CASPIAN BUSINESS NEWS DIGEST
Personal branding: YOU as a brand!
Branding is not only limited for corporates or products, but in this age and time, everything can be a brand. Mumbai is a branded Indian city: 'Corporate Hub of India’, Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Twin Towers is a branded Malaysian building very much like the Eiffel Tower in Paris. 'Operation Desert storm' is a branded military operation r strategy. Putin, Mahathir, Lee Kuan Yew and George Bush. Brand! Brand! Brand! That is right, branding is for people to go!

 Patrick Low Kim Cheng, PhD & A Chartered Marketer
Personal branding is vital to professional success today. These days, your value as an employee or supplier is no longer linked to your loyalty and seniority. These days, it is linked to the way to your professionalism. How do you respond to (he people or corporates around you? Corporates, in a constant state of reorganization, respond to the rapidly changing market demands, and this changes the way in which you respond as an employee or a supplier You are constantly working with different project teams, managers and employees and in that sense, you are working like your own personal corporate. This really means like it or not, you need to brand yourself to stand out, and create demands for your services among your prospects and target markets.
‘Personal Branding’ Versus ‘Corporate or Product Branding'
On one hand, a business brand is a perception or emotion maintained by a (prospective) buyer, describing the experience related to doing business with an organization or when consuming its products or services. On the other hand, personal branding is the perception or emotion, up-kept by somebody other than yourself, and the total experience of having related with you make your personal brand; that person perceives you in good light. The principles and techniques of brand management only works when those corporates that do business relate well with the real needs of the people: the customers, the community and the other stakeholders.
The crux of personal branding is a function of the breadth and depth of your relationships with others: You want your family, your friends, your employer and your co-workers to truly understand and fully acknowledge you as you truly arc. What values do you believe in and how do you conduct yourself? How do you want others to sec you?
Brand is not meant to create a unique imagery that does not supply any clear tangible or intangible benefits to its consumer and the corporate. Likewise, personal branding is not about building a special image for the outside

world; it is about understanding your unique combination of rational and emotional attributes your strengths, skills, values and passions and using these attributes to differentiate and position oneself to guide your career decisions. Personal branding should be carried out through a very well articulated campaign to make it a successful exercise.
Here's how to brand yourself: Be RED, paint the town RED! These are three key steps to successful personal branding:
Add RELEVANCE
What you stand for should be relevant. Noting that, “every person is an individual and is

important in his or her own way” (Low & Theyagu, 2003: 37), and sec others as real people. Be real to people. Relevance really begins when a person believes that you really understand and care about what is important to them. Know the person's real needs. It gains real strength every time you show that what is important to them is important to you. The synergistic effect of being both distinctive and relevant is what ignites the power of your personal brand.
All strong brands evolve with the times to stay relevant to their target audience. That could even be extending the line such as, say, Motorola offers a 'true value' exchange offer for one's used mobiles while one buys a new one.

You could change the ways you communicate your brand. Instead of a printed resume, you now present your resume on CD or display it in 'your personal website1.
Grow yourself! You augment your brand traits as you learn and continue to grow in your career. You increase the depth of your professional expertise and that will result in value adding your professionalism and profile.
Set an EXAMPLE
"True leaders stand out. People observe a leader's
actions. It is like 'monkeys sec, monkeys do1.
Except here, you arc not the monkey, but a true
leader” (Low & Theyagu, 2003: 35). Be a role
model; inspire others!
Be an example. Set your standards, and be
consistent.   Having both   standards   and
consistency adds to your professionalism, and
indeed, consistency is the hallmark of all strong
brands.
Make the DIFFERENCE
Stand out! To be different; just be yourself. Each of us is unique, we have our own values and that makes distinctive. Your values are your convictions, what you stand for, and that clearly others what sort of person you are. Also, what arc your interests? What do you like most? Build your confidence, and whether you choose to highlight your education, your personal trait or soft skill, depth of your network, or your expertise, pick something that sets you apart from others and occupy a distinctive slot in the minds of other people. Overall then, just as with corporate brands, your personal brand is your promise of value. It separates you from your peers, colleagues, and competitors alike. It allows YOU to succeed. Whether you are a senior executive, the owner of your own business or an employee of a company of any size, managing YOUR BRAND is critical to attaining your professional goal. Really, in a world where cities, buildings, wars, film stars, CEOs, and politicians are branded, you need to think about yourself in the same light.
References
Low Kim Cheng, Patrick & Theyagu, D. (2003) Developing True Leadership Potential Booksmith, Singapore.