Art of Branding

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.

One woman I’ll call “Rachel” came up for a private speed branding session after a talk recently. Rachel’s boss had asked her if she could take on a new project, and Rachel gave her a truthful response. She said, “Honestly, I’m swamped. I can’t take on anything more.” In the course of the conversation, Rachel’s boss told her that she wasn’t as productive as other members of the department – something that took Rachel completely by surprise. In fact, Rachel felt that she was one of the most productive members of the team!

It’s a common problem. Two people – a boss and a direct report – with vastly different perceptions of a situation.

The business world, like most places, operates on perceptions. As brand managers know, it often doesn’t matter which product wins in objective performance tests, what really matters is which product people perceive to be best. Likewise, you have to be perceived to be a top performer for it to count, too.

You have to care about other people’s perceptions about you, especially your boss’s perceptions about you. While it’s true that you have the most control over your self-brand, if you work in a company, your boss is probably your number one target market for Brand You.

Rachel realized that she had a serious problem. She was branded in a way that she didn’t want to be branded by her boss – someone important to her career success at her company.

Rachel also provided a little back story to the situation. Having a family, Rachel limited the amount of time in the evening that she would spend checking email – if she would check it at all. Her boss and colleagues were single and seemed to check email religiously throughout the evening. Rachel felt that was driving her boss’s mistaken perceptions.

Here are some tips on how Rachel could handle the situation and start the rebranding process:
• Reach out with a positive message
Set up a meeting but make sure to compose a clear-cut message beforehand. For example, a good message for Rachel to convey might be: “I realize that we both have different perceptions about my performance and I want to change that.”
• Ride in on the elephant
Difficult conversations are hard for many of us, so we tend to avoid them. Of course, that only keeps you stuck in a bad situation. Begin the meeting by saying, “This is a difficult conversation for me to have because I pride myself on being a top performer. And, above all, I want you to recognize that.” You also need to address other uncomfortable things – the elephant in the room – such as the evening emails. Rather than be defensive about your family time, why not suggest a compromise. For example, you can offer to check email once an evening at a specific time.
• Empathize
Make sure that the conversation makes your boss feel understood just as you want her to understand you. Acknowledge that you realize that your boss is under a lot of pressure too. Ask questions and listen to the response. Ask your boss how you might be able to work together with her better in the future. Resist feeling like a victim or reacting defensively. A caring demeanor and eye contact are crucial.

When meetings like this go well, you will both leave feeling that you were able to come to a better understanding of each other. And that will begin the rebranding process.

Shakespeare’s lines are also true for aspiring business leaders. At a company, meetings are the stage on which you perform. And how well you perform on that stage can make a difference in how you are perceived at work, as my client “Kate” found out.

Kate was smart, hardworking and got results. But Kate didn’t like to speak up at meetings with her boss and colleagues, nor did she have the confidence to deliver a major presentation to a group outside of her direct reports. To camouflage her discomfort, she tended to read her PowerPoint slides and speak too fast if she was making a presentation, or just not contribute much if she wasn’t on the agenda.

Turns out the skills that got Kate to her present level aren’t enough to get her to the next level. Her performance in meetings was holding her back. Her boss couldn’t have Kate represent him in meetings he wasn’t able to attend, nor did he feel comfortable entrusting important cross-functional projects to her. Performing well in meetings is a skill that all of us can learn. We just have to realize that it is important and invest some time.

Here are my key tips on how to do well on the meeting stage:
• Pay attention to your entrance
In acting, a lot of focus is placed on the actor’s entrance. Your entrance is important, too. Do you walk in deliberately, confidently and on-time? Or do you rush in looking harried? Do you smile and greet the others who are already there? A successful lawyer I know told me how she carefully plans how she enters the courtroom – even if she feels her case has a lot of weak spots. She realizes the power of communicating confidence to her client, to the judge, to her opponents, to the jurors, to all in the courtroom by the way she enters the room and carries herself.

• Say something within the first 10 – 15 minutes of a meeting
You want to be perceived as a player – someone who is an important contributor to the “action” of the business and the meeting. That’s why it’s important to contribute at meetings – ideally within the first ten minutes or so since people remember best what is discussed at the beginning.

• Have 3 points prepared to contribute
Once I was asked by a company to work with one of its new hires – a senior female executive we’ll call Liza. Liza was recruited for her experience but in her first six months on the job had failed to speak up and participate adequately at executive meetings. Liza was in a more rough-and-tumble company culture than her previous one, and that can take some adjustment, but not participating adequately for your role is a problem. You won’t be perceived as a player who should be in the meeting – or in the job. Luckily, she had a boss who wanted to help her overcome this problem. It seems obvious, but what made a big difference was having Liza prepare three talking points beforehand that she was going to make. She tried to anticipate problematic questions so that she could have a talking point ready in advance. That way Liza wasn’t caught like a deer in the headlights.

