Is Personal Branding Political?

Your brand is your reputation, and even silence can be explosive when it comes to navigating the faux pas grenade- littered terrain of a cultural landscape as quick to follow as it is to cancel.

Is your brand political? Even unwittingly so?

Let’s just be basic for a minute: Wikipedia describes personal branding as “the conscious and intentional effort to create and influence public perception of an individual by positioning them as an authority in their industry, elevating their credibility, and differentiating themselves from the competition, to ultimately advance their career, increase their circle of influence, and have a larger impact.” There are more clever, original, and eloquent definitions of personal branding, no doubt. I’ve heard it described as simply as what people say about you when you’re not in the room, to personal branding being reduced to something as obvious as one’s story or their reputation. All of these are true. Of course, there are as many interpretations of this umbrella definition from academicians, marketing industry rock stars, and people who are well-branded themselves, but I think for the purposes of this conversation the general definition of the term, that being the Wiki version, is most appropriate.

Hence, today more than ever, the nuances, subtext, and identity politics naturally embedded in the way one is perceived can make even the most seemingly innocuous references and alliances seem politically motivated, or at least politically aligned. Personal branding agencies, eager to promote clients in a way that makes them desirable, aspirational, and relatable to their target markets, can inadvertently steer brands in directions that might be off-putting to audiences whose information filter is slanted in ways that perceive appearance, values, and taste choices as conservative or liberal in subtext. In an era where that can make or break a brand.

If you are a business person with a personal blog site that promotes Christian values, too easily your brand could take on the nuances of evangelicalism, one of the right wing’s strongest demographics, if not their base itself. Whether this is true of you or not, once your brand is imbued with that cultural and political color, it won’t be long before it is stamped with red-state alignment and all that goes up or down with it. And it can happen without your even trying, especially if it happens that you are not inclined to be conservative but are instead moderate, liberal, or non-political. But brands have lives of their own. Misrepresenting yourself by association can change perception and make or break your personal brand -- and your business.

Your brand is your reputation, and even silence can be explosive when it comes to navigating the faux pas grenade-littered terrain of a cultural landscape as quick to follow as it is to cancel.

You don’t have to be the CEO of a billion-dollar industry or a first-name mega-star to see your personal brand collapse under the weight of its owner just being themselves and being authentic. The best personal brands are, after all, just that: authentic, genuine, and unforced. The key to sustaining a brand in an interconnected, noisy real, and virtual world is for it to be as organically aligned with its target market from the gate and stay that way as effortlessly as possible. When brands try to be something other than themselves or become removed from their original cultural outposts because of popularity, prosperity, economic shifts, or a desire to broaden their appeal, the risk of alienating their base increases. If your bread and butter are in an inner-city urban sensibility, your brand can’t take on the qualities of a gated community just because you live there now. Not unless you’ve somehow taken your market into that community with you.

For obvious reasons, every element of your reputation and all other aspects of your personal brand are under scrutiny under the glare of the political spotlight. This is why so few politicians seem willing to take big risks or make bold statements. Ironically, the ones known most for eschewing this tradition and do take the boldest risks have some of the most indelible personal brands in political memory.

Ultimately, personal branding is not about who you think you are. It’s who others think you are. And staying within the boundaries therein. The best brands are those in which those paradigms exist on the same plane, one and the same. And when what you sell, promote or influence emphasizes, reinforces, and elevates that perception of you, captivating and inspiring others to be closer to you, your personal brand is a winner.