Brand, good or bad, is the force that affects the way the world perceives you or your business. It’s the image that stays in the minds of people who have been with your business.
In this article, we explore the concepts of personal and business branding, coupled with notable examples to guide you in choosing the right brand for your business.
First, let’s look at:
Personal Branding
Personal branding is a strategy that focuses on getting more visibility for an individual’s reputation, art, personality, or career. It involves creating a mental souvenir that the public turns to whenever they hear an individual’s name or art.
Essentially, personal branding revolves around an individual intending to make themselves a symbol their audience can connect with on an individual level.
Learn more about branding basics in our comprehensive article.
To explore notable personal branding examples, let’s look at three of the biggest brands across different niches.
Oprah Winfrey
The queen of personal branding – Oprah Winfrey, is one of the few people in the world who everybody knows just by her first name.
Oprah understands personal branding and has effectively exploited it in ways that few others have accomplished, by doing what she loves best and making good money in the process.
Beyond branding, Oprah has contributed immensely to her community through her natural gift of connecting genuinely with people on a deeper level. Going on to create her TV network, OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network), she has proven that she is more than just a name. Her natural talent and consistency are two of the significant factors that have influenced her brand growth.
Neil Patel
Neil Patel is a marketing expert who has founded and co-founded multiple businesses that render services to digital marketers and companies in need of marketing assistance. Today, he’s the CMO and Co-Founder of Neil Patel Digital; an agency bent on helping top companies grow their traffic exponentially.
Aside from serial entrepreneurship, Neil Patel has written clear, well-researched comprehensive blog posts every day for many years now, with the most recent being on his self-named site, Neil Patel.
Neil has placed his brand as an online marketing guru, and everything he does aligns with this image.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Gary Vaynerchuk has one of the strongest personal brands ever seen.
With his uncanny knack for being straightforward without censoring his words, Gary’s content oozes originality and significantly impacts millions of subscribers.
Vee’s brand stands on a peculiar blend of tough love and valuable advice.
The key is branding what makes you uniquely you, instead of impressing what you think people will like. People love originality, and everyone has something that makes them uniquely successful.
When Should I Choose A Personal Brand?
It would help if you considered going for a personal brand when:
- You are selling a ‘personal’ product or services like a book, a course/seminar, an ebook, art, chiropractic service, legal or consulting service, freelancing service, or any other business that directly involves you.
- You have a significant social footprint, e.g., many followers on Twitter, TikTok, or Instagram. This following could be offline as well.
- Your audience intensely admires your unique personality, story, skills, achievements, credentials, and more. (see Gary Vee, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Michael Jordan)
- You have a solid foundation built on the authenticity and trustworthiness of your person.
- You aim to leave a striking impression on people that come in contact with your presence online and offline.
Business Branding
Business branding revolves around building a message for your company and product or service that your customers can relate to through names, logos, slogans, copy, and other materials.
Branding is actively developing the image you intend for your consumers to have as they contact and experience your company, product, or service.
Summarily, brand marketing is how businesses or organizations get their products or services into the spotlight by communicating their values and identity to the right audience.
Here are top business brands every business can learn from:
Apple
Apple’s iconic branding strategy has always focused on emotion—bolstered by a forward-thinking creative visionary, Steve Jobs, at the helm. Since the brand’s inception in 1976, Apple has prioritized building a community of dedicated fans in an almost religious fashion.
By maintaining an aura of secrecy surrounding the inner workings of their brand, the hype surrounding their product releases is unrivaled, creating conversations among both techies and non-specialists alike.
Apple has always positioned itself as something different; it “Thinks different.” Unlike any other tech company, the nuts and bolts of their business model, i.e., what their products do, do not bring in sale- their brand does.
Amazon
Although Amazon could be sophisticated in delivering value for their customers, it is the principle of constantly operating with a sense of urgency that makes a vital difference. This principle helps them make quick decisions, usually with 70 percent of the information rather than 90 percent. They embrace trends that impact their customers and resist proxies as a marker for success.
The above is the foundation on which the Amazon brand rests.
Since its founding, the standard for Google has been the simplicity of its design approach. From their choice to l have a single field and the search button on their homepage, Google owes a chunk of its brand success to simplicity.
There are recent signs, such as their slight redesign of the Google Chrome logo, that the simple philosophy is becoming a company-wide value. This value will manifest itself in many ways, mainly through ensuring every piece of identity stays as simple as possible.
When Should I Go For A Business Brand?
It would be best if you chose a business brand when:
- Your business (will) involve(s) a significant number of employees like a delivery service, a social networking platform, a restaurant, an airline, a marketing agency, or any other business that involves the collective efforts of more than three individuals.
- Your customers are drawn to the quality of your product or service more than they connect with you (see KFC, Amazon, Tesla, TikTok)
- You started your business without a ‘face,’ e.g., Coca-Cola.
- You have a solid business foundation built on the authenticity and trustworthiness of your company.
- You want your company’s customer base to grow immensely.
- You have determined your brand identity and understand what tickles your audience.
Deciding On Which To Choose
In essence, choosing which brand strategy you want for your business bears down to your product or service, and numerous factors beyond those mentioned above.
Branding is not something you can buy off a shelf. It requires considerable introspection and research to build a powerful brand strategy.
Your brand has to be original, repeatable, and lasting. Once you’re able to create that strong feeling with your audience, other essential functions such as product decisions, designing marketing campaigns, and drafting taglines become significantly easier.
Keep the above examples in mind while drawing up your brand strategy, and everything should move forward better from there.
Time To Tell Your Story
Now that you understand personal and business branding with crucial examples, it is time to tell your business’s story.
With the help of our seasoned professionals at Top Content Marketing Agency, your business can draw more attention through a brand story that strikes the right emotional chords in the hearts of your audience, using the principles and standard practices of compelling brand storytelling.
Tell your brand story with expert assistance.