations, revenue streams, and more. The ability to measure the value of the brand (and to consider possible rebranding) must happen at this stage as well. Nevertheless, this stage is possible if, and only if, the brand garners the respect of an audience larger than its target one. Thinking about this framework as cyclical and interconnected is essential to how brands become and remain successful. As in relationships, if there is stagnation, the relationship withers and eventually dies. The same can be said for brands—if the process stops (or collapses), so too does the brand. It is important to keep this relational mindset when thinking about brands in the new economy. As recent global events have shown, people, societies, and markets are deeply interwoven and interdependent. For this reason, personal branding offers an opportunity to differentiate and pivot at the same time because the personal brand is an economic reflection of human relationships that underlie a global economy.

Assessing the Future: Systems Innovators and Brand Development As the chapters in this book have demonstrated, the brand is a systematic process. Moreover, superstar brands—or brands that stand out with limited talent pools— belong to a systems innovator (such as Elon Musk) who see the synergies between industries and concepts to dominate a market. Systems innovators not only identify value but understand how to leverage the components that help manage the inherently intangible at a highly scalable value.

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In an intangible economy, leaders are highly measured by their level of influence. Influence and leadership has long been measured by a person's amount of followers. It goes without saying that leaders gain followers with respect. When it comes to politicians, CEOs, executives, and other public-facing leaders, they are only effective if they have enough influence to garner this respect. Nevertheless, as more and more people are able to gain influence, it has become harder for leaders to understand what respect means to their audiences. As a result, building “influence” as a leader is not as easy as it used to be. In a very culturally diverse and individualistic economy it's not so easy to figure out what an audience wants or how they want to be influenced. As a result, leaders have changed how they market themselves to stay competitive and be more accessible as opposed to less. There are many socioeconomic and cultural factors that come into play for this to be a modern phenomenon, but ultimately systems thinkers and innovators will be the most financially successful players in the twenty-first century economy. This is not to say that everyone must be an entrepreneur, business leader, influencer, micro-celebrity, etc.; rather the implication is that individuals must take ownership of who they are and what they offer in a strategic way. Gone are the days when a person graduated from college, got a job, and then retired some 30 years later with a pension. That reality was a blip in a post-World War II America and Europe that may never be revisited. As income inequality intensifies and the middle class continues to shrink, individuals must think critically about their place in this new economy driven by intangible assets. No one can predict the future, but as Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” As technologies and communications rapidly change along with the intensifying ramifications of the past centuries’ globalization and industrialization efforts, it will take significant imagination to achieve success. In other words, we live in a world that is abstracting itself online in creative and infinitely monetizing ways that were unimaginable just a few decades ago. The process of personal branding allows the individual to scale and take ownership of their economic value because it invites the synergy of modalities that historically saw none. In the twenty-first century economy, branding will be less a choice than it will be an economic reality. Branding exists because of competitive markets. If consumers only have a few options, there is no need for a brand. Ultimately, personal branding calls upon individuals to experience change, both good and bad, as opportunity because it recognizes that technology and humanity are not at odds but, rather, two sides of the same coin. When there are mass layoffs, saturated job markets, and robots and AI to compete with as well, individuals cannot stay competitive by holding “good job” and hoping for the best. Why? Because individuals have very little value in competitive markets because businesses and people alike have a very difficult time measuring the value that an individual possesses or can contribute. Brands, on the other hand, offer the reassurance of trust and reduce guesswork on ROI. Having a brand makes you seem like less of a gamble. To think of it another way, would you trust a random stranger to pick you up in their car? Before you say

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no, you probably have hundreds of times—in a taxi cab, an Uber, a Lyft. You trust the stranger who drives you because they are a representative of a particular brand of rideshare service. You are trusting these strangers to drive you because they have the benefit of a brand. The same can be said of personal brands—when an individual develops one, they are developing an indicator of value and marketing themselves as a lesser risk than the individual. My intention for writing this book is to provide a systematic understanding and approach to personal branding so that it can be better understood as an economic tool. By recognizing one’s economic worth as an individual with distinct values and assets, a person can develop a brand that can adapt and thrive even when faced with an unimagined competition.

Reference Colander, D., Follmer, H., Haas, A., Goldberg, M.D., Juselius, K., Kirman, A., Lux, T., & Sloth, B. (2009, March 9). The Financial Crisis and the Systemic Failure of Academic Economics. Univ. of Copenhagen Dept. of Economics Discussion Paper No. 09–03. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1355882.

Index

A Al Ries, 6, 25, 41, 53 Authenticity, 26, 27, 31, 38, 45, 71, 85, 141–145, 152 B Babe Ruth, 115 Barack Obama, 32, 40, 145 Beyoncé Knowles Carter, 60, 117 Bill Gates, 58, 82 Brand ambassador, 43, 55, 93, 94, 97 Brand architecture, 93 Brand associations, 25, 29, 30, 73, 93, 95, 102, 151 Brand audit, 5, 151 Brand crisis, 6, 123, 132, 137 Brand heritage, 31–33 Brand identity, 2, 10, 19–23, 25, 26, 28, 30–33, 43, 51, 52, 55, 137, 145, 147 Brand image, 7, 20–23, 26, 32, 33, 43, 55, 60, 71, 97, 101, 125, 145 Brand mantra, 31, 33 Brand tracking, 151 C Cancel culture, 129 Career coaching, 2, 3 Celebrity, 1, 2, 8, 9, 26, 27, 42, 54, 72, 74, 81, 91, 93–97, 99, 100, 102, 103, 111, 115, 117, 118, 144, 145 Celebrity endorsements, 26, 54, 94, 95, 97, 103 Channels, 12, 52, 69–72, 79, 80, 83–85, 91, 93, 95, 99, 133, 144, 145, 150, 152 Coco Chanel, 28 Colonel Sanders, 110, 111 Competition, 5, 7, 9, 12, 29, 33, 38, 51–53, 55–63, 72, 83, 114, 147 Content marketing, 75 Copyright law, 9, 110, 112

