It’s likely that you’ve heard of the concept of Brand positioning. The “safe” car, the “sophisticated” laptop, the “healthy” juice, the “uncomplicated” cellphone.. Firstly positioning as a marketing tool is much more holistic than just one word descriptors. That one word is just the summary or the essence of the entire positioning of the brand. Like mainstream brands, even personal brands need to have their own positioning. In this series of articles, we’re going to look at the key components of this positioning and understand each of these components, one in each article.
At a basic level, positioning of a brand is all about creating a unique place for the brand in the consumer’s mind. That’s because, like brands, positioning too exists only in the consumer’s mind. If a Brand Manager says “We are launching a new brand of washing machine that is positioned as a water-saver”, what he means is that the company INTENDS to make consumers believe that the machine is a water-saver. Positioning is created only when consumers as a group start relating certain attributes and parameters to the brand in their minds. The Brand Manager may think that he HAS positioned the washing machine as a “water-saver”, but if consumers don’t think that it is a water-saver and buy it primarily because it is good-looking, then the brand positioning is that of a ‘good-looking’ washing machine and not of a ‘water-saving’ washing machine. And that may or may not be desirable to the Brand Manager depending on how many other ‘good-looking’ washing machines exist in the market.
There are thousands of books on the concept of positioning if you want to get into the details, but here let’s straightaway look at how positioning is relevant in the context of a Personal Brand. Answer these six questions and you will have the (desired) positioning of your personal brand in place:
1) What is my role in life?
2) Which people matter to me most?
3) In what way(s) do I benefit those who matter to me?
4) Why should these people believe that I truly offer these benefits?
5) What personality do I project?
6) In what way am I different from people I compete with?
Doesn’t sound like rocket science does it? Or marketing mumbo-jumbo? Hopefully not! Let’s cover the first of these components in this article.
What is my role in life?
Now that sounds like philosophy! Yet your role in life is a critical component of your personal brand positioning and is fact its foundation. We all play a certain role at every stage of our life. And we see others playing a certain role too. We see “office goers”, “businessmen”, “students”, “working women”, “housewives”, “children”, “retired people”. We also see “sales people”, “computer operators”, “managers”, “trainees”, “receptionists”, “engineers”.. How about “industry leaders”, “decision-makers”, “team leaders”, “socialites”?
We have our own way of slotting people into these roles. The catch here is, if you are not clear about what role you are playing, people will slot you according to their convenience. You tell them “I’m a real-estate professional..” and that leaves them confused. They’ll still have hundreds of ways to slot you! Are you a senior person or a junior person? Are you a sales person or business analyst? An innovative thought-leader or a seasoned veteran? Even without knowing your personal traits, people would like to form a fundamental impression of what role you play in life, what life space you occupy and might probe you to know more.
Trouble is when they don’t ask and form their own conclusions on the basis of what you talk about, how you talk and other verbal and non-verbal clues. And then you’ll have a situation where ten different people will think of you in ten different ways. Is Coke a thirst-quencher, a fun-drink, a party drink, a celebration drink, a hang-out drink, a kids’ drink? What is Kelloggs? A packet of cornflakes, a breakfast item, an evening snack, an in-between filler, a health-food, a nutritional supplement, a meal in itself? What is Dove a brand of? Soap? Skincare? Beauty care? Personal Care? How about Nokia? Is it a brand of cellphones, entertainment gadgets, communication devices?
While you will obviously slot these brands the way you perceive them, you can bet that Coke, Kelloggs, Dove and Nokia will make a conscious effort to help you slot them, the way THEY WANT YOU TO. Why? They don’t want a thousand people slotting them in thousand different ways. It helps them in one more very important way. It helps them limit or expand the number of brands or products they compete with. If Nokia calls itself a brand of entertainment gadgets, it keeps open for itself the possibility of launching gaming devices!
You wouldn’t want different people to understand you differently either. Well before they understand who you are, you need to understand yourself. Ask yourself: Are you a student? A sportsperson? A symbol of changing youth? A person with a thousand dreams? Whatever you are, if you limit to calling yourself a student, you limit the possibilities you create for yourself. If you think about yourself in a particular manner AND communicate that to others they will think about you in that way too.
You might say, “I’m just an assistant teacher at a local college. Wouldn’t it be a bit far-fetched to call myself anything more than that?” Not at all! If you think you are an assistant teacher, you will always be seen as an assistant teacher. You don’t have to always describe yourself to the outside world (and more importantly to yourself) on the basis of who you ARE. It’s perfectly fine if you describe yourself in terms of who you WANT TO BE or who you are TRYING TO BE. “I’m a faculty at XYZ college and a coach and mentor to some of the brightest students there.” The point here is: If you don’t have an interesting enough job profile, YOU create one for yourself. Nobody ever got sacked for doing that! On the contrary the environment around you will support you and help you make that desired job profile a reality!
If I were to hire an accountant, all things being equal, I would any day hire one who calls himself/herself an ambitious and experienced Finance professional than one who calls himself/herself an accountant (with 7 years work experience). I’m not saying fool yourself (and others) into claiming who you are NOT. On the contrary, I’m saying create a new possibility in your mind about who you can be and want to be and start living that possibility.
You may be a Regional Sales Manager, but remember, you are not your designation (and nobody cares anyway)! Don’t confuse your designation with who you really are. Designations mean NOTHING! I see them merely as hollow labels created to define hierarchy within an organization. Believe me, you’re better off ignoring that label, and creating one for yourself that you desire. A label that is deeper, has more character and defines you more completely. Instead of calling yourself a Regional Sales Manager you might want to call yourself an inspiring leader for a dynamic team irrespective of whether you are that or not. Before you BECOME something in reality, BE that person in your mind. You do that and the world will already start seeing you that way.
Like the Brand examples we discussed earlier on, the larger and sharper your definition of who you are, the wider is your own base of competition. When you say you are a highly networked youngster as opposed to saying you are a management trainee, you don’t compete with other management trainees, but with people across levels who are highly networked. And that makes you visible on the radar of those who are looking out for people who are highly networked!
If you are an Investment Advisor, think of your job profile. Would it suit you better to think of yourself as a Financial Advisor, or perhaps as a Wealth Coach or even a Prosperity Consultant? Can you see how the scope of your work, the potential size of your Clientele changes on the basis of how you tag yourself? And mind you, you may even be able to change these role definitions without much change in your knowledge base and expertise. It may be quite likely that you already have that expertise and by thinking of and projecting yourself differently you are now making a larger part of that expertise visible to the world.
Whatever role you assign to yourself mentally, be comfortable with it. If you are say, a manager in a middle management position, you may initially want to play the role of a team leader. As you get more comfortable with that, you may want to redefine your role to call yourself a key person in the management think-tank and later perhaps an industry professional who is the hub for coordinating events in your industry. As you change your role, the landscape of your playground changes. It becomes small, large, plain, colourful, boring, exciting depending on the role you have assigned yourself.
The bottomline: When life looks like one large arena and you feel intimidated by the competitiveness within, just become LARGER THAN LIFE. Nobody can stop you from being that. Except you yourself!
Here’s an exercize for you: Think about what YOUR role in Life is. Write it down. Then think of a few possibilities that add a new dimension to that role. Possibilities that make your landscape more vibrant. Pick up one that is in line with your strengths. Start living that role. Start noticing if the world around you is changing the way it sees you. Note down the changes. Do this and you would have taken the first step towards strengthening your Brand YOU!
In case you want to share your current or desired Role in Life with myself and readers of this Blog, post it as a comment on this article. Not only will you get clarity about yourself, you might just set an example for other readers as well!
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