Art of Branding

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.

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.

Walter Chronkite died today at 92 years old. Living in America during the 60’s and 70’s who could not remember his wonderful baritone voice on the CBS evening news each night? Who could not have been soothed by Chronkite’s calm presence and that deep rich voice as it said each word? We watched him report on wars, elections, defeats, assassinations and the myriad of everyday events that defined American life in those decades. We knew that the world would someone come out all right with Chonkite at the helm.

From a branding perspective, Chronkite owned the word “trust.” He was called “the most trusted man in America” not just the most trusted man in news. He symbolized core American values: truth, integrity, fairness and democracy. Yet he had a folksy side to him – like the ideal dad or a much loved grandfather – that made him seem “real,” like someone we actually knew and could trust.

Chronkite created the news anchor brand – that mixture of gravitas and likeability that so many others have tried to emulate. He ended each news report with his trademark tagline: “And that’s the way it was.”

Good Job News for Girlie Men
by Bob Goldman

Creators Syndicate Inc

This economic disaster does not play favorites.
Pick any person, in any job category, and you
will find fear, depression and uncertainty. Even
the strongest people, with the best prospects,
the most education, and the highest level of job
skills live in fear of a sudden reversal that will
put them permanently out to pasture.
When it comes to feeling scared and hopeless,
this economy — as they say in employment ads,
back when there used to be employment ads –
is an equal opportunity employer, male and
female.

Or is it? According to personal branding expert
Catherine Kaputa, female job searchers have a
“feminine advantage: distinct, hardwired
advantages over male counterparts and
competitors.”

If you’re a woman, Kaputa says, all you have to
do is leverage your natural advantages. What a
man is supposed to do, Kaputa does not
specify. (”Giving up” might be one strategy –
putting down your beer, stripping off your
football jersey, enjoying one last, loud burp, and
walking into the sea.)

In her new book, “The Female Brand: Using the
Female Mindset to Succeed in Business,”
Kaputa presses her case that “women are
naturally wired for success.” Using what her
publicity person — a woman, naturally –
describes as “the latest brain science,” the
author “debunks old and misguided workplace
myths that women must think and act like a man
to succeed.”

Unfortunately, in this economy, even thinking
and acting like a man is no guarantee for
success. That’s why I feel it is absolutely fair for
men to use the “feminine advantage” to solve
our job problems. For a girlie man like me, this
should be relatively simple. But the way I see it,
even a he-man like you could benefit from
taking on few of these girlish traits.

For example:
This economic disaster does not play favorites.
Pick any person, in any job category, and you
will find fear, depression and uncertainty. Even
the strongest people, with the best prospects,
the most education, and the highest level of job
skills live in fear of a sudden reversal that will
put them permanently out to pasture.

When it comes to feeling scared and hopeless,
this economy — as they say in employment ads,
back when there used to be employment ads –
is an equal opportunity employer, male and
female.

Or is it? According to personal branding expert
Catherine Kaputa, female job searchers have a
“feminine advantage: distinct, hardwired
advantages over male counterparts and
competitors.”

If you’re a woman, Kaputa says, all you have to
do is leverage your natural advantages. What a
man is supposed to do, Kaputa does not
specify. (”Giving up” might be one strategy –
putting down your beer, stripping off your
football jersey, enjoying one last, loud burp, and
walking into the sea.)

In her new book, “The Female Brand: Using the
Female Mindset to Succeed in Business,”
Kaputa presses her case that “women are
naturally wired for success.” Using what her
publicity person — a woman, naturally –
describes as “the latest brain science,” the
author “debunks old and misguided workplace
myths that women must think and act like a man
to succeed.”

Unfortunately, in this economy, even thinking
and acting like a man is no guarantee for
success. That’s why I feel it is absolutely fair for
men to use the “feminine advantage” to solve
our job problems. For a girlie man like me, this
should be relatively simple. But the way I see it,
even a he-man like you could benefit from
taking on few of these girlish traits.

For example:
Tune in Emotionally: Women are especially
“intuitive and empathetic,” says Kaputa. It’s a
condition she chalks up to a higher level of
hormones, such as estrogen and oxytocin. By
being more open to others’ feelings, her theory
goes, women can form closer bonds to “build
strong and healthy work relationships.”

Accepting for a moment that a “healthy work
relationship” actually exists, this lack of
hormones is a difficult hurdle for mankind. You
could ask for extra estrogen on your double
cheeseburger, or add an oxytocin chaser to your
boilermaker. But the harsh truth is that, in the
game of biology, you have to play with the
hormones you were dealt. That leaves guys with
testosterone, a hormone more connected with
caveman violence than with intuition or
empathy.