Core values, 21, 22, 55, 126, 142, 146, 147, 152 Crisis communications, 13, 130, 131, 133–137 Crisis management, 125, 130–132, 135–137 Cristiano Ronaldo, 97, 98 Curtiss Candy Company, 115 D Demographics, 32, 46, 92, 99, 144 Digital marketing, 38, 40, 79, 80, 118 Digital property, 116, 117 Donald Trump, 39–41, 46, 73, 74 Dr. Oz, 101, 102 Dwayne Johnson, 146 E Ellen Degeneres, 144, 145, 152 Elon Musk, 45, 46 Employee branding, 55 F Frida Kahlo, 26, 27 G George W. Bush, 62, 74, 132 H Hillary Clinton, 40, 73, 74, 85 I Influence, 3, 5–7, 25, 28, 70, 74–76, 79, 82, 83, 94–97, 100–102, 118, 125, 142, 147, 151, 152 Influencer marketing, 26, 91, 93, 95, 98, 99, 103 Intellectual property law, 9, 13, 110, 114, 120 Investment, 23, 44, 45, 78, 85, 95, 96, 100, 101, 135, 151

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164 J Jack Trout, 6, 41, 53 Jeff Bezos, 135, 136 Judy Smith, 132, 133, 136 K Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), 111 Kevin Hart, 83–85, 129 L Likeability, 12, 72–74, 85, 102 M Marketing, 1–3, 6, 8, 10, 12–14, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 31, 37–41, 46, 52–55, 57, 58, 60, 69–72, 75, 76, 79–85, 91–95, 98, 99, 101–103, 109, 110, 112, 113, 118, 124, 146, 150–153 Mark Zuckerburg, 78, 82 Measurement, 150, 151 Michael Dukakis, 62 Michael Jordan, 2, 92, 115, 148, 149, 152 Monetization, 13, 92, 93, 95, 101, 120 Monetizing, 1, 92, 93, 95, 102, 124 N Name, 4, 6, 8, 23–26, 29, 30, 40, 54, 56, 73, 79, 83, 96, 97, 99, 109, 110, 114, 115, 117, 119, 133, 145–148, 150, 152 O Olivia Pope, 132 Online reputation, 124, 128 Oprah Winfrey, 40, 42, 43, 46, 82, 102, 141 Ownership, 9, 44, 83, 109, 110, 112, 114, 116, 117, 119, 136 P Pain points, 40–42, 44, 46, 78 Paris Hilton, 96 Personal brand equity, 8, 9, 12, 20, 24, 39, 51, 147, 148, 150 Personal brand management framework, 12, 13 Personal brand manager, 13, 93, 124, 146, 150, 151 Personality, 1–3, 5, 8, 9, 12, 19–21, 24–29, 33, 38, 40–42, 52, 58, 80, 94–97, 102, 111–113, 115, 132, 133, 143, 144, 151, 152 Personality rights, 112, 113

Index Personas, 5, 37, 44, 46, 47, 78, 111, 112, 144 Platforms, 1, 12, 20, 28, 40, 43–45, 69–71, 73, 75–80, 82–85, 91, 93, 95, 98–102, 115, 116, 124, 126–128, 132–134, 144, 147, 152 Points of differentiation, 51, 61 Points-of-parity, 40, 51, 61 Political branding, 62 Positioning, 6, 10, 12, 13, 22, 25, 29, 33, 38, 47, 51–59, 61–63, 69, 73, 84, 85, 100, 145 Professional development, 2, 3 Psychographics, 46, 47 Publicity rights, 111 Public relations, 3, 13, 81, 83, 130, 133 R Rebranding, 119, 145–147 Repositioning, 59–61, 145, 146 Reputation management, 123, 124, 127, 128, 136 Rihanna, 59, 60 Ruhnn Holdings, 152, 153 S Segmentation, 37, 44, 55 Social media, 2, 4, 5, 26, 28, 39–41, 43–45, 73, 75, 77–79, 81, 82, 84, 85, 92, 93, 95, 97–101, 109, 115, 116, 124, 125, 133–137, 144, 147, 148, 150–152 Southwest Airlines, 54 Stakeholders, 3, 7, 20–22, 31, 33, 43–47, 70, 71, 73, 85, 100, 125–127, 135, 141, 147, 148 Steve Jobs, 27, 57, 58 Storytelling, 5, 22, 75, 76, 85 SWOT analysis, 51, 59 T Target audience, 3, 12, 20, 28, 37, 38, 40–42, 44, 46, 47, 51, 52, 71–73, 79, 80, 85, 93, 94, 117 Thought-leader, 26, 74, 93, 100–102, 116 Tom Peters, 6 Trademark, 9, 25, 112, 114–117, 120 Trust, 4, 13, 26, 43, 71, 73, 82, 98, 99, 101, 102, 126, 127, 132, 134, 136 V Victoria Beckham, 30