How to Brand Yourself

Understanding how to brand yourself begins with uncovering your personal brand. Your personal
brand is not a tagline or an ad campaign. It's a combination of your interests, beliefs, ethos,
values, talents and skills, among a number of other characteristics. It's the descriptors that you're
known by, "Oh Bob, he's such a diligent worker and it doesn't hurt that he's whip smart." It's
these descriptors that over time are sewn into the tapestry of your personal brand.

Five Tips to Branding Yourself

Career Development
Weve all been taught that a firm handshake, professional attire, and sound credentials are the
makings for a good first impression.
Today, thats no longer enough.
The advent of blogs, Facebook, and Twitter have enabled anyone and everyone to become
known; connect in almost real time directly with clients, colleagues and friends; and build
relationships across the globe. Now, making an unforgettable first impression in-person is no
longer the only way to establish your brand. Yes, your brand.
While you may not be Nike or Disney, who you are and how you come across are really
important to being successful. Our personal brands are in the spotlight everyday for everyone to
see online. Are you putting your best foot forward? Maybe its time for some personal branding.
If you dont brand yourself, someone else will, and the outcome might not be so favorable.
Branding yourself keeps you current in your field, opens doors for you, and creates a lasting
impression on potential and existing clients. By developing your own brand, youll have control
over the initial perception people have of you.
What is it that you want to be known for? Personal branding is how we define ourselves in the
work space while also incorporating the personal elements that make us who we are, according
to Dawn Rasmussen, president of the Portland, Oregon-based Pathfinder Writing and Career
Services.
What Makes You, You
A successful brand can go a long way with self-promotion, conveying loyalty, and offering
consistency in the quality of the services you provide.

#1: Define your brand and become an expert. Take the time to do some soul searching and
determine exactly who you are and what makes up your brand. Use words such as collaborative,
resourceful, flexible, forward-thinking, connected, visionary, diplomatic, intuitive, precise,
enterprising, ethical, genuine and/or accessible to describe your persona, culture, and outlook.
Whether youre looking to garner media attention, attract new clients or build your business, you
should focus on becoming an expert in your field. Avoid establishing an expertise that's
irrelevant to your mission, goals, and vision. Youll just be wasting your time.
For example, if you know corporate tax accounting, it's probably not wise to brand yourself as a
personal financial expert. Yet, remember that people want to hear about the professional you, but
they also want to understand your personality. Dont be afraid to inject your personality into the
conversation.
#2: Establish a presence. Youre being Googled by friends, colleagues, and potential customers,
so make sure your branded content is what people find when they Google your name. One way
to do this is to build a basic online presence through your own website or blog.
For example, you can purchase your full name as a domain name (yourfullname.com). By
developing either a static website or a blog under your domain name, you will own the first result
for your name in Google and other search engines. This should be a separate site than your
company's website. After purchasing your domain name, add your picture, a bio, your email
address, and links to the rest of your presence (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter). This way, people
can get in touch with you in their medium of choice. Claim your name before someone else does.
While search engines will pick up on your social media pages, having your own domain will
produce a more finite result.
#3: Generate brand awareness through networking. You should be connecting with other
young professionals in the accounting industry by using social networks and commenting on
their blogs. Networking is one of the best ways to become known in the industry. By forming
relationships with people in your audience, you can grow your business and your brand longterm.
#4: Remember the 3 Cs of branding. Clarity, consistency, constancy. Be clear in who you are
and are not. Dont sugar-coat your qualifications. Express your brand across all communications
mediums. Determine where you want to fit in (industry and niche area of expertise) and then
remain visible to your target audience.
#5: Get feedback from those who know you bestat work, at home, anywhere. The true
measure of your brand is the reputation others hold of you in their hearts and minds. Notice how
they introduce you to others. Ask them what your top brand attributes and core strengths are. If
they can easily tell you, then youve succeeded in branding you.
These days, branding the company you work for isn't enough. The world wants to hear what you
have to say as a professional within a company. The work involved in uncovering your brand
may seem daunting, but your efforts can benefit you immeasurably. Your unique brand message

differentiates the best you have to offer, gives a good indication of what youre like to work with,
and shows how you make things happen.
Chapter 2

