andrew ford

170 Pages·2014·4.77 MB·English

Creating
a Powerful
Brand
IT’S NOT JUST BUSINESS,
IT’S PERSONAL

Creating
a Powerful
Brand
IT’S NOT JUST BUSINESS, IT’S PERSONAL
ANDREW FORD

Dedicated to my two beautiful sons,
who challenge and reward me daily.

CONTENTS
Foreword viii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Marketing in the Digital Age 7
Chapter 2: Your Personal Business 15
Chapter 3: Personal Branding 29
Chapter 4: Understanding Yourself 43
Chapter 5: Where is Your Brand Now? 67
Chapter 6: Building Your Assets 79
Chapter 7: Leveraging Your Brand 135
Conclusion 149
About the Author 152
Foreword
Marketers love brands. Just like the original cattle farmers who
proudly marked their herd with their branding irons, marketers
set out to create something that people see as different, relevant,
and of a quality and reputation that people talk about and are
willing to pay more for.
Marketers also love insights. Human truths they can tap
into. Truths that spark ideas and make consumers say, ‘Yes,
they’re talking to me, I’ll try that.’ Here’s four that have stood
the test of time: people like to tell others about great experi-
ences they’ve had; people want their fifteen minutes of fame;
businesspeople like to network and stay connected; and people
want to know more about interesting celebrities, politicians,
businesspeople, work colleagues and friends. These four age-
old insights spawned brands such as Facebook, Instagram,
YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter and blogs.
Social media took the world by storm in the mid-2000s, and
the marketing world not long after. While the early adopters of
social media told their friends about their every move, marketers
began to tap into the social footprint they were leaving. It was a
win-win situation. People wanted to share their experiences with
their friends as quickly as they could. Marketers wanted to be
able to tap into those people’s experiences so they could better
viii
Foreword ix
understand them, and therefore create more relevant and per-
sonalised offers.
In leaving their social footprint, people were also inadvert-
ently or deliberately creating a very public digital persona of
themselves. Their likes and dislikes; their values and behaviours;
their quirks and differences; their reputation. People were creat-
ing their own brand.
Marketers had dabbled with the thought of people as
brands back in the late 1990s. In fact, a study back then saw
Ian Thorpe appear as one of Australia’s top brands. It was the
inevitable evolution of agents, managers and PR practitioners
crafting the reputations of many a sports star, actor or musi-
cian into marketable commodities. But now marketers wanted
to know how their brand fitted with the personal brand of their
endorser. Understanding how to create and maintain a personal
brand became very important indeed.
Fast forward to 2013, and many are beginning to realise
the importance of their digital and social footprint, and in turn
their reputation and their personal brand. In writing this book,
Andrew Ford empowers you to create and maintain the per-
sonal brand that is you.
Andrew Baxter
CEO, Ogilvy Australia
Twitter: @andrewbaxter3
LinkedIn: au.linkedin.com/in/andrewbaxter3/