Posted by Rahna on July 6, 2009 under Branding, Media, Personal Branding | 
Are you looking for more ways to express your personal brand to a broader audience? Try media interviews. It’s a way to communicate your expertise and share your knowledge with others. I read an interesting article with some tips for getting the most out of your media interviews here: http://www.emsincorporated.com/8-%E2%80%9Cinsider-tips%E2%80%9D-to-build-your-business-thru-radio-and-tv-interviews/
Posted by Rahna on July 2, 2009 under Branding, Personal Branding |
Recently, during a corporate training session at LEGO, I asked a group of professionals to write down 20 qualities about themselves, 20 strengths of their personal brand. One woman looked completely dumbfounded. She stared down at the blank sheet of paper and finally said, “Rahna, that’s got to be the hardest thing you could’ve asked for!” She was stumped. She had no idea what to write and sadder still, she had no idea what she was good at! This is a woman in a very large, very well-known company that conducts annual formal performance reviews….and still she didn’t know. Can you imagine?
Unfortunately, I see this all too often. People have no idea what value they bring to their world, what strengths they have, what qualities they have to contribute.
This is a crime. This is why I do what I do. EVERYONE needs to know what they are good at, what they do well, and if everyone knew that, they would raise their self-esteem, seek out opportunities to maximize the use of those talents, and ROCK THEIR WORLD!
Please, I’m begging you. If you don’t know what your talents are, go find out!
Here’s how:
Go ask several of your business colleagues, your friends, and a few family members to tell you at least four things they appreciate about you. Ask for qualities they feel you express, and seek to understand why that adds value to their life. What is it about you that is so great? Why are you so important in their life? What value do you bring to them? Why do they seek you out?
Try to be as specific as possible. You want to understand the nuances of these qualities in order to understand what makes you unique. Bill Cosby, Jim Carey, and Chris Rock are all “funny” in COMPLETELY different ways. You want to understand the subtleties about your strengths and how you are different from everyone else.
When you’re in middle school, you just want to fit in. Standing out, being different, being unique is tantamount to social suicide….But for marketers, being unique is what it’s all about, because no one wants to buy what they perceive as “me-too” products. People seek out something special, something one-of-a-kind…and the same applies to people, too. Those who are different, unique, one-of-a-kind tend to stand out in a crowd and find it easier to “make a name for themselves.” Actors who can find their own style have more earning potential and end up with the “plum” roles. Think about Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, Katherine Hepburn, Dustin Hoffman, or Tom Hanks.
So please, if you care about advancing your career in amazing ways, find out what you’re good at. It is a foundational piece of information for radical career growth both inside a corporate environment and on your own. Understanding your unique value helps you “sell” yourselves to others (and make no mistake about it: in your career, you are always selling yourself).
Posted by Rahna on June 29, 2009 under General, Strategy |
I read The Dream, by teen multi-millionaire and internet entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal.
It’s a quick read and has some interesting themes in it, mostly advice for entrepreneurs. Here are a few ideas I got from it:
· You have to have a vision for what you want in order to make it happen
· A good idea, well executed, is worth a LOT
· Take advantage of marketplace trends to fuel speedy growth
· Don’t give up: If you have a passion, follow it
· Surround yourself with positive, caring people who want you to succeed
· Sadly, many people in America are still prejudiced
· Sometimes you need to make yourself look different than you really are (give the perception of a bigger office, more clients, older, more experienced, less ethnic) in order to make the sale
· Continue through the failures (and there will be failures—that’s a natural part of growth and success)
· You need a team of “ A” players to help you
· Family support is a rock-solid foundation from which to build
· Once you have money, others will try to find a way to take it from you
· No matter how smart you are or how much money you have or don’t have, people do stupid, whimsical things when they are 18-25 years old (like buy a Lamborghini on eBay without knowing how to drive a stick shift car!)
Reading the book sparked some on-going conversation about the difference between success and failure, goodness and greatness, etc. There are several other books that address this topic, notably Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, in which he postulates that if you put in 10,000 focused hours on something, you will be great at it. All that “practice” allows you to take advantage of opportunities when they come along.
