We are all personal brands and we'd better start getting used to it if we want to fulfil our dreams.
If you want to be a star, seal that lucrative contract or simply maximize your potential you need to sell yourself as a unique brand, marketing gurus say.
"It's my belief that everybody is a brand," said Tessa Graham, managing director of Fresh Partners, whose clients include Jamie Oliver -- the British TV chef now teaching the French how to cook -- and people she says will soon be famous.
This is the latest marketing mantra taking root in Europe, where brazen self-promotion is commonly frowned upon and seen as something done by politicians, pop princesses and Americans.
It's not just about fame.
"We could all do with a bit of coaching once in a while that helps us stay true to our ourselves and our aspirations," Graham said.
It's a message which seems to be getting through, as celebrities try to ape the global branding success of soccer star David Beckham while not so famous executives -- such as Swedish economist Klas Eklund (www.klaseklund.com) -- look to broaden their public image via personal Web sites.
It's also a reason why one Brit recently spent ?2,500 (about 3,700 euros) of his redundancy money on a Web-based campaign which tries to advertise his capacity to think positively in the most testing of circumstances in order to land himself a good job.
Robert Lawrence, whose Web site www.givebobajob.co.uk includes a slick video and merchandising, calls it "memarketing."
Its more common name is personal branding.
Tap those keywords into any Internet search engine and it soon becomes clear that personal branding is big business -- especially in the US.
That's not to say Europe is virgin territory, though.
Certainly, personality-led businesses and advertising are not new to the region. Nor are business leaders, or even frontline staff who double up as celebrities.
Examples include Jan Carlzon, former head of Scandinavian airline SAS, and Howard Brown, a branch manager at the British mortgage bank Halifax.
A personal brand is also indispensable to many one-person businesses and consultancies.
"In the context of a free-agent economy you are ultimately dependent on how well you are perceived in the market by potential clients or partners in order to secure a sustainable workflow," said Niclas Ljungberg, a director of Placebrands.
In other respects personal branding services in Europe don't go much beyond giving advice on how to make the right visual impact by dressing smartly or taming unruly hair.
According to Peter Montoya, who has written several books on the subject, personal branding is a lot more than a glorified resume for the multimedia age or dressing for success.
"Personal branding is about influencing how you're perceived: promoting skills, talents and so on that encourage positive perceptions, while drawing attention away from anything that might produce a negative reaction."
So it's like spin then?
No, say its advocates, it's got to be authentic and it's got to be consistent, otherwise a personal brand could end up ruining you.
You should be able to "live your brand," which is why people in politics can often struggle to maintain a positive image.
In the case of job-seeking Bob, the feedback so far is less than he had hoped but nonetheless encouraging.
"The results haven't been disappointing," Lawrence said, citing 18 "species of job offers," including one -- crucially -- that he's really keen on and is pursuing.
"If I was to perceive myself in the perfect job it would be this one," he said.
At ?2,500 that could mean a dream job for the price of a small second-hand car, except for the fact that it excludes the contributions made in kind to Bob's campaign by ad agency St Luke's.
That -- and the ?150 hourly rate charged by Graham for fee-based work -- means personal branding services are not accessible to the average man and woman on the street.
However, it does mean they are within reach of more people than might be imagined, assuming they want all the attention.
And if it can work for people, why not branding for whole peoples, even warring nations?
"Personal branding is all about clearing up misconceptions, telling people who you really are, putting the best face on your abilities, personality and flaws. So on a grander scale, you could apply the same principles to an ethnic group or a nation," Montoya said.
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