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A brand is a living entity — and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures.

— Michael Eisner, Former CEO of Disney

No book on personal branding would be complete without an understanding of the powerful and influential role that brands play in our lives every day. In 2001, Time magazine reported that the average American citizen sees an estimated 3,000 brands per day. When I first read that statistic, I couldn’t believe it! But I suspect that number — which is almost certainly even larger today — holds true for anyone living and working in a large city anywhere in the world. In fact, the proof is right in front of me when I walk down a street in Shanghai and look at all of the signs … when I ride in my car from my home in Bangkok to the airport with hundreds of billboards lining the way … when I walk down a supermarket aisle in Dubai or London and see the myriad of brands peering down at me.

Think about it for a moment. How many brands have you seen today on product labels, the side of a bus, the top of a taxicab, or in the newspaper? Everywhere you look, brand names are screaming for your attention. Let’s face it: Brands are everywhere and are such a part of our day-to-day modern lives that we may not even think about them.

But out of those 3,000 brands you encounter every day, if you’re like most people, you will probably be faithful to at least one or two brands throughout most of your life. Are you loyal to a favorite brand? Would you consider it out of the question, for example, to wear anything but

Adidas tennis shoes or to switch from your favorite brand of shaving cream? Why? What is the allure of that favorite brand of yours? What does it offer you that no other brand can? Great brands build intense loyalty with the people who buy them.

Brands can be incredibly big and influential, too. Take Coca-Cola as an example. The company sells an estimated $15 billion of Coke per year — more than $1 billion per month. At the time of this writing, that’s more than the gross domestic product of around 85 countries in the world. How’s that for powerful?

The Untouchables

So, what do we know so far? We know that brands are everywhere, that they can create intense loyalty in us, and that they are big and influential. Is there any question why I find brands so fascinating?

But what’s even more amazing about brands is that they have all of this power and influence, yet … you cannot touch a brand. It’s true! You can smell the aroma of a Starbucks cup of coffee, you can taste the kick of a Mentos when you pop it in your mouth, you can hear the Nokia phone ring tone, you can feel the wet aluminum of an ice cold can of Pepsi in your hand, and you can see the golden arches of the McDonald’s logo, but you cannot touch a brand. The smell, touch, or sight of a product is really only just a representation of that brand. The brand itself is actually intangible. Its power exists only in your mind.

So, can these intangible things called “brands” actually influence the way we act and think?

Powerful Brand Images

Great brands are like people. They have a personality and a character all their own. Stop for a moment, look around you, and find two doorways that you can see from where you are. In the first doorway, imagine that Mercedes Benz — the brand — is standing there as a person (not the car, but the brand of Mercedes Benz itself ). What kind of person would the Mercedes Benz brand be? Is it a man or a woman? What profession does this person have? How is this person dressed? What is the income level of this person — low, medium, or high? What is this person’s pastime?

Now, look at that second doorway, and imagine that Ferrari — the brand — is standing there as a person. What kind of person would the Ferrari brand be? Is it a man or a woman? What profession does this person have? How is this person dressed — more formally or

more casually than Mercedes Benz? What is the income level of this person — higher or lower? What is this person’s pastime?

Now, compare the answers to both sets of questions. They’re quite different, right? Even though Mercedes Benz and Ferrari are both highend luxury cars that get you from one place to another, the brand images of Mercedes Benz and Ferrari are not the same. But why is that? It’s because you perceive, think, and feel differently about these two brands. Your perceptions, thoughts, and feelings have been carefully created in your mind by smart marketers who understand the art and science of branding.

That’s right. Branding, whether of a product or a person, is both an art and a science. On the one hand, brands appeal to your logic — they’re rational in terms of how you think about them. This is where the science comes in. But branding is also an art because brands appeal to your emotions in terms of how you feel about them.

Branding People?

I firmly believe that people — just like shampoo and other products — are brands, too. Let’s use examples of people we probably all know — starting with celebrities. What do you perceive, think, and feel when you hear the name “Brad Pitt?” What do you perceive, think, and feel when you hear the name “Johnny Depp?” Both of these actors are good-looking leading men, but they create very different perceptions, thoughts, and feelings, don’t they? Now, let’s throw “Jackie Chan” into the picture … you have different perceptions, thoughts, and feelings about him, too, right?

Think of any category of well-known people — how about singers this time? Think about Britney Spears … Madonna … Celine Dion. Again, they’re all very different. That’s because each of these individuals has a very specific personal brand that is absolutely unique and ownable as compared to the others.

