Art of Branding

Tough times are bad, but the flip side is creative destruction. New things appear out of the old.

As much as we may hate it, difficulty forces you to be innovative, more focused and smarter, and that’s good.

That’s why, during this current tough time, make sure your brand is positioned right for today and tomorrow.

Some people have to find new opportunities for themselves, or if you’re an entrepreneur, you have to do things in a more economical way, not same old, because business just don’t come in over the transom like before, you have to earn it of course.

In a tough economy, your brand must be different and it must be relevant.

Look at my case.

My focus before 2009 was primarily on individual coaching of entrepreneurs and executives.

One friend even said, with so many people out of work, this would be the best of times for you because so many people will be needing your coaching services.

In fact, it was the opposite. It was the worst of times. With the recession and job layoffs, people either didn’t have the money or were afraid to invest in personal coaching. And I initially saw a drop-off in business.

What I did was expand my brand footprint and change my business focus almost completely to corporate speaking and workshops. I limited my individual coaching to entrepreneurs and senior executives who were interested in either doing an intensive 2-month coaching program, The SelfBrand Strategy and Mini-Marketing Plan, or SelfBrand Speech-Writing, both areas where I could make a strong contribution to their brand.

I focused my marketing efforts on corporations, particularly the human resources area, for my talks and workshops, You Are a Brand! (based on the ideas in my first book that came out in paperback edition in 2009 )and The Female Brand (my new book on female leadership came out last summer).

In marketing yourself in a touch economy, you need to fill a gap – have the right solution for the right price and be different so that you stand out from the competition. That way you’ll be a brand for all seasons.

CIO.com
In 2009, personal branding became the buzzword of choice for job seekers and career coaches alike, and for good reason. When done right, personal branding–the act of identifying and communicating your unique value to people who can help advance your career–promised to be the job seeker’s silver bullet, his surefire way to stand out in a crowded job market.

The social media and social networking technologies that took 2009 by storm sure made personal branding easy. Too easy, perhaps, since many job seekers made careless mistakes in their haste to brand their way to a new job.

Personal branding experts say some of these mistakes can undermine professionals’ job searches and career management plans. For example, too much self-promotion can alienate the audience you’re trying to reach, says Catherine Kaputa, an advertising executive turned personal branding strategist.

[ Personal Branding Really Is the Key to Finding a New Job ]
Kaputa and two other prominent personal branding strategists list the six most common and most damaging personal branding mistakes people make, so that as you recharge your job search for the new year, you can ensure your personal branding efforts put your best face forward.

1. Putting the cart before the horse. The biggest and most common mistake people make is using the tools for personal branding, such as blogs, LinkedIn and Twitter, without first taking the time to define a strong, authentic brand for themselves.

“One of the most prevalent myths about personal branding is that it has to do with just creating a lot of visibility,” says personal branding strategist and Career Distinctionco-author Kirsten Dixson.

Consequently, people lay “a lot of digital footprints,” she says, before considering who they are, what they want to become known for long-term, and how they can differentiate themselves from people with similar goals and backgrounds.
Kaputa advises clients to think strategically when they’re defining their personal brand. She recommends they go through many of the same exercises marketers use when releasing a new product. These include such tactics as: SWOT analyses, setting goals for themselves, considering the visual and verbal identity for their personal brand, and establishing a marketing plan for themselves.

Dixson says honing in on your personal brand is hard and takes time, but it’s worth the effort as it guides all of your future personal branding efforts. What’s more, many of the other personal branding mistakes people make stem from not having a clearly articulated brand. Therefore, taking the time to define your brand sets you up for success and function as a preventative measure.

2. Having an unfocused brand. Many job seekers purport to practice personal branding. But instead of identifying and demonstrating their unique value through their communications, they continue to brand themselves as, say, an IT project management expert and a business process improvement expert and a virtualization expert.

“People have ’slash’ identities, and it’s a problem,” says Kaputa, author of You Are a Brand! “In the world of branding, being a generalist, jack-of-all-trades gets you nowhere.”

3. Adopting a copycat or generic brand. The purpose of personal branding–and, indeed, any kind of branding–is differentiation. Savvy job seekers work to brand themselves in order to distinguish themselves from other job seekers with similar backgrounds and skill sets. So don’t fall into the trap of branding yourself a “results-driven manager” or “turnaround CIO,” says Kaputa. You’ll just look like everyone else who’s describing themselves the same way.

