The Pedestal Group

Recently, Small Business Trends did a survey of their readership asking what we think is important in personal branding. Many of the answers were things we have all heard but a few were worth calling out.

Loaay Ahmed of Knight’s Capital suggested, “A brand vision is to know where you want to be. A brand mission is to know what needs to be done to get you there.” Do you know where you want to be? It is hard to develop a plan if you don’t know where you need to end up!

Rob Ackerman said “Think of you and your image in the third person.” It is an interesting way to look at yourself and your marketing information. Who are you, really?
Barkri of Clink and Inc. said, “It’s like going to the hardware store thinking that you want a drill, when in fact you actually just need a hole.” What is your GOAL rather than the methodology you want to use to get there?

At the end of the day, a personal brand must have goals, direction and careful review.

We will have more on personal branding in a series appearing on our blog over the next several weeks.

Facinating story today on MSNBC about Pringles and the debate over whether they are potato chips or not. I hadn’t heard about this before and now I’m happy to know in England they now feel Pringles are potato chips. Really?  I mean, I’ve always bought them in the chip isle, I serve them as a side dish with things, and dip them in chip dip. The article indicated “there is enough potato content to consider them chips”.  How much is that, then? My whole perception of Pringles has now been changed and I have to do some research to see what it really means for our snack-buying.

But I bring this up here because this is a brand I have known for as long as I can remember. I know what they are and what to do with a Pringle. What about your brand? Have people known your brand as one thing all along when really there is a question about that?  If someone did question your brand, would it stand up?  Honestly, I don’t expect to stop buying Pringles any time soon – we like them. But it was a surprise to read that. What would surprise your customers?  And would they decide the information was right, wrong or irrelevant? Your brand must withstand outside forces.  Do you have enough potato content?

UPDATED NOTE: I did buy Pringles this week – they have plenty of potato content.