A close acquaintance recently asked me how we strategize our law firm’s branding. I answered, it’s quite simple, we brand ourselves as personalities, and the rest follows. He questioned the concept - would branding a law firm through its owners result in market growth? After all, who’s ever heard of a Steve Jobs of law firms? My point exactly, who indeed has heard of such a concept?
Individual brand equity is nothing new. There are CEOs like Jobs of Apple, Dan Hesse of Sprint, or Nigel Travis of Papa John’s who have positioned themselves as brand ambassadors of their companies, transcending the traditional corporate image as a faceless entity. Personality-driven brands are behind the successes of fashion houses like Armani and Gaultier. Movado touts Derek Jeter wearing its sleek watches, while Coca-Cola has current rage Sarah Jessica Parker drinking its carbonate. While the level of involvement by each individual varies with each company’s objectives, all this culminates into what can be succinctly summarized as individual brand equity, a surprisingly seminal notion despite its intuitive feel. After all, as emotional beings, we connect to other people who happen to articulate hope in a deeply personal and profound manner, whether that sense of hope is wrapped around Edward and Bella as the epitome of young love, or President Obama convincing an entire nation when ascending to the Office of Presidency that we are stronger than the Great Recession. There is an idea, and then there’s a personality who sells that idea to the masses.
Building and credentialing that personality gives rise to a successful brand. Competence matters, but only once the audience is convinced of the personality driving the brand. No idea will sustain without competence or execution, but every idea must necessarily have brand equity behind it. Traditional industries should embrace this nebulous concept – law firms, private equity boutiques, and financial institutions need to hone in on their brand equity as a personality-driven phenomenon. This will also provide flexibility when dealing with worst-case public relations scenarios. BP could have done so much better if the company had driven its public relations efforts through a formidable, magnetic personality, who understood that the now infamous remark, “I want my life back,” by ousted CEO Tony Hayward simply wasn’t going to cut it.
Individual brand equity is an underrated but highly potent tool in the arsenal of any organization’s growth strategy. If conceived and nurtured correctly, it can not only increase a company’s profit margin but humanize a company’s ability to connect to its current customers and expand its customer base. Masking the organization as one devoid of any personal characteristics will only alienate stakeholders and the public – think populist rage against banks. Now more than ever, individual brand equity is a necessity, a salient feature of any organization that wants to sustain its business. As Oscar Wilde said, “society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals,” a fitting and relevant pronouncement for today’s insatiable, gratifying consumer market.