What do you think breeds success? Practice? Opportunity? Luck?
I’m interested to hear your thoughts.
Posted by Rahna on June 25, 2009 under Branding, Personal Branding |
Today, the world heard the bizarre news that Michael Jackson, the self-proclaimed King of Pop, has died.
Talk about a strong personal brand. Here’s a guy who was absolutely unique—unlike anyone else. You may love him, you may hate him, but one thing is certain: you know him. You understand who he was, what he has done, what he stood for and what he was all about.
In my work, I advise business professionals on ways to strengthen the articulation of their brands, and as I think about it, Michael Jackson provides some strong guidance for anyone looking to present a strong brand to their world:
#1: Live Your Talents: Michael Jackson could sing and dance. That’s what he spent his career doing, and that’s what he should have done. He was a consummate entertainer and he always did his thing. Be what you are. So many people spend a ton of time trying to shore up their weaknesses; stop focusing on that.
Focus on your strengths. Don’t try to be an accountant if you don’t get excited about numbers. Hire someone who does get excited about numbers. You must find a way to express your God-given talents and abilities.
#2: Embrace a signature style: Sometimes, something that’s a little bit over the top can serve to reinforce and heighten your brand image. For Michael Jackson, the moonwalk and one glittery glove became synonymous with his brand, a part of who he was.
What could signify what type of leader you are? One of the participants in our Signature for Success program is a gentleman with a hard-to-pronounce, hard-to-spell Chinese name of Xingcheng, so he goes simply by “X.” To strengthen his personal brand, he has begun to link his name with excellence and execution. It’s memorable and effective and epitomizes what his leadership is all about.
What’s your signature “moonwalk” move?
#3: Pursue a signature project: When you think of Michael Jackson, you cannot help but think of the music video Thriller. At the height of the MTV era, this video became the quintessential video of all times, a video that guaranteed him a place in rock history. I have seen LEGO minifigure parodies of the song, the dance used as an exercise regimen for prison inmates, and delightful renditions done in my own living room by my nine-year old daughter over 25 years after it was produced.
So what project are you passionate about? How can you take your ordinary project—a routine competitive analysis, your basic marketing plan, your standard corporate event, and turn it into something career-defining?
#4: Love Yourself: One of the great tragedies about Michael Jackson was that he was unhappy with how he looked physically. Over the course of his career, he altered his skin tone and facial bone structure radically. For many, his appearance was never an issue in the first place. We are all our own worst critics. Self-perceived negatives are often only in our own minds and would never be in someone else’s minds if we hadn’t brought a spotlight on the issue in the first place.
Focus on what matters, the talents and intellectual gifts you’ve been given. People respond positively to those who are “comfortable in their own skin.” If you focus on the value you are contributing, people will accept you as you are.
#5: Execute Your Vision: Michael Jackson was undeniably an entertainer extraodinaire. He had a vision for himself and his art that he pursued relentlessly. Find your courage, have faith in your vision, and bring it to fruition. The result could be a lasting icon of business prowess, something everyone refers to one day and says, “That was unique! That’s the way to do it. That was groundbreaking.”
#6: Keep going: Whether it’s big or small, you can overcome ANY adversity. Maybe you’ve been fired, maybe you had a disastrous project that went terribly wrong…whatever career setback you’ve seen, don’t feel like it’s the end of the world. Despite all the allegations of child molestation, Michael Jackson is still revered by millions, and I’m certain that in the days and weeks to come, we’ll see tributes and memorials galore. As I always say, I don’t care how much baggage you are carrying with you about your career. Even a heavily loaded plane can take off…it just needs to begin moving forward.
#7: Evolve: There was so much to Michael Jackson’s career, as the youngest of the Jackson Five singing I’ll Be There to the fashion statement of heavily embroidered, padded-shouldered leather jackets to the ownership of Neverland and his upcoming (completely sold out) comeback concerts in London, Michael Jackson continued to grow and develop as an artist and as an icon. Evolution is inevitable and desirable. Manage your career and manage the evolution of your personal brand.