“You want to own an idea,” she says. “You want to stand for something that’s a strength and a competitive advantage.”

4. Behaving inconsistently. When you commit to personal branding, you commit to having one identity, one voice that’s consistent across all media, all channels (e.g. phone, voice mail, e-mail, instant messaging), and between the physical and online worlds.

If you represent yourself as a paragon of professionalism on your LinkedIn profile, says Dixon, but you leave mean-spirited comments on blogs or your e-mails come off as less than professional, your target audience will question your authenticity.

5. Not committing to social media and social networking. Blogs and social networking sites are effective vehicles for personal branding, but only if you use them regularly. Otherwise, you look lame and uncommitted.

“If you establish a Twitter profile but you never tweet, it’s going to hurt you more than help you,” says Dan Schawbel, personal branding expert and author of Me 2.0.

Similarly, Schawbel adds, if you have a LinkedIn profile, make sure it’s 100 percent complete. And if you’re taking the time to write a blog, you must also take the extra time to promote it so that people can find it in a sea of more than 133 million blogs.

“You have to be as committed to your social media profile as you are to your husband or wife,” says Schawbel. And he means genuinely committed.

6. Over-promoting yourself. Some people go overboard with self-promotion when they embark on a personal branding campaign. Too much self-promotion can do more harm than good. That’s why Kaputa advises clients to think about the frequency of their self-promotion efforts.

Too much self-promotion can manifest itself in the way people represent themselves on the comment section of blogs, adds Schawbel. Most people leave their name, URL and their comment, as is customary. But some people who are trying too hard to brand themselves also leave their title, the name of their company and their personal branding statement, he says.
“They look bad because they’re over-promoting themselves,” says Schawbel. “What matters is writing a great comment that inspires or states an opinion on the post. When you do, people will click on your URL. It’s about the soft sell.”

Follow Meridith Levinson on Twitter at @meridith.

Janet Napolitano, our head of Homeland Security, had a solid reputation as a female leader, even spoken of as a Democratic presidential candidate in the future.

That is until she uttered the words, “the system worked” in reacting the attempted Christmas day terrorist attack on Flight 253.

Though a little late in coming, President Obama demonstrated his leadership chops by saying with a tip of the hat to Harry Truman, “the buck stops here” and there was “a systemic failure.”

From a branding perspective, when a tragedy strikes a brand, a company or a country, as a leader you have to take responsibility and you have to present a plan to turn things around. And, most importantly, you have to utter words that convince people that you are up to the job.

People don’t want to hear that “the system worked” even if it did. Because if the system worked we need a new system that can be more effective in catching terrorists. What did work was the brave people on Flight 253 who took charge to thwart the world-be terrorist.

Napolitano further hurt our credibility as our leader of Homeland Security after President’s address yesterday. When asked what surprised her in her role as director of Homeland Security, Napolitano replied that she was most surprised “by the determination of Al-Queda.”

Are you surprised their determination? After 9/11, after the CIA massacre at Khost, after…?

The morale of this study is the importance of political savvy in personal branding. When you’re a leader, you have to realize that everything you say and do will be watched, especially when there’s a big mess-up. Your words can brand you as a leader or not up to the job.

Author: By Roger Dobson

Researchers investigating whether there is a beauty premium to be had in the workplace have found that those they deemed the most attractive make 12 per cent more money than those regarded as less goodlooking. Average Joes and Joans have little to smile about either, with the moderately attractive taking home seven per cent less in earnings than the prettiest people.
The main reason for the apparent victory of the lookers is that they are seen as more helpful and co-operative.
In the study, reported in the Journal of Economic Psychology, University of California researchers studied three groups of subjects according to general perceptions of physical attractiveness. Their behaviour was observed and their different incomes taken into consideration.
“Attractive people make more money than middle attractive people, who in turn make more money than unattractive people,” declared the researchers.
The scientists said their work was applicable across different societies and work settings.
The researchers concluded that attractive people make more money because they found it easier to generate co-operation among their co-workers. The team ruled out another possibility ? that the more successful were just more selfish.
In fact, they found that that attractive people are, on average, less selfish than moderately attractive people. The team said one theory why people are more co-operative with attractive people is that they believe them to be more helpful.
They say attractive people are consistently judged and treated more positively, and the results show that 39 per cent of attractive men and women were judged to be helpful, compared to 16 per cent of middle attractive people, and only six per cent of unattractive people.
The researchers said: “Beautiful people tend to be in more successful teams because other team members are more co-operative in the presence of beautiful people.”
The good news for those like Ugly Betty (played by America Ferrera, below) is that when the beautiful people are not pulling their weight, their good looks count against them. In those situations, the unattractive invariably come out as the winners.
Work strategist Catherine Kaputa has already suggested that looks have a bearing on an individual’s career. “It is pretty disconcerting to find out that the workplace is a beauty contest,” said Kaputa, author of U R a Brand.
“Good looks have what social scientists call the halo effect. Because someone is attractive, we assign many other positive attributes to him or her that have nothing to do with looks.”
Help, I look like a workplace failure.
Work guru Catherine Kaputa has formulated a five-point plan for salvaging your looks and achieving success:

1 Package yourself: clothes will not help you perform but will help how your performance is perceived
2 Emphasise features: be confident about your looks and build a strong image
3 Have a trademark: think Bono’s shades or Sir Robin Day’s bow ties. Stand out from the crowd
4 Focus on “soft power”: use your values, style and point of view to attract others to you. Stand tall, and never slouch
5 Hone your speech: the ability to sell yourself and your ideas is critical

CATHERINE KAPUTA ON REBRANDING YOURSELF   January 3, 2010

For many years a corporate advertising fly-flier on Madison Avenue, Kaputa has repositioned herself as “a cross between a brand manager and an executive coach”, writing about and teaching “personal branding”.

“It’s about looking at yourself as a brand in a commercial market place, packaging yourself with a visual and verbal identity distinct from others,” and developing a game plan for Brand You,” she enthuses. Her ideas have found favour in a particularly tough job market. “There are more and more people unemployed, worrying about becoming unemployed, feeling under-employed, or wishing to become entrepreneurs, and my strategies and techniques give them identity, visibility and edge. This isn’t just self-promotion, but about your CV telling your brand story and seeing your self-brand as a strategic and creative commercial project. This is particularly important for home-workers. When you’re working remotely, as more and more are, it’s essential to maximise Brand You.”

Kaputa writes, lectures, heads workshops and does individual coaching. She particularly focuses on women. “Some women say, ‘Why talk about such things in the business arena? There shouldn’t be any difference.’ I’m talking about the reality of the workplace, where male hubris has often won out over female humility when it comes to promotion. Whether to women’s groups in Fortune 500 companies or to my female readers, I emphasise the strengths women have in relationship building and communication, and how they can use those assets to help build their personal brands in the job market.” Kaputa will be bringing herself, her self-brand and her self-branding messages to the UK later this year. JH

ADVICE Come up with a unique signature phrase that you can use in every conversation. Think of Sir Alan Sugar and the success of “You’re Fired!”, which symbolises him being a tough business leader. Although you may not want to be known for saying that right now.

IN A NUTSHELL Learn to brand yourself

before others brand you in a way that you don’t like.

The Female Brand is published in the UK this summer. Kaputa blogs at www.selfbrand.com and tweets at twitter.com/catherinekaputa

Canadian Business Magazine: Winners & Losers 2009: Big winner – women
It wasn’t called a ‘he-cession’ for nothing: why more women kept their jobs.
By Lianne George

