It’s Sunday morning and I’m the last of the new guest authors for the Personal Branding Blog. Luckily, that means you won’t be reading too many more introductions thanking Dan. But I’m still going to make you read mine: Thank you so much, Dan! I’m very excited to be here and I think this will be a lot of fun.
I also have a confession to make to everyone: I’m not an expert on personal branding! Instead, I’m a master of creativity. Don’t worry though, I didn’t pull the wool over Dan’s eyes and finagle my way onto this blog through shady means.
In fact, there are a lot of similarities between innovation and personal branding.
For example, consider what Paul wrote on Wednesday:
“People don’t buy ‘run of the mill’ anything anymore!”
He’s totally correct in this statement. But he’s also a little wrong. Let me explain.
People actually buy tons of “run of the mill” things: Cereal, cell phones, computers, cars, airplane tickets, toilet paper, shampoos, clothing, etc, etc.
Walmart and other superstores are filled with products that don’t stand out from the crowd in any significant way. As a result, their parent companies constantly struggle to distinguish their products from others that are nearly identical. They try fancy commercials, price wars and flashy logos.
But customers know that those commodities are basically interchangeable.
Sure, they may loyally buy one shampoo because they like the smell, but if that brand were to suddenly disappear or drastically increase in price, they wouldn’t be devastated. They’d simply move on to another brand.
So, people still do buy “run of the mill.” What they don’t do is seek out, or go to extra effort for that “run of the mill” commodity. If it’s there, and it’s cheap, they buy it.
That’s where innovation comes in.
Creativity and innovation are about figuring out how to stand out from the crowd. In the best cases, they result in something so remarkable and unique that the “run of the mill” products are left in the dust.
Think the iPod, Starbucks, the Nintendo Wii. When each of those products came out on the market, they stood out so drastically that they had no competitors. They created a new market. People didn’t want just any mp3 player, they wanted an iPod.
Personal branding is about creating that same demand.
It’s about presenting yourself to the world not as a commodity, but as a unique individual who has something to offer that no one else does. It’s about creating your own market, where potential employers or clients see you (and only you) as a must-have.
Because, as Paul pointed out, most people don’t want to hire “run of the mill” individuals. They want to hire the best person for their particular need.
So that’s what I’ll be focusing on here: How to advance your personal brand so you stand out from the hundreds of others who have the same basic qualifications that you do.
It’s the exact same process that innovators go through to bring their products and services to market. And that’s how I convinced Dan to let a creativity geek write on his blog!
Author:
Katie Konrath writes about “ideas so fresh… they should be slapped” at getFreshMinds.com, a top innovation blog.
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Katie,
I like how you tied personal branding to innovation and appreciate this statement, “It’s about presenting yourself to the world not as a commodity, but as a unique individual who has something to offer that no one else does.”Differentiation is critical and the individual who can articulate the differences of their personal brand and create the demand for those differences will be successful. Thanks for the great post!
Wii is repeatedly cited as a “blue ocean product”. It’s inaccurate to say it had no competitors; but it differentiated itself enough to take the lead.
Also remember another thing Wii had going for it; that silly, SILLY name led to people repeatedly saying and mocking it, generating “critical publicity”, waves of attention which might’ve seemed undesirable on the surface, but were infact a memorable leadup to the Wii’s release. After all, To Criticize Is To Publicize.
Thanx for your thoughts, Katie!
katie, you need not worry about the parallelism drawn. Innovation is part of all branding activities and personal branding is also branding. No one wants a static brand-personal brand- who remains outdated. Ability to innovate without constant changes that confuse the stakeholders is just the key. So let us have your thought, katie
“Create your own market” – that says it all right there. I’ll reuse that. Thanks Katie.
Your MessageThanks for this great post. I’ve been thinking about ways to strengthen my brand. Please keep me abreast of any workshops or teleclasses that you offer on the subject.
Torley,
I think what you describe about the Wii is what Katie really meant. The Wii is not the No.1 for “traditional” video gamers, but it attracted a lot of people who usually would never buy a game console. Their differentiation is so clear that you can really say they “created their own market” where they had no competition.
The same is true for the iPod, which had competition by other MP3 players, but really stood out with its design and unique interface.
Katie,
From a personal brand standpoint and from an innovation stand point it seems that convincing people that they have the ability to stand out can be the challenge. Most people lump themselves into a group because they don’t see the value in what they personally bring to the table. Enjoyed your post.
A wonderful post and great comments to follow it up! I agree that companies/organizations are seeking people to “be the best”. In the job hunting world, they want the best for whatever position they are looking to fulfill yet often they will pay ‘what the position is worth’ and not the ‘best person for the position’. So, in that respect, in the world of employment, sadly, I see commodities being bought all the time.