Posted by Rahna on June 22, 2009 under Branding, Consumer Research |
The summer blockbuster, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen releases in movie theatres nationwide this week.
Two weeks ago, I met with the brand teams for Transformers® and G.I. Joe® to present social media best practices and to talk about what they should/could be doing in the digital space.
Just imagine if you were the Brand Manager for the $5 Billion Transformers® brand….The toy brand has licensing agreements across every imaginable product category, from M&Ms to designer flash drives. An avid fan base, built from a legacy of Saturday morning Transformers® TV shows and corresponding toy offerings throughout the years, carries the torch and has waited eagerly for the release of another blockbuster theatrical production.
Easiest job in the world, right? Huge top of mind awareness and media hype that every marketer dreams of….but what about next year?
The big issue for brand managers who work on movie-licensed brands is always, “How do I sustain momentum in a non-movie year?” The trick for smart marketers is to really capitalize on the business opportunities NOW in order to sustain consumer interest later….As the old adage advises, “Make hay while the sun shines.”
For Transformers®, the opportunity is to think of the toy purchases that will come from the release of this movie as the beginning of a long-lasting relationship. Social media (done correctly) builds that relationship with consumers in order to engage in dialogue, sharing and mutual respect. I have advised the brand team to think about what habits they are nurturing in their consumers. Is there a logical (digital) place for fans, parents and kids to congregate online to discuss, learn more about, and interact with all things Transformers®? I asked them to think about what they could set up now that will position them for success in the non-movie years.
One way to think of it is as a spider’s web. Construct something that will attract the flies and make sure that it’s so sticky that they’ll never leave!
There are only three ways to increase your sales:
1. Find new customers
2. Get current customers to buy more
3. Get current customers to buy more often
#2 and #3 are easier to achieve than #1, so if you have some strategies for achieving #1, then you need to turn your attentions to #2 and #3. Social media provides a perfect platform for easy success in this arena.
Now, in your business, you may not be planning the release of a major motion picture as a part of your marketing efforts, but the principles remain the same. Where are the big opportunities that are being created in your business? Did you just get unexpectedly written up in the paper? Did you get a new client who made a one-time purchase? Did you make a networking connection that you’d like to cultivate? Are you maximizing those opportunities? If you have someone who is buying from you once, how can you turn that into a repeat purchase?
How can you use social media to build long-lasting (and highly profitable) engagements with your customers? Social media is a low-cost, high-engagement, long-term strategy that can lead to on-going sales generation.
If you’d like help with developing a strategy for your situation, give us a call. We’d love to help you maximize whatever opportunities are coming your way!
Posted by Rahna on June 15, 2009 under Consumer Engagement, Consumer Research, Strategy |
Everyone in the media has a different take on the economy, how people are responding to it, and what its lasting impact will be. Certainly, “The Great Recession” is distressing millions who have lost their jobs and small and large businesses alike who are impacted by the new frugality of American consumers.
At Beacon Marketing, we have conducted research to see what the short—and potential long-term— implications of this economic climate will be. People are sacrificing dinners out, planning “staycations” and reaffirming their core values as they reconnect to families in non-monetary ways. Over the past year, our country has gone through an amazing shift in thinking, from vaguely being aware that the AIG issues would somehow affect them, to being horrified to open their 401K statements and find almost half of their savings gone, to experiencing the panic of the neighbors, the sister-in-law, the husband out of a job, to then adjusting to the necessary budgetary changes and finding the good in the materialistic cleansing taking place in this country.
Recently, in a discussion on MSNBC’s program Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough, Donny Deustch predicted that people would go back to their spending ways once we came out of this current turmoil. That’s not what our research indicates! In the same way that The Great Depression forever changed our grandparents into frugal savers who reused bits of tinfoil in the kitchen, our country will never be the same. Our preconceived notions that the stock market would always be a good place to invest, and that real estate always increased in value are forever gone. The research that we have done indicates that a much more permanent shift has occurred.
