Don’t buy into other’s limitations for you

Posted under Personal Brand Definition by Linda Griffin

  I’ve been enjoying the Australian Open tennis competition. Any of the Grand Slam tournaments carry an element of surprising upsets, annoying injuries and tough competition. A continuing source of annoyance for me are the player interviews after each match. At best, no new information surfaces and at worst, we have to watch the players try not to give away their strategies if they’ve won or mask their disappointment if they’ve lost.

Post play interviews hit a new low for me after the quarterfinal match won by Venus Williams. In her post game interview, one of the announcers was commenting on the fact that she is now one of the oldest players on the circuit and wondering how much longer she intended to play and what she might do after her tennis career was over. Before Ms. Willliams could answer, the other announcer chimed in and said “well whatever you do, you will never equal the success you’ve had on the tennis court. After all, you’ve been number 1 in the world here”. Venus went on to answer the original question, but for me, it was one of those times that I wanted interactive TV so that I could tell Venus ” Don’t let other  people place their limitations on your success”.

As Entrepreneurs, we frequently have well meaning friends and family question our choice to be our own boss. We’re told to get something more stable, that comes with regular hours and benefits. We constantly have to remind others that even though we work in a home office, we are really working. It’s tempting to get discouraged especially if you haven’t yet achieved monetary success or lots of customers. But resist you must, because you are limited only by what YOU believe to be true and the amount of effort you’re willing to expend to achieve your dream.

I’m reading the revised edition of the classic book Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill and it contains one of the best examples of not buying into others limitations, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnie came to the U.S. as a young body builder and achieved the top accolades in that field. I can hear his friends and family telling him to stick with a sure thing but Arnie had other ideas. He used his knowledge about physical fitness to create a mail order exercise business and a company that produced body building events.

Then he imagined a bigger goal for himself – to become as big in the movie world as he was in body building. He could see himself as a movie star and he turned down minor roles until he got his big break in Conan the Barbarian. He became one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood. He continued to set even bigger goals and became an entrepreneur in real estate, restaurants and other enterprises, becoming a multi-millionaire along the way. As we know, he then entered politics and is now the Governor of California. I can bet that when he came to America as a teenager, no one could have predicted the success he would achieve.

Despite the critics and the naysayers, we have the ability to achieve the success of our dreams by focusing on our strengths and adapting them for use in new ventures. There are many examples of people who didn’t accept other’s limitations for them. I want to be one of them and I hope you do, too.

Technorati Tags: entrepreneur, success

Brand Identity: Will the real Apple please stand up?

Posted under Personal Brand Definition by Linda Griffin

There is a hot debate going on at the Mashable blog. Seems that Australian based Woolworths Limited has unveiled a logo which looks suspiciously like the Apple computer logo. The company sells a variety of products and  brands such as food & grocery, liquor, gasoline, general merchandise and consumer electronics. According to Woolworths, the new logo is a stylized “W” paired with an “abstract leaf symbol”. When building a brand identity, the question I always ask is whether the logo supports the company’s brand and does it adhere to the rules of good logo design.

Visiting Woolworth’s web site I see that their tag line is ‘The fresh food people’ and the copy focuses on their supermarket brand. When viewed in this context, the logo does look a bit like an apple but that doesn’t automatically mean it infringes on the Apple logo. If I take off my glasses and squint, it looks like a green tomato. Or as one person said in the comments to the Mashable post, it looks like a pumpkin. All of those images give the impression of fresh produce which ties nicely to the tag line.

Now let’s see if the logo holds up under analysis of good logo design:

• Can you describe it? Yes. It’s an abstract letter ‘W’ with a leaf on top.
• Is it memorable? Yes. It’s very distinctive and you will be able to recognize it.
• Is it effective in plain black and white? Yes. The shape is very clean without a lot of detail.
• Is it scalable? Yes. It looks just as good when used in a small print ad as when it is on the side of a produce truck.

If Woolworths’ goal is to convey the idea of fresh produce, the logo they’ve come up with does achieve that goal, especially when paired with the tag line. Whether or not it infringes on the Apple logo, I’m happy to defer to the lawyers.

Technorati Tags: brand definition

Branding yourself for health

Posted under Personal Brand Definition by Linda Griffin

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index™   is an ambitious 25-year project whose goal is to collect and measure the daily pulse of the well-being of U.S. workers. By interviewing at least 1000 people each day, the project aims to help people create a better way of life by understanding how work affects life and health and vice-versa. It’s no surprise that the index dropped from a high of 66 in January ’08 to a low of 63 in December ’08. The good news is that the index had continued to climb in 2009 and is at 67 as of August.  

 

As part of this effort, the group released the findings of a survey of over 100,000 working adults. Business Owners ranked highest in overall contentment over professionals such as doctors and lawyers and corporate managers. The Wall St. Journal  profiles one of those business owners, Roger the Plumber, in a recent article. According to the article, even though Roger has had to lay some of his employees, he still loves the work that he does and is excited to help his customers solve their plumbing problems. He feels that even in hard times, he is in control of his own destiny. Roger is a wonderful example of someone who is living his brand.

 

Technorati Tags: branding

Branding yourself with your business name

Posted under Personal Brand Definition by Linda Griffin

Photo Credit Brent and MariLynn from Flickr

 

You’ve decided to take the plunge and start your own business. Now you must decide how you want to name it. Start by brainstorming. Write down the words that best describe either your product or the problem it solves and try different combinations of those phrases.

 

The Write Express web site has lots of good writing resources and it also has a random name generator. Use it to kick start your thought process but you’ll have wade through a lot of nonsensical combinations that don’t reflect your brand or mission. ‘Branding yourself brainless’ was one of the suggestions that came up for this blog. I don’t think so!

 

Ideally, you want to make an immediate positive connection in the mind of your potential client and you want to make clear the benefit your brand will provide. Let your personality come through and make your business name memorable. Joe’s Pizza is totally unforgettable but Joe’s Taste of Italy invokes the potential customer’s senses.

 

In today’s Web 2.0 environment, you may have to try multiple business naming combinations as many obvious names have been snapped up and registered by people who are holding them to be used later or sold to the highest bidder. You may have to get extra creative assuming you want to have a corresponding web site.

 

In future posts, I’ll cover more aspects of this topic. If you have run across a particularly memorable business name, please share it in the comments.

 

Technorati Tags: branding, marketing