Branding is a concept that all of us are aware of, yet the understanding of what is involved remains elusive even for us marketing professionals, simply because it goes to a much deeper level than most of us are fully conscious of. Your personal brand is who you are. It is a promise. A promise that sets expectations and eventually, builds a reputation. Your brand personality is unique to you – it sets you apart from the crowd. That is why it is crucial to create a brand image that will give you a competitive advantage over the crowd.

Whether accurate or not, the beliefs that people have about you or your business is your brand image. Your brand determines how people treat you, how they respond to what you do and what value they place on everything that comes from you. That is why managing your brand is crucial for success. It is more than just a logo and combination of colors. Proper branding goes through to the core of who you are, what you stand for and what you can deliver.

People, and companies, that excel in branding end up excelling in their other departments because the customer will be willing to swallow everything they sell them, hook line and sinker, because of the emotional ties that are created over time. Yes, a strong brand takes time and money to build. It requires patience, passion, resilience and the will to pursue your vision.

This being a new month, I am invigorated and ready to undertake my revised goals. It is my desire to inspire others to do the same – the right way. Through evaluating my experiences, research and the bits of advice that I receive here and there, I want to write a series of articles on business start-up and growth.

Call to Action

The first step in building a brand is answering the question: Who are you and what do you stand for? That is your personal brand. My next post is about how to go about creating a proper brand image – A strong brand image that inspires loyalty and brand passion from consumers. Begin by uncovering your brand personality by downloading a 10 minute exercise form from my blog here: http://wp.me/p4SlvM-4d

This is my first post in the branding series. Visit my blog for more posts on brand strategy, extension, re-branding and/or revitalization.

Swenani, thanks for the compliment. My goal is to educate. I'm not forcing anyone to go to my page. I only link to it because someone might need more information. In this case, many people have no idea what their brand is - I've given a link to an exercise form to help those people out instead of them having to go google it. If the info I post here is enough for you then no need to follow up :-P

I meant what i wrote You should see her photo, she looks stunning with the stunners!