Personal Brand VS Business brand

Personal Brand VS Business brand

Everything you need to know

+ Growth tips and mistakes to look out for

 

There are many types of branding.

• Business branding, sometimes called corporate branding

• Product branding

• And personal branding

 

Branding objectives

The objectives of each type are largely the same.

1. To position the brand, product or person as the best in its particular industry.

2. Grow influence through market share or an audience.

3. Charge a premium on products or services or be paid a premium as an individual from a job or monetizing your audience

 

However, there are differences in how you approach each one depending on what result you want.

Read on to find out.

 

If you own a business or are starting a business your focus should be on defining your business brand first.

Your brand is the foundation of everything you do.

Your offering, messaging, marketing and more.

 

When you start your business you don’t need a personal brand to be successful but it can help.

 

Personal brand

A personal brand can add a face to your business.

It can make your business more approachable, authentic and trustworthy.

 

It can also be used to demonstrate the authority of the founders.

When you put out content demonstrating your knowledge and expertise this positive brand equity you build will transfer to your business as well.

A win-win.

 

If you are starting a business and haven’t defined the business brand first a personal brand won’t help.

Unless you expect all marketing and all customers to come through you directly.

 

If your business model is to be a creator and monetize an audience a personal brand is essential.

 

Key growth tips for both business and personal brands

• Focus on one thing to be known for

• Stand for something – Have a purpose / work for something bigger than yourself

• Know your values and show people how you act on them

• Define your tone of voice / how you want to sound

 

• Be authentic – don’t be something you’re not

• Define your brand character or focus on an element of your personal character that you can emphasize

• Focus on your customers or focus on your network (online and offline)

• Stay consistent with your branding

 

If you don’t know where to start.

Building a business = Start with your business brand

Not starting a business = Personal brand

 

Branding is a long game.

But as soon as you start investing in your branding the sooner you will see long term results.

 

Personal branding limitations

• It’s hard to grow the business to be bigger than yourself – Kim K is rebranding for this very reason

• Rebranding is harder for a personal brand – An example would be Logan Paul, it took him years to recover from Japan

• By the very nature of a personal brand it is directly tied to you – if you make any mistake then it will negatively affect your brand

 

As I run an agency I started by defining my business brand before I started building my personal brand.

You can grow a personal brand into a multi-million dollar business in its own right – just look at Obama or Oprah.

 

These days it is rare to find truly iconic brands that are focused solely on one person.

Growing your business brand is the best place to start if you have big ambitions.

 

Once you have defined your business brand you will only benefit from starting to grow your personal brand as well.

Set up systems to make sure they both get the time they need to grow.