Personal Branding

So I’m currently answering an application question that is giving me quite a bit of grief, it goes a little something like this;

1: The first impression that a brand makes is crucial.

Tell us a bit about yourself and make your first impression.

200 words max.

Seems fun.

The difficulty is making yourself interesting enough that the reader wants to find out more about you and more importantly make yourself stand out from everyone else who has probably also travelled a lot/also really likes playing the piano/loves playing sport to be part of a team etcetera… So at the moment this is proving difficult.

In terms of thinking about a person as a brand, beyond celebrities and famous figures is that really possible? I guess we can brand ourselves to an extent by the content we put up on social media, but then not everyone uses the internet for that. We can brand ourselves by conducting ourselves in a certain way; being “nice” and getting a reputation for that or going out getting drunk a lot and getting a reputation for that.

To an extent people certainly have an easier time of relaunching/reinventing their brand than products. I was reading today that Kylie Minogue has now relaunched herself in Bollywood. Her brand has now ranged from the cute girl next door in Neighbours, to absolute sexpot to now a Bollywood starlet.

This is great rebranding, the woman is (or more likely has someone who is) a commercial genius.  It is a great fit, Bollywood is nothing but cheesey really. Ironically I get the feeling that Bollywood is trying to reinvent the brand itself by using Kylie. If you can’t see the irony check out the great lyrics from her new song.

I wanna chiggy-wiggy with you boy

I wanna chiggy-wiggy with you fella

Just chiggy-wiggy with you baby

Cheese on Toast.