Branding
The Importance of Personal Branding in Hospitality By Leanne Calderwood, CMP
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ou’ve likely heard it said, you should “build a personal brand”. And when you work for a larger organization, you may question whether having a personal brand is important. Your organization can carry the brand, and you carry the sales and service of that brand! Yes, this has worked in the past for most sales and service managers, but there is an increasing demand for individuals to create and carry a brand as well. The importance of personal branding in hospitality has never been more relevant. Even without intentionally building a brand, you have a brand — and people can find your brand when they Google you or find you on LinkedIn. If you are on the internet, you have a brand. Your clients, your prospects, other suppliers and competitors — they are all checking out your internet footprint. The question shouldn’t be “should I have a personal brand”, but rather “what can I do to control the brand messaging that is out there about me?” First off, let’s define personal branding. As defined by Wikipedia personal branding is “the conscious and intentional effort to create and influence public perception of an individual
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ALBERTA MEETINGS & EVENTS • Summer 2021
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. The process of personal branding involves finding your uniqueness, building a reputation on the things you want to be known for, and then allowing yourself to be known for them. Ultimately, the goal is to create something that conveys a message and that can be monetized.” There are a number of variations on this definition, but here is what is consistent about the definitions: 1. Create your public persona 2. Position yourself as an authority and thought leader 3. Setting yourself apart from the competition 4. Choosing what unique qualities about you to amplify 5. Convey a message to your target audience As a hospitality professional, developing and projecting a personal brand can go hand-in-hand with your organization’s brand. This combination is powerful, for both you and for your organization. Here are 6 reasons why creating personal brand is so important:
1. You control the messaging — when you create a brand for yourself, you choose what the industry thinks of you, regardless of the product you represent. Over time, it will alter the results Google pulls up for you. If you have a LinkedIn profile, it will likely show up as either the first or second result. Other social media platforms will also come up. If you write a blog or host a video series, it will also start to drift to the top of the search results for your own name. Having a personal brand will elevate your active platforms and channels thus giving you control over what people will see and read about you. 2. It humanizes your product — by putting yourself out there as a representative of your product or service, it builds trust in your consumer — people buy from people, and people start to trust the product when there is an individual with a strong personal brand backing the product. In the same way that larger brands use celebrities as the face of their product, you become the face of your product as well! You may not be as famous as Michael Jordan, but you can do for your service what Michael did to humanize Nike. Your organization will appreciate the additional support you’ve created through your brand. 3. It helps you stand out from your competition — Brand builders are few
