Question

Define Personal Branding. Create your own definition. Do you think personal brand practices different in different cultures? provide examples.

Answer 1

Personal branding :

It involves finding your own talent, building a reputation on the things you want to be famous for and then allowing yourself to be known to people through that talent of yours.

Ultimately, the goal offered by personal branding is to do what you like to do and in which you have exceptional skills and then monetize it to make it your career goal as well.

It lets people to discover themselves and use that unique discovered potential of theirs to make money in attractive ways possible.

Effect of different cultures on personal branding practices:

When there are 7 continents and not one , when there are more than 65,000 languages and not one , when there are 7.8 billion people in the world and not one , then how can the strategy or practice of branding our product or service to attract people be same ? In the world there are so many people with different race, caste , sex , religion , origin , place of birth etc , then how can their choices be same ? In different countries there are people following different religions, customs and then different rituals also so it becomes very difficult to have a personal branding practice that is "one fit for all" . Hence, personal branding is done for targetted audience and for this , their cultures and choices are also kept in mind , which means one practice of personal branding can't be used to allure the customers from overall world.

For example : ​​​

1) Unilever is the best example of a global brand which has pioneered serving the locals with products that address the local sensitivities. Unilever’s Indian subsidiary Hindustan Level Limited (HLL) has the customer base that aspires to consume products but in smaller quantities and at lesser prices. HLL literally invented the shampoo sachets – small plastic packets of shampoo for as less as INR 1 (USD0.022). This became such a rage among the rural consumers that many other brands started offering products such as detergent, coffee and tea powder, coconut oil and tooth paste in sachets. Even though the unit price was higher, rural consumers were able to afford to purchase the smaller quantity at their convenience.

2)Another example is Nokia. It also recognized the growing importance of rural customers in the Indian mobile telephone market which grew from a mere 300,000 subscribers in 1996 to a whopping 55 million subscribers in 2004. Nokia introduced its dust-resistant keypad, antislip grip and an inbuilt flash light. These features, albeit small, appealed to a specific target of truck drivers initially and then to a broader segment of rural consumers and became famous.

3) A classic example is the emergence of Japanese car-makers in the American automotive market. American car-makers did not consider fuel efficiency to be an important aspect. The Japanese car-makers made their inroads into the American market and changed all this. Today, with soaring fuel costs, the American consumer considers fuel-efficiency to be an important aspect while purchasing a car.