Adrie's Blog

Personal Branding

A score of years ago, personal branding was an unknown, unheard of concept. When you did an interview - it was about your company, new developments, a large order or a merger. In those days, one rarely could name the CEO of a company - you stood a chance that people might know your name if you had been in the driving seat for over 20 years but it certainly wasn't common for anyone to really know anything about your personal life or likes and dislikes.

I think Oprah was one of the first people working on personal branding. Before then, you had a program which was all about the content and the presenter was just that.. presenting it. Now all television people are VIPs and are endlessly in the spotlight, their every move watched and discussed by zillions of people.

Corporate life is beginning to follow suit, CEOs are beginning to reach rockstar status - take Branson for instance (Virgin) or even more so, Steve Jobs, they are regarded as heroes and possibly rightly so. When Steve takes the stage, once a year in San Francisco - all TV stations and papers are ready to report on it. Welch, CEO of GE, was also such a star. It's almost not about the company any more but about the person at the helm. They participate in TV shows, do interviews about themselves, rather then their company. The risk involved in this is quite large for each of these people - their entire life is under the magnifying glass - their personal lives most of all. Take the example of Steve Jobs illness, all the papers cover that story which has a direct impact on Apple's share price.

With the rise of blogs, Social Networks like Facebook and E.Factor and media such as Twitter and YouTube - a whole new world is opening up to many people that are looking to promote themselves. TV shows cater to the common curiosity by displaying more and more common people as celebrities and are always looking for new heroes. All this increases the trend towards Personal Branding.

For the older generation, this is a hard to understand phenomenon. Not the internal quality but exterior is important. However, it fits well into the trend towards individualism in our society. Where power used to be with the manufacturers, such as Unilever, Procter & Gamble, then with the retail companies such as Ahold, Carrefour and the Wall Marts of this world...the power now is with the consumer, the individual has the ability to call the shots and start changes.

This week we had a discussion in France about cultural difference and this power of the individual on retail, politics etc. through the use of internet and social networks. The discussion wasn't clear cut since I don't think there is yet a clear answer - I hope you all will share your thoughts on the topic with me and whether you personally think it should be more about quality content then "personal" branding.

I personally think, as a business owner, it is all about the company, not the individual - but I am open to debate the point.

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