Q. Pick a category basically dominated by two main

brands. Evaluate the positioning of each brand.
Who are their target markets?
What are their main points-of-parity and points-ofdifference?
Have they defined their positioning correctly? How might
it be improved?
Product category: Smartphone operating systems
2 Main Brands: Apple iOS5 and Google Android
1. Who are the target markets?
iOS5: 20-something to middle aged, students, urban lifestyle, working
professionals, hip and arty, those who Think Different, higher levels of disposable
income (mid to upper income bracket), high brand loyalty
Android: late teens to pre-middle aged (~late thirties), more scientific than arty,
value open systems (i.e. you can customize the Android operating system/see and
change the source code, etc.), anti-Apple consumers, appreciate customizability
2. What are their main POP and POD?
POP:
Smartphone operating systems
Advanced user interface; multi-touch screens
Numerous Apps available
Wireless online connectivity
Doubles as a high-quality camera
POD iOS5:
Buying the complete package > everything is made by Apple, from the phone
to the operating system
Simple to use and very powerful

Largest App store out of any mobile phone operating system

Effortless compatibility with your Mac computer, iPad, iCloud
Apple product only available on the iPhone
Limited distribution
POD Android:
Available on a wide number of mobile phones (Motorola, LG, HTC, Samsung, etc.)
> higher hardware selection depending on existing brand loyalty
Customizable/open software
Made by Google
Android mascot
3. Have they defined their positioning correctly?
iOS5: Yes! Apple has done a fantastic job effectively establishing its positioning in
the smartphone market. Being the pioneer of multi-touch displays and highly
interactive smartphones, starting with the original iPhone, Apple has paved the way
in this market...

Chapter 3

Q: Pick a brand. Assess the extent to which the brand is achieving the various benefits of
brand equity.

Brand Equity:

Customers subjective and intangible assessment of the brand, above and beyond
its objectively perceived value. The intangible value associated with a product that
cannot be accounted for by price or features. Nike has created many intangible
benefits for their athletic products by associating them with star athletes. Children
and adults want to wear Nike's products to feel some association with these star
athletes (like David Backham). It is not the physical features that drive demand for
their products, but the marketing image that has been created. Buyers are willing to
pay extremely high price premiums over lesser-known brands which may offer the
same, or better, product quality and features.

The benefits of brand equity for

Brand Equity improvement increases business value and provides many strategic
advantages to NIKE

Positive brand equity allows NIKE to charge a price premium relative to

competitors such Addidas, Reboke with less brand equity.

NIKE simplifies the decision process for low-cost and non-essential products.

NIKE can give comfort to buyers unsure of their decision by reducing their
perceived risk.

NIKE is used to maintain higher awareness of its products, and it provides for
continuity when companies are acquired or reorganized.

NIKE uses brand equity to gain leverage when introducing new products.

The name NIKE is often interpreted as an indicator of quality.

Strong brand equity insures that NIKEs products are considered by most
buyers.

Higher brand name equity leads to greater loyalty from NIKEs customers.

Strong brand equity for NIKE is the best defense against new products and
new competitors.
Improvements in brand equity lead to higher rates of product trial and repeat
purchasing due to buyers' awareness of NIKE, approval of its
image/reputation and trust in its quality.

Q: Which brands do you have the most resonance with? Why?

Brand: A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, design or a combination of them,

intended to identified the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to
differentiate them from those of competition.

NOKIA have the most resonance with mine. NOKIA company slogan is connecting
with people. They always concern about their potential customer. They always try to
provide best services for their customer and they also provide it. For this reason
they try to communicate with potential customer. For resonance they build up lots
of customer services center, build up brand web page, which is help for customer to
collect information about NOKIA Company, direct marketing, uses promotion mix for
resonance etc.

When my family member or my friends purchase a mobile phone then I suggest

firstly purchasing the NOKIA brand. Because I consider myself loyal to NOKIA.I feel
NOKIA is the only brand of this product I need. Because this brand is the best brand
to solve my needs. The entire attribute is available in this product to solve my
needs.

NOKIA is the market leader brand, which is capturing the market. This is the brand
use by people like me and also I feel a deep connection with others who use this
brand.

Q: Can you think of any other benefits of creating a strong brand? What
might they be?

Strong brands blend product performance and imagery to create a rich, varied, but
complementary set of consumer response to the brand.

Other benefits of creating a strong brand are as follows:

Strong brand help the firm to attract better employees generates greater
interest from investors.

It reduces the search cost of seeking product.

It helps to achieve more support from the shareholder.

Customers who are frequent and enthusiastic purchasers of a particular brand are likely to
become Brand Loyal. Cultivating brand loyalty among customers is the ultimate reward
for successful marketers since these customers are far less likely to be enticed to switch
to other brands compared to non-loyal customers.
Brands provide multiple sensory stimuli to enhance customer recognition.

Strong brand indicates the quality product.

It reduces the financial risk

Strong brand makes the product available in the market

For a strong brand it is easy to grab the huge market share.

Well-developed and promoted brands make product positioning efforts more effective.

