Brands – brands everywhere.  Take a moment look to your left – look to your right - look in the mirror and tell yourself how many brands can you see. From waking up to the alarm on your ‘carefully chosen’ mobile phone to your first designer skinny latte served in your ‘carefully chosen’ favourite coffee shop.  As you walk down the street feeling fantastic in your ‘carefully chosen’ designer outfit on your way to your ‘carefully chosen’ life – ask yourself, ‘did you choose the brands or did the brands choose you?’  Don’t feel dismayed if that question seems to hurt somewhat as there is no real logical answer to it.  However, if we can begin to separate and clearly understand the power that brands have over our society, and learn from this power when making our own living brand, then success beyond your wildest dreams is waiting around the corner.

In today’s busy brand environment what separates the winners from the mediocre is a question that needs addressing if we are going to use this status for both your career and in building key relationships with other living brands.   Wikipedia defines brands as labels of ownership: name, term, design, and symbol.  To me that sounds like your own personal business card and somewhat too simplistic for such a huge unconscious environment.  However, today it is what brands do for people that matters much more, how they reflect and engage them, how they define their aspiration and enable them to do more. Powerful brands can drive success in competitive markets, and indeed become the organisation's most valuable assets.  Harnessing this unconscious power and applying it to ourselves, staff and friends, lies in the simple understanding that brands are alive.  They are created to exist in the hearts and minds of their users and in so have penetrated the two most valuable assets needed to assist in their growth.

It is easy to play it safe and happily glide under the radar for most of your life. Some people walk into a casino and head straight for the penny slots, ‘just playing not to lose’- others will take the chance to head for the pound slots.  The risk will be higher but if they win the rewards will be much greater.  These people – like brands – are playing to win.   , Note that playing the game to win has never been more complicated as people have higher expectations of the brands they both respect and trust.  The secret behind successful brands is setting clear expectations and consistently managing and delivering them. 

The brands market is constantly being put under the microscope to ensure that they are living up to their brand expectation.  Great brands, like successful leaders, are playing to win. They have a clearly defined plan of words and actions required to achieve their goal. Their success lies in their delivery and ensuring that you as a consumer are getting what you have come to expect. If you have ever been disappointed, dismayed or even disgusted with one of your respected brands then you may have found yourself saying ‘I would have expected more from brand x’. This is the dangerous side of brand development, as if you set the expectation line to high then the further that you may fall if you are unable to maintain it.  The loss of respect can far outweigh any gains that the success of the brand may have accomplished.

If you want to grow your living brand, you must first decide the ‘key defining words’ that you would want to have attributed to you.  You as a brand need to give a clear message to the world of what you want to represent.  This is the easy part! Later you will be asked to do something with those words.  Take a moment to think of who you are now and who you want to be in the future using ‘key words’.  The great thing about building your personal brand is that it can start today and with a little work you can leave some of the negative past behind you.  Come up with the words that you would like to have attached to you in both your work and personal life.  Many people will start with professional, intelligent, talented, humorous, generous, and motivated etc.  This list will be the foundation for your living brand – however, remember it is just a list.    Once this list is set you have just completed the ‘prepare it’ stage one of your living brand.

Let’s move on to ‘be it’ as work at this stage will get a little more intense and you will need to spend more time setting in place your actions.  We are an action-based species and so if you want something you must do something, and more importantly if you want something different they you will need to do something differently.  Like the famous quote from Albert Einstein “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”  It is important at this stage of your living brand that you put manageable and achievable actions against the words that you have established as your living brand guidelines.  If you have ‘professional’ on your list, ask yourself what it means to you and what actions do you currently posses that will deliver this and what else can you add into your rebrand to ensure that your living brand emanates this word.  If one of your statements was ‘outgoing’ – run through the same process.  Once this exercise has been completed you now have a clear brand guide of what you need to do to launch your new living brand.

Now here comes the challenging part, ‘own it’ - however please remember that all our great and good, our local and global, our best of the best brands have not been built over night.  They take time to cultivate their environment; they market research and test their ideas, look and feel before moving full steam ahead.  More importantly they ensure that once they have set the expectation lines of its customers they will deliver time and time again.  The pulse of our great brands move with the times.  They ensure that their core values are consistent and true to the brand.   Once you have developed your list of actions you must firstly ensure that they are manageable and you will commit to them for the long term.  Your living brand does not need to be complex, in fact the simpler the better, however, it must be able to give you the satisfaction required to continue to the final stage.  It is better to spend the time to truly understand what each brand word means to you and how you will deliver it to your audience in the future.

Once you have your clear living brand values, your achievable plan of how those words will be manifested through your actions and more importantly your commitment to deliver them ask yourself a few final questions.  What gives my living brand the edge in our competitive business and personal relationship marketplace?  What makes me different and what is at the real core of who I am and how do I want to be remembered?  With these final questions answered you are now ready to launch your living brand into the market. You have now reached the final stage of ‘living it’. As with all brands, never lose sight of your core values and the actions that you must manifest in order to show your brand.  Just saying the words without deliverable actions is the main difference separating the winners from the mediocre.  Saying it and living it are two very different sides of your living brand.