Developing & Branding Your Personal Competitive Advantage

My days as an executive recruiter generalist provided insight into many businesses and disciplines.  It was the Brand Manager role in many executives and some entrepreneurs I love to apply to the personal brand manager required in all of us. 

A classic brand manager job description coming from, say, Kellogg School of Management into a well know company like Sara Lee to run or create any one of the Sara Lee Brands consist of expertise in:

Identifying key markets

Market research

Build product/service solutions

Pricing strategy

Building brand awareness

Careers are our own business - a business that we create, brand, own and manage.  Our careers go through the same service model cycle a business does.  So it is logical to think that any professional needs to plan, manage and brand a career.  The Classic disciplines required such as those listed above are not required core competencies of the career and community minded professional.  But the strategy as a tool is required to build and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Brand management for your career:

Identifying key markets to understand where your skills and passions are transferable.

Market research to be tooled with the required skills to be competitive today and tomorrow and to identify market trends (or create them).

Build product/service solutions that add value and separate you from your perceived competition.

Pricing strategy to understand the value of your skills and results as well positioning for negotiations for your service offering.

Building brand awareness on and offline to be a known commodity and provider of value - sought after as an expert in your field.

"There is No ing in Brand" series continues with more about each brand manager topics identified - stay tuned!