As consumers we are constantly buying brands. As we saw in the previous article, consciously or sub-consciously we are constantly evaluating what benefits these brands promise to deliver. But there is something more that happens (and mostly sub-consciously) and that is our QUESTIONING of the promise claimed by the brand. And to answer that questioning, marketers incorporate what is called a ‘Reason Why’ in the brand’s positioning framework.
A Reason Why is what assures consumers that the brand is capable of delivering its promise. It is also called a Reason to Believe. When a skin cream brand claims that it will keep your skin soft and silky, it also tells you that it has a got some special ingredient that helps it do so. And if you were part of the brand’s Target Audience, that could be enough to push you from a state of dilemma to a state of decisiveness.
Like product brands, personal brands too cannot get away by merely ‘claiming’ to offer benefits. They have to give their Target Audience a reason to believe those claims. Let’s say, the benefit you offer to your seniors in office is “I take initiative and inspire others to do so”, your Reason Why could be “I made three proactive suggestions to improve productivity in office in the last three months” and/or “In the last corporate party, I was the first to volunteer to help in organizing the mega-function and was able to rope in five more colleagues to volunteer ..”
The basis for the Reason Why in the example above is past demonstration of having delivered that benefit, which is a very strong way of building credibility for yourself. There are many other ways in which you can establish credibility: your educational qualifications, a certain kind of training program you attended, a particular company or industry you worked for in the past, a special project you completed for your organization, letters of appreciation you received from someone significant in the company or from clients, past goals you have achieved, a crisis you handled particularly well, your membership in an industry body, even a case of extreme commitment you showed by turning up at office despite torrential rains or during a transport system breakdown – all of these are examples of ways in which you can build credibility for yourself.
As a senior manager during my corporate career, I’ve had team members working round the clock for more than 48 hours to meet an important deadline on several occasions. Those instances were enough for me to gauge the level of commitment of these colleagues of mine. Similarly I’ve had other team members following a strict 9 to 5 schedule and completing their assignments perfectly well and on time. And that convinced me that these people were ‘efficient’! It is likely that all these people did all this without the intention of projecting themselves in a particular manner. As someone who is wanting to develop his/her personal brand you should see how you can leverage your actions to be in alignment with the kind of benefits you want to communicate and Reasons Why you want to create.
As the market becomes more competitive, the benefits brands promise become similar to each other – you end up seeing several brands promising same/similar benefits. Take water purifiers for example – in whatever manner you ‘package’ the benefit, (100% purification – kills 100% bacteria OR purifies water at twice the speed of other purifiers OR maintenance-free water purification OR purifies water without losing essential minerals etc) the core benefit will always remain ‘water purification’ and will continue to be the consumers’ most important need. In such a case the Reason Why for each water purifier brand is what will determine the strength of that brand’s promise.
Similarly there will be other colleagues of yours (your competitors) who may be trying to project benefits similar to yours. And it may not be in your interest to look for other unique benefits which you may not be able to deliver equally well. You may decide to stick to your original benefit but convey that you deliver these benefits in a superior manner simply by way of your stronger Reason Whys. Let’s say you want to project yourself as a person who is capable of creating top-class software programs. If you face competition from a colleague who offers the same benefit, then it would probably boil down to an additional qualification of yours that may establish you as superior to your competitor.
In a world that is becoming increasingly ‘Social Media savvy’ the opportunities for us to create and make our Reason Whys visible are on the rise. The quality of recommendations we get on Linkedin, the nature of our tweets on Twitter, our activity on sites like Facebook and even the kind of email forwards we send are nothing but opportunities for us to strengthen our credibility for what we intend to stand for.
Nothing works like concrete proof in a time when claims from even topmost brands are taken by consumers with a pinch of salt. A photograph of you speaking at a corporate function, a scanned copy of a merit certificate you received, a video of you holding centre-stage at an event will do more good to your personal brand than even what a full-length well-written CV can.
Having said that, it is also true that as your personal brand gets stronger it will need to rely lesser and lesser on a strong Reason Why. At some point in time, your personal brand will cross a tipping point where the inherent equity the brand has built for itself will fuel its growth. But till then, whoever you are, your brand credibility has to be a key focus area in your personal marketing plan.
In my case, the stronger my brand gets, the more it excites me to explore more unique ways of making it stronger and credible. Looking at new ways to build brand credibility is not just an enriching experience, it’s fun, emotionally satisfying and challenging too!
In case you want to share what Reason Why you are planning to create to support your personal brand’s promised benefit, post it as a comment on this article. Not only will you get clarity about yourself, you might just set an example and inspire other readers as well!
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