Comments

Blimey, Tom, there's a change of heart from Lucy;-) And, as you well know, she's not one given to being polite for the sake of it!!

The objections she gave to the original article were all typical of those we found in client companies when the article was first published, but we are also finding that clients of Tom Peters Company are now ready for services around the whole topic of Brand You/WOW Projects/PSF. It certainly seems like that piece of the White collar revolution is about to hit the big time!

Congratulations on your staying power!

Madeleine

Posted by Madeleine McGrath at March 27, 2007 11:42 AM

Ready for this? She said my new book was, "delightful."

This broke my heart. Until I saw the context, "delightfully slim."

She liked the fact that it was short.

Posted by seth godin at March 27, 2007 11:58 AM

LOL She sounds like a lady version of American Idol judge Simon Cowell. In fact, as I was reading her article I was picturing Cowell (a magnificent self-brander) with pigtails.

Anyway, I disagree with her that branding is like boasting. If what you're presenting is the truth, then it is not really boasting. If you can deliver, I say let them know.

Posted by Mr. Waay at March 27, 2007 1:43 PM

I love it!! Nothing like eating a piece of humble pie eh, Lucy?!?! Way to be ahead of the game Tom-if people like Lucy are just getting on board 10 years later! Congrats.

Posted by rachel gaddy at March 27, 2007 3:08 PM

I am just writing a piece about design-driven organisations from the starting point of what attracts a private equity or venture capital fund and prompts them to invest. As a small company is even more than a big one defined by its people the BrandYou aspects took a leading role in my thinking. This article sums up the dilemma of a BrandYou approach ...it is innovative and brand new and so gets the "heads down or I'll have to change" reaction. I found this article in today's Telegraph which I read Surrounded by Penny Farthing bicycles and eating a home-made scone (more of that elsewhere. Written by Jeff Randall It is called "Big Brands and the thin line between Love and Hate" (http://snipurl.com/1dypg) and includes this paragraph:

"Three years ago, when Sainsbury's was at the nadir of its problems, chief executive Justin King came on Weekend Business, the radio show I [Jeff Randall] present for BBC Five Live, to answer listeners' questions.

It was an extraordinary encounter. King was deluged with about 1,000 texts and emails, most of which expressed disillusionment and hurt over Sainsbury's failure to stock its shelves with basics, such as sugar and apples.

But what soon became clear amid the torrent of negative comment was that Sainsbury's customers were actually displaying a very positive sentiment: they loved Sainsbury's and weren't prepared to shop elsewhere.

Rather than switch to Asda or Morrisons, which many could easily have done, they preferred to complain - very loudly - until this young pup, King, sorted out the mess. Sainsbury's was too much part of their lives to be dumped."

The questions Tom puts in his Essentials book on Design sums it up for me:
WHO ARE YOU? WHY ARE YOU HERE? HOW ARE YOU UNIQUE? HOW CAN YOU MAKE A DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE?
and
WHO CARES? (and do YOU care?)
I think if we don't try to push boundaries we end up like a person who sat at the next table to us for lunch in the University Refectory (where I was an academic) for 6 years. One day a professor stood up gave a short speech and handed the man a retirement present. I turned to my lunch partner who had lunched here for twenty years and said "Who is he?" She replied "I've often wondered that myself...we'll probably never know."

Posted by Jim Rait at March 28, 2007 6:15 AM

The key for me is that if a brand has no substance it is doomed - Brand me for me is about creating substance and integrity that I (try to) display at every interaction with acustomer. It does not have to be vulger or loud.

It's about being aware of the whole package

Posted by PaulH at March 28, 2007 10:43 AM

Aren't we missing an important part of the concept of BrandYou...what is it that makes a brand strong and sustainable? The heart of personal branding to me is knowing and therefore consistently communicating, what you stand for, what you have to offer and how your values intersect with both.

Take a look at the best brands. As a consumer we stick with them because they are authentic to their mission and are consistent in their offering. If they loose their way, they come back to the core philosophy and we always forgive them!
And they are the most profitable brands in the world because of it.

Wouldn't it be great if we all subscribed to this concept for our own contributions to the world?

Thank you Tom for introducing the concept to the world...I had no idea it started with you!

Posted by cindy at March 28, 2007 5:23 PM

Well, she still barely gets it and being a 40 something woman raised in England is an understandable but nonetheless lame excuse.

Posted by Rich Heimsch at March 29, 2007 10:42 AM

Aah Rich, bless...
Quite apart from the gratuitous side-swipe (way to go bridge-building-wise), I don't think you got it at all. From what I can see Lucy Kellaway has implemented BrandYou very successfully.

Posted by Rob at March 29, 2007 11:55 AM

Brand You 2.0! How does one brand you in a Web 2.0 world? Have the rules changed? Clearly, the population of Brand You’s have changed with 55 Million Blogs, millions of MySpaces, and hundreds of thousand second lifers. When the world was a whisper (1997), a single voice could be heard a 1,000 miles away. Today, there are a billion voices being heard and credibility is harder to come by.

As a technologist and Brand You wanna-be, I believe the answer is not just your voice but your trademarks. Trademark 2.0 will be the next wave of Brand You Evolution. I do believe that the rules and game plan laid out will not be enough in the future. Your thoughts?

Posted by RTodd at March 30, 2007 11:52 AM

It sounds like Lucy is still missing the point. Of course, I did not read your original article, so I may be missing the point, too (I'll have to look up that article).

Anyway, I don't think personal branding is necessarily about boasting. It's about knowing who you are and knowing what you were created to do. Being able to communicate that clearly is not boasting -- it's self awareness and focus.

Lucy's current article suggests that she has not yet figured out what her real purpose is. We are all created for a purpose. Discovering and fulfilling that purpose is what my personal brand is about.

Posted by Steve Wilson at April 4, 2007 11:43 AM