Over the years, the way people buy and sell has changed drastically. A recent Nielsen Consumer Survey showed that only 33% of buyers trust messages from a brand, whereas 90% of them trust messages from an individual they know. So, a strong personal brand is where the growth of your conversion lies.

Moreover, with the surge of social media, we find ourselves in a shrinking world where 92% children under the age of two already have a digital footprint! While we might not have consciously cultivated our online persona, it does exist; and was crowdsourced by our friends, colleagues, and family. The question now is not whether you have a personal brand, but how you can cultivate it.

Your online reputation can be your strongest asset or your biggest liability. It’s easy to get overwhelmed while creating a personal brand, but don’t give up just yet! Here are three key areas to focus on to create the perfect identity:

#1 Be Visible and Accessible

Although personal branding can be difficult, it ultimately comes down to participation. Thanks to blogs, podcasts, and social networks, you no longer have to wait for others to mention you or your brand in the media.

Another effective step towards branding yourself is to become a thought leader or an influencer. Putting out high-quality, relevant, and relatable content can go a long way in developing your personal brand into a trusted source. So, engage with influencers who have connections in your field or professionals who can contribute to your growth. When it comes to personal branding, you need to constantly be on your toes — whether through social media, influencer marketing, or a media outreach.

#2 Define Your Values

Branding yourself is more than just creating a trademark. It’s how you present yourself, online and offline, to potential clients. While this primarily builds your business, it still centers around you as an individual. This is why your personal brand should tell a strong, unique story. Always remember: every post you share, every tweet you send, and every picture you upload is adding to your image.

So, define yourself keeping in mind the exact impression you want to build, and the market you wish to target. With that in place, you can start being mindful of what you include in your social media profile. Ensure that it has a definitive purpose to make your audience remember, recognize, and respect you and your brand.

#3 Know Your Audience

At the end, it all boils down to your audience. You have a better chance of getting across to them if you understand them on a personal level. Learn as much as you can by talking to them, and collecting standard demographic data such as age, income, gender, and geography.

It always helps to know what your audience is interested in – their beliefs, values, hopes, dreams, or even their challenges. Since your audience holds the key to unlocking the power of your personal brand, it’s critical to know what they need from you.

Conclusion:

Without control of your personal brand, your image stands on shaky ground. But, when done right, it will make you stand out from the crowd, put your expertise in the spotlight, cement your relationship with customers, and enhance your overall value. It makes for the perfect push to propel your business!

A different name or a cool new logo might seem like a good idea to rejuvenate your brand, but there’s a lot more to a successful rebrand than merely tweaking your logo.

Let’s face it. Rebranding is not an easy feat, and needless to say, a costly undertaking. However, if done right, it can greatly boost the brand. Even industry giants rethink their brand. Pepsi has rebranded 11 times, Apple has done it 3, and Starbucks, 4.

But why do companies rebrand?

Brands often consider a makeover when they have

• New opportunities to expand
• Trademark concerns
• Negative publicity
• Mergers or acquisitions
• Tough market competition
• Changing consumer mindsets

But, before you take the big ‘rebranding’ leap, let’s take a look at four brands that rebranded and what we can learn from them:

Modern Bread

The Story: Modern Foods recently exchanged hands and underwent a brand refresh based on insights from consumers. The brand now has a new vibrant identity and positioning – ‘Making wholesome awesome’ – as it now targets younger audiences with newer variants.

The Lesson: Capitalize on new trends to get recognition again.

Modern Foods is a great example of how a brand can create a buzz to reach a larger audience, in this case, a creative campaign backed with a witty, interactive website. Their #belikebread campaign, cleverly positioned bread as an important factor in life, simply because ‘bread doesn’t discriminate’. Following their cue, many user videos and posts tagged #belikebread emerged on the Internet. The campaign went viral – starting a new chapter of Modern Bread.

Vodafone

The Story: In 2007, Vodafone acquired Hutchinson and entered India with the ‘Hutch Is Now Vodafone’ campaign. The rebranding happened overnight and the campaign was perfectly planned and executed to ensure maximum recall among the audience.

The Lesson: Plan a strong set of promotional strategies.

From customer-care centers to sim card packets – everything was made red. They even partnered with Star India and ensured their campaign ads were played during every commercial break for the first 24 hours. Another remarkable strategy that Vodafone adopted was to retain the most loved factor, the Hutch Pug in their advertisements. This way they were able to appeal to the larger audience easily and effectively.

Old Spice

The Story: In the early 2000s, Old Spice was suffering from low sales, low consumer interest, and tons of competition. The issue was the stigma of being associated with older men. The company then decided to reach younger target groups by appointing young and handsome celebrity role models as the new face of the brand.

The Lesson: Make your brand relevant again.

Old Spice re-positioned itself as a brand associated with legacy and confident young men. This was readily accepted, with the original video ‘The Man Your Man Could Smell Like’ receiving 54 million views across different social media platforms, and sales rising sharply – by 55 % – over the three months following the first aired TV commercial. It established brand equity on TV with clever content, and then it extended the compelling story to social media. All aspects of the campaign showed off the brand’s new look and attitude, and were a huge success.

Tata Nano

The Story: Tata Nano was launched with a lot of hype, but that fame was fickle. One of the biggest issues with Nano was its branding as the ‘The Cheapest Car’. This positioning demeaned its appeal – further dropping its sales. In the year 2013 Tata Motors phased out Tata Nano and introduced ‘Nano Twist’.

The Lesson: Revitalize your brand image.

Phasing out a product can be hard, but in this case it was for the best. No one wants to buy the cheapest car – they want to buy a car they can be proud of. By rebranding the ‘world’s cheapest car’ and relaunching it as an upgraded and repositioned ‘smart city car’, Tata started fresh. Nano Twist was introduced with attractive new features and advertising campaigns that were aimed at the younger generation in attempts to give Nano some social cachet.

Well, it’s never too late to start afresh. Just reach out to the experts, take the plunge, and watch your brand transform.