Branding Your Talent

From a business point of view , branding in the market place is very similar to branding on the ranch. A brand programme is designed to set your product apart from all the other cattle on the ranch.Successful branding is based on the concept of singularity i.e creating in the mind of your prospect that there is no other talent, skill, expertise , in the market quite like your own.Today, most products and services are bought not sold.And branding greatly facilitates this process.That old expression:’Nothing happens until somebody sells something’ , is being replaced by ‘Nothing happens until somebody brands something.’I have had the privilege of coaching a lot of talented individuals from Musicians to , authors, to entrepreneurs, who often ask me:’Kenny how do I stand out from the others in my industry.Here is the road map:

1.Law of focus

A brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus.Think of Basketmouth and comedy comes to your mind, think of chimamanda and literature comes to your mind.When people think of you in terms of your talents and abilities what should they think of?Nokia once made everything then the company narrowed its focus to one product,only mobile phones.Today Nokia has 35% of the world’s mobile phone market and is the dominant brand.

2.Law of visibility

The birth of a brand is achieved through visibility:

Anita Roddick built The Body Shop brand into a major product with no advertising at all.Instead she travelled the world on a relentless quest for publicity, pushing her ideas.It was the endless torrents of newspaper and magazine articles plus radio and television interviews that literally built The Body Shop brand.How do you gain visibility?The best way to generate visibility is by being first.In order words,by beng the first brand in a new category .

Genevieve magazine-First women’s lifestyle magazine in Nigeria

CNN-First cable news network

Complete Sports-First sports publication in Nigeria

The media wantsd to talk about what is new , what is first, and what is hot.

3.Law of consistency 

A brand is not built overnight .Success is measured in decades not in years.

A lot of talented people are in a hurry .In a hurry to break even , and in the process they violate the law of consistency.Brand success is not a script that is acted and then played out in a day.Prof Wole Soyinka has been in the literary turf for decades, Larry King did broadcasting for more than three decades.Brand building is boring work.But what works best is absolutuely consistency.When you are consistent at what you do…your success will be immeasurable

4.Law of opportunity

Draining every opportunity of its every possibility helps you to build a strong brand.Timi Dakolo maximixed the Idols West Africa platform and that gave his music career a leverage, same thing applies to Seyilaw, he maximized A.Y's Openmic Comedy competition platform, and today he is better for it.Never underestimate the opportunities that comes your way.They may be the ticket to being honoured on life's hall of fame.To survive you must maximize

5.Law of Synergy

Greed often gets in the way of common sense.Collaborations often becomes the pathway to recogniton.9ice did it with Ruggedman and became better for it, Brymo synergized with Iceprince,and today he is fast becoming an household name. Authors synergize in order to leverage on one another's brand power,artistes synergize in order to maximize each others popularity.Team work still makes the dream work.

Hope this few tips has shed light on areas of your expertise that hasn't been working.You can rise to become the champ of your game.