“Clearly, something needs to change,” a disgusted Howard Archer, chief European and U.K. economist at IHS Global Insight, told reporters back in February, commenting on the cabal of battle-weary British bank chiefs called to testify before parliament’s Treasury Select Committee. “You can argue that the men have made a right mess of it, and now the ladies should have a go.”
It’s been a popular sentiment this year. Take Iceland. Since the island nation’s devastating economic meltdown, it’s the ladies who have been directing clean-up — chief among them, the country’s first female prime minster, Johanna Sigurdardottir, who vowed to exercise “prudence and responsibility” in rebuilding the country’s financial system, where her male predecessors did not. Two more women, Elín Sigfúsdóttir and Birna Einarsdóttir, were recruited to head two newly nationalized banks.
Meanwhile, around the world, a seismic gender shift in the job market has taken hold. In Canada, a staggering 71% of the roughly 400,000 jobs lost since October 2008 belonged to men — while employment rates among women remained virtually unchanged. Reports from the U.S., Britain and elsewhere tell the same story — prompting commentators the world over to joke, a little cloyingly, that the Great Recession was really more of a he-cession.
One theory put forward to explain the job-loss divide is that women are simply cheaper. Even at the dawn of 2010, women still make, on average, just 70% of what their male colleagues do. This long tradition of being “shamefully underpaid,” may be suddenly, amazingly, paying off, says Catherine Kaputa, a Wall Street veteran and author of The Female Brand: Using the Female Mindset To Succeed in Business. “Everyone’s looking for value these days,” she recently told the London Evening Standard. “When the cost-cutters go over the compensation figures, women look like a bargain.”
Of course, there are much larger factors at work — chiefly, male dominance of certain cyclical industries. More than half of the Canadian jobs lost between October 2008 and October 2009 were in manufacturing and construction, sectors that are overwhelmingly occupied by men.
Still, it stands to reason that a greater ratio of women in the workplace means more opportunities for them to step into leadership roles, a boon for proponents of gender equity everywhere. But it’s not just about fairness. If the latest research is any indication, the economic benefits of having more women leaders are enormous.
Earlier this year, Michel Ferrary, a professor of management at France’s Ceram Business School, published a headline-grabbing paper outlining his discovery that the French companies that best weathered the financial tsunami all had one thing in common: a large proportion of female managers.
Ferrary studied companies from the CAC 40 stock index and found that the more women there were in a company’s management, the less the company’s share price fell in 2008.
Among the dozens of examples he cites, Ferrary pointed out that Hermès, the only large company on the exchange whose share price rose (up 17%), has the CAC 40’s second-largest female management team (55%). Among French banks, Ferrary compares BNP Paribas, whose share price fell by a relatively modest 39% in 2008, to Credit Agricole, whose share price tanked (down 62%). Almost 40% of BNP Paribas’s managers are women, he notes. Credit Agricole’s team, however, consists of only 16% women.
Coincidence? Ferrary thinks not. “Feminization of management seems to be a protection against financial crisis,” he said. “Several gender studies have pointed out that women behave and manage in a different way than men. They tend to avoid risk and to focus more on long-term perspective. A larger proportion of female managers balances the risk-taking behaviour of their male colleagues.”
Of course, it will take a lot more than one research paper to bridge the gender gap in the corridors of power. Still, some observers see the Great Recession as a turning point. In a piece in Foreign Policy last summer, conservative commentator Reihan Salam argued the he-cession signals the end of thousands of years of male dominance in global affairs. Because of the economic crisis, he wrote, “more people realize that the aggressive, risk-seeking behavior that has enabled men to entrench their power — the cult of macho — has now proven destructive.” True or not, what better time to test the theory.

For more: visit www.selfbrand.com

MANAGING FOR SUCCESS

Triumphing Without Tears At Male Firms

By GARY M. STERN, FOR INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY

Posted 12/24/2009 06:00 PM ET

Frustrated by criticism from manager Tom Hanks in the film “A League of Their Own,” a female baseball player bursts into tears. “There’s no crying in baseball,” Hanks tells her in a fatherly way.

In her book, “There’s No Crying in Business: How Women Can Succeed in Male-Dominated Industries,” author Roxanne Rivera implores women to control their emotions to thrive and move up the ranks. Crying, it seems, doesn’t work any better in business than baseball.

Succeeding in industries dominated by men like construction, medicine, financial services and science research requires a separate set of skills for women, Rivera says. In these heavily male fields, women must master communicating with men, publicize their feats and find ways to overcome the old-boys’ network.

Firms that can tap female talents can boost their revenue. Since many women executives possess different strengths than men, they help businesses reach new markets, explore new revenue streams and retain top producers.

PMR Construction Services President Roxanne Rivera at the site of a new company facility in Albuquerque, N.M. She says women in male-ruled industries.

When Rivera and her husband started PMR Construction Services in Albuquerque, N.M., in 1981, Rivera became president and he was named vice president. When male contractors called to speak to the boss, Rivera told them she was in charge, but they asked to speak with someone else.

“If I were going to be successful, I had to swallow my pride and build credibility,” she says.

