The Importance of Your Brand

This week in Strategic Communication 6630, our focus is on branding and online reputation. We have had literature and videos about corporate and organizational branding, which is always important for strategic communication professionals.  We also looked at personal branding. In past classes I have learned the importance of corporations putting forth great internal communication, campaigning and customer service in order to have a good name.  As we live in an age of real-time communication where one negative online post can happen so quickly and potentially cause problems, branding today is a never-ending 24-7 job.  In this world of emerging media, there are many facets to successful branding. A major thought that stands out to me is from Tim Leberecht’s TED Talks video entitled “Three Ways to (Usefully) Lose Control of Your Brand.” He said, “Your brand is what others say about you when you’re not in the room.” Successful strategic communication professionals should be well-equipped to establish a good reputation and maintain it during the good times and the bad. 

Peter Economy wrote “7 Things Great Brands Always Do” in an Inc.com article from May 5, 2015.  He stated strategies that are highly important to branding such as having a successful internal culture, committing to and staying committed your brand, ignoring trends and sweating the small stuff.  If you work to create a great in-house organization, it is easier to project your brand to the public and in doing so your product or service should be great and you never have to compromise in order to follow trends.  If an organization is successful to its target audience, then they do not have to sell products; products will sell themselves.  If a brand is this successful, then the corporation does not even have to gain attention through giving back.  A great brand works to create a culture that has shared value for everyone involved internally and externally.   

Cheryl Conner wrote about how important your online reputation is on March 4, 2014 in a Forbes.com article entitled “Top Online Reputation Management Tips for Brand Marketers” stating the importance of Google search engine results. In the fast growing world of mobile and online communication, a major focus of communication professionals is crisis communication. Putting out a good product or service and managing great internal relations are not the only components of great branding.  Corporations must be proactive at maintaining their reputation by constantly monitoring their name online.  If something negative does pop up, then hopefully your track record will be enough to safeguard your reputations.  If not, then procedures need to be in place to negate any bad press that may happen as quickly as possible. 

There are several names that come to mind when I think of successful branding and online reputations.  Target is one that has a successfully managed reputation.  They continue to satisfy internally and externally and give back to their communities.  Whole Foods is another.  These two companies continue to work their magic, and their reputations continue to shine.  Yes, both have hit some minor bumps in the road, but their reputations before these negative occurrences helped them to bounce back and maintain even through controversy.  This is the result of successful branding, monitoring and maintenance.   

Leberecht also said about branding, “What’s true about you is you.” This was proven to me when I looked at another brand this week.  Oddly enough, I took a look at Playboy.  I am not one to agree with the nature behind Playboy, but since Hugh Hefner died this week, his Playboy empire was all over the news.  Playboy was a great brand to its target audience!  After six decades of production, Playboy continues to lead men’s magazine in sales with over two million monthly in the U.S. alone. The publication successfully lead its market, even with the growing popularity of online pornography, so its success over the decades is definitely about much more than nude women.  In 2016 the magazine stopped featuring nudity, and its sales climbed by 28%.  Therefore, much of the magazine’s success has to be its articles. I was surprised to learn that the corporation gives back by supporting women’s rights, abortion rights, birth control access, the Equal Rights Amendment and helps fund rape crisis centers.  The magazine has had female support as well as male support in these six decades because they successfully managed their brand and satisfied its target audience.  There was controversy from the beginning and throughout, but successful branding has kept the magazine afloat.  Playboy has been true to its mission and gives back along the way.  A lot of negative has been said about the company, but apparently their brand and online reputation has been and continues to be successful to its target audience over the years.   

One other topic I would like to mention this week is personal branding.  The January 22, 2012 Business Insider blog post entitled “Fundamentals of Personal Branding” gave me some tips to follow and goals to pursue. The personal branding blog pointed out the importance of knowing who you are and your goals and meeting the needs of your target audience.  So far I haven’t thought much about the importance of My Brand moving forward.  As I think about it, personal branding should be an important topic as I try to wrap up my master’s in Strategic Communication and pursue other business interests.  The Business Insider blog states that the things that are important to a personal brand include skills, experience, expertise, travels, hobbies, education and work experiences, among others. I am optimistic that my brand should be off to a good start.  My brand already includes skills, experiences, education and even hobbies that should attract my target audience when I pursue future endeavors. 

This week’s topic, as well as most others in this class, gives me much to think about when it comes to my future.  Again I have learned something that is important not only to my current professional life, but also to my personal life which I one day would love to combine in order to create a successful business opportunity using My Brand.  After all, what’s true about me is me and I am continuing to grow. There is work and branding to be done.