I recently attended The Women’s Breakfast for Champions, a networking program for Women Business Owners held by SCORE.
Branding and marketing expert Liz Goodgold of REDfire Branding spoke. She provided a handful of actionable steps to increase personal branding for owners of service businesses, but anyone who networks could take advantage of her pointers.
She started with the premise that what we want is to create “flawless remembering” by those we meet, of who we are and what we offer. We achieve that through what we do, in our word choices and behaviors. We create memorability through uniqueness, attitude, catch phrases or vocabulary, and providing an easy way to remember our name. In her case, she introduces herself as Liz Goodgold, as in “as good as gold” – which has, quite literally, been how I have been able to easily recall her name.
Catch phrases and unique style or actions create an indelible memory. Who doesn’t associate “it’s a good thing” or “how’s that working for you?” with specific TV personalities?
In fact, all great brands must be unique – there is something about them that is like no other. If one brand reminds us of another, there is a dilution, when “mindshare” starts to leak into “marketshare”.
Three women helped make her case, by acting out celebrity branding – a Joan Rivers, an Adele and an Angelina Jolie were able to convey who they were easily through visual, auditory and attitude cues.
Liz’ comment that “if you cannot be imitated, you are not a brand” made a great deal of sense for individuals. It is a bit of a puzzle, considering if this is equally true for B2B businesses and their marketers.
The morning ended with the tabletop exhibitors introducing themselves to the other breakfast attendees, with most attempting to find a new unique expression of their personal or business branding.
