Jim Knutsen claims “there is literally nothing left to say on branding.
With all those words, you’d think the discipline would be clearly defined and understood. And yet there is still massive confusion. I’ve had a hundred conversations that center around client questions like, “What’s the difference between positioning and branding? Is this my business strategy or my brand strategy? Is my brand promise the same thing as my elevator pitch?”
“Nearly every brand consultancy answers those questions with their own ‘proprietary’ version of a branding model,” Knutsen notes.
The same is true about personal branding. Though one of the hottest trend in career management in the past few years, personal branding is confusing because every expert has a different model and approach for identifying one’s personal brand.
Knutsen thinks perhaps consultants have overcomplicated branding and that all organizations need to do is tell their stories. He poses these three questions, which I’ve adapted for the careerist individual rather than the organization:
- What is your [individual career] story? Your differentiating DNA… clear, focused and compelling.
- How can you use that story to align your team, resources and strategies to create a consistent … experience [for prospective employers] and achieve common business goals?
- What are the words and symbols that point back to the substance of your story, and how will you present them consistently?
The words are the tools for presenting your brand to prospective employers in such media as resumes, cover letters, interviews, portfolios, and networking situations.
The symbols are things like fonts, colors, design, and images that tie your written career-management documents (resumes, cover letters, and more) together and present as consistent, branded image, as well as the way you brand your own appearance/attire — your distinctive look when you network and interview.