At Broadreach, we always find ourselves reminding clients that they can’t (and shouldn’t) talk to everyone, because ‘everyone’ is not a customer, employee, friend, or general stakeholder in their organization.

For example, if you sell and green/sustainable product, you should be not spending a lot of time trying to convince the Baby Boomer Republican who drives a Suburban and owns a generator that could power a small village to buy that product. Could you win them over as a customer? Yeah, sure, but it’s going to take A LOT more effort (and time and money) than convincing a Millennial Whole Foods shopper who packs a reusable water bottle with them at every step. Pick your battles and pick them wisely.

Figuring out who cares about your brand takes a process that we call “Audience Identification” and is self explanatory. With personal branding, however, determining your target audiences is a bit more complicated and requires you to have a good look at yourself and your goals. It also takes some research.

In my personal branding journey, I want to be seen as a creative, intelligent, fun and successful PR professional. Ok, Why? Maybe I want to be the President of Edelman one day (hey, it could happen). Who are my allies in achieving this goal? Who might be a roadblock? Start a list of people or a type of person that fit these categories and think broad- you can always narrow down the list later.

I’m not going to list all of my potential audiences here, but here are some target ones:

• My family and friends- they are my personal support system and I look to them for help and advice for most everything in my life
• My Broadreach peeps- Obviously, I am learning how to be a great PR professional at Broadreach PR. I wouldn’t be writing this blog post without Broadreach
• PR Industry Leaders- I may not know these people personally, but I keep tabs on who the top pros in my industry are by following top blogs (shout out to Peter Shankman, Todd Defren at Shift Communications, and Ragan’s PRDaily), reading PRWeek for info on the top rated professionals and contributors, noting PRSA Award Winners, and yes, I might moderately stalk these people on Twitter.
• Industry Organizations- In Maine, we have the Maine Public Relations Council. Nationally, there is the PRSA (Public Relations Society of America), The Institute for Public Relations, and a vast many others that get a bit more focused in area of expertise as you drill down.

Yay! I know who I’m talking to! Now it’s time to figure out how to reach them and what I’m going to say…. Stay tuned for The Personal Branding Journey Pt 3- Communication Channels. (the perfect line shouted into the wind will not actually help)

~Kate

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Our professor continued to discuss how each of us needed to take what we had learned about branding/marketing businesses and apply it to ourselves. She assigned some reading; in particular a book entitled You, Inc.: the Art of Selling Yourself by Harry Beckwith  that discussed applying sales techniques to effectively ‘sell yourself’ to potential employers and then went on to talk about things like appearance, resume building, well-roundedness, etc. It was kind of like the information you get in high school when you’re presenting yourself to colleges for admission.

It wasn’t until about a year and ½ into my life at Broadreach PR that I got a better understanding of what a ‘personal brand’ actually means and how it’s a lot more than making sure I look presentable and sound competent on a daily basis, because, let’s face it, everyone can master looking presentable and sounding competent, whereas developing and maintaining a personal brand that stands out and works for you goes far beyond that.

A personal brand is like a company’s brand- it shows other people who you are, what you value, and how you think. It’s the image you project to the world that can help build your road to success or undermine your reputation into the depths of failure- ok that was a bit dramatic, but essentially it’s true.

The first step in this personal branding process for me was to actually step back and figure out what my goals were. I’m not saying a goal like ‘I’d like to run a marathon (which I would), but ones like “When people are looking for brilliance in PR, I want them to think of me” or “The words I want people to associate with me professionally are: reliable, creative, and efficient.” Similar to needing some solid business goals before starting a sales program, you need personal goals to give you a direction to travel in; from there you can figure out how to go about shaping your personal brand.

Stay tuned for pt 2 of the personal brand journey- Who cares? And accepting the fact that not everyone is going to like you.

~Kate

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Most organizations, though, rightfully have a more sophisticated and sensible approach to their brand and public image: They want to people to understand their points of view and be aware of the good things they are doing.

The best way to accomplish that goal is through authenticity.  Be honest, open and yourself, as you put your best foot forward.  It’s not all about attracting notice of any kind.

Even so, that reality doesn’t keep people who should know better from shooting themselves in the foot.

You saw that misguided attitude – all press is good press — in the recent ham-handed approach of some Super Bowl ads. Groupon, an online coupon company, seemingly made light of the plight of the people of Tibet, endangered whales and deforestation of the rain forest.  Millions of dollars spent; few friends made.

The wrong thinking also was front-stage in the recent tweet of Kenneth Cole, an entrepreneur who said, “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online…”  Now, that’s the way to harness the power of social networking. Anyone following that hashtag is going to run out for new shoes and accessories, and love your brand for life. Not.

Cole immediately apologized, and Groupon tried to explain things away in their blog.

Still, it’s pretty clear from behavior like this that not everybody has been reading Dale Carnegie.  You make friends and influence people by having a good set of values, working hard, treating individuals with respect and honestly telling people what you have to offer.  That’s the core of PR and building meaningful, lasting relationships.

– Eric Blom, APR

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Today, what you want, you can get. At least that’s what the new trend of “Nowism” outlines.

The term was described in a recent Trendwatching briefing: where debate is already taking place — “Expect NOWISM for many to become synonymous with (and blamed for) shallowness, short attention spans, exploding credit card debts, excessive focus on instantly satisfying urges, an unwillingness to face (and build) a better and sustainable future, indifference to the past (and all its lessons).”

