The struggle between building a personal brand and a corporate brand
By Oghale Mafuru
Brand perception is the precise, positive and powerful idea that comes to mind when people think about a brand, whether corporate or personal. Building a favourable reputation is oftentimes considered a game changer, a precipitating factor that guarantees continued goodwill, patronage and referrals from loyal customers.
Branding is as important as everybody that exists in the commodity market. It is the differentiating factor that sets a business or an individual apart from competitors.
In a recent research by Zendesk, 87% of consumers said that consistent branding across online and traditional platforms is very important as it helps them to make decisions towards a particular company.
Similarly, according to getfeedback.com, business is built on customer relationships, and brand perception sets the tone and after having a positive experience with a company, 77% of customers would recommend the brand to a friend.
It is unarguable that positive brand perception is vital for the success of any brand but there are underlying challenges embedded in efforts aimed at advancing corporate and personal brands concurrently.
Hence, some business owners are battling with the challenges that accompany projecting their personal identity and their businesses especially on social media platforms. The crux of the matter is deciding the kind of branding style to adopt; family branding or individual branding?
For instance, Popular Blogger, Linda Ifeoma Ikeji shares the same brand image with her businesses which are Linda Ikeji blog and Linda Ikeji TV and this is family branding. On the flip side, another blogger, Uche Pedro, CEO of BellaNaija bears a separate name and identity from her business. This is individual branding.
Renowned motivational speaker, Fela Durotoye who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Gemstone Group, builds his personal brand and influence as a motivational speaker with his own social media handles and website, distinct from his business.
In the same vein, President of National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, NIMN and CEO of Corporate Shepherds, Dr. Idorenyen Enang who is also a Management Consultant has his personal brand identity which follows the theme; ‘Navigate with ID’. He has social media handles and a website with the same theme, while his company, Corporate Shepherds, has its own brand identity, social media handles and website.
Speaking about the controversy that exists in personal and corporate brand management, experienced Sales, Marketing and Communication expert and CEO of Brand 7Ps Communication Ltd, Moses Mogbolu explained that the Marketing objectives and vision should determine if one should choose family branding which involves merging both personal brand and business brand or individual branding which allows the owner to maintain a distinct identity from the business noting that the disadvantage of family branding is that any crisis associated with either the former will affect the latter and vice versa.
He however noted that building your personal brand separately from your business is the best way to operate. “Individual branding has a lot of advantages especially in the area of digital marketing where you can easily attract social media crises to yourself because of what you said and done”.
Explaining how entrepreneurs can effectively manage their personal brand and corporate brand concurrently without conflict of interest which often lead to confusion and doubts in the minds of consumers, he said a compare and contrast analysis of the mission, vision, core values, product/Service and target audience of their business against their own personal mission, vision, core values, product/Service and target audience should e done. He added that it will reveal any similarities or differences that will avoid conflicts.
Mr. Moses Mogbolu who also said that the low engagement with business posts on social media could be attributed to ignorance on how the various platforms works, ineffective use of texts, insights, images, video and copywriting. He said corporate organizations that want to promote their products or services on social media must learn to use the language of social media.
“Language on social media is different, it is not too formal. Let corporate brands socialize like every other individual and that it should follow others too so that when people are interacting with you, they are interacting with you as a friend”. He added that corporate organizations can build their brands by using tools like canvas to create content, monitor their content, be free and sociable.
To Dike Lawrence, a Marketing Communication expert, maintaining a distinct identity from one’s business is important. He said, “You cannot use your social media accounts to market your brand because it’s going to bring confusion. Your brand itself is a person so let it operate separately” adding that low engagement on posts that sell a product happens because social media is primarily to interact and make friends, hence people tend to engage more with pictures of a fun trip or exciting places than with a sales post. He advised business owners to provide rich, consistent and valuable content that people will follow.
Principal, Alder Consulting, Leke Alder who opined that the essence of branding is to build power, influence and capital to leverage yourself into self-propagation, elevation and to public good stated that corporate organizations should go beyond logo design, letterhead or business card to building a strategic approach towards branding.
Speaking about the difference in personal branding and corporate branding, he advised that Small and Medium Enterprises owners should endeavour to build proper structures. He stated that this will distinguish them from their businesses noting that with a proper structure, it is easy to propagate oneself and detach oneself from the business.
Important as branding is to the attainment of marketing objectives, managing a personal brand and a corporate brand concurrently can be a challenging and daunting task. However, with precise and vivid knowledge of the uniqueness of the brand, creation of different personalities for the two brands and effective distinction between the brands in the minds of consumers without conflicts or doubts; managers can sail the delicate waters of family branding without drowning or falling prey to the sharks.
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