By Afsheen Irshaad

With massive globalization and the advent of new marketing strategies we now live in an era of countless choices, but how out of so many few become our all-time favorite, the reason being that over a period of time our experience with that product or service developed a relationship of trust and bonding with it, and cast an everlasting impression on our minds this is what BRANDS stand for. This write-up serves the purpose of enlightening you about the 5 ways to build a strong personal brand.

Building a strong personal brand that leaves an everlasting impression on the minds of its consumer is not easy it takes a lot besides finance, planning, and hard work. We are all familiar with the brand name SURF in our part of the world washing detergent is still popular with the name surf and while writing our monthly shopping list most of us write it as surf instead of any other name though we end up buying OMO or TIDE how was surfable to build itself as a strong brand and popular household name? Let’s discuss this in-depth!

5 Ways to Build a Strong Personal Brand  

1- Research and Discovery

The first step in building a strong personal brand that leaves an impression starts with exploring your market, its mood, and culture, will your product or service survive the test of time? will you be able to attract your target customer and who will be your target customer? Secondly, you need to know who are your competitors can whether your product/service competes with them, You need to research and discover all possible options to start to build a strong personal brand.

2- Brand Strategy

The second step to building a strong personal brand is linked to Brand Strategy, it is important to have a strong brand strategy if you wish to survive in the market with your competitors, brand strategy basically focuses on the positioning of the brand that is the place you want to own in your target consumer’s mind and the benefits that come to their mind when they think of your product, effective brand positioning leads to value proposition, which is a simple statement why a customer should choose your product or service. It’s a promise the brand makes to the consumer on an emotional level. To build a strong personal brand you need a strong brand personality which actually should define your brand and something to which the consumer can relate. The attributes and value of the brand play a key role in creating the credibility and sustainability of the brand, it is basically the quality of the product and how it is distinct from its competitors. It basically focuses on quality reassurance by the brand and it’s the core message of the brand that allows the consumer to know Who you are Why you are in the business and how you are different from your competitors. It’s the emotional connection you want to make with your target audience.

3-Brand Identity Development

The third step in the journey to build a strong personal brand is to establish brand identity, this includes Brand Name, Identity design( logo), tagline, and packaging. The brand name is the most important thing to focus on to build a strong personal brand, the brand name should go along with the brand personality, its attributes, and value it should be carefully selected because the brand name and logo are the face of your brand to the world. Your brand name is how the world knows you and your logo is how they picture you. It should be carefully curated to leave an everlasting impression on the consumer. A strong tagline of the brand is a cherry on top it usually helps to leave the consumer with a lasting positive impression of the brand. A tagline or Slogan is a business mantra. For example, Nike goes with JUST DO IT, and Apple came up with THINK DIFFERENT.

4- Marketing Planning

To build a strong personal brand marketing planning is considered its lifeline. Market planning is usually related to priority tactics, brand budgets, timelines, and media plans. A brand usually survives through marketing planning because it relates to the quality of the product, the finances required to achieve the promised quality, and the affordability of the product at the consumer level. The availability of the product plus its publicity. Basically, it’s through marketing that an unknown becomes known to the world. Marketing also plays a pivotal role in the financial growth of the brand.

5-Tactile Execution

The last but not least step in moving to build a strong personal brand is how to get the consumer to know you, how effectively the information is spread to the masses, and what tools are used. Digital Advertising and traditional advertising along with website development, web videos, POP Display or Content Marketing along with email marketing all tools if used wisely can lead to brand recognition and build a lasting relationship with the consumer. Effective brand advertisement also helps in achieving broader marketing goals. Brands are built on effective advertising. Business is the body and Brand is the soul, to build a strong brand focus on the core of your brand and stay committed to that focus. Seth Godin really nailed it when he said; “A  brand is a set of expectations, memories, stories, and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one service or product over another.”

These are the top 5 ways to build a personal brand. We hope this write-up would be a great help for you to understand the importance of building a personal brand.