“I do not want a private branding company. My advertising and marketing group will work on my private model.”

I’ve heard this assertion from so many CEOs, that it’s time to share my ideas. On the threat of injuring emotions, please enable me to be blunt:

Your advertising and marketing group is unlikely to be certified to work in your private model.

Advertising and marketing vs. branding

You see, I perceive the place the confusion comes from. Advertising and marketing and branding have been conflated for ages. As CEOs, we regularly misunderstand branding in relation to the businesses we lead. So, after all, with private branding being a brand new child on the branding block, it’s misunderstood even additional.

Let’s unpack a few of the variations, what your advertising and marketing group could be leveraged for as you construct your visibility and the place their gaps lie.

Your advertising and marketing group is prone to be instrumental in serving to you market your model: help with PR, create content material you should use to advertise your private model, enable you launch a podcast, e-book you as a visitor on different folks’s podcasts and safe talking alternatives. But, what they’re unlikely to be of assist with is uncovering what your radically genuine model is all about:

• Your model essence — the positioning that’s on the core of your model, which is tied to who you might be as a human being on a deep degree somewhat than what you do because the chief of your group

• Your model descriptors — the way you need to be perceived by your viewers

• Your target market past what serves the enterprise, one that’s distinct from the transactional wants of the enterprise

• Your content material pillars that surpass your trade experience

Associated: 8 Causes a Highly effective Private Model Will Make You Profitable

Effectively, you would possibly ask, however why do I have to have positioning past the enterprise? Why ought to I’ve an viewers outdoors of my buyer avatar, and why ought to I discuss anything than what straight pertains to the enterprise? The reply is: You do not! That’s, except you need to construct an precise private model, somewhat than be a spokesperson for the enterprise.

Why construct a private model within the first place if it doesn’t totally serve the enterprise, you ask? Let me reply that query with a few of my very own. Is your id fully totally tied to the group you run? Or is your id greater than that? Can we cut back your whole essence to your id as proprietor of ABC Inc.? The reply is probably going “no.” And guess what? Your viewers doesn’t want a duplicate of your organization’s company social media web page. If every little thing you publish or share can fortunately reside on your enterprise pages, then what worth is there in that messaging coming from you?

Company branding is the subject of a lot confusion additionally. We all know {that a} model is the essence of our group, and uncovering it can not — and mustn’t — be decreased to one thing tactical, such because the creation of the brand. We all know that engaged on our company model is just not a job we’d delegate to our Advertising and marketing Specialist. So, why then would we make that fake pas in relation to our private model?

Now, let’s handle one other elephant within the room.

Some of the frequent questions I obtain after I give my keynote on private branding to audiences throughout the globe is that this:

Marina, however what occurs if I construct a private model after which make my enterprise so tied to myself that it turns into arduous to exit consequently?

A fantastic query. We are inclined to name our companies our infants. And but we promote these infants. Or typically we bankrupt them. And what occurs then? You see, it’s certainly arduous to promote a enterprise for which you might have grow to be a spokesperson. That is what our advertising and marketing groups would love for us. And but, the patrons of our companies would not. Not solely is it more durable to exit a enterprise like that, however we additionally find yourself with no private model that serves us as we pivot.

Associated: 5 Steps to Constructing Your Private Model From Scratch

Private branding finished proper

A private model created proper doesn’t make you look like “tied to the enterprise.” Fairly the opposite — it makes it clear to the viewers that the enterprise is without doubt one of the many aspects of who you might be and what you might be. And sure, when finished proper, your private model helps you appeal to high-value shoppers and helps you appeal to expertise of a a lot larger caliber to the group. On the similar time, nevertheless, it builds your portability, making your enterprise extra exitable and making you much less irrelevant if you do promote it.

Your advertising and marketing group can deliver large worth to your private brand-building course of, however you additionally want to concentrate on the constraints of their experience. They will most definitely assist place you as a spokesperson in your group. They will additionally enable you with execution as soon as the technique is constructed. But, if you’re trying to construct an precise private model that has portability and extends past the enterprise, let’s go away it to the professionals: those that eat, reside and breathe radically genuine private branding.

Associated: Why Harnessing the Energy of Your Private Model Will Rework Your Enterprise