Comments on: Who Said Personal Brand Isn't Important?

By: jim

jim — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 21:49:42 +0000

Phelps is fortunate in that his brand is built on his performance, not on some other well known attribute. As long as he can perform, he’ll still be OK. While this certainly hurts, it’s not a killer. Think of Kobe Bryant? After the Colorado incident, you’d think his personal brand would be dead… but it’s not. His brand is connected to his performance and he dropped 61 on the Knicks at MSG, his brand is still strong. Endorsements will fall in the short term but if he can perform (Phelps and Kobe), they’ll come back.

By: skip hire

skip hire — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:30:12 +0000

The old adage ‘ All publicity is good publicity’ was especially show as true by Kate Moss.

By: Lahne

Lahne — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 19:34:50 +0000

I agree that personal brand or coprorate brand means a lot. In fact, there are a ton of statistics out there that the younger generations buy goods and services based on the CSR of a particular company. Those same statistics also determine who those folks go to work for too. I can admit that I tend to do a lot of research on a company before I would take a job – and hope that their corporate values line up with my own.

Luckily for Phelps, I think his being 23 will be a blessing. People will forget about this infraction, I mean at 23 (or perhaps younger), who didn’t do something similar? (Come on, own up to it!) He will be able to rebuild his brand in the same way he did after the DUI – which as an attest to his ability – I had forgotten all about.

The rest of us should monitor our personal brands out there. Google ourselves, not for ego, but to make sure there’s nothing incriminating or not quite in line with the brand we’d like to show publicly out there. And if there is, correct it.

Companies should do the same. Much of the “bad branding” companies face starts with the blogosphere and twitter – if they ignore it, they lost touch with consumers, and allow word-of mouth, especially that which is negative to be the brand. Perception is reality.

This is a really good point Aaron, and one that companies and people shouldn’t ignore. Thanks for bringing it up.

By: Emma Dozier

Emma Dozier — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:21:41 +0000

I guess it depends on your profession. As an amateur sports player, endorsements are the only way Phelps can make money (besides sending his medals into Cash4Gold I suppose), so of course his personal brand matters most here! I – littlemisscontractor nobody – on the other hand, can just hope that I add to the brand of my company, or the U.S. Army, or make my friends’ and family’s day on a smaller scale.

On the other hand, I do like to keep my image coordinated on the blogosphere with my global avatar matching my Twitter avatar matching my GChat avatar…etc…and I tout my own horn on my Web site and resume, so their is definitely some “branding” going on there. I tend to want my actions speak louder than my branding, though.

Side note: poor Michael. Doesn’t he deserve a break? And doesn’t he deserve trustworthy friends who aren’t going to be dumb and take pictures of illegal activity? Hmm.

By: maureen

maureen — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:29:59 +0000

Luv ur new glasses, helen

By: Dan Schawbel

Dan Schawbel — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 21:09:33 +0000

A personal brand, like you noted with Phelps above, can be built and leveraged for a variety of things, such as speaking engagements or consulting gigs. The stronger your brand is the more money you can demand because you have more respect and a better portfolio of previous work.

By: Derek

Derek — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 19:40:43 +0000

Do you want to know what’s most interesting about this “scandal?” It’s not going to hurt his reputation amongst the people who already love him â€” the college kids and college girls. So, if Speedo were going to pull his endorsement, they would be shooting themselves in the foot. You have to make your investors happy, but you need to make your customers happy first.