How is this impacting your industry? Your company? Your product line? If you are to understand how to market to this new mindset, you need to understand it. Find out how by calling Beacon Marketing today. We’d love to help you understand your consumer better so that you can refine your marketing efforts and navigate safely through these economic waters. Just as with our other high-profile clients, trust us to satisfy your research needs.
Posted by Rahna on June 8, 2009 under Digital Branding, Social Media |
I was presenting today to the Transformers® and G.I.Joe® marketing teams at Hasbro®, to provide guidance on social media best practices. Here’s what I told them:
• Listen: One of the easiest ways to get started is to conduct a Social Media Audit. Find out what people are talking about—you’ll be amazed at what you learn from this purest of all forms of consumer research! Get competitive intelligence, identify new market opportunities, and understand brand and category perceptions.
• Strategy Still Matters: Social Media Tools are just that…tools…one of the biggest mistakes I see is that companies get enamored with the “new-fangled” tools and start to use them…without a thought to the overriding rationale for choosing that tool over any other (traditional) marketing tool.
• Provide Value: You cannot simply shove your marketing message down someone else’s throat. Delight your consumers with added value and they will stick to you like Velco®
• Think Collaboratively: There is no such thing as “us” versus “them” anymore. You build something great with others—your consumers, your customers, your suppliers, EVERYBODY!
• Authenticity & Transparency Are Critical: If you try to be sneaky, you will be outed eventually. That has always been the case, of course, but now, with the internet, the public outrage spreads faster than wildfire, is global and permanently on record.
• Leverage Multimedia: Video is phenomenal. Opportunities abound for you to use sight, sound and motion as never before.
• Seek To Engage—Permanently: Social Media is not a “hit it and quit it” kind of a thing. Even if you look at it from a financial standpoint, you will be convinced that you want to nurture a life-long love affair with your consumer, not a one-night stand.
• Go Beyond Basic Measurement: The digital world can measure everything—how many seconds someone watches a video, how many people comment about a topic, who’s following whom. While marketing has always struggled with presenting senior management with the exact ROI on a TV commercial or newspaper story, social media offers more measurement opportunities than ever before.
Did I miss any? Feel free to add your comments as well!
Posted by Rahna on June 4, 2009 under Media, Social Media |
I had a conversation with Randall Cross of Ethervision, a company focused on iPhone applications and web video optimization. Very interesting.
The reason I was interested in talking with him is that I believe (as does Randall) that there is a huge future in mobile computing. While we are still in the very early stages of development of this phenomenon, iPhone apps are simply pointing the way, an indicator of things to come (sort of like “Pong” was for the video game industry). I’m curious, and I like to keep a pulse on what’s going on out there. I wanted to hear what he had to say about the topic.
Here are some top-line takeaways from the conversation:
In case you don’t have an iPhone or live under a rock, there is an entire industry that has been created around apps—an industry of iPhone apps that has been exploded in the past two years.
Is anyone making money at it? Well, yes, certainly there are the much-touted millionaires made overnight, with the top ten apps being downloaded 6,00-7,000 times per day…But that only represents a very small portion of the population of developers. Some never see a dime….but then there are those who are creating something of value, looking at the long-term returns instead of “one-hit wonders.”
“There’s an app for that.” There is an application for just about anything…with new ones being created all the time. Some are very simplistic and take only a few days to build. Others can take up to twelve months to create, because they are integrated with correlative websites and such.
Are there any limitations? Certainly. The iPhone does not have the processing speed (yet) to deal with complicated programming and 3D imaging. The key is to keep it simple; less detail is better.
How can advertisers leverage this phenomenon? Well, certainly, if you have a product or service that lends itself to an iPhone app, you could stand to make A LOT of money. But that’s not all you should be thinking about. You could sponsor an app that would be relevant to your target audience. See it as another way to build a brand impression.
It’s a world I will be following. Is it a fad? Is it here to stay? Is it only for the iPhone afficianado? Let me know what you think!