Building Credibility

Rivera joined the board of the Association of Builders & Contractors, gained her contractor’s license and joined a worker’s compensation advisory committee. Soon, builders were coming to her with questions. She learned that becoming an expert built her credibility with men.

Rivera also noted that many women “wear their hearts on their sleeves,” which won’t work in business meetings or negotiations. Getting too emotional undercuts a woman’s credibility.

Moreover, many men engaged in crude behavior to test her reactions. She developed a “thick skin” and takes a deep breath before reacting to gain control of the situation.

In industries like publishing and media, where many females have achieved senior-level positions, women can find role models and mentors. In construction, there were so few women that this wasn’t possible.

Instead Rivera discovered a “band of sisters.” She joined the National Association of Women in Construction where she learned from other women, shared difficulties with them, and found a mentor in a seasoned woman who ran her own construction firm.

To compete with men, women often resort to self-defeating behaviors. Rivera recommends that women:

• Avoid trying to act “tough” like a man.

• Don’t project false confidence and bravado.

• Avoid showing guile — instead be assertive, without being pushy.

Many women succeed at male-dominated businesses because they develop long-term relationships, a source of strength of many females. “In this age with e-mails and texting, developing strong relationships builds a clientele,” Rivera adds.

“Most women aren’t as good as men in promoting and branding themselves,” explains Catherine Kaputa, author of “The Female Brand: The Advantage of the Female Mindset” and a former senior vice president in community affairs at Citigroup (C).

Men often exaggerate their deeds while women downplay theirs. Women need to publicize their deeds or get eclipsed by more aggressive men.

For example, one woman exec told Kaputa that she arrived early at work and often rode the elevator with the CEO. Slightly intimidated, she’d discuss the weather. When a senior male executive encountered the CEO on the elevator, he’d tout his latest deals.

Finally, she got the message and told the CEO about her revenue-boosting feats. Within months, she was put on the fast track and was running a major division.

Another CEO said that men streamed into his office six months before bonus decisions to detail how much revenue their unit generated and pinpoint the specific bonus they deserved.

“In all my years, a female managing director never asked for a bonus,” the CEO noted. That pressure led to higher bonuses.

To succeed in male-dominated fields, women must overcome “invisible barriers,” Kaputa says.

Betty Spence is president of the National Association for Female Executives, an association of 20,000 women leaders and entrepreneurs. She says men typically form informal networks at golf clubs, sporting events, and while socializing at bars, which excludes most women.

“Unless companies change their culture so women gain more visibility, exposure and training, the opportunities won’t be there,” she said.

What Women Bring

When women attain senior- level posts, they bring certain strengths to a company that can boost results. Women bring “collaborative consensus-building and long-term strategic thinking” to management, Spence says.

Moreover, women often employ less risky strategies than testosterone-driven men. Had Lehman Bros. been run as “Lehman Brothers and Sisters” it might have taken fewer risks and might still be operating, Spence adds.

Females can often read subtle cues that men miss. Kaputa recalls one female senior executive at an advertising meeting who sensed that the client wasn’t happy with the proposal. Men disputed that claim, but when the client was asked, the female executive was proved right.

Her emotional intelligence sensed the client’s dissatisfaction with the proposal, which led to revising it.

Ironically, Rivera points to a study conducted by Penn State psychologist Stephanie Shields that said when men cry in business they’re viewed as sensitive, but when women shed tears they’re perceived as incompetent and weak.

Talk about double standards.

There’s an old adage in branding, “Brand reputations take a long time to build and a short time to destroy.”

Boy did Tiger demonstrate how true that is. Tiger had it all. World’s top golfer. Beautiful wife and children. Rich and famous. Wholesome, attractive image. Yet Tiger took a wrecking ball to his personal brand – one that he’s been building since childhood. It’s a Greek tragedy in its epic proportions and he has no one to blame but himself.

Tiger was the first billion-dollar athlete who had endorsement contracts and business partnerships with the world’s top blue chip companies, including PepsiCo, Gillette and AccentureThe companies who sought Tiger out to endorse their brands paid him top dollar not just because he was a star golfer and not just because he was famous. Companies sought Tiger as a brand endorser because he stood for something they wanted their brands to stand for too – success, vitality, wholesomeness.

Plus Tiger’s brand also represented something quintessentially American –  self-empowerment. Tiger was wholesome, earnest and self-made. He came from a humble family that represented a melting pot of races – who through talent and hard work succeeded. He represented America at its best. We all wanted to be like Tiger. All that is changed now.

