Pulling Power of Personal Brands

What is the difference between a business brand and a personal brand? How can you take advantage of a personal brand to grow your business? A personal brand is built around you, and your business name is generally the same as your brand or at least associated with your name. In the modern digital era, there has been a rise in personal brands as they become easier to create, given all the online tools that have become readily available. An individual can simply start with a social media profile and go from there.

Personal branding is a great way to launch a new business, ‘one-person’ or celebrity such as musicians, artists, authors, coaches, or those wanting to establish their credibility. When done right, personal brands have unbelievable pulling power and provide opportunities and collaborations all with the end goal of offering different service and products.

When it comes to personal branding, celebrities such as Rihanna and Beyonce come to mind, taking their lead from earlier celebrity examples such as Michael Jackson and Freddie Mercury. Let’s have a look at how powerful a personal brand can be – with the top celebrities that are making the most money from their brands:

Rank	Celebrity	Brand	Total earnings from brand (Million $USD)
1	Rihanna	Fenty Beauty	$1,400
2	Kim Kardashian	KKW Beauty	$700
3	Kylie Jenner	Kylie Cosmetics	$600
4	Dr Dre	Beats Electronics	$500
5	George Clooney	Casamigos	$233

Source: https://heydiscount.co.uk/celebrity-brand via https://www.businessdailymedia.com/sme-business-news/17132-these-celebrity-owned-brands-are-the-most-profitable

As you can see, Rihanna is a queen of personal branding with a total net worth of $1.4 billion USD, making her the richest female musician in the world. Meanwhile, Kim Kardashian is the most influential celebrity brand on Instagram, with 5 million followers on KKW Beauty and averaging 52,503 likes on individual posts on the brand’s Instagram.

What can we learn from their success in personal branding?

Authenticity

First and foremost, your brand must be authentic. That means there is no room for faking it as you’ll be caught out or called out from your followers. You must present (and demonstrate) your values in a truly authentic way, as you ARE your brand. This includes owning up to mistakes and dealing with setbacks when they happen, all of this contributes to your branding.

Authenticity builds trust and makes your audience feel connected to you as a person. For example, one of Rihanna’s strengths in her branding is creating product lines that feel relatable to her background and style. She shares her childhood experiences, how makeup made her feel and how it inspired her to launch her makeup line.

Being Inclusive

Another strategy of Rihanna’s branding is to seek true inclusion, a very important aspect in today’s globally connected society. Her clothing line ensures the production of sizes for all body shapes, and her makeup line includes dozens of shades for all skin types, from dark to pale and everything in-between. Ensuring inclusivity also expands your target market, giving your product the potential to reach far and wide, across the world for all ethnicities and ages.

Exploring Opportunities

Personal branding allows you to control the narrative of your brand regardless of factors such as formal qualifications or status. That means you can rise above someone who might have spent a quarter million dollars on a Tertiary or MBA education and expand your brand in a way that a business brand would be limited to. Think about your favourite celebrity brands, do you care if they have a list of prestigious university or ivy-league qualifications?

Not being tied to a specific product can also open up ventures using a powerful personal name. For example, George Clooney’s Casamigos Tequila is considered one of the most critically acclaimed and successful brands, winning multiple gold medals in spirits competitions, and was listed as an Oprah favourite.

Not Just a Name

While personal branding certainly has its advantages, however be aware that just because you have built up a recognisable name, that you can launch any product and expect success. For example, while Kim Kardashian’s beauty line KKW Beauty is one of the top profitable brands, her earlier venture – Kardashian Kard wasn’t such a big hit. The prepaid Mastercard came with excessively high fees for activation and usage while raising ethical and legal questions targeting a younger group of shoppers. Not surprisingly, it was cancelled after less than a month of being in the marketplace

Presenting a well-thought-out, considered and well executed Personal Brand can lead to great success and unlimited business opportunities. While it may feel easy to get started, being authentic and offering the right product is key. Have you thought about how you want to BRAND yourself? This is where our branding experts at Brand for Brands can help, we work with you to create a brand that is for YOU and about YOU.

Get in touch today.

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