Posted by Rahna on June 1, 2009 under Branding, Personal Branding |
Susan Boyle continues to provide personal branding lessons, as much for the negative as for the positive!
The charming, cheeky Scotswoman who took the world by storm this spring while competing in the TV show Britain’s got Talent got in trouble with the British press leading up to the finals for her competition. She was heard using too-colorful language in public and telling some fans to buzz off. Many have attributed the behavior to her mach-5 rise to fame over the past 7 weeks and the stress of the final competition (which she lost on Saturday night, placing 2nd overall).
However, the interesting thing to me is: What are the implications for personal branding here? Here are a few that I see:
1) Always be your best self possible, because you never know who’s watching
2) Watch your words; we’ve all said things we regretted later.
3) As you add new aspects to your personal brand, be sure to evaluate what new skills you need to add in order to match your newly-evolved personal brand
4) It’s never the “end,” even if you don’t “win”
Susan Boyle will not be performing for the queen as a result of winning this competition, but that is not to say that she will never perform for the queen. It may be in some other capacity, in some other way. Her career is not over by any stretch of the imagination. She can move on from here, negotiate new record deals, walk through any of the many doors that are now open to her, and (hopefully) adjust to her newfound stardom.
The same applies to the personal brand that you are trying to refine. Maybe you spoke ill of an employee, maybe you did something to get yourself fired, maybe you mouthed off to someone you shouldn’t have. If so, then learn the lesson from Susan Boyle: it’s not the end for you. You can evolve your brand any way you like. Start again to build your brand the way you want it to be built.
Posted by Rahna on May 28, 2009 under Digital Branding, Social Media, Strategy |
I’ve been focusing on on-line videos this week and thought I should share some of what I’ve discovered.
Here’s the bottom line: VIDEO MATTERS.
Whether you are a small business wanting to add a little mini-documentary video to your website or you are a large advertiser looking for new uncluttered channels on which to convey your message, on-line video is a rich area to explore.
If you’re a skeptic about the power of video, I have two words for you: Susan Boyle.
In case you missed it, Susan Boyle exploded onto the worldwide web in April as a contestant on Britain’s Got Talent. In the past two months, she has racked up over 100 million views — remember, the Super Bowl is viewed by something like 93 million! Suffice it to say, her life has been permanently altered by YouTube. And as we move forward, yours will be too.
In fact, it very likely already has been (especially if you are 18-34 years old). How many of you have seen amazing videos where men are bonding with lions or cats are hanging from ceiling fans? I’d bet a lot of money that the majority of you have. See my previous blog post for more quantitative info on trends and growth in on-line video.
Want another concrete example? Okay, a friend of mine is in charge of Digital Media & Marketing for Hyperion Books and spends her days leveraging the power of the internet to let people know about the wonderful books Hyperion publishes. Does she use video? You bet.
She recently worked with author Kelly Corrigan to develop a short but moving video on Transcending to promote the paperback release of her book The Middle Place. Upon posting the video, she and her team started to spread the word by sending an email to 50 of their interested friends. To date, the video has enjoyed over 4.4MM views and, more importantly, the book sat at #2 on the The New York Times Bestsellers List for many weeks. That’s low-cost, high-impact marketing.
So what does this mean for you? As I said at the start of this article, video matters. Consider advertising on-line as a viable alternative, and develop a video strategy for your digital efforts. Do you have any video on your website and/or on other websites? You should consider what the benefits could be for you.
Video allows you to:
· Discuss your topic with passion
· Take advantage of sight, sound, and motion
· Engage with your audience more thoroughly
· Show your thought-leadership
· Develop your brand more distinctly
· Entertain, inform and delight your consumers
· Improve your SEO rankings
Here are a few tips:
· Be really compelling: make sure the topic is relevant to your business
· Be succinct: most people will willingly sit through an engaging one- or two-minute video
· Be proprietary: embed the video on your own site
· Optimize: pay attention to meta data and Google Video map details
· Market your video: there are tons of video-sharing sites out there to post on
· Spread the word: use other media (both digital and non-digital) to spread the word