Tiger may have been a personal branding superstar, but he forgot one of the most important rules of branding: Your reputation is your most important brand asset.

Already, in just the short time since the scandal broke, the power and magic of the Tiger brand is taking a nosedive. The Davie Brown index that measures celebrity brand influence – how a particular celebrity can influence buying a brand and build brand loyalty – announced that Tiger dropped from 6th place overall to 24^th place.

Of course, we don’t know how this saga is going to end. Tiger could even turn things around with a remorseful apology to his family, his fans and supporters – this time in person – and seeking professional help for his problems. It would take time, but anything is possible. America loves nothing more than a heartfelt redemption story.

As I like to emphasize in my branding talks, you are your most important asset. You are an asset that no one can take away from you. In my opinion, your personal brand is a more valuable asset than what we typically view as assets – your investment assets and your real estate assets.  Personal branding is about maximizing the value of the asset that is you. It’s important to build your brand based on your authenticity – what is special, different and valuable about Brand You.  And guard your personal brand reputation with your life. Because it’s that important.

Visit Catherine Kaputa’s website: www.selfbrand.com

Last week, Oprah shocked her audience with the announcement that after twenty-five years on the “yellow brick road of blessings that led me to you,” she was quitting her top-rated “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in September 2011.

It’s a testament to her stature as a top entertainment “brand” that her announcement became a big news story. After all, she wasn’t leaving soon and she wasn’t abandoning the media world to meditate on a mountaintop. Oprah’s plan was to dedicate all her attention to her new cable venture, OWN, The Oprah Winfrey Network.

Interestingly, when I did the research for my book, The Female Brand, Oprah was the Number 1 female businesswomen cited when I asked women, “Who do you look up to as a female role model or business leader?”

Oprah is clearly someone who has built a strong personal brand – so strong that you don’t have to use her last name. She is a leader in the entertainment industry and she’s someone who knows how to protect her brand. So what can we learn from this personal branding pro? Here’s my short list (and this list could go on and on):

• Don’t be afraid to change at the top of your game
Oprah is a master of quitting while she’s ahead. Making a move when you are at the top of your game is often a smart career strategy. I was on a business panel recently and one of my fellow panelists – an Executive Vice President at a well known bank – made the point that it’s counter intuitive, but the best time to make a career move is when you are thriving. Whether it’s a lateral move in your organization, or you’re trying to increase your responsibilities or move to a new experience, you have the most leverage and confidence when you are happy and doing well. Yet, that is time most of use don’t think of making any changes.

• Surround yourself with the best talent
Have the confidence to surround yourself with talented people. Look at all the talent that Oprah has launched – “Dr. Phil,” “Rachel Ray” and “Dr. Oz” shows all got their start with Oprah. It will not only make your team one to be envied, you’ll have a reputation as a true leadership brand – someone who creates a culture of leadership in the company.

• Have a different, authentic message
Be different is a cardinal rule of branding, yet one that is often neglected in this “me too” world. Oprah never went the exploitative interview approach of the Jerry Spinger show and others. Rather she traveled a different path focusing her brand around empowerment – what some have called a “unique blend of self-help spirituality and commercial flair” or the “mystical and the practical.” For a brand, she is unusual because the appeal of her brand message transcends race, age and economic circumstances.

• Innovate
Oprah created a book club in 1996 and helped get America reading and discussing books. (As any author knows, landing a slot of Oprah often leads to the best-seller charts.) Later she created “O, The Oprah Magazine” with Hearst as a print vehicle for her empowerment ideas. Recently, she championed the movie, “Precious,” as an executive producer.

• Admit your mistakes and move on
Most of us have had our share of failures and mistakes, and so has Oprah. But she quickly puts them behind her and moves on. One of her book choices, “A Million Little Pieces,” became a controversy when the author, James Frey, admitted writing fiction not memoir in key scenes, Oprah had Frey on her show and confronted him – and it became a ratings bonanza. Some of her ventures, like her philanthropic reality show on ABC, “the Big Give” flopped and was cancelled after one year.

•
Like many of us, Oprah has had her share of diet successes and failures, but whatever her weight, she packages herself well with her own style – classic, clean lines with strong color.

