The hardest product to market: you

In the past several weeks the topic of personal branding has come up multiple times.  It’s been with different crowds of people for different reasons, but the same basic comment always gets made: I can market any product – just not myself.  I have to admit, I’ve said this many (many) times myself.  And this got me to think … why?

By all logic, the “product” we should be able to market best is ourselves – we know it inside and out.  Additionally, we have years of market research on what works and what doesn’t, what people respond to and what they don’t, and we’ve even (hopefully) modified the product to be more valuable to our prospective audiences.  So why then is it so difficult to craft a compelling message that is a benefit to the “user” and sets us apart?

After much soul searching and a bit of trial and error, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s we’re too close to the product.  It’s impossible to look at ourselves objectively and prioritize traits that we think we’re good at but not great at even if they’re the things that sell us best.  Most of us have a hard time shaking off the negative feedback we’ve had in our careers even if in the scheme of things they’d qualify in the plus/minus of research and are statistically insignificant.  And when it comes to praise, we’ve been socialized not to brag so we underplay/undersell our success. In essence, we are like so many a product manager – we want to say everything because we believe the package should sell itself.

So armed with this insight I sat down determined to get it right.  I made a list of positive traits and I looked at the LinkedIn jobs that seemed like a good fit and wrote down their key words.  I then took my lists and matched them all up to create the most compelling positioning statement I could but what I came out with was … garbage.  Well, maybe not garbage but definitely not unique and not something to set me apart.  In frustration I gave up and called on my brother (a creative writer and business school grad) to help me but alas, he still needed that core element from me. 

It took about a week, and it had nothing to do with looking at lists or strategizing on about what sells, it was when I was trailing off on an impassioned plea to focus on the customer and understand that saying something great about ourselves isn’t inherently a benefit to the customer --  I realized what defines me. I’m sort of embarrassed to say it because it seems like what every marketer should say (the marketers equivalent to “world peace” in beauty pageants) – but what I firmly believe in and what fires me up is being the voice of the customer.  I feel like it’s my mission to make sure that their point of view is the point of view that we need to keep in mind when developing products and messages. 

I have no idea if this is a good personal brand or not, but for the first time in a long time I feel like I can put this on my resume and be proud that for better or worse I’m accurately representing the brand that is me.    And for all you out there struggling with this same challenge, I wish you luck and success and I’ll give you one word of advice – ask yourself what you want and would be proud to be known for and then put it out there.  The people that value that will value you and that will be the best place for you.

Good luck!  And I'd love to hear your thoughts, comments, suggestions or your personal brand.