Learning from Brands of the World

I had the opportunity to spend the past two days with branding and marketing experts from around the world at the Global Brand Forum Malaysia.

Today I will share with you what I learnt from Joanne Ooi, also known as the “Turnaround Queen” for China’s first luxury brand, Shanghai Tang. This lawyer-turned-fashion maven took a luxury Chinese brand from clichéd to fabulous and raised the status of “Made in China” to a whole new level.globally.

So how did she achieve that in the plethora of choices available at just about every corner of a shopping centre in any major city of the world? In short, what makes a brand a Brand? Says Joanne, The high end consumer is definitely looking for an emotional connection to the shopping experiemce. Why do we yearn for that Louis Vuitton bag or that pair of Jimmy Choo shoes?

 Idiosyncracy, humanity, personality are to be cherished. The customer seeks a dream, rather than a collection of products pre-ordained by what sold best the last season.

 Customers are looking for identification and aspiration. That’s why it’s important to stick to a clear message when you are a brand.

 The customer regards the best brands as unfailing dispensers of a certain philosophy of beauty, luxury, experience when you shop within their walls. Says Joanne, do not disappoint that customer!

A brand is often seen as an “oracle of wisdom”, the club that one aspires to belong to.

How can we learn from these lessons as we move on the path of developing our own personal branding?

As I’ve always stressed, the three keys to branding yourself successfully is Clarity, Consistency and Authenticity.

Starting with authenticity first, the undeniably best way to remain authentic and true to yourself as a brand is to build it on the premise of your personal Passion, not from some beliefs that you borrow from someone else but something you feel truly passionate about. Passion sells. When you have a dream, much like Martin Luther King did, others will buy in to you and your dream.

Next, is of course clarity. You can’t be a personal brand if you are no6t even clear about who you are and what you stand for! And to top that of, you have to be consistent in your message as to what you stand for in every interaction you have with others. Do not disappoint those who believe in you.

In other words, you have to stick to your guns where your personal vision and mission is concerned. The moment you relax and say, never mind, let’s just compromise, then you will lost the trust of those who believed in you.

I learnt this lesson years ago when I was running a magazine for working women. We had a strong vision and unshakeable concept that I was truly passionate about. But I recall at one of our internal meetings, I wavered, and was immediately corrected by one of my staff, an advertising sales executive who had a strong belief in what the magazine stood for. I think that day, I fell many notches down his ladder of respect, something I truly regretted. He’s not with us today, and I just want to digress a moment to say, I loved you Pito, you were a wonderful person and I will never forget you.

Now back to personal branding. What I learnt from the Global Brand Forum is there is really not much difference between branding a product and a person. As long as you have a good product (that’s you) that delivers on what it promises, a great story to tell, a passion that can ignite other people like you, people will want to be associated with you and what you stand for… and that’s when Brand You is born!

Picture is taken from www.shanghaitang.com