Have you ever wondered how you project yourself to the world? How you are perceived by the public? Let’s say if you were a brand, what kind of brand would you be? As Michael Levine put it, “Public relations and personal branding are very closely related. Because the brand being created and maintained is a person, the public’s perception of that person – the brand being the public persona – is essentially the entire product. Without public relations - without the careful crafting of the brand’s promise and presentation - the person in question would not be defined for the public, and the public is not usually enamoured of what it does not recognized or understand.”Celebrities like Tyra Banks and Heidi Klum understand the importance of personal branding and their full potential as commodities. They have successfully expanded themselves from being “just supermodels” by bombarding us with product endorsements for big brands such as Victoria’s Secret and Birkenstock, to becoming successful TV personalities with hit TV shows such as America’s Next Top Model and Project Runway. Tyra Banks even has her own talk show called The Tyra Banks Show (surprisingly) that aims to young women.
And to further show us how marketing savvy they are, they have their own individual websites: www.tyrabanks.com and www.heidiklum.com in which the content represents exactly the image they want to portray, which are beautiful, grounded, smart, funny, lively, young, sophisticated and successful….everything any young woman wishes to be.
We can’t avoid being brands in society, and there is nothing wrong with being one, since society will always observe and judge whatever qualities we project. Once again quoting Michael Levine, “Personal branding becomes a question of degree. If you begin with personal qualities that truly are your own, and you express those to the world in general, they become your brand. But when that brand represents only part of what you truly are, you run the risk of becoming a caricature of yourself – a brand with no person inside.” This in my opinion is why Tyra Banks and Heidi Klum are so successful, because despite their celebrity stature, they still manage to portray a genuine, more human side of their personalities.
3 comments:
I think famous brands and famous people are those with a strong personality, that show a strong and well-defined way of life, so people can identify to them or dreaming to be like them... So to me "branding yourself" is a current trend in a more and more commercial world, but actually I think the concept is much older: there has always been leaders and followers...
agree with Nathalie.
Self branding is good but not all can do branding for themselves. Normally this person should be famous among his/her circle. For example, if you are a good writer, and your stories are loved by Vouge's readers. You can do PR online by polishing your profile to communicate with your fan. You can have more job opportunities. Just imagine that Carrie in Sex and the City uses blog to promote herself, I believe that she will be successful.
But if I am a normal accountant and I don't know how to compose a good paragraph about myself, how can I get attention of the public?
But this is a trend as internet is more and more popular.
Hi guys, thanks for the comments. Yes you are right, with easy access to internet, especially the rise of new media, people can easily promote themselves in hope of becoming a brand. And you do have to own the "it" factor in order to make it. What I'm trying to say in this particular article is regular people like us are doing PR for ourselves on a daily basis, whether it is consciously or subconsciously. We do project a certain image when we interact with people. So the point I'm trying to get across is, PR is applicable in all aspects of life. Even for an accountant who doesn't know how to write a "catchy" paragraph to get him/herself known can use PR to build his/her desired reputation, but probably in a much more modest scale compared to Tyra Banks or Heidi Klum =). As for the concept of leaders and followers, again how do yo want to create your image? As a leader or a follower?
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