When product brand managers work on branding their products, they utilize the product's name, visual and verbal identities, messages, presentation, and marketing tactics to promote their brand. Whether it's Toyota selling cars, Mattel selling Barbies, or McDonald's selling burgers & fries, their brand managers use a multi-faceted approach to define and market the brand.

Likewise, when you brand yourself for business, you use your name, visual and verbal identities, messages, presentation, and marketing tactics to improve your career future.

Every Brand Needs a Customer

Toyota wants drivers to buy cars, Mattel wants parents to buy Barbies for their daughters, and McDonalds want to sell food to everyone except infants. Each company knows who their ideal customer is. They know their customer's age range, socio-economic status, gender, geographic locale, and several other facts. Their ideal customer is also known as their brand's "target market".

They define their product's target market and they analyze that target market (probably more that we'd like to think about!).

Define & Analyze Your Target Market

Similarly, your self-brand has a target market. They are the people who will "buy your product" (so to speak). They can offer you a job, make a promotion happen, give you better opportunities, get you more money, and make you more credible in others' eyes.

Your target market may include:

• Your current boss
• His or her boss (going up a couple levels)
• Other executives at your company who can give you new opportunities
• Executives at different companies who can offer you a better job
• (If you own a business or are in sales): Your customers & prospects

Once your target market is defined (which may include names of specific people or groups of people), you need to analyze them. What is important to them? What do they value in business? What publications do they read? What impresses them? What bothers them? Who else knows these people who are in your target market?

After your target market is defined and analyzed, you can move on to further defining your brand.

This self-branding thing can get really involved: there are a lot of steps to discovering, creating, and marketing yourself as a brand successfully. To help you out, I've created a "Brand Yourself! Coaching Program". It is a self-paced coaching program you can purchase directly from Borgeson Consulting. I'm very excited about this program! Since it is self-paced, it is very affordable - less expensive than traditional coaching by telephone, and you complete it at your own pace.

The "Brand Yourself! Coaching Program" has 10 modules, taking you through each of the essential elements of personal branding. Call (630-653-0992) or e-mail (info@BorgesonConsulting.com) to find out more about it.

I also give a keynote speech, "Brand Yourself Without Getting Burned: Know the Secrets to Finding the Right Brand for You!" Contact Borgeson Consulting to find out more!

2007 Borgeson Consulting, Inc.