“But, wait a minute,” you may be saying. “Those people are all celebrities, and they have the money and the means to hire full-time image specialists to manage their personal brands!”

Fair point! But you don’t need that kind of high-priced help to define and communicate your job-seeker personal brand. The personal branding system shared in How YOU™ are like Shampoo for Job Seekers will help you build your personal brand without writing checks to a publicist. It’s designed for the millions of job seekers all around the world who may not be famous and certainly don’t plan on turning their personal brand into a global household name. What you want to do is define yourself in your world in order to achieve your ultimate personal career goal: to land the job of your dreams.

When it comes to job seeking, your personal brand is defined as:

The way you want potential employers to perceive, think, and feel about you

as compared to other candidates.

Just as name brands exist in our minds, your job-seeker personal brand exists in the minds of recruiters and potential employers in the way they perceive, think, and feel about you as compared to other candidates. Let’s look carefully at this definition, and focus on three key words: perceive, think, and feel. They’ve been carefully chosen for a reason.

Perceive: Perception is reality in marketing. When it comes to your job-seeker personal brand, it doesn’t matter who you think you are. What matters is how the interviewer perceives you. If your potential employer sees you as very different from who you actually believe you are inside, you’re probably not communicating the personal brand you want. You’ll want to do some work to make sure you’re presenting your best job-seeker personal brand in interviews.

Think: On the one hand, our brains have a lot to do with how we think about brands, so branding is a fairly rational exercise. There are logical reasons we choose one brand over another. The same holds true when using personal branding for a job search — you need to consider what your potential employers will think about you. What are the logical reasons a potential boss would choose you over another candidate?

Feel: On the other hand, branding is also a very emotional process. Stop and think about that one brand you said you were intensely loyal to earlier in this chapter. What is the feeling you have about that brand? Trust? Reliability? We establish connections with name brands, and these connections go far beyond just what the products do for us. We are loyal to these brands based on emotional connections. It’s the same in personal branding. The way potential employers feel about you has a profound influence on your success. The stronger the connections you create before, during, and after your job interviews, the more powerful your personal brand will be throughout your job search process.

Colleagues’ Brands at Work

Still don’t believe the average person has a brand? Think of someone from your current job or your most recent job who you really enjoy working with — the kind of person you look forward to seeing and speaking with every morning. Stop for a moment and consider: How do you perceive this person? How does this person make you feel? What do you think about this person?

Now, consider a different person you work with or have worked with in the past … and let’s be honest … who you really don’t enjoy all that much! It’s that one person who seems to cause you problems and tie your stomach in knots every time you have to work with them. How does this person make you feel? What do you think about this person, and how do you perceive him or her?

Can you see how these people have very different personal brands? And their brands have nothing to do with who they think they are. Their brands exist in your mind, based on how you perceive, think, and feel about them. If they haven’t taken the time to define their best possible personal brand, they may be seriously limiting their success by presenting themselves in a way that differs from how they want to be seen.

Taking Control of YOU™

Now apply this thinking to you and your job search. As I said earlier, you, too, already have a personal brand, even if you didn’t think you needed or wanted one. Your job-seeking personal brand may be out there doing its thing, creating perceptions about YOU™ without you even being aware of it. Interviewers may be thinking and feeling about you in ways that aren’t at all how you want to be perceived, just like Alfred Nobel. Most people I’ve met find this idea both intriguing … and a little bit scary. They don’t like the idea that their personal brands may be running amuck — maybe even preventing them from getting the job they want — without knowing what to do about it.

How do you take control of YOU™ during the job search process if your job-seeker personal brand exists in the minds of your potential employers? What can you do to make sure your personal brand is what you want it to be in interviews and beyond? How do you want future employers to perceive, think and feel about you? What steps can you take to make your job-seeker personal brand something that is definable and that you own, and how can you communicate it effectively — before, during, and after a job interview?

These are the questions we will answer as you move through the steps of our job-seeker personal branding system. No matter how successful you feel you’ve been in your job search so far, once you carefully define your job-seeker personal brand and put it to work, you have the opportunity to truly distinguish yourself from other job applicants. And just like Starbucks can command a much higher price tag than a standard cup of coffee at a local café, so can YOU™ create a premium personal brand that commands a better position, higher starting salary, nicer perks, and ultimately, a more satisfying career.

Think of it this way: Your personal brand in the job search process is what you want to stand for in the minds of potential employers. Who is _______™? Insert your name in the blank, and let’s begin.