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The content of this article is excerpted from "The Kotler Thought Leadership Camp, the "Father of Modern Marketing"", with slight modifications. The leadership instructor is Cao Hu, a partner of Kotler Consulting Group. Students who are interested in marketing can add a learning assistant to receive exclusive learning materials for this leadership camp.

Compiled by Ba Jiuling (WeChat public account: Wu Xiaobo Channel)

When it comes to corporate branding, it is very easy for all of us to understand. Everyone can recognize the importance of brand to a company. Therefore, there are countless methodologies circulating on the market on how to build a corporate brand.

When it comes to personal branding, do you think there is a set of methods? Can individuals learn from the systematic methods of corporate branding when building their brands and IPs?

In today’s article, I would like to combine the views of Mr. Philip Kotler, the “Father of Modern Marketing” on how to build a corporate brand and tell you how to build a personal brand.

First, let’s make a conclusion.There is a high degree of similarity between building a personal brand and building a corporate brand.What are these similarities? They are elaborated in detail below.

▶▷First, create your own unique self.

The goals of personal branding and corporate branding are the same. Whether it is an individual branding or a corporate branding, the goal is to make our products or myself become very outstanding and unique, so as to generate a premium.

For a business, my products must be sold at a high price, sold in large quantities, and sold well. As for us personally, we hope that more people will accept us, like us, be willing to deal with us, and cooperate with us in key matters and at key moments.

So both personal branding and corporate branding are about creating meaningful uniqueness, which makes me more valuable to you and my clients, and allows me to help you better. The purpose is the same.

▶▷Second, clearly determine who your target audience is.

It is very easy for a company to understand. If I make electric shavers or electric toothbrushes, who are my target customers? They may be male elites in the workplace.

He has a lot of business activities and needs to travel frequently, so he needs to trim his beard every day. People with gum problems may have requirements for the gentleness of the toothbrush and the technique when brushing their teeth, so he uses a smart electric toothbrush. Our products have a clear target customer group.

This also applies to our personal branding.

You need to think clearly about who your target audience is. We personally face many, many people, including my relatives, my friends, my readers, my colleagues, and my fans on various Internet platforms, such as WeChat official accounts, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and Weibo.

This makes me think, who is my personal brand for?

Am I targeting professionals or newbies who have just entered the industry? Am I targeting a small number of decision makers in the industry or a large number of enthusiasts?

Choosing who is my core audience is the second key issue we should pay attention to on the road to building our personal brand.

▶▷Third, how should I build my personality?

When a company builds its brand, it needs to have a positioning, and this positioning must have very prominent characteristics and a very clear tone.

The same goes for building our own brand. What is the most unique thing about you that sets you apart from your target customer base? And what unique perspective do you use to showcase your uniqueness?

Because each of us has many sides.

For example, when we first met, you were an editor of a certain company; after knowing each other for a long time, I found out that you were the father of two children; after knowing each other for a longer time, I found out that you were a very professional skiing and rock climbing enthusiast; after knowing each other for a longer time, I found out that you were a particularly caring participant in public welfare undertakings, who often rescued small animals and frequently participated in environmental protection activities; after knowing each other for even longer, because there was one thing you gave me a lot of help and advice, I will trust you more and more.

Personal branding also requires us to choose what angle, personality and uniqueness to use to communicate with my target audience, and as the relationship deepens, what aspects of my characteristics should I continue to demonstrate.

▶▷Fourth, my core product.

Whether it is a business or an individual, they all need a core product. I can’t just talk about slogans. Consumers start to understand and eventually fall in love with my brand through my products and services.

An enterprise’s products and services are the carriers of its brand and the fulfillment and realization of its brand dreams. The same is true for personal brands.

What is your masterpiece? What is your most impressive product? What is your special skill? Enterprises need it, and individuals need it too.

▶▷Fifth, build trust.

The target customers’ trust in the company is directly related to their first order and repeat purchase, which is very important.

For personal brands, the importance of trust is similar. It is more important than liking. Therefore, personal brands must also learn how to build trust with customers.

How to build trust? Generally speaking, trust consists of three levels.

◎ Trust in ability.

If I am a personal brand holder, I am an IP, I am a master in a certain profession, then I must have some special abilities in my field. This ability of mine is outstanding and unique, so I have my masterpieces, and I can continuously output content in this field.

The first pillar of trust is trust in ability. What are my abilities?

◎ Real trust.

Building a personal brand is the same as building a company brand. Companies and individuals are afraid of being inauthentic. In layman's terms, they are afraid of you pretending. What we really like are honest and real people. Even if you have shortcomings, as long as you are sincere, your shortcomings will become cute.

We don’t like those corporate brands that pretend to be high-end, or that are perfect in every aspect. I am a role model for the public, and my company is a model in the industry. We call this kind of brand a “distant hero”. Does it exist? It exists, but it is always in a dream. We don’t like such brands. It is far away from you, and it is difficult for you to truly like and trust it.

We like those who are sincere. They will sincerely say that they are really not good at this, they can't do this, they are not that good, and they are really not outstanding in this aspect.

Just like I recently saw a corporate brand called "Shuang". They said that our service is not as good as Haidilao, and our cooking is not Michelin. We are just like that, we are really "shuang". So whether our dishes are good or not, you will know if you try them. It does not advertise itself, but speaks very truthfully, you will find it cute and like it a little.

"Reality" is sometimes a very powerful force, a force that transcends disguised, seemingly superior and omnipotent.Authenticity is the second pillar of personal branding.

◎ Kindness and trust.

We don't like a person who is very capable but full of tricks and malice. Just like we don't like this kind of company - although its products are very strong, this company has always adopted a business model that exploits employees and suppliers. We probably don't want to work in or cooperate with such a company.

Similarly, we don’t like a person who has no kindness and is malicious, no matter how capable he is, it will be useless. So the third cornerstone of trust is goodwill trust.

When we build a personal brand, you need to build this trust.It includes trust in ability, trust in authenticity and trust in kindness.

These are the similarities between building personal brands and corporate brands. From your unique positioning to the selection of your target audience, to the personality you create, and then through your core products and the establishment of trust, these are the basic principles that should be followed in building a personal brand.

Finally, you can consider adding one more thing to these principles, which is called your symbol. This symbol can be something very unique, such as a unique outfit and image, or a closing remark or a sentence that you often say. These are very good forms that allow consumers to recognize you at once and create a brand symbol that is unique to you. In short,This symbol should condense all your characteristics.

Above, Xiaoba has spoiled some of the content in "Kotler's Thought Leadership Camp, the "Father of Modern Marketing". The course has been fully updated. You can click on the picture below to listen to the full version. In addition, you can also add the assistant WeChat to receive exclusive learning materials for this leadership camp.

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