Personal Branding - Is it possible?

....... Continuation of my earlier post (Introduction to Personal Branding)

Doubts were raised by many including experts in the field of branding and advertising. They were amused when they heard us say that a person can be branded. "Individuals are not products to be branded" is the usual kneejerk remark we get - "All this while we have only heard of products undergoing the branding excercise" said one branding professor in a well known MBA school. Imagine every individual being called a brand - Brand Harish Menon?? So, coming back to the question - Can a person/individual actually be branded? Can we really have a branding excercise or brand an individual like we do for products?

The answer is Yes and I mean it - Jokes apart. Lets dwell into some detail - lets pick any existing brand - a brand well known or a brand of your choice. If you carefully assess the brand you've chosen, you'll agree with me that one of the most important aspect / property of a brand is its name. There are no brands existing in this universe that do not have a name - all brands have a name be it Coke, Reebok, Microsoft. Now, lets go ahead and do what we have sought to do i.e. compare the chosen brand with a human being. When you compare a brand and a human, you'll notice and agree with me that like any brand, every individual too has a name. e.g. my brand name is 'Harish Menon'. Apart from just the name, there are numerous properties of a brand that distinguishes itself from other brands, these could be sounds, mnemonics, appearance, emotional appeal etc.

Likewise we all know that no 2 people created by almighty are the same, there has to be some or the other difference that distinguishes one individual from the other. Each and every individual in this world is in some or the other way different from the other. The first and the most crucial step towards any branding excercise for a product is to look for an Unique Selling Proposition (USP) of the product - A proposition that distinguishes one product from the other in the market. Similarly, the first step towards branding an individual is to dig out one important aspect / feature in us that distinguishes us from the rest. A feature, that we would like ourselves to be known for. Hence the most important question that we need to ask ourselves while branding ourselves is "What do I want to be known for?" This is also, one of the most crucial step in Personal Branding ( This will be explained in detail in bey upcoming blogs). Personal Branding in toto is all about building, maintaining and promoting the brand 'Harish Menon' and likewise. And, in this case nobody else but WE are resposible, fully responsible for our brand. Building it, Maintaining it and Promoting it is our responsibility. I'll be trying to explain this better and in much detail through my upcoming book which will pick out each and every aspect of a brand and compare the same with a human.

Think over it and if you agree with the above, start considering yourself as a brand. And you need to start considering it not from tomorrow, not today but right now.....and do read my upcoming blogs wherein we will dwell more deep into the world of Personal Branding. Till then .... Happy Personal Branding!!