Building a positive personal brand

When our sporting icons, musical geniuses, actors and other such people make bad decisions and misrepresent themselves, they end up falling from grace. Yes, it's a matter of perception as to whether they are zero or not, but their brand association certainly takes a knock.  Mention names like Tiger Woods, Bill Clinton, Milli Vanilli, Mel Gibson, Joost van der Westhuizen, Ras Dumisani and Charlie Sheen to name but a few.

They didn't just damage their reputations, they also damaged their own personal brands. Each of them had built their brands to a point where just a mention of "Tiger" or "Joost", would have know knowing exactly who I was talking about.

But after their fall, the brand association changed from good to bad. Building your personal brand requires conviction and commitment. As much as you can have positive intentions, sometimes by making bad decisions and poor judgment calls, we end up on the wrong path, thereby damaging (sometimes permanently) our personal brands.

Let's discuss Tiger Woods, basically one of the most marketable brands on the planet. What does Tiger's brand represent? Courage under fire, integrity, winning attitude, strong work ethic, honesty and a role model for everyone. From the age of two, Tiger managed to maintain his brand status and protecting his brand has been a 24/7, 365 job. His name has become synonymous with golf, with him being the first athlete to break the billion dollar earnings mark; showing that not only is he an exceptional athlete but he is also a marketing, PR and sponsorship dream.

Tiger Woods is, however, human (gasps of disbelief filter around the room). He does make mistakes, albeit monumental ones.  Unfortunately, Tiger's sponsors jumped ship - from Accenture to Gatorade, the only one who remained intact at the time when his marital indiscretions were revealed was EA Sports. I guess their Tiger Woods 10 game is actually a good game and his character in the game only plays golf - no extra-curricular activities!

If we take a look at the current Tiger Woods brand, what does it represent? Dishonesty, secrecy, bad role model, cowardice and adultery. It appears that Woods should have honestly answered all the questions about the car crash accident and his alleged affairs as unfortunately he was the only reliable source for this story. Only once he started his journey to honesty did he begin reinventing and repairing his damaged brand. But even after a soul-baring press conference, a stellar performance at the US Masters and the return of some of his loyal sponsors, Tiger is still not out of the woods . . . as evidenced by the divorce announcement.

To reduce the amount of fallout around his existing bad brand association, what could Tiger have done differently?

1.  Honesty and openness at the time of the accident

2.  Proactive and reactive engagement with the media after the accident

3.  Seeking professional psychological help sooner rather than later

Should your own personal brand and reputation as a marketer be damaged, there are many avenues you could follow to rebuild your tainted image. These include:

• Owning up to mistakes

• Being responsible and accountable

• Asking for forgiveness

• Taking a hard look at your personal values and beliefs and getting rid of what is not working for you

• Engaging an image consultant

• Asking for honest and open feedback on your mistakes from your peers and colleagues

• Be open to starting from scratch

However, let's assume that you have just started out in the world of marketing and you decide to build a strong positive brand from the outset. The best way to learn how to do this is from brand success stories. Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Empire, has got it right when it comes to positive brand association. He consistently lives his personal brand values and beliefs in both his personal life and business life.

• Do good - change the world even if it's in a small way. This became evident when Branson took on British Airways and won

• Have respect - Branson has respect for people from all walks of life. His idea for Rebel Billionaire came from a taxi driver

• Dr Yes - Branson finds more reasons to do something than not to do something. This was his attitude when he started Student magazine, which opened the doors to his entrepreneurial career

• Be bold - Branson believes in himself and takes calculated risks. This is evident by his forays into seemingly tough, competitive markets with Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Trains and Virgin Cosmetic brands

• Have fun - Richard Branson is all about fun. From hot air balloon challenges to buying Necker island and game park lodges and creating the TV series "The Rebel Billionaire"

Other strong positive individual brands include Steve Jobs (Apple), Lance Armstrong (cycling), Bono (U2), Raymond Ackerman (Pick ‘n Pay) and Gidon Novick (Kulula/Comair). As marketers we not only have a responsibility to the service or product brands that we represent, but also to our own personal brands. These are important because our relationships with our staff, our agencies and our peers are based on trust and belief.

So how do we build our own personal brand into one that people can believe in?

Here are seven golden rules:

1.  Define your own personal brand values and live them everyday

2.  Adopt a particular image and keep it consistent

3.  Treat your colleagues, agencies, peers and bosses professionally and respectfully

4.  Consistent behaviour

5.  Always be relevant. Be up to date on the latest marketing trends, practices and innovations

6.  Become a mentor - test what you know by teaching it to someone else

7.  Model other successful brand personalities. Become curious about how they do what they do so well and see what values and beliefs of theirs could work for you.

Own your brand, own your companies' brand. Be accountable. Be professional. You will succeed.

Michael Rubenstein is currently the head of marketing at BankservAfrica, the automated clearing house for South Africa. Prior to this he was involved for over 13 years in various marketing management roles at the SABC. Michael has a passion for services marketing and believes that it is a marketing discipline that needs a lot more focus and research in order for businesses to deliver a better customer experience.