Yes, Wilhelmina, You are a Brand
Wilhelmina — let’s call her Willie — comes fresh out of the chute full of vim and vigor. After crying, pooping and sleeping a lot, she starts to walk and explore.
That’s sort of the way it is with a new product brand.
In upright-human terms, I put the Willie embryonic brand from birth to at least 18, but that can be stretched to 25. It depends on the person, writes the guy with four daughters who are remarkably different.
When I was 12, I was gently shoved out of the door to sell Flower’s donuts three days a week in an Orlando suburb. They were 40 cents a dozen. We’re talking 1957 prices, back when cars had soaring fins.
It is during this period Willie’s ideas, work habits and personality are spreading like wildflowers; or, in some cases, more like crab grass.
Willie is absorbing knowledge and making decisions about directions in life. She is either demonstrating curiosity — or contemplating her belly button.
She is developing an “A” type personality or maybe a less intense “C” type. Both can have an equal opportunity for success. There are many more defining factors tossed in the soup.
It is not a stretch to compare an embryonic personal brand with a new product launch, though for a product to survive it must reach maturity earlier. If not, the wheels come off, and it can disappear from the shelf or catalog.
A personal brand matures in real time — not dog years like a product or service. A serious early mistake by a personal brand — provided it is not criminal — is rarely fatal.
Brand reputation is always important, but the personal brand can generally be redeemed at any stage from embryonic to Willie’s sunset years so long as the right strategy is employed and she has sufficient interest, energy and creativity.
The Developing Brand
The Developing Personal Brand I place anywhere from 25 to 50, though this period can be extended for some people well into their 60s, even longer.
This is an exciting period. Willie’s education is behind her, and she has chosen a career. If all goes right, she is moving up the success ladder. She is out to conquer the world — or at least her little corner of it.
For developing products, this period is fraught with danger. Most products don’t make it out of the development stage.
Let’s take the Maybach automobile, launched to great fanfare in 2002. Mercedes killed the brand in 2012, but Maybach is sort of like Jason in the slasher movies. It keeps coming back.
Today, Maybach is an expensive sub-brand of luxury auto. In 2012, Mercedes estimated that each sale of a Maybach cost the company a half million bucks.
The folks at Mercedes were out to lunch when they launched this rock. But, I digress. We’re mainly talking personal brands, not the baubles of rich people.
There are, of course, pitfalls in this stage for the personal brand. Relationships flower. Relationships go bust. Responsibilities begin to fall on Willie like soot from a power plant. It is here one discovers he or she has leadership qualities.
For most people, including Willie, this is the most important period of their lives. It is here our personal brand flourishes — or perhaps not — and the attributes we acquire set the tone for the rest of our lives.
The danger in the development stage of our personal brand is failure. Failure to make the most of our opportunities. Failure to keep pace of the competition.
Or, failure to put sufficient talents into our brand portfolio to stand out in a crowd for the long term.
In the development stage, though, there are always second chances for Willie to make that first impression. You know, the one they say you never get. Bull Pucky, of course you do.
The Mature Brand Phase
This brings us to the Mature Brand phase. I generally place this between the ages of 40 and 70. The older I get, I keep extending this category.
Willie’s life is a little more settled. She has that shiny BMW in the garage keeping company with a monster SUV. She is not super rich, but she is doing better than many of her colleagues whose brands have been devalued. She’s balancing a career while feeding 2.5 children and entertaining a husband.
So, as a mature brand, Willie can relax a bit? Nope, not a chance. The mature brand is just as difficult as any other stage, probably more so.
Why? Well, that hotshot 30-year-old developing brand out there in the cubicle has her eye on Willie’s corner office.
Willie is more expensive than the kid, and her big, big boss — who got the job Willie had hoped to get — is wondering if she has lost a step or two and needs to be replaced by the ambitious young meteor in the cubicle.
Brand trajetory is a little like what they say about a love affair. It is either in the process of going forward or sliding backward. One rarely reaches a plateau and simply stays there.
The problem is that mature product brands sometimes get a little lazy. Good examples of companies losing their way for a while are Microsoft and Coca-Cola, each for a short time.
At the same time, with the emergence of the internet, Sears fell into near oblivion.
As further evidence, think of all the car brands that are no longer with us: Oldsmobile, Studebaker, Nash, Mercury, Plymouth, Saab — and the list goes on.
Wilhelmina, the personal brand should have two major characteristics in both the developing and the mature brand stage: differentiation and innovation.
If she can manage both, she is on that fast train to brand nirvana.
But, if Willie lacks either one, she’s missed the train. She is standing on the platform with bonnet in hand and a sad, sad look on her face.
