Set Yourself Apart -- Everyday

Most companies spend a great deal of time, effort and money fostering a brand for themselves, including everything from logo design to mission statement to value proposition. In fact, it can be argued that the most valuable asset any company has is its brand.

But branding isn't necessarily limited to businesses. With a grueling job market awaiting college students entering their final year, enterprising young people might do well to create a brand for their most important product -- themselves.

According to my colleague Denise Williams, East Coast manager and director of strategic marketing for Goodman Marketing Partners, a multi-channel, direct response marketing agency in Philadelphia, personal branding is a powerful tactic for setting yourself apart in the eyes of prospective employers. And if you do it well enough, your brand could remain with you throughout your career.

"Branding yourself is a matter of boiling down who you are and what your values are, and then being true to that. In other words, living it," says Williams, who also serves as president of the Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association. "For example, going out of your way to volunteer or lend assistance to other people, rather than always looking out for Number One. Or always maintaining your cool in a crisis or when the chips are down...these are traits that will not only serve you well, but will precede you through the door."

Like a corporation laboring over its mission statement, branding yourself might be a time-consuming process, requiring a thorough assessment of who you are, who you want to be, what principles you hold most dear, and what your strengths and weaknesses are. "Then determine how to make your strengths part of your daily life, while minimizing your weaknesses," says Williams. It also helps to choose someone whose "brand" you admire and try to emulate him or her, or even enter into a mentoring relationship with that individual.

Williams, who speaks to students about marketing themselves whenever she has the opportunity, offers the following five suggestions for building your most important brand:

Know Thyself

Understand what motivates you and the kind of environment in which you will thrive. Know what your goals are and create the strategies that will get you there. Every brand has a mission and a way to fulfill that mission. This is true for your own personal brand. Your education, your work, your affiliations, where you network, where and how you converse online, and the people with whom you associate, will define your brand.

Stay Positive

Negativity kills positive people. Negativity will kill a brand. Stay positive and be viewed as a healthy, positive professional, one that makes each and every person feel important. It's not always easy but worthwhile in that positive people are sought after to lead, manage and share their knowledge and energies. Learn to bring out the best in people. Be known for it.

Get Involved

Don't sit on the sidelines. There are a variety of professional and community-related affiliations that not only need volunteers or hire interns but provide networking. Selfish networking to hawk products is not what we are talking about. Getting involved and volunteering your time tells others that you care. People like people who care about things other than themselves. Reap the satisfaction of getting involved and helping others.

Maintain Reasonable Expectations of Others

Some people ask for help of others one too many times. It's OK to ask for help, but know when to stop. No one is going to get the job for you. No one is going to jump through hoops for you unless they are inclined to do so. Business is a give and take - better to be a giver than a taker. Better to be owed than owing. Once you are known as a taker, you've shot yourself in the foot. Ask for guidance but don't ask for too much. Find a couple of people you trust and respect, and look to them for mentoring.

Remember To Thank

Referrals, personal contacts, introductions, and invitations should never go without a thank you. If someone has helped your initiatives in any way, be sure to thank them the old fashioned way. Yes, it's 2009, but a text is not sufficient, and an e-mail is just OK. Send a note. A gift shows real appreciation. Make your brand an appreciative one.

I couldn't have said it better myself!

Paperless communication is NOT a green initiative

I love direct mail. I like the feel of it in my hands. I love a brilliantly crafted package that has been perfectly targeted to ME based on my habits, life stage, or past behavior. I gaze lovingly at gorgeous visuals beautifully reproduced as if by magic, from masses of ink dots soaked into paper.

I admire, no revel, in a clever headline, that guides me to a story laid out in front of me. If executed properly, that story creates a desire for the product or service, and guides me to visit a web site, call a toll-free number, or (gasp!) return a reply device in a postage-paid envelope.

And I know I’m not the only one.

But I have been told — repeatedly — that I am in a dying industry.

Email, they shout gleefully, has replaced direct mail. “The USPS will be out of business soon!” one digital designer recently pronounced.

Those of you who have read my blogs know I believe that email has a short life span as a viable be-all-end-all marketing channel. So I won’t rehash that argument.

But the whole “green” message around paperless communication, is really making me lose my cool.

“Stop killing trees!” they cry. (They look at me with disgust, as if I’m an axe murderer.)

The recent Kaiser Permanente radio campaign caught my attention because it takes the whole “paper-less” concept and exploits it as their own contribution to re-greening America. It brags that KP keeps all their medical records electronically, thereby saving trees and “proving” how green they are.

Give me a break.

While I applaud KP for storing my health record electronically so they can quickly and easily access it when I’m lying unconscious on that gurney, my B+ blood gushing over my bloodied body, you’re NOT doing it so you can be part of the green revolution.

For some reason, there is a belief among consumers that the pulp and paper industry blithely attacks any forested area they can get their hands on, and mows down 100-year old redwoods. But here’s the real truth: The big paper manufacturers grow trees for the specific purpose of cutting them down to produce paper. Then, they plant new trees to replace them and start the cycle all over again. If all consumers would take their paper and hand it over to be reused, it would be -- over and over again. And that, my friends, is called recycling.

So why doesn’t the paper industry stand up for itself? Why aren’t they spending money educating the masses on the ‘inconvenient truth’ – the reality behind using trees to make paper? Good question!

But hey KP, here’s the question for you: At your gigantic data centers where you store your patient records electronically, how much energy do you consume keeping those mainframes humming? You had to install new computers in every KP room in which the patient comes in contact, in order to retrieve patient records. How much extra energy does that consumer? And how many times does the doctor hit “print” so I can get a copy of that report on my gallbladder? When I leave KP, I get a printed record of my visit. And I receive a postcard in the mail reminding me of my next appointment. Need I go on?

Businesses think they’re going green by refusing to print their collateral any more – “we’re saving trees,” they note with pride.

Instead, they push customers to their websites where the onus is on the consumer to download the information. After they do, they’ll do what all people do: Use their own printer toner and paper to print the material. Then, they’ll use a highlighter to note the salient points… attach a sticky with a notation to pass along to other colleagues, or simply stuff it in their briefcase to read on the commute ride home. Later, they’ll file it and return to review it again and again when they need to refer to a detail.

Net-net is that the business has made it harder for me to consume information about them on my terms and it has increased MY cost (and my time).

I’m not saying that organizations need to print millions of pieces of collateral, but get off the “I’m saving trees” bandwagon. Help your customers and prospects to better understand your products and benefits by delivering information in the form best consumed by your target – whether it be digitally or on paper.

Not everyone wants (or reads) emails. And not everyone wants to spend time on your poorly laid out website trying to dig to find the information they want.

I’m willing to kill another tree if it helps me communicate better to my target and it's helpful to their sales consideration process. Are you?