Who Owns Your Name?
Do you, or does someone else? There is some growing interest in the Personal Branding space on scenarios of people with the same name. I was fortunate enough to have a great conversation on the topic with Kristen King of BizChicksRule which she turned into What if Your Name Is Jenna Jameson? Personal Branding and Owning Your Space.
Now I was trying to figure out how to write a post with a reference to a porn star, but Kristen was able to do so in a really professional way. For anyone looking for tips on dealing with people sharing Google juice with another person, you need to check out her post.
Bigger Picture
This also brings up the broader question of Personal Branding itself. As you work to establish your brand, even a unique name, are you using the tools that available to you? There are many ways to promote your brand, but you need to act early and hit everything available. If you’re starting out building your brand, you need to be aggressive in going after the online properties that will not only represent you, but protect you from interlopers. Either intentional or not, you don’t want someone with the same name from encroaching on your brand.
Don’t Get Lost
As for the photo above, it shows two problems.
- There is very little on either can to make it obvious at a glance as to which is which. You really have to pay attention to get what you were looking for.
- There is nothing interesting to draw in a potential customer or lead. Blah! If this was your brand, you’d get lost in the crowd. Believe me, it’s getting crowded out there.
When building your brand, you not only need to own your space, but you need to capture that which makes you special and valuable. Otherwise, who cares if you’re sliced beets or sliced potatoes?
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Comments
Comment by Rick Mahn Brad I think you hit it about appealing to the pocketbook. Because they are so plain, they scream “budget goods”. Definitely not interesting to look at.
Comment by JP Rick, on the what if your name is Jenna Jameson. I share the same last and a different spelling of my first name with an individual that lives within 3 miles of my house. We share the same pharmacy, talk about an eye opening experience. I thought it was bad with a theologian in Ohio publishing books with the same name spelling. Or the beer producer in Maine that shares my last name.
What a small world.
PS. I need to call the beer company, maybe some free samples.
Comment by Rick Mahn Hey there JP, long time no see! I remember talking with you on this - it is a difficult thing to do. Did you go read Kristen’s post? She really has a number of very good, very practical ideas and techniques. Highly recommended.
Let me know if those samples turn up!
Comment by Kristen King Thanks for the link love, Rick! I wasn’t sure I could pull it off, but I think it worked. And I’ve heard from some people in really challenging personal branding situations since posting it!
Regarding the cans, my theory is that it’s cheaper to print all one style of label and then just stamp the product name on small batches rather than to have a different full-color label for beets and one for potatoes. But who knows? Those are all good ideas!
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Comment by Comment by Rick Mahn Charles - snap up that domain if it’s available. Even if you don’t do anything with it right now. You may want it later!
Rick, why do you suppose they designed the label this way? Do you think they were trying to stand out from the crowd by going as plain as possible? Or could they be appealing to the pocketbook? These products do look cheap!