Oprah has many leadership and branding tips we can all benefit from. And I’m sure I’ve missed some. Let me hear your thoughts.

Whether you think Sarah Palin is the savior of the Western world or you think the clothes have no governor, you have to give her credit as a personal branding superstar. This last week, Sarah Palin has been front and center in the news with her new book, Going Rogue, drawing crowds and news bites wherever she goes.

So, what are the branding lessons we can learn from Sarah? Here’s my shortlist:

Be different
Being different is a cardinal rule of branding. Sarah, though her state’s chief executive, wasn’t afraid to position herself as a just-folks “hockey mom.” Rather than making her appear trivial, this strategy made her identity relevant as a maverick populist and cemented her appeal to the Republican party’s base. Plus, it’s hard not to notice, she looks “hot.” After all, there were fifty governors, but only one that was a middle-age gorgeous hockey mom.

Like Sarah, you too should build your professional identity around your strengths and your authenticity – who you are and what’s different about you. Realize that it’s often smart to go against the popular wisdom. If you define yourself the same way as everyone else, you’re soda not Pepsi.

Create an attractive, identifiable “package”
Brand managers pay a lot of attention to product design and packaging, and it pays off in sales and premium pricing. Sarah may have been blessed with good looks, but she is careful to package herself with her trademark features like rimless glam glasses and up-do hairstyle. An image consultant might have even advised Sarah to ditch the specs for contacts and cut the long hair, but Sarah didn’t listen. And it was smart personal branding. Once Tina Fey put on the rimless eyeglasses and copied the hairstyle, she was well on her way to her Emmy nomination. You betcha.

Like Sarah, you need to have your own look and get noticed. Have the courage to find our own style. Create a signature color, accessory or whatever fits you.

Make a good first impression
Like it or not, first impressions are powerful and tend to stick to the roof of our consciousness. That’s why marketers put most of their big money behind the brand launch. Sarah is obviously good at creating a fabulous first impression. She bowled over John McCain who offered her the vice presidency after knowing her for a whole 45 minutes, She made a splash at the Republican convention with her speech cementing her base and putting lipstick on the Republican ticket. Even hip Saturday Night Live was wowed in its first meeting with Sarah. Senior producer, Marci Klein, gushed, “She’s the most confidant person I ever met.”

Like Sarah, we must learn to seize the opportunity to create a strong first impression. It may sound obvious but if it’s not in your consciousness, you might not do it. Have your thirty-second personal commercial, your “elevator speech” ready. And be prepared to use it at a moment’s notice. After all, it’s not just in networking events or job interviews where you need to make a great first impression, you’re being “interviewed” all the time in company meetings.

Keep your story current
Marketers develop brand stories that wrap myth and a narrative around their brands. Sarah has shown a certain genius for keeping her story alive and kicking through news stories, airtime and cyber blogs. It’s hard to pin down her story because it keeps changing. Is she the frontier governor? Is she the hockey mom? Is she the up-and-coming Republican star? Even the “bad” parts of her story – the ethics charges, the campaign and family rumors, her poor performance in interviews – only create more excitement and narrative twists and turns. Now, she’s broken the conventional mode by resigning as governor and writing a book, creating a juicy cliffhanger about what she will do next.

Like Sarah, you need to tap into the power of story. What’s your narrative? Having one will make you more successful in pitching yourself for a promotion or a lateral move, or closing the sale with a client. Don’t rely on last year’s accomplishments, keep creating new images of yourself to get you where you want to be. Story is also a powerful tool in presenting business ideas and recommendations. Learn to craft it.

Customers who identify with a brand emotionally are its lifeblood. That’s why at its core, branding is emotion, and emotion is branding. After all, people buy brands that they like and connect with, not necessarily the brands that they have analyzed and decided are better. Sarah is a master of emotional branding. Pit bull Sarah was careful in her speech at the Republican convention to emphasize emotion over policy. She connected with her audience emotionally, and later attracted throngs of fans who love her and feel an affinity with her brand. Note that in her book tour, Palin is concentrating not on big cities like most book tours but in small towns in B and C counties where her biggest supporters live.

Like Sarah, you need to touch the emotions of your “customers” – your boss, colleagues, clients and business associates. Tuning into emotions is something that women are great at. Figure out how to connect and make them love you.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on Sarah’s branding lessons, and hear what you’ve tried and what works for you.