How personal brand is the foundation for building your business brand

branding Melbourne

Simple Personal Branding is great for Brand Building

Recently I bumped-into a friend of mine; Graeme Goldman at a business event. Graeme is one of Australia’s brilliant entrepreneurs quietly going about growing impressive businesses and brands. His retail watch business, 8th Avenue Watch Co is going great guns at a time when many traditional retailers are doing it tough.

Located in some of Australia’s most renowned shopping precincts, 8th Avenue Watch Co. is a the place to buy a seriously impressive, independent Swiss Made watch.

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After a few minutes of catch-up conversation I realized Graeme was wearing not one but two (beautifully crafted) watches. Like many business owners, Graeme has a genuine passion for watches – some might even call it a weakness. So what better symbol of authentic passion a man whose business is Swiss watches than wearing one on each wrist.

As personal brand gestures go, wearing two watches isn’t of the screamingly obvious variety such as a ‘loud green jacket’, ‘pink dyed mohawk’ or ‘neck tattoo’. But the power of this gesture stems from its authenticity, relevance to brand and zagging break from expectation. When the world (or most of it) wears one watch, wearing two is an extremely powerful gesture.

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For many businesses, building a personal brand around the founder of leader is a missed opportunity. People like to do business with people they like, and that plays-out for B2B as well as B2C relationships. The founder sets the ‘tone-of-brand’ for the whole organisation, and if they have a publicly expressed passion for their product, service or marketplace, their audience will be drawn to them and the values they represent. Love them or hate them, global business leaders like Richard Branson, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, and locally Kristina Karlsson, Carolyn Creswell and Naomi Simson have all leveraged personal brand effectively to launch and grow their businesses.

This is a brand building strategy available to every business owner and entrepreneur regardless of size and marketing budget. Every person Graeme meets in business, retail or his personal life connects with his brand, and starts a conversation that can either qualify them as a potential customer, or help to convert them from potential customer to cash spending brand fan.

Hats-off and watches on to Graeme and his perfect personal brand gesture.

Dave Ansett
David is the founder of Truly Deeply, a brand agency with 25 years experience working with brands to position them for growth. His deep expertise is in the creation of high engagement brands that attract the attention of their audience and stand out from their competitors. David has extensive experience working with corporate, retail, food & beverage and entrepreneurial clients. Find out more here
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You can check out the 8th Avenue Watch Co. here and find-out where to get your next watch: www.8thavenuewatchco.com.au
Pics courtesy of Graeme and the 8th Avenue Watch Co.

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