3. Can every brand achieve resonance with its customers? Why or why
not?

Brand resonance:

Brand resonance refers to the nature of this relationship and the extent to which customers feel
that they are in sync with the brand.
Brand resonance is very important thing for a particular brand. But every brand cannot achieve
resonance with its customer. It includes brand loyalty, attachment with the brand, community of
a particular brand user and engagement with the brand. In spite of having quality product
marketer cannot achieve resonance with its customer because of inefficient marketing activities.
Several reasons can be brought under consideration that not to achieve resonance with its
customer. These are as follows

Price If the company charges a premium price for its product without
having favorable benefits and attributes.

Fails to meet customer needs If the company fails to provide sufficient

features that might satisfy the customers needs. When customers get their
perceived benefits from the product it results to be loyal to the product.

Unavailability The unavailability of product may results to less loyal to the

product. It is a barrier to achieve brand resonance.

Adding value to the product By adding value to the product customer bound
to think the brand is more than a product. This helps the marketer to build
attachment to the brand. But often marketer fails to do this because of
insufficient know-how about the value that suit with the product.

Imperfect brand association Strong and perfect brand association helps to

create brand resonance with its customer. If the customer fails to link their
gathered information to its association may results in insufficient brand
knowledge.

Scarce source of information An important condition is to achieve the brand

resonance is the engagement with the brand. Scarce source of information
about the brand or the product may not allows to be engaged with the brand.

Q: Pick a brand. Attempt to identify its sources of brand equity. Assess its level of brand
awareness and the strength, favorability, and uniqueness of its associations.
Sources of brand equity:

Customer based brand equity occurs when the consumer has high level of awareness and
familiarity with the brand and holds some strong, favorable and unique brand associations in
memory.
Grameen Phone
Brand awareness: Brand awareness consists of brand recognition which relates to consumers
ability to confirm prior exposure to the brand when given the brand as a cue and brand recall
relates to consumers ability to retrieve the brand from memory when given the product category,
the needs fulfilled by the category, or a purchase or usage situation as a cue.
Strength of brand association: Two factors facilitating the strength of association to any piece
of information are the personal relevance of the information and the consistency with which this
information is presented over time. They are brand attributes and brand benefits
Favorability of Brand: Favorable brand association for a brand is those associations that are
desirable to consumers and are successfully delivered by the product and conveyed by the
supporting marketing program for the brand.
Uniqueness of brand Association: In many categories, non product-related attributes, such as
user type or usage situation, may more easily create unique association

Chapter 5
1. Have you had any experience with a brand that has done a great job
with relationship marketing, permission marketing, experiential
marketing, or one-to-one marketing? What did the brand do? Why was it
effective? Could others learn from that?
a. I first experienced one-to-one marketing when I ordered Nike iD running shoes
online. The brand gives consumers the option to customize their shoes. Another
additional feature is that users are able to share their creation through social
media and other online outlets. As good as it sounds, this was not an effective form
of CRM for a consumer such as myself because the customized shoe was extremely
expensive. When that pair got worn out fast, I was in no rush to another pair from
the site. However, this was just my personal preference and for someone with more
of a disposable income, this is a great way to create a community around the brand.
Consumers are literally creating their own identity (iD)
2. Think about the products you own. Assess their product design. Critique
their after marketing efforts. Are you aware of all of the products
capabilities? Identify a product whose benefits you feel you are not fully
capitalizing on. How might you suggest improvements?
Mobile phone

Calculator
iPhone
User manual
Customer service programs
Loyalty programs
LG: Low price - Low quality
Cheap brand
No innovative design
Poor audio/camera quality
Good battery life and special features
Nokia Lumia: Low price - High quality
Mediocre battery life
Bad audio
Good camera and design
More expensive line: Lumia Black
iPhone: High price - High quality
Clean design, pioneer in smartphone emprovement
Innovating, exclusive brand
Wide range of applications
BlackBerry: High price - low quality
First smartphone
Battery life decline
Poor display and camera
Limited amount of features
Big C: Private labels
Private label = smart choice, quality ensured, competitive price, and diversified
offer
Only sold in Big C stores
Currently 500 items ( 35% sale volume)
9 private labels: Big C, BF, Ebon, Huong Vi, Lohas, Club Des Sommeliers, Casino,
GDD, Wow
Thank you all for your attention!
Tran Thi T Quyn
Hunh Ngoc Mai Thy
Emily Debock

Q. What is in-store marketing?

1. Sales promotion at a retailer's location
2. Bundled offers,
3. Expert advice and special discounts
4. Product demonstrations,
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Product samples Product information

Sampling
Trials
Video displays
Decoration displays

Synonym: in-store promotion

Department store visit: Parkson
Biggest in-store push:
Cosmetics
Handbags
Perfumes
Unique in-store merchandising:
Promotions
Specialized staff