When considering your personal brand and image, you must be aware of every single element and make it special to provide a unique experience. This is what I call a signature stuff.
You may consider to use specific colors for your logo, website, stationery, office uniforms and interior design and even company vehicles.
You may have a signature greeting, something that will make you memorable every time you pick up the phone or greet someone in person. You may use it, especially if you are bilingual or working in a foreign country. It would be perfectly appropriate and warmly welcomed by others. You could even use the greeting as the opening of the emails or letters to be consistent even further.
You may choose to have a signature accessory like John Lennon had his glasses, Jerry Springer and his suspenders, Karl Lagerfeld and his high collar shirt. It doesn’t need to be extraordinary, but rather well fitted to your lifestyle and taste, but still noticeable and unique.
Every single part of you really is this opportunity to brand. For those working in creative environment – artists, musicians, celebrities – but also graphic designers, advertisement experts, this could be a great opportunity to experiment and let your personality be expressed in a creative way.
Some men do not even need to work on their signature characteristic. We all remember Steve Jobs black turtleneck sweater and washed off jeans and Donald Trump or Boris Johnsons hairstyle.
If there is something special about your appearance or look, embrace it and use it into your advantage. Even if people do not remember your name, they will be able to recall that one characteristic and you will stay in their memory longer than any other suited up business man they met at the event.
And if you are consistent in your appearance and behavior, you will be very quickly recognizable. Being recognizable is an advantage, because people feel more at ease with people they already know. And if their experience with you is the same today as it was yesterday, it gives them the reassurance of the experience of tomorrow. It gives them the feeling of familiarity, it builds trust because they know what they are going to get. If the expectations conflict with the actual behavior, then we have a tremendous conflict. You want to build an expectation of what they are going to get through every single interaction. And your job is to deliver the value they are expecting and strengthen that relationship. That really is a hallmark of a great personal brand.
