Are You a Brand or An Image? Brand versus Image, Does Your Brand Have Substance? Written By: Ron Franke

Ron Franke

There's a lot of chatter these days, especially in social media, about personal branding. That is, an individual creating a brand around them self. I too, wrote an article addressing independent service providers titled "You Are Your Brand". The article started with "[a]s an Independent Business Professional you are the product, you are the service, you are the package. You are the relationship with your customer. You're the point of contact and the resource for the service. You are the picture of happiness when things go well and the picture of a nightmare when things go bad."

Implicit in this statement is a recognition that to be a brand there must be substance behind the brand. This substance being a tangible product (or service) offered and ultimately sold to a customer. Without a tangible product or service there is no, and can be no, brand. Brand without substance is Image. They are not the same thing. My view about a large portion of personal branding chatter is really addressing image, because the product and other aspects of branding are either not addressed or down played.

When working to build a brand, the entire business is taken into account - the name, product, service, business model, marketing statements, vision, mission, packaging, imagery, communication, customer relations, awareness campaigns, and the related industry, to mention a few things.

Before even addressing brand there must be a product or service. There must be a business model. There must be a mission, vision, and reason for being in business. Elements of product value, benefits, differentiators must be known. From these factors, and others, come the basis for branding.

My definition of brand is, in part, that of "[t]he perception in the mind of a consumer about a company and its products and is based on messages, images, and actions presented by the company and the relative benefits as perceived by the consumer." A brand is a "perception in the mind of a customer" but based on substance "its products [or services]".

The art of branding is to aid consumers in creating in their mind their perception of the company and its products. Creating a good feeling about the company and its products and generating a desire to purchase and a drive to actually buy the product.

My question, "Does Your Brand Have Substance?" addresses the core of brand versus image. Do you sell a tangible product or service? If the answer is no, then you're not building a brand you're creating a personal image. In reality, I don't think there can be "personal branding". That is a brand built around you as a person. I think that branding can only be centered around the product or service.

Part of the brand is in the creating and providing of the product or service which in the case of an individual service provider naturally includes the individual them self. But the individual is only part of the brand, not "the" brand. A good example of the difference between brand and image is in the entertainment field. A movie actor provides the service of playing a role in some production. Their substance is their ability to act and to actually act in a production. Their business model is to act in some role and be paid by consumers to view the act. The core of their brand is their service - acting. The building of their brand includes their acting ability, types of roles they play, the movie genre, and their off screen persona.

My assertion is that without the actual service, actually accomplishing the acting in this example, there is no brand. There is only image.

So, here's the idea. When thinking about your brand and working to aid your "consumers in creating in their mind their perception of [your] company and its products", focus on your core substance first. Then focus on your reason for being in business, your value, what makes your different from your competition, what gives your consumers a reason to care about your substance and a reason to buy. From this will naturally flow your brand.

Going back to the introduction to this article and my reference to my prior article, "You Are Your Brand", I've come to realize that my title was misleading and part of my assertion was incomplete. The statement that as an Independent Business Professional "you are the product, you are the service, you are the package" is inaccurate. The individual is integral to creating the product and completing the service, but they are not the product or service, they aren't the substance, that is they aren't the resultant product or service. A better, more accurate title would be "You Are an Integral Part of Your Brand". Not quite as catchy but true.

© 2009 R.D. Franke. All rights reserved.