Building your personal brand (Element number one- Quality):

Knowledge is your brand story

[Continued from last week]

Last week I explained the importance of personal branding and how it helps you to win. Whether you know it or not, you are already branded by others like you have branded the people you know.

The question is are you a positive, neutral or a negative brand? Avoid being branded neutral or negative and use what you have got as a professional to create a positive brand.

The topic today is about the first element in building a personal brand, product quality.

As in any product brand, your knowledge is the foundation of your career brand and your brand story. All what you got as an person is the product - you.

Nothing builds credibility in a career brand more than establishing yourself as an expert in your chosen field and that comes with the technical knowledge, skills and experience you possess.

While it's finally the mix of values that creates a unique position for you as a brand, ideally your effort should be to have competitive advantage in each element to be differentiated to lead the pack.

Branded knowledge

What you need in the modern world is branded knowledge - knowledge that's well recognised with high perceived value that's naturally demanded by your potential employers or any of your other target audiences to stay on top of your competitors.

Branded knowledge can only come with branded programs offered through branded institutions.

The worst that can happen in today's fiercely competitive environment is to invest time and money and study hard to get knowledge that is not in demand. You will be at a disadvantage if you obtain knowledge that is not recognised and selling the qualification is hard.

Getting branded knowledge is not the end game.

It has to be differentiated in a market where there will be large numbers having the same branded knowledge so you become a me-too in a few years' time.

If you stick to your core it can be matched 'one-to-one'.

The way to overcome this challenge is to have a portfolio of knowledge that is hard to match. I call this core +. Going beyond your core knowledge will not only help you position but to also deliver superior performance too and become a product with extended value. An organisation is a value chain and depending on your core discipline you are placed somewhere in that value chain other than the head of the organisation who has overall responsibility. As a junior, if you understand the entire value chain, you will synchronise and synergise your actions to create greater value through the chain and get recognised and rewarded.

If you are a manager, then Core + knowledge will give you superior knowledge and added confidence to ask the right questions from people who represent functions outside your core.

Commercial value

In a brand driven, world your personal brand has to deliver commercial value first. To fetch the right price, ensure that you get knowledge that has maximum commercial value but within areas you are most passionate about. Otherwise, you may lack energy and enthusiasm to put knowledge into practice. In the fast paced world, knowledge becomes obsolete much faster. Hence you need to keep your knowledge evolving.

This is similar to product upgrades or service improvements we do to stay with changing demands by the consumers.

Your track record and external recognition which can be termed endorsements of the product 'you' by your stakeholders such as former employers, professional institutions and other independent organisations help create greater demand.

Over the next five weeks I will write about packaging, communication, positioning, performance and sustaining brand equity to build and sustain a personal brand using the product as the foundation to succeed within the concept of personal branding.