Hasn’t all of that already occurred? Quick, disposable, throwaway items, as well as information and experiences, are now available to those who desire; and if you want, in 140 characters or less. However, what about long-lasting desires: a house on the water or in the mountains, travel to far away places, a successful business, intimate relationships, and a loving family. Are they within the reach of NOW?

In this current mega-trend of Nowism, I believe relationships still hold the key — two-way, honest and authentic experiences with people, places and brands. The focus on getting things now, gets in the way of achieving great things later. Contrary to popular belief, there is still no magic wand, no silver bullet, no wiggling of the nose to get what you want NOW.

After spending 10 days disconnected from all technology, enjoying the company of my loving new husband, the new friends we’d met and the new sensory experiences we encountered, I say living in the present focused on goals is far richer than banging my keyboard and living vicariously through others; demanding that I get what I want now.

Does that mean the Dell and Blackberry are destined for the recycle bin? Does that mean we turn off Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn? No…simply they are part of the larger means of communicating, staying in touch with those we care about, and working toward those long-term goals that we’ve established for ourselves, our families, our businesses and our future.

While “Nowism” may be the hot new trend, for those seeking richer experiences I suggest that “Presentism” is the means to greater satisfaction in the long-term.

Trendwatching is a good resource to stay in touch with current trends. It is one of the world’s leading trend firms, trendwatching.com scans the globe for emerging consumer trends. They provide free monthly trend briefings available to subscribers as well as research that can purchased.

– Posted by Linda Varrell

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The other day, I told somebody that a particular company was small, “no General Motors.”

Now, I realized right away that this phrase has kind of lost its punch, and I switched it over to Wal-Mart, the biggest corporation in the world. General Motors, of course, is just a shadow of its once world-dominating self.

But GM is trying to rebuild. Just this morning, the corporation crawled out of bankruptcy court from the financial wreckage and debt that this once-great company had become.

Nearly two thirds of the firm is now owned by the governments of Canada and the United States, but executives say they are committed to reviving the company and the brand, returning both to the private-sector control.

So, going forward, there will be a fascinating public relations case study to watch. Just how will GM try to separate its old image as a tired, full-of-itself brand from the nimble, upstart it wants to become?

Organizations can’t ignore their past because other people still hold opinions about the company based on what’s come before. As the first step in any effective public relations strategy, you have to understand existing perceptions and their impact on behavior.

In that way, negative perceptions can sometimes be used as a positive by the organization.

It’s like judo: The weight of a negative perception can be used as leverage to get an organization going in a new direction. In this case, General Motors might have some fun at its own expense, contrasting its fat-and-lazy image of the past with the hungry-to-please brand it wants to be come. Or it could build on sentimentality for the old GM, as the firm tries to become a phoenix rising from the ashes.

Ultimately, though, the company will have to align its public relations efforts with reality. Do products live up to the story being told? Has the attitude changed in the way being portrayed? Does the firm known where it is headed, so that it can tell that story?

Only time will tell whether GM will succeed, but the show should be fun to watch and instructive to any organization that is trying to reinvent itself.

– Eric Blom

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Branding is a lot like that. It requires you to break down something – a product, business, political candidate – to its essence.

We’ve been doing a lot of that lately, working to create positioning statements and brand books that capture the most-important aspects of our clients’ operations, starting with 25- and 50-word statements and a tagline.

Branding involves research to thoroughly understand the business or product itself. This might involve market studies, opinion research with different constituencies and interviews of individuals within the organization or on the outside. Things like that.

But there’s a piece of the process, near the end, that really serves as the bunsen burner to help us distill that information into a brand statement.

Broadreach uses a white board during this step. We’ve intentionally blurred the picture to protect the identity of our client, but even the fuzzy image gives you some idea of what I’m talking about.

Words and phrases that capture the essential nature of a business, product or individual become the basis of their brand. This image is intentionally blurred.

First, we come up with a couple dozen individual words to describe how the business differs from others, what really makes it special. Then, we start developing two- and three-word phrases that speak to important aspects of the client’s operation.

Finally, we put them into sentence form, like someone working on a jigsaw puzzle that doesn’t come with a picture on the box. We’re constantly erasing, crossing out and otherwise changing the prose; putting hand-drawn boxes around words we love or hate; employing a rainbow of colored markers.

Throughout that process, we’re asking questions:

· Does this really show how the organization differs from others?

· What do the clients’ customers care about, and does this address that?

· Is this word or phrase overused, or might it be understood in another, unflattering way?

· Do the words being thrown about reflect the nature of the business: Is their connotation quirky and casual, or professional and reassuring, depending on the client?

· Can we hear an echo of a different, positive meaning in a particular word or phrase?

It takes time and a lot of discussion – debate sometimes – to get the first two sentences of a company’s positioning statement and their even-shorter tagline just right.

But it’s important to stick with the process. Those few dozen words serve as the starting point of just about all the other marketing communications that the company does. The phrases and tone set at this initial branding session will find their way into advertising, news releases, brochures, posters, event handouts and other materials produced in the future.

So, it’s not something you want to throw together. It’s not enough to say, “This is good enough.”

Instead, it’s important to do what Ernest Hemingway always tried to do with his writing, as he said in a letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald: “search for the perfect title, the perfect word.”

– Eric Blom

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