Brand planning

Branding is how you market and present yourself. It is getting people to see and embrace you the way you want to be seen and embraced and it reinforces your value. Branding helps shape a decision maker’s impression about your “fit” at varying levels and degrees in an organisation.

Brand planning is the process of allocating resources to a strategy designed to achieve a business objective that drives a brand closer to delivering on a valuable future vision.

Write Your Brand Strategy
First, determine your career aspiration and non-negotiable conditions. Ask yourself why you exist, who you are trying to help or serve, what is/ isn’t acceptable in your work environment and so on.

The answer to such questions can lead you to the ambitious idea of your ultimate goal. Your organisation mission provides clarity about the direction you want to go, giving your life a sense of purpose. The mission is a summary of what you will do to move toward your career aspiration. In order to remain relevant, your mission may need to evolve over time; openness to change is necessary and will allow you to adjust to various economic, social and technological impacts you may encounter.

Research the Future Demand for Your Talent
Today, economists and researchers report that due to advances in technology alone, we can expect to see some jobs become extinct in the coming years. Millions of lives will be impacted in the future, including the residual effect of those who interact with the individuals who have lost jobs.

If you encounter a problem in realising what your talent is you could create a table with the title(s), “People come to me for” and “Things I love to do”. Reviewing these columns will help find synergy and when you evaluate your work this way, you can begin to see how your talent and not a job title, is what makes you valuable. After this, determine your key competencies, this is how you do what you do so well and what will lead to a sustainable career.

Create Your Brand Template
Master your brand, embrace it and showcase it. Leave decision-makers wanting more in such a way that they are willing to open new doors just for the opportunity to experience more of you.

Grow Strategic Brand Visibility|
Break out of your shell, and maybe away from your posse. Your posse; the group of friends or associates you most interact with, is invested in who you are right now because you are a reflection of one another in a way that you enjoy.

Improve your communication skills- when you optimise your ability to communicate, you are more effectively able to connect with peers. Customers, and decision makers, build trust and respect, and feel heard and understood.

Ask powerful questions- a question becomes powerful when it has the ability to motivate the action of others. Also be prepared with answers to real business problems.

Identify Your Brand Adjacencies
Brand adjacencies are the potential ways in which you can create broader and more diverse opportunities. Adjacency is a strategy that works well for brands that can take what they are best into markets where that facet is lacking. You can also practice ways of making your talent transferrable; transferrable talent is the collective presentation of your skills, strengths, capabilities and aptitude through education, life or work experience that you can apply to a variety of career opportunities.

Scale Your Brand
Learn the culture- learn how the work gets done, who is rewarded, who gets reprimanded and why, and the related systems of assessment. Then you will get to decide, if that is the type of culture where you will find professional success or is it a stepping-stone to other things.

Engineer your brand, this involves planning how you want to be perceived and engaged by people. Position yourself for long-term sustainability by training others to expect to receive consistently high performance from your brand.

At least every six months, evaluate the relevance, usability and likeability of your talent to decision makers to determine if you are the full market value of your brand.