• Take up some physical space
Actors think in terms of stage presence, and it’s important for you, too, even if your seated at the meeting table. Ever notice that men seem to spread out and take up more space at the meeting table, and women tend to sit neatly and take up a small space? It’s not just the difference in size between men and women in my observation. Research shows that taking up more space gives you a more powerful perception with others. So spread out a little bit and take up your place at the meeting table.

• Know your lines
If you’re giving a presentation, don’t read from a script or read the slides. Like in the theater, never let a piece of paper come between you and the audience. You want to be able to make eye contact and connect with the group. If you have some points to make that are technical and detailed, use a handout for that section which you can take the group through. Then, put down the paper and make eye contact as you make your point.

Try these simple tips and see if they help your “performance” in meetings. And let me know if you have other advice to share.

Last week, I gave a talk last week to the women’s initiative at a major technology company, and one of the women in the audience, a women with very long beautiful hair, asked me, “You spoke about hair in the section of your talk on visual branding. In my company, all the senior women have short hair, at least a lot shorter than mine. A colleague advised me that if I wanted to go up the corporate ladder here, I need to cut my hair too. What do you think?”

I don’t want to make too much about hair and hairstyles. After all, we all have good and bad hair days, and key to success is a reputation for business results. Nevertheless, hair is a potent branding device. What your hairstyle says about you is something that you need to think about.

Historically, in many parts of the world, your hairstyle indicated status in society or what you did for a living. Even in America in the early days, our Founding Fathers wore wigs in the European style of the aristocracy. That’s why it was so revolutionary – and raised eyebrows – for Benjamin Franklin to throw out his powdered wig and wear his hair unadorned – straight gray hair hanging down loosely. In France and England, where Franklin represented the colonies and later our fledging country, Franklin and his hair came to symbolize the independent, frontier American spirit.

In the corporate world even today, there are expectations for both men and women in terms of hairstyle and clothing. There is quite of bit of leeway in terms of personal choice. But, bottom line, if you aspire to be a manager or corporate officer, it is important to convey executive presence and project authority. And your hairstyle can help or hurt you in conveying authority.

You must look like a good representative for the company brand the higher up you go. Likewise, there’s truth in the old saying, “You have to look the part to get the part.” For women in many companies, having a long “Alice in Wonderland” hairstyle or a Dolly Parton “big hair” look, will undercut you. Some people won’t take you as seriously.

Now, that doesn’t mean you have to have a really short hairstyle. I believe it’s important to be who you are – to be authentic – but you have to be “appropriate” and “authentic.” So if you have overly long hair, you may want to keep it in an updo at the office to convey the right image.

Look at women leaders in your company or in the larger business world. For example, Fortune magazine publishes a list of the top 50 women in business each year. Indra Nyooyi is #1. Look at the pictures of the women leaders and you’ll see a range of hairstyles from very short to a few inches beyond shoulder length. There is a lot of individuality and attractiveness displayed, but all the hairstyles contribute to branding the women as authoritative leaders. Let me hear your thoughts.

As First Lady of California, Maria Shriver has played a pivotal role in championing the role of women in the workforce. She chairs the state’s yearly conference on women, an event that attracts over 10,000 women each year. Now, she has spearheaded an important research survey on American women and their impact on business and society – at a major tipping point in American business.

In a report titled, A Women’s Nation Changes Everything, Shriver in conjunction with the Center for American Progress, looks at workingwomen now that women are the majority of the work force. The report examines how women are transforming not only family life but influencing work life. The report documents the challenges women face and the impact on society, family life and business with the influx of women in the workforce.

Recognizing that women now make up more than half of the work force is just the first step, the report points out. The next step is figuring out how we need to transform our institutions and adjust our policies and practices due to this transformation.

Here are some of the key findings:

It’s not easy for women
• Women say they feel increasingly isolated, stressed and misunderstood.
• A majority of women have no control over the time they start and stop their workday, no ability to control the location they work from, and no ability to reduce the hours they work.

Families are negotiating everything
• An overwhelming majority of both men and women say they are sitting down at their kitchen table to coordinate the family’s schedules, duties and responsibilities, including childcare and elder are at least 2 or 3 times a week.

Things are in flux
• Men and women say they are still adjusting their assumptions to women’s role in the workforce
• For some, women as primary breadwinners is old news, especially Latinos and African Americans.

Faith-based institutions and spirituality help women cope
• With all the change and insecurity, women told the pollsters that they rely on faith-based institutions and spirituality to help them get though.

Women are now in a position to bring about change
• As we move into this phase the report is calling A Women’s Nation, women can turn their pivotal role as wage earners, as consumers, as bosses, as opinion shapers, as equal partners into a potent force for change.

• Our policy landscape remains stuck in the past where the typical family as a married-for-life couple where the mom stays home and raises the children and the dad is the primary breadwinner. The report suggests that we need to address this and develop more family friendly work benefits and institutions.

Here’s a link to the full report